Well, we made it to Hollywood!
We took the drive down Sunset BLVD and Hollywood drive.
Beverly Hills was all that it was said to be – over the top and lots of glitz.

We saw Ice Age – Dawn of the Dinosaurs in Hollywood at the ArcLight theatre on Hollywood BLVD.
It was a very nice theatre and a fun movie.

We walked Hollywood BLVD today and saw the stars.

SpongeBob was making his rounds as were all the other expected stars.

We had  soda at the Disney soda shop.

We are off to San Diego in the morning!

Adios,
The A-team!

What a long and pretty drive from San Francisco to LA.

We took HWY 1 and it was really spectacular.

We started by hitting the Monterrey Aquarium.  Wow!
We saw all sorts of stuff: otters, rays, sharks, giant squid, blue whales, godzilla – you name it!

We drove through the pebble beach golf course – which costs 9.25 by the way!

We made a few stops along the way and had dinner in the Dutch town of Buellton, CA.
Andersen’s restaurant is the home, so they say, of split pea soup.

We finally arrived in LA around 1am.

We are off to the beach for a nap.

Adios,
The A-team!

P.S. – Who invented the ceiling fan?

Well, this was the last day in San Francisco!

We visited the Golden Gate park and it was pretty nice.
The weather was cold and damp.
The park is vast and you could spend days there.

We returnd to Ghiradellis chocolate just because we could.
We also found the best pizza place in the world.
Tony’s Pizza – has been on the Food Network and such.

Sammy is now an expert at making tea in our coffee pot in the hotel room.
Not sure why he like that so much, but he does.

Adios,
A-team

We are in San Francisco and we hit a few spots around town today.

Fisherman’s wharf – lots of stuff to see here.
Food, shops, and sea lions.
Sea Lions stink to high heaven and I cannot believe that nobody ever said so.
Lots of walking on the wharf and lots of people – some of them smell like sea lions.

Ghiradellis chocolate was really cool.  Great candy and hot cocoa.

Lombard street was cool, but overhyped.
Lots of angles and a few turns, but no roller coaster.

Adios,
The A-team!

P.S.  I pitty the fool!  –  Do you know who said that?
B. A. Barackass – from the A-team

We made it to San Francisco!
It is quite cold here due to the cold water in the bay.
Bring lots of jackets and long pants.
First stop – the Golden Gate Bridge.  Wow!

Second stop – Muirwood forest – coastal redwoods!
Third stop – Stinson beack – cold water and lots of cold wind!
We found a local Chinese food place and ate like kings for 30 bucks.

Tomorrow, we head to the warf and other surrounding areas.
Sam – we are going to the chocolate shop and aquarium.
Ben – we are going to the chocolate shop that nana went to and the ferry center.

Adios,
The A-team!

We packed up from the Boulder Lodge in June Lake and drove back through Yosemite on our way to Salida.
Salida is a single stop as we head to San Francisco.

Our first stop in Yosemite was a granite mound that we all hiked.
The pics are below and I will be posting a podcast later.

blog_dome – click here to hear the sound behind the pics

Our next stop was a 1 mile hike to see the Tuolumne Grove of Sequioas.
What a flop!   We hiked a mile to see 1 tree that was smaller than all of the Sequioas in the Sequios National Park.
Ben – I do not like any of your and I hate hiking. ( He just hiked up a 1000 foot granite dome and loved it. )
Sam – I hate trees – can’t we go climb something.

Last stop – Yosemite village and the Merced river!
What an awesome river.  We plan to come back and do some rafting someday.

We arrived at the Hampton Inn and Suites in Salida, CA.
We are off to get some of that San Francisco treat in the morning.

Adios,
The A-team!

Well, we pulled out of Sequoia National Park and headed north to Yosemite.
It was hard to say goodbye to the Giant trees, but we had to move on.

As we entered the park, we found a grove of Giant trees in Yosemite.
We also learned at 4pm that it took roughly 4 hours to drive across the park.
Our camp site was on the other side so we hit the gas.
The drive across the park was incredible, but it was slow.
We saw waterfalls, whitewater, giant granite walls, cliffs, domes, and snow on the mountain tops.

