Day 1 (29 Jul 98) Mesa Verde NP, CO Left home about 1/2 hour later than planned. The drive to MV took about 4 hours . Got into the park and went directly to the campground. Once in the park, the road turns steep and twisty and climbs dramatically up the mesa. Morehead campground is in a national park, so no reservations. On the other hand, the have 400 spaces, and it was a Wed. No problem getting a space. They gave us two stickers (one for the windshield and one for the campsite post(this will be important later)) and a map. We found a spot, set up the tent, and had lunch. We left out our garbage bag (hanging from a tree) and our plastic tubs of food, carefully sealed shut. We went to the park it self. We stopped at Farview- which has a hotel and a visitor center. We picked up the form for Ryan to get his junior ranger badge. The view from Farview was magnificent- I want to stay there someday. We went to one of the mesas, and did a hike around one of the sets of ruins (Spruce Tree House). They don't let you go in, but you can walk right in front. Then we did a hike along a mesa, returned on the top. Nice views, but hot. We took lots of water and snack breaks. After filling out the ranger form, Ryan turned it in, got his badge, and we headed back to camp. On the way, we realized that we had not taken any pictures. So we stopped at the overlook. The kids did not want to get out, and they had taken their shoes off. So we carried them to the sign for a photo-op. Then they decided that they wanted to walk to the overlook. So they did. In their socks. When we got back to camp, we found the garbage bag torn, and the trash on the ground. More importantly, we found that one of our plastic tubs had been gnawed on. When we opened it, we found that a critter had gotten into a couple of the bags of food. We threw them out, cleaned up the camp, and resolved to put all food away. We ate dinner, had a campfire, and turned in early.

Day 2 Arches NP, UT We drive to Arches NP, and stopped briefly at the visitor center (to pick up Ryan's Jr. ranger kit). We could see the long. winding road into the park (not my favorite kind of road). The hike Gorbo had planned was at the far end of the park(Devil's Garden). So we drove to the end, not stopping at any of the viewpoints. We changed our shoes and ate lunch. The hike we did took us to several (6?) of the arches, including the largest one. The kids got tired of hiking, but when the trail changed to slick rock and they could climb they got new energy. Again it was quite hot, and we were glad of the water we had brought with us. We ate a snack during and after the hike. The early part of the trail looked like the first week of campus during class change time. I would not have believed so many people would be there (most without enough water!) The farther we got from the start of the trail, the fewer the people, but we were always in sight of quite a few. As we drove back to the entrance, we stopped at several of the other sights. The kids would not get out of the car, so Gorbo and I took turns looking. We stopped at the visitor center on the way out so Ryan could get his ranger badge. We drove about an hour to our campground. Arches has a small campground with no reservations. Utah state parks all take camping reservations. We stayed at Green River (in the town of Green River). Our site was labeled with our name and reservation number (this will be important later) . We set up camp while the tired kids ran all over the grass for hours. The campground had real showers! Again, dinner, campfire, early to bed.

Day 3 Great Salt Lake, UT

We drove to Salt Lake City and tried to find the arboretium. We had only a limited map (and even more limited directions from our Best hikes book). But, in spite of our best efforts we did find the place. Gorbo had a great time, Ryan did OK, but Dylan only wanted to sit in a swinging bench and not to look around. After Gorbo had his fill of plants, we drove to our campground on Antelope Island. This is the largest island in the lake and is reached by a 7 mile causeway from north of SLC. Of course, to get there we ended up driving right through downtown SLC during lunch hour. Traffic wasn't too terrible, and we did get to see the temple. When we got to the causeway entrance they did, as promised, have our camping reservation. I made Gorbo drive on the causway, although I found it much less scary than a bridge would be. We found our campsite (labeled with our reservation) and set up camp. We were right on the beach. It was _very_ windy. Our tent stakes did not hold well in the sand. We weighted them down with rocks and tied the tent to a large rock. We had a large boulder near the site that the kids climbed on. After setting up camp, we took off to find the bison and antelope that the island is famous for. We drove to the "snack shop" and from there hiked to the top of the highest point (not very) on the north end of the island. No bison. No antelope. But we could see our tent (using binoculars). At the start of the hike it was there. At the end of the hike the colours were wrong. When we went back to the camp, we found that the rain fly had half blown off. We put it back on and tied it down more firmly. We drove around the part of the island that can be driven, but did no more hikes. Instead, we went swimming. The water was a little cold and of course, quite salty. Dylan didn't stay in too long, but Ryan enjoyed it. They had fresh water showers at the beach bathhouse (and real toilets!). The kids were tired then, so we went to camp and the adults watched the sunset over the water while the kids played on the beach and the rock. A cold dinner (too windy to cook) and no campfire due to restrictions because of potential wildfire problems. The guys went to bed while I watched the rest of the sunset and and the moon rise.

