Mountain Meadow Resort

Two weeks ago, we took a week long vacation in the Trinity Alps, a little-known mountain range in Northern California.  Last winter, when looking for a summer vacation destination, I checked out a book from the library entitled "California Cottages and Cabins".  In the book, I found the Mountain Meadow Resort, and was intrigued.  It is a group of 10 cabins + a lodge deep in the wilderness.  Cabins are booked for the week, and guests can swim, fish, hike, and relax.  As an added benefit, childcare is provided 3 days a week so adults can take longer hikes, and dinner is served in two seatings: kids and then adults.  (Kids get supervised playtime while the adults eat).  It all sounded pretty good to me, and we were able to recruit our friends Sue and Ben and their two kids to try it out with us.


We made the 6.5 drive up to the place with some trepidation.  There was little information available about the place on the internet, and we were told it was an hour's drive down a dirt road to the nearest store.  The place was entirely off the grid, with no cell service, no internet, no TV and the generator was turned off each night from 11pm-6:30 am.  We had no idea how "rustic" the place would be, if the food was any good, or who we would be "stuck" with for the week.

Our fears were soon allayed, however when we checked in.  The cabins were simple, but clean.  Almost all other guests were return visitors--one, who was my age had celebrated his 2nd birthday at the property!


The setting was absolutely stunning, in a giant meadow nestled in the mountains.

 Our week flew by.  On several days, the adults took long hikes, which were quite strenuous (we weren't quite prepared for the intensity of these--the longest I did was 14 miles and per my fit bit 340 flights of stairs, or I guess 3400 feet in elevation!).

Ethan even joined us for one of our longer hikes.  On this one he walked about 10 miles and gained 2500 vertical feet.  I was pretty proud!  As an added bonus, there was snow at the top of the peak, and on the way back down dad and him got to "slide" part of the trail.

The wild flowers were absolutely gorgeous--in every different color.  I know that my mom would have loved seeing all of the flowers!  Besides flowers, the meadows were covered in butterflies.

A nearby creek provided hours of entertainment for the kids.  Truthfully, the place reminded me of Yosemite, and was nearly as spectacular, but without the crowds.  We saw almost no one other than the people from our resort in the area and on our hikes.  Incredible, for mid July!

 

The vacation had a great "getaway" factor--being disconnected really allowed us to relax and unwind.  The kids met new friends and also really enjoyed it as well.  I think we may go back next year!

3.5

This week, Alaina celebrated her half birthday.  She managed to confuse all of her preschool teachers when she show up to school on Monday and announced it was her "birthday".  I guess we may be the only family to recognize half-birthdays!

Anyhow, I think it is fun to recognize the day, so we do, and I made some cupcakes to celebrate.  Recently Alaina has become quite verbose and has lots of opinions.  For example, when asked why she is eating her dinner so slowly, she tells us "because my tummy is full and its better to eat slow",  but when confronted with the follow up question: "But then how come you can eat ice cream fast?" her reply is "yes, because it melts!" She seems to have an answer for everything.    She is much more aware of the world around her, and works to keep us on our toes:  "Mommy did you remember to bring my swimsuit?"  And she is getting better at following rules instead of fighting them (at least more so than a few months ago).

So happy half birthday to my sweet little girl!

July 4th Roadtrip

We were both off for the 4th of july holiday weekend, so we decided to take a road trip down to Paso Robles.  How did we pick that place?  Well, we wanted to go somewhere warm that we hadn't checked out before.  We had passed by it about 5 years ago when we went to Pismo Beach, but never got to stop.  So Paso Robles it was.

Paso Robles was made famous in the 2005 movie "Sideways", and has many wineries.  We spent two nights there, and enjoyed checking out the town, taking Alaina to her first movie at a theater (Finding Dory.  Verdict--pretty unoriginal-I have no idea how it got 95% on the tomato-meter, but the kids seemed to like it.)

We enjoyed fireworks on Saturday night, with a special concert by the San Luis Obispo Youth Symphony beforehand. The website told us to leave food at home and dine at the food trucks at the event.  We thought that would be great, and brought some blankets and a bag of cheetos.  After a 30 minute traffic jam into the parking lot, we got one of the last spots, and headed to eat.  At this point we noticed there were only 4 food trucks.  And about 4000 hungry people who brought no food.   (Yes, this was the "first annual" Paso Pops convert.  someone wasn't planning too well).   So we picked the shortest line (popcorn) (and waited 45 minutes in it) and ate cheetos and popcorn for dinner.  The show was nice and the fireworks were fun for the kids.

The highlight of the trip for me was a stop at Pinnacles National Park on the way home.  Pinnacles is the newest national park (established 2013, it was formerly a national monument).  It is a unique geological formation in the central valley, formed by volcanoes 23 million years ago.  Some of the pinnacles have collapsed and formed caves from the avalanches.  We took a really neat hike that went through one of the caves.  Would love to go back to the park another time to do another hike--probably in winter, because it was hot!

Med School Reunion

Last weekend, we welcomed my good friend from med school, Sam, and family for a summer visit.  Our good friend Sue drove up with her family from San Jose and we had a real med school reunion!  It has been 12 years since we graduated--time sure flies--and now we have 7 kids between us--but hanging out was just like old times.

On Saturday we spent time at the ferry building and took a ferry ride to sausalito.  That evening, we went to a local restaurant owned by Phil Lesh--the bassist for the Grateful Dead--and watched a show that he played in, while the kids enjoyed a pizza and a movie night.  Sam's husband Mitch, loves the grateful dead, so he had scoped out the place online months ago and bought tickets.  It was funny to find out the places was less than 3 miles from our house!

On Sunday, we headed to the beach and had a barbecue.

We sure tired this kids out--look at Ethan, Cruz and Whitney in the car!

Monday, I went downtown with Sam and her family--we checked out the wharf and the cable cars.

Really, a great visit and reunion!  So happy we all were able to get together.