Once we made all the way across, we found our campsite which was supposed to be just on the edge of the park.
It was actually about 40 miles south of the park and it was a goat ranch.
With a name like Convict Lake, what should we have expected.
We decided to find other lodging due to the lackluster campground and the effervescence of goat in our car.

We found a wonderful place in June Lake called the Boulder Lodge.  It was on a lake, has soft beds, and hot showers.
Also, there are no goats!

Today, we went back to Yosemite and spent the day playing in Teyana lake.  The water was about 50 degrees, but the boys loved it and hot tons of fun.

Sam – I loved the lake, but it was ice cold.  Why does everyone keep calling me little pawpaw!
Ben – I was kicking sand on these little kids that were being mean to me.  I am a big bully according to my mama.

Tomorrow, we head back through Yosemite and will go hiking to the Redwoood grove near the middle of the park.
From there, we head to San Fransisco.

Adios,
A-team

We drove all the way from Vegas to Death Valley.
We stopped to get some gas before we started the VERY LONG drive through Death Valley.
The billboard on the town stated that this was the last place to fill up before you drove to Area 51.
I checked on the map and sure enough we were spitting distance from Groom Lake.

The drive through Death Valley was VERY LONG and HOTTTER than you could imagine.
Kelley made us all get out for the scenic view.
Ben stated that he hated all of us and they we were all going to burn up and die.
Several of the other people at the stop did not think it was funny.
It was very funny if you know Ben and his wonderful temperament.
Sam – it was very hot, but not as hot as lightning.

Sequoia National Park is amazing.
Ben – these trees are huge and big and fat – Oh – my goodness miss golly miss molly
Sam – this is boring and I hate trees – I just want to climb something
Ben – dear gussy these trees are big – I cannot even see the top
Wow does not describe these trees!
Ben – can you climb uncle Sherman ( it is actually General Sherman! )
General Sherman is perhaps is the biggest thing I have ever seen!

We are off to Yosemite tommorrow!
More redwoods and rivers.

Adios,
The A-team

We pulled out of the Grand Canyon Natinal Park on Monday morning.
The drive along the north rim to Zion National Park was really pretty.

We drove up into Utah and drove through Zion National Park to see Zion Canyon.
Sammy – I think this place is weird and very boring.
Ben – I liked all of the trees and some really cool tunnels.
The canyon was really cool as you can actually drive to the bottom and there are several tunnels that are cut right through the mountains of the canyon.

We stopped at the Dairy Queen in Hurricane, Utah for a burger and blizzard.
The fry sauce was really good – believe it or not.

Finally, we made it to Las Vegas, Nevada.
The boys thought the advertising trucks driving down the strip were funny.
We did not find the not-so-fully-clothed pictures as funny.
They though the Luxor and Excalibur were very cool indeed.

The boys loved the Buffet – Sam and Ben had to eat at all of the countries.
Sammy decided to skip Asia as he had to cut back somewhere.
Sam was so overwhelmed with joy at the mere site of the food that he ended up eating about 10 plates of food.
Ben looked as though he was about 7 months along after his 7 course dessert setup.
Both of them has asked to go back for the buffet at least 10 times.

We are off to Death Valley and Sequoia National Forest~!

Adios,
The A-team

We have now been here for 2 full days and it is really cool.
We have ventured to the Imperial Point and Cape Royal.
There are many nice spots to stop along the way to each view.
Sam and Ben did some power-lifting.

From Cape Royal, you can see the Colorado through Angel’s window.
You can see the triangular hole in the mountain in the pic.
Through this hole, you can see the Colorado rushing.
It is very cool.

The walk out on top of Angel’s window is very narrow and tricky.
Sammy, thinking he is a Mountain Goat, tried to jump up a rock and fell off on the way off the mountain.
Thank the lord for guard rails as he needed one.
Ben fell earlier and they had to compare wounds.

We hiked from our campground to the North Rim lodge.  The view is spectacular.
We hiked a different trail back.

We are heading back up to the North Rim for the sunset.
It should be very nice.

We head to Las Vegas, Nevada in the morning.
The boys think Elvis is playing at the Flamingo!

Adios,
The A-Team