Day 4 (Saturday, 1 Aug 98) Reno, NV

This was to be a long driving day as there is not much to see between SL and Reno. We started our fairly early and drove thru SL and then headed west. A stop for gas on the edge of town, and then we stopped again at ?Wamacutta? for lunch and gas. We headed out, talking about the good time we were making. Big mistake. About 80 miles east of Reno the car went BANG!! I got it over to the shoulder, and Gorbo crawled under to look. His first thought was that the muffler had broken. Not a problem, we could tie it up so it wouldn't drag and continue. But then Gorbo looked closer and decided it was the driveshaft. This was not good. Fortunately a truker stopped and offered to take Gorbo to the next town. As it turned out, there was a rest stop about 7 miles up the road. He called AAA, and they got in touch with the only AAA tow truck for many. many miles. The truck showed up just after a state trooper stopped. Anyway, we got the van towed, picked Gorbo up, and headed to Reno. Driving at 55, with 5 in the front seat of a tow truck. With no air conditioning . In August. In Nevada. We made it to Reno, dropped off the van at the dealer (no one there on a Saturday afternoon), and rented a car. We had a motel reservation already,so we went to our motel. The kids enjoyed the pool and a "real" dinner while the adults had a beer (or two).

Day 5 planned: Lake Tahoe, CA but in Reno

Since we had a rental car, we decided to go to Lake Tahoe anyway. It's only an hour or so from Reno. We drove over and started driving around the lake. It is indeed a very blue lake! We drove into the town of King's Beach and saw a city park. We paid our $5.00 to park for the day, and did so. The park was quit nice. It had a beach (of course) bath house, and a playground. We went into the very cold water, played, ate lunch, and rented a pedal boat (so we could look for Tessie (the Lake Tahoe Nessie)) . Later we walked around town and visited Tessie's museum. Dylan demanded (and got) a small stuffed Tessie. We drove further around the Lake, and stopped at the park we had camping reservations for. We were not going to camp (we needed to be in Reno early Monday for the car) but we decided to at least eat dinner there. D.L. bliss is the most poorly run campground we have ever seen. In spite of having a reservation, it took 3 trips from the ranger station into the campground and back before we had a site. No sites were assigned, and no sites were labeled as to when/if they were available. When we finally got a site, it was quite dirty, and the fire pit was unuseable. We cooked dinner, cleaned up a bit, let the kids play a bit, and left. We drove most of the way around the lake and got back to Reno not too long after dark.

Day 6 planned: Yosemite NP, CA but in Reno

Called the van dealer, and they promised to work on it as soon as possible. We did some chores, and then went to the National Automobile Museum. Dylan did not like it- it had no "modern" cars, but Ryan and the adults found it quite interesting. We checked in with the dealership, and they told us what was wrong (frozen power transfer unit and broken driveshaft) and the price (don't ask!!!). We told them to go ahead and order the parts air freight. We ate a big lunch out,so dinner was sandwiches in the room.

Day 7 planned: Yosemite NP, CA make it there by night

We packed up and then called the car dealer. The parts arrived late in the morning, and them promised we would be out by late afternoon. The car was done when we arrived at the dealership at 3:30 or so. By the time we repacked the van and turned in the rental car it was probably 4:30. Sunset was at 8 or so, and Yosemite was a ways away. Gorbo drove reasonably fast for and we arrived at the campground in Tulumne Meadows a little before dark. Our name wasn't on the list since we were supposed to arrive the day before. They found us a site and we did get the tent up before dark. Dinner was cooked in the dark, and then we had to put all food, coolers, toothpaste, etc. in the metal bear-proof locker they provide. (Bears are a big problem at Yosemite. (Actually, people are a big problem, the bears are just trying to get enough to eat.)) Dylan was very worried about a bear eating him, and nothing seemed to console him. We put him on the center of the tent to be safer. We didn't see or hear any bears all night.

