Neighbors

These deer just wander around the yard like they own the place.  No problem for us. They are attractive neighbors and we have had more interaction with them than anyone else in this neighborhood. 

Best Marin Ice Cream

By the way, if you're ever in the Tiburon area, make sure to go to Woody's for soft serve ice cream. The chocolate/vanilla twist is a must; some of the best we've had all summer!

-Caroline

Monterey

Heading to Monterey today. Can't wait to see the aquarium... We've heard nothing but good reviews!

-Caroline

Berkeley Kite Festival

While Cat was racing yesterday near Berkeley a couple of us went over to the annual kite festival.  As you can see below, there was a nylon air force over there.  Skies filled with kites.

I learned a couple of things.  First, walking is almost always faster than waiting for a parking lot shuttle.  Second, these guys actually still exist:

Maybe the krishnas are actually out of business, but this guy is wandering around Berkeley and never got the word.  Sort of like the Japanese soldiers on those islands after WW II.

Surprisingly, we did find a couple of Berkeley locals who actually like America:

or perhaps this kite was flown by visitors from Petaluma....

Funniest festival guests were these guys:

The dogs were operating the drinking fountain.  On their own.

Few more kite pictures here:  http://smu.gs/N5QR03

Really California ?

These winter clad ladies are at a swim meet. Outdoors. In July. 
Only I could manage to bring my family to CA and find the one place where it feels like November. 

Dad gets to blow out candles

It was great to have Dad here to celebrate his birthday.  Girls swapped out the standard cake for a tower of cookies.

Disney Family

Guess it is not possible to travel without touching Disney. The family set up a museum in The Presidio  about Walt and Roy's lives and careers.  It was a decent take. Includes a lot of the original sketches for the characters and scenes. It was also cool to learn about his perseverance. His first venture went bankrupt and his first successful character was stolen by Universal Pictures, yet he pushed forward.  Good lesson. 

Emergency supplies

Healdsburg's idea of emergency preparedness. 

Walk up Mount Tam

Had a great afternoon walk with my Dad to the top of the East Peak at Mount Tamalpais. Tough to find a clear day near the Bay, but we got above the fog to the East and earned clear views to the South and West. This is the tallest peak in the county so for a few moments yesterday Dad and I were the highest people in Marin, which is no small feat...

Pictures here:http://smu.gs/MWIDr3

I was happy to have them here because my dad kept telling me to post so he's been doing less of that, thankfully. The only reason that I'm posting is he's making me. Happy now dad?

-MSM

Grandparents

Past week has included visits from both sets of Grandparents.  This is most welcome as Mary had started to complain that she was "tired of seeing the same old faces every day".  

Lady Bears?

Great campus at Cal. 
Girls already chanting "Beat Stanford". 

Keep Marin Weird

I think this guy may actually be either the US Congressman elected to represent Marin County or the Principal at Sausalito High. 

 

Complete

A1000 pieces of puzzle. Now the 48 states of the main land.

-Mary MacK

The Road Home - At least this week..

View Larger Map

Tomales Bay Kayak Trip

One of the owners at Basecamp Tahoe suggested we kayak in Tomales Bay.  We hit the best weather day of the week, had an interesting guide who had just done a three month solo trip through Alaska, and managed to see a few seals.  Thanks Christian for the great tip.

More photos found here:  http://smu.gs/MMsUee

Coon Party

Lots of critters in the 'hood.  First night here we had a deer and fawn walk right to front door. 
Last night, as the footprints on the windshield above show, there was a raccoon dance held on roof of our car.  Hope they had fun. 

Seems strange

I have not adjusted fully to the time zone. I can't get used to getting the ESPN text with a final Red Sox score before I have had dinner. 
BTW - nice swing Cody Ross. 

Santa Fe Sunset

One of the best moments of the drive out was heading toward Santa Fe right at sunset.  It was pretty impressive.  Catherine took a couple hundred pictures of it.  A few of them, and some other shots from around town can be seen here:

http://smu.gs/LVA19g

Fog happens

This is the most we have seen of the bridge since Thursday.  Fog seems nearly permanent, does not matter if weather is cold or warm. 
It must be hard to be a bird around here. I think I would always be getting lost and flying into things. 

Ride through Death Valley to Tahoe

We saw a great range of sights as we rambled from desert to mountain and Nevada to California.

A few pictures posted here:

http://smu.gs/LTHRjJ

Cousin on the Coast

A welcome new member of the team. 

Victory!

Three weeks into the trip we finally closed out the license plate list.   Thank you to whoever brought the ride down from Fairbanks. 
Two points for Jane making the catch. 

Response from Tucker

In a previous post I mentioned I missed our dog.  As you can see above, my faith in Tucker is validated. He has clearly been reading the blog and fashioned this response.  Either that or some friendly spider is helping him out. 

