DC: Monuments and Memorials

It's been a pretty intense year for Dave.  He has literally not had a Sunday off for over a year.  As we considered months ago what kind of summer vacation to take, the idea to go big and grand struck.  We asked the girls what their dream vacation would be and Ella suggested Washington DC.  We love this city and feel pretty familiar with it, thanks to frequent visits to see Kyle when he studied and lived here.  So, we started planning something pretty special.   As the girls get older and busier, we definitely feel that clock ticking on the time we have with them and we wanted this to be something they'd really remember.  Taking on DC when you're a teenager, with a couple History classes under your belt was perfect timing!

You know us.  We are planners.  We vacation hard.  We packed A LOT into a week!  Get ready for a long series of posts chronicling our adventures in our nation's capital!

We stayed at a great hotel, right behind the White House, within walking distance to the Mall and almost everything we wanted to see and do.  On our first day, we were excited to see and do it all, so we set out on foot.  We walked about 10 miles on this day!  East Coast weather is not at all what we are used to!  Humidity was about 90% every day and temps hung out in the 90's.  It rained/thunderstormed almost every day.  We have never been hotter or sweatier.  I look back on that first day and wonder how we actually did it!

First glimpse of the Washington Monument.

The memorial we were most excited to see!  The WWII Memorial is new to us and we loved exploring all the thoughtful details that told the story of this war in Europe and in the Pacific.  We also loved sharing our own grandpas' WWIII stories with the girls here.  

The Vietnam Memorial.

The Lincoln Monument.  

The Korean War Memorial.

The MLK Memorial.  At this point, we were really appreciating how unique each memorial was and how intentionally it told the story of who it honored.  Dr. King was a minister and a speaker, his ministry was one of words.  All around his likeness were his most powerful quotes carved into the walls.  A visit to his memorial was another opportunity to grow and be challenged.

I've always liked the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial.  Delia said this one was her favorite-- though shade, cool waterfall mist, and an air conditioned gift shop may be factors in that!  Did I mention we were very hot? ;)

(Dave catching me doing "my job".  I think of myself as the family memory captor and carrier and will never feel bad for taking too many pictures!)

The Jefferson Monument.  Lots of feelings about this founding father!  From his vision and majestic words, to his hypocrisy and unapologetic use of slaves, to his portrayal in Hamilton (he IS one of our favorite characters!), we talked about how people can be both good and flawed and how hard it is to reconcile that and live in that tension.  As we experienced lots of contradictions in this city, that became a bit of a theme.  

At this point we switched to bikes using this amazing Capital Bike Share app!  Every few blocks around the city are bike docks where you can check out a bike, ride it as long as you want, and return it to any other docking station.  It only cost $.05 a minute!  We did lots of biking on this trip.

This trip around the monuments took us until early afternoon.  We still squeezed two Smithsonians into this day!  Say tuned...

An Angels Camp Gift from Angels

Sweet church friends gave us the gift of the use of their place in Angels Camp for 3 days this week.  Angels Camp is in the hills and a cool central location to many interesting outings and hikes.  We did something a little different and went as just a family of 3 since Ella was busy with both work and taking a pottery class every day this week.  Getting lots of good quality time with Delia ended up being one of my favorite parts of this little getaway.

We enjoyed lots of tasty food-- like our favorite BBQ brisket, pulled pork and all the fixin's at Griffs and some artisan ice cream at a cute little shop in Murphys.  

We discovered that the Angles Camp theater offers $5 movies one night a week!  We saw the new Thor movie and found it entertaining enough, but far from our favorite Marvel movie.  What we'll remember most is this darling little theater, with its old fashioned neon marque glowing on a lit up downtown street and gold rush murals painted on all the walls inside!

The place we stayed was a summer resort condo complex on a beautiful golf course.  The views of the golden rolling hills from our balcony were spectacular and we saw lots of deer wandering around.  The complex also had multiple pools we could hop around.  Perfect for afternoons where we were coming home from a hike and it was easily soaring over 100 degrees!  