Day 8 Yosemite and San Jose, CA

We awoke early (as always while camping) with no bears in sight. After breakfast and cleaning up, we headed for Yowemite valley. We got there early enough that the famous crowds were not too bad. We drove around, and stopped at the visitor center. We didn't have enough time for Ryan to do the Jr. Ranger thing. We could not convince the kids to hike or even walk very much. We did drag them to the base of Yosemite falls as we told them how their parents had hiked to the very top (in 89 in a heat wave). Then we headed out of the valley towards San Jose.

We arrived in San Jose late afternoon- at my cousin Barb's house. (My mother's sister's oldest daughter.) She has two boys as well, Kris and Josh ages 5 and 3. Her mother had volunteered Barb's house when she heard of our vacation plans. We settled into the air conditioning (it was quite hot for the area) and then went to my Aunt Lori/Uncle Chuck's house for dinner. They were supposed to be in Alaska (we had not expected to see them) but had returned early. My cousin Greh (Barb's big brother) also came over with his friend and one of her children.

Day 9 San Jose

We decided to do something quite different today, we went into the city. Barb drove us into San Francisco and we parked near Fisherman's warf. Being tourists, we had to do the tourist thing and ride the cable cars. All the other tourists decided to do the same thing. We waited almost and hour to get on one, which we rode to Chinatown. Gorbo desperately needed a "Happy Kitty" statue, and he wanted some Dim Sum. We wandered Chinatown, and found both a statue and a pretty good restaurant. After a wait for a cable car with enough room, we returned to the warf. The kids were not willing to wander too much, so we basically just walked back to the car and drove home.

Day 10 San Jose

A nice quiet day, we went to the pool, did some laundry, and had dinner with my aunt and uncle again.

Day 11 (Saturday) Monterey, CA

Headed down to the Monterey area, first stop was Pt. Lobos. We did a couple of hikes around the point and was both sea otters and sea lions. Ryan took a picture of an otter (see below) but it is pretty hard to see it. The kids enjoyed climbing on the rocks, but not the wind. By the time we left at noon or so, there was a line of cars witing to get in.

We headed to Monterey, intending to park near the aquarium. The mis-leading signage had us park near the pier. We fed the kids some hot dogs and then walked the almost 1 mile to to aquarium. I had pre-purchased tickets so we did not have to stand in line. The kids loved the aquarium, although Dylan was scared of the big shark tank. Once the kids had their fill of fish stuff, we headed to the car and drove to our "hotel" Asilomar state park.

This is a former YMCA camp that is now a conference center. Gorbo and I have been there many times, but always surrounded by fellow chemist/physicists. If the park is not full from the particular conference, Asilomar will rent out rooms. Breakfast is included, but dinner is not, and while I like the food at Asilomar, the non-conference dinner rate was pretty steep. They put us in a room in seaward (near where the posters are) with a fireplace. It was the standard 4-person room; 4 single beds, seperate rooms for the toilet, shower/bath, and sink/ dressing area. The kids thought that was pretty neat. We walked on the beach , but not too far. Dinner was a chinese restaurant in Pacific Grove. We were in our room for good by 9 pm- the earlierst I have ever been in my room at Asilomar.

Day 12 Los Angeles, CA (Disneyland)

After a typical Asilomar breakfast ( we were seated in the non-conference area and met some others on vacation), we took another walk on the beach. Ryan and I found several starfish in addition to the usual hordes of anomenes.