Marin Farmer's Market

Just went to the farmer's market; very fresh food, but also very expensive. There was a koi pond which was fun to watch. It felt very similar to an October morning rather than July due to the cold temperature. The bridge is entirely visible right now, which hasn't been the case since we got here. Also, we just spotted some deer roaming near our house. Good new neighbors? We think yes.

-Caroline

Awesome idea

 Great idea. Two points for Lappert's Ice Cream.

Sharks Deli

Uncle Shark's next gig

Muir Woods

We had a quick visit to Muir Woods between three swim sessions yesterday.  I think it was the first time I have ever seen a Redwood tree.  It is an overcrowded, small NPS park - another addition to the value of our annual park pass - but the trees are very cool.

Some pics are here:

http://smu.gs/NjXhJu

Travel Reviews

Because TripAdvisor proved really useful to us in planning, I feel I should contribute something to the travel reviews.  If you are heading to any of the cities we visited and care about our opinions, I think you can find my reviews here:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/members-reviews/RedsoxFan41

Not exciting reading, but maybe useful to someone.

Cheers

A few highlights...

Seeing that Mike has done 90% of the blogging (ok-95%)..I thought I might get up to speed and finally figrue out how to post a few pics myself.  Here are a few of the highlights from our cross country adventure...

                                          Cadillas Ranch-Amarillo, Tx.

            Mary spray painting a car at the "Ranch"-future derelict?"

Kids acting like they were not involved in spray painting (Jack's blue hands suggest otherwise).

Lake Powell National Park Ranger welcoming us-told Mike "I'll be right with you pardner".

Capt. Mike at the helm with Mary learning the ropes.

 TUBING on Lake Powell!!!......

Views are beautiful at Lake Powell...

Yes, we are having fun even though mom almost drowned dad when he was tubing...Caroline was out there with him though and took control...

Biking around the rim of the Grand Canyon with guide Wes.  He was great! Gave us all sorts of fun facts.  He stopped us at the first point and mentioned a woman spotted a mountain lion "right here" a few weeks ago...

                     Lisa and Billy- Jack is STILL wearing the shirt you gave him on Day 1 of our trip!!
                     Gonzaga is getting a lot of play across the US!!

   Catherine-getting a pracitce in at pools across the country.  Meeting new friends in Santa Fe, NM.

                                                    Santa Fe at sunset.

                                                    Kids and Mike (in back) of donkey statue in Santa Fe.  We had just visited the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum where Mary said, "How many more of these things are we going to have to see?  Santa Fe is really boring.  I need a place with more action."

Meal

Dinner.  CA style. 

Hulk Gets Rubdown

Finally got the car to a wash after 17 days and 4400 miles. 
CA car wash is different than home. I was stunned by the price and even more so by the effort. Nine people attacked the car. They climbed on roof, pulled up floor mats, climbed into rear cargo area with vacuums and rags.  it was like Canyon Ranch for the car. 
The Hulk is standing tall again. 

Just drove by the 2am Club in Mill Valley for which the band, 2AM Club, was named!

-Caroline

Lake Powell Pics

Lake Powell was very cool.  Red Rock running right down into the water.  Glad that Comrades Lewis and Larow suggested we put it on the trip list.

Jane's pics from our visit can be found here:

http://smu.gs/NmZVQD

Desk Drawer

Borrowing a framework from Boston's laziest sportswriter, here is my post cleaning out the desk drawer of thoughts during the roadtrip:

We found a lot less four lane highway than I expected.  Plans for the drive included a lot of Route 40 and other Interstates.  I feared two weeks of the NJ Turnpike.  We did not hit anything other than one or two lane road from the DC Beltway to Route 80 just east of Sacremento.  A lot of nice driving with some good scenery.

Having the truck w/o the DVD player was a good thing.  Kids looked out the windows and driver did not have to listen to movie soundtrack.

Our coastal ignorance showed in our assumption of active cell service across the whole trip.  Once we left Nashville service was tough to find outside cities, even along the Interstate roads.

Santa Fe was interesting, but odd.  It was like a twilight zone episode where all the children had been removed from society.  We were there 36 hours or so and saw maybe two other families.  We did not even see local children.  The population is either recent college grads working in hospitality industry, older tourists, ladies on girls weekends or retirees who have become locals.  Not sure Santa Fe High would have enough kids to field a baseball team...

Our national park service pass is a good deal.  $80 for an annual pass gets your carload into the park.  For us this trip that is Shenandoah, Grand Canyon, Zion, Painted Desert, Lake Powell, Crater Lake, Yellowstone, Redwood National, Badlands and probably more, all for less than the cost of our family going to one museum.