Being in the center of some cool places in the hills had me planning 2 fun outings.  Our first was a brand new hike that's been on my list for years-- Table Mountain.  Here you climb above the tree line and New Melones Reservoir to get the most amazing 360 degree views at the top of a sprawling flat mountain, which we thought had to technically be a mesa.  The hike up is challenging enough with lots of changes in the terrain to be interesting, but not super strenuous.   The whole hike was less than 1000 feet of elevation gain, just under 4 miles, and took about an hour and a half.  Finding the super obscure trail head was an adventure, though!  We'll always remember the extreme off-roading our car had to do and the perfectly timed horse back riders who saved us pointed us in the right direction! 

At the top, the huge vultures flew so close, you could actually hear their wings flapping!

Beautiful views, but kinda scary how low the water in the reservoir is getting!

Now I'll tell you honestly that this wasn't really Delia's favorite part of our getaway.  But, understandably.  Getting to the trail was the craziest, bumpiest road, and she felt a little car sick.  There were NO other people around, which always makes me a little nervous when we hike.  Then we kept running into big piles of poop on our trail that obviously belonged to something wild.  We confirmed with a park ranger later that it was probably bear!  Dave and I thought the hike was super cool and felt good about conquering it, but we had a hard time convincing Delia. ;)

Our second outing was to the ultra-familiar Big Trees State Park.  When we moved here in 2003, this was an outing tackled the day after we arrived!  We had boxes to unpack and work to do, but the adventure of our new state beckoned.  I still remember that thrilling realization, "We LIVE here now!!" as we made the scenic drive up the hills and and took our first hike through the Giant Sequoia grove.  We've been back at least a dozen times in 19 years; Big Trees remaining one of our favorite places.

Our Big Trees adventure ended the way so many in the past have-- with a stop at the roadside burger joint, Giant Burger.  Delia found a special heart-shaped onion ring, which I thought was an appropriate way to close this recap.  All the love for special family time-- to play cards, swim, watch movies, hike, eat delicious food, and talk about big and small things in life.  All the love for beautiful places to explore, new and familiar.  All the love for generous church friends who give us the gift of a break, rest and relaxation, experiences, and time together!

Weekend at Pinecrest

When the girls got an invite to spend the weekend at a cabin up at our favorite summer spot, Pinecrest, with some of their best friends, they jumped at the opportunity!  Dave and I were even able to drive up for a day and meet them for some fun on the lake, followed by a pizza dinner, and family games at the cabin.  You've heard me write about these dear family friends before-- they are Donna, Tessa, Anika, Ben, etc.  A whole weekend with them was a treat!  What a fun life!

Mom and Dad gave us the kayak for Christmas, which we loved finally taking out for a spin!  It was paddled around the lake all day by all different combos of friends.  So nice to not have to worry about the time running out on a rental!  We'll get a ton of use out of this new toy.

Just doesn't get any better than this.

SUPs and a hammock enhance the lake experience as well!

The girls loved crowding into the cozy mountain cabin with this dear family of friends-- there are 8 of them!  On Saturday, all the big kids took off for the spectacular, but strenuous, hike to Cleo's Bath.  We heard all about this adventure when they got home, but just this one picture was taken-- which Delia insisted upon to "prove she actually went on this crazy hike"! ;)

The girls were too cute intentionally bringing up coordinating outfits for a little photoshoot (these pictures there were probably 20 of, haha!)  Ella and Delia came home last night exhilarated but exhausted from 3 straight days of paddling, swimming, hiking, and game playing.  We're so thankful for the blessing of beautiful places and special friendships!

15!

 

Wine and Waterslides with Heather

Heather took advantage of the long holiday weekend to come for a quick visit.  We had just finished our hardest and most exhausting week of the summer at VBS and having Heather at the end of it was a grand celebration!  As always, Heather is up for adventure, so we packed her 4 days with as much fun as we could!

First stop was at Ella's gym so she could show Auntie Heather her world.  Though she is not a lover of heights, Heather was an amazing sport, allowing Ella to show her the ropes and not taking too long to make it all the way up the walls!

Delia was able to get in on the climbing too!

Ella is at the gym almost every day.  She's enough of an expert that they pay her to teach.  But still, I had not visited since she first started this hobby and I loved seeing how much she's grown as a climber this year!  See that tiny speck on