Then we headed down the state. A friend (Hi Jane!) had told us to take 101 down instead of 5. This worked well, until we got south enough that 101 merged with 1 and became the beach road. On a Sunday afternoon. In August. Can you say crowded? Can you say traffic? We inched along forever (or so it seemed) until we turned away from the beach. We headed to Gorbo's cousin Vivianne (mother's brother's daughter)'s house. They had gathered a whole bunch of relatives. We had a barbeque and the kids got to meet some other cousins. We left about 9 pm to drive to Anahiem. Nine pm on a Sunday night and there was still lots of traffic on the roads. We found our hotel with little trouble and the guys watched the fireworks while I checked in. We decided to take advantage of the fancy hotel, so we had a bellboy take our stuff, and a valet park our car. The room was quite nice, with a lovely view of the parking lot.

Day 13 Disneyland

We got up fairly early and headed to the monorail entrance. Disneyland is doing a major renovation (Adding a whole new area) and the monorial runs right across the construction. So, it now goes only to and from the hotel and Tomorrowland. We found that we were not early enough, and the monorail had quite a long line. IT moved pretty quickly, and we were headed to Disneyland! We had a book (Unofficial guide to Disneyland) which listed the rides to see early in the morning before the line gets too long. Unfortunately, high on the list was Space Mountain. Also unfortunately, I had forgotten (and the book did not stress) how violent a roller coster it is. Ryan loved it, Gorbo didn't, and Dylan and I were scared almost to death. Every ride thereafter, Dylan wanted to know if it had "side bumps". It is unclear if Tahoe Tessie liked the ride or not- she was in my pack at Dylan's insistance. We moved on to Star Tours a motion simulator ride. Dylan saw the space theme and freaked out just as we were getting on the ride. So, Dylan and I found (were shown) the secret exit and Ryan and Gorbo did it. Ryan liked it so much that he and I did it the next day.

I had arranged to meet my cousin Judy (father's sister's daughter) at the main entrance at 10 am. We arrived a few minutes early and found her (and her husband) waiting. We spent the rest of the day with them, doing much milder rides. The kids really liked Toontown. We all liked Pirates (except Dylan who was not scared (he told me) but who kept asking when it would end). The line for Jungle cruise was pretty long (and longer than it looked), but it was just as I remembered it. We did have to tell Dylan that the Hippos weren't real. We did go back to the hotel for lunch and a brief rest. Then, a few more rides and we said good-by to Judy. We went on one more ride (alice in Wonderland) but we really had to talk Dylan into doing it. While in line another parent recognized Tahoe Tessie.

Day 14 Disneyland

We got up early enough to take advantage of the early admission that hotel stayers have. We got to the monorail station just before 6:30 (AM!) and got on the third train. IT was really nice wandering around the park with so few people. The brave guys did Indiana Jones (Dylan was too small and too scared). Then they did Matterhorn bobsleds while Dylan and I redid much of fantasyland. He didn't really like Peter Pan much (I think he doesn't like the dark rides.) We did the carosael (again) the story land boats (again) and Dumbo. We got in the non-line for the haunted mansion (Dylan had been asking about it for 2 days) but as soon as it started to get dark and scary music he started to get scared. Once we lost all the lights he was very unhappy and even found and exit sign. Gorbo didn't take him out, and by teh time we got on the chairs Dylan was very, very unhappy. He calmed down but didn't like the ride at all. Later Ryan and I did Star Tours (Ryan's second time) while Gorbo and Dylan did the submarine (Dylan's second time).

We returned to the hotel in the early afternoon to eat a light lunch and swim in th e pools. We ate an early dinner at Goofy's Kitchen- where the characters eat. True to the blurb, a number of charcters came by as we were eating. Eiyore even wiped Ryan's face clean with a napkin. We deliberatlet did not take pictures since the kids don't really like it.

After dinner we returned to the park, went to the Tiki show, and into Inoventions. PRetty neat, but too much to see in one visit. We caught the last of Fantasmic (light show) and sort- of saw the fireworks. (We had seen them better from our room the night before.) Waited in the long line for the monorail, and went to bed.

Day 15 San Diego, CA

We drove down to San Diego uneventfully. Actually, we didn't go to SD right away. The San Diego Wild Animal Park is northeast of SD, so we went there first. The heat was pretty miserable, and Dylan was not a happy camper, so bought him a mister (a thing that holds cold water and sprays a fine mist) and promised him a dinosaur puzzle at the end of the day. The monorail looks nothing like Disney's, more like a tram, but it provided a nice view of the park. It was really nice to see the big animals with lots of room to roam. We had lunch at the park (included in our package) and then did a little walking around. Not much because of the heat, and because the park is BIG! We did walk Dino Mountain (how could we not?) which has "Real" moving dinosaurs. Back at the motel we hit the pool and did something for dinner.