We crossed a line somewhere around Oklahoma where we became a novelty.  It was interesting to see how people reacted to our MA plates.  At Lake Tahoe strangers came up to us asking if we really were from Massachusetts.  I guess few people are foolish enough to try to drive from home to here.

Do not stay at Best Westerns.  They are run by evil criminals who probably give all their profits to Al Qaeda.  At least the one in Mammoth Lakes, CA...

To paraphrase my Dad, 'If the Lord was going to give the world an enema, He would stick the tube in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.'

Not every wife would want to do this.  I am lucky to have Jane.  She had a great attitude during this adventure.

If you go to Zion, make sure you see the portion east of the tunnel.  It is not to be believed.

The people at GM get a lot of flack, but they make a heck of an engine.  I was surprised to find the hood of our truck not even hot after all day drives.  Darn solid for a 9 year old truck with 100k miles... I hope it holds for ride home.

Use TripAdvisor if you are planning to travel to an unfamiliar area.  The service was really valuable as we were trying to plan this journey.

Another good deal was the AAA membership we bought at last minute.  It cost about $75 and has already saved us about double that at hotels and museums.

The Mid-South seems to be struggling.  The cities we visited that felt down on their luck were in Kentucky and Tennessee.  

The staff at Basecamp Lake Tahoe made the trip.  Our kids will remember them forever.


I saw more empty billboards than I expected.  Even in Vegas.  Not a great sign for the economy...

I miss my dog.

People are pretty great  (except the manager at that Best Western).  A large number of friends and strangers have offered guidance and suggestions that allowed us to have a great first leg of the trip.  Thanks to all of you.  Hopefully the notes from this blog allow us to pay that forward so our travels guide others...

JMM

We made it!
CM

Holy Cow

I am staring at the Golden Gate Bridge. We actually did this. 
For some reason it seems surprising. 
Time to unpack and start Chapter 2.

Tahoe Sunset

From little neighborhood beach in SLT. 

Deer head

Painting on wall of Basecamp Lodge in Lake Tahoe. 

Pics from Zion

Nice day hiking the Emerald Pool trails at Zion. Posted some photos here:

http://smu.gs/Nh8H2r

Nevada

Crossed SW Nevada today in Death Valley area to escape misery of Vegas.  If you are looking for the Middle of Nowhere, we found it.  Not a building sighted or another car going our way for the whole 50 miles of Rte 266. 
Whitey Bulger would still be free if he hid out here...

Made it to CA

Escaped Vegas.  Crossed Sierras via some serious switchbacks on Rte 168. In little town of Bishop on edge of Yosemite.  
Wish us luck

Vegas or Bust

Rolled into Las Vegas after a fantastic hike in Zion National Park. After 3 hours in the car we were ready for the bright lights of the big city-sort of. Mike picked the MGM Grand for its lap pool so Catherine could get a practice in on the road. Unfortunately the pool looked like a live version of MTV Spring Break and no lane lines in sight. Mike and I went to the kids room to devise plan B and we promptly discovered the keys to our room no longer worked. Ahhh not to worry smelly hikers with no shoes, money, or ID's can accomplish great things in Sin City-not so much. Not to worry though, the fine security folks were able to get the doors working only 2 hours after we arrived. Plan C sprung into action and we headed back to my Fall River roots and a little home cooking at Emeril's even though they had lost our reservation. Food was good and we had a few laughs. There was an upside in all of this..According to my kids I am really good at complaining and MGM was willing to comp one of the rooms for us which put a smile on all our faces. On the road now at 7:30a to Lake Tahoe and a place called Base Camp...maybe Vegas wasn't so bad...

Zion

Drove into Zion late afternoon from the East. The ride up 89 had great scenery as we crossed Grand Staircase. Once we entered the park it was like a movie set. Cat called it a giant dribble castle.  Carrie  felt it was like "whoville". 
So remarkable that it is tough to describe. 
Come see it if you can. 

Progress thus far

View Larger Map

Fireworks

In the category of "better to be lucky" our hotel happened to be a preferred spot for viewing the town fireworks on the Fourth.  For a small town, Page, AZ put on a big show.  Maybe not the Esplanade, put not that far off either..

First wave of Grand Canyon pics

Many more taken...

http://smu.gs/O7OvOe

Cadillac Ranch photos

Still a few days behind in getting photos sorted out.

Some Cadillac Ranch visit pics are saved here:

http://smu.gs/N9XrVM

Happy 4th

Happy Birthday America.

Privilege to be waking up this Fourth overlooking the Canyon.  We are all lucky that Teddy Roosevelt, the Rockefellers and others from America's past had the foresight to preserve such places.

A couple of Grand Canyon Shots

From South Rim

 From lower deck at Lookout Studio

 From South Rim

At second arch on Bright Angel Trail