Day 16 San Diego

Today was the zoo and sea world. We hit the zoo pretty early and found it almost empty. That made it much nicer to walk around and see the animals. The pandas weren't on display, but we saw lots of cats and the polar bears were quite active.

We had lunch at the motel, rested and then headed to Sea World (only about 10 minutes away). We went to the otter/sea lion show which had an indian jones sort of theme. IT was very funny and the kids liked it a lot. We fed them some dinner and headed to the Shamu show. We waited for maybe 30 minutes (with a reasonably entertaining pre show). The Shamu show was OK. Lots of people got splashed (not us, we sat way up high). We looked at some of the other displays -sharks and manatees (not together). When I went to Sea World in Orlando, I went on the Artic helicopter ride. I had told Ryan about it and the map showed that it existed here as well. Dylan did not want to go on the bumps and I think he would be too small, so Ilooked for a way into the display without bumps. The has a "non-motion gyro stabalized" "helicopter" ride as well. It showed the same movie as the moving one, but just on a movie screen while we sat on benches. Dylan was glad he hadn't gone on teh moving one and Ryan of course loved the bumps. On the way out I showed them the view area for the outside of the simulator. They had a screen showing the movie and you could correlate the motion of the simulator to the movie. Very neat. Dyan was now convinced that he made the correct choice of ride. Back to the motel. We ordered pizza which took literally over an hour. Dylan fell asleep so he never did get any, poor guy.

Day 17 (14 August- Dylan's BD!) Tucson, AZ

A long driving day. I was not allowed to drive (see below) so I played with Dylan while Gorbo drove the whole way. We has planned to camp, but the kids rebeled. So, we found a motel off the interstate that was pretty inexpensive (and had a pool). Gorbo took the kids swimming while I went to the grocery store across the street. I got them to put "Happy birthday Dylan" on a cake and bought a Godzilla balloon. I snuck them back into the motel. Dylan DID NOT want to go out to dinner, so Gorbo went out and brought back take-out Chinese. After, Dylan got to open his presents (hidden in the van for the whole trip), blow out a candle, and eat his cake and ice cream.

Day 18 Tucson, AZ

We were all pretty tired, so we didn't do much. We went to the Arizona-Sonorian Desert Museum on the west side of town. Definately worth a visit. It is a combination zoo and arboretium, with docents exhibiting displays and some animals to touch. It was very hot, so we did maybe half of the main trail, and none of the side trails. We will go back the next time we are in town (perhaps not in August!).

We also stopped at our favorite art gallery- Novagraphics. We get their catalog and visit their website, but have never seen the gallery. We did good- just bought some cards to send out in December. We always buy from them, but the store did have a slightly better selection than the catalog.

Back to the hotel and the pool. Dinner at a Brew pub about 15 minutes away (Thunder Creek?). Good beer, great root beer (brew pubs have the best root beer) and good food.

Day 19 (Sunday) HOME!!!!!

A long driving day. Got home mid-afternoon. The kitties were glad to see us, and the house and plants had survived.

Next year: No more than 14 days. We stay at each place 2-3 days.

*** For those that are counting, 5 times we have had serious trouble with the car (3 times towing) and I was driving all 5 times. 1) The gas tank seal broke after the dealership messed with the fuel pump. (Towed to the dealer). 2) Left front tire blew (on a Sunday morning) in Colorado Springs on the interstate. (Put on "spare" and found an open Sears car/tire store to buy a tire.) 3) Left rear tire blew in NM on the interstate. (Put on "spare" and drove to Lordsburg ahd bought a tire.) Later, purchased a full size spare for long trips. 4) Ignition switch broke at the mailbox 1/2 mile from our house. (Towed to dealer.) 5) PTU froze taking the driveshaft with it. (Towed to Reno dealership.) I am no longer allowed to drive the van on long trips.

For more information, contact karenann@unm.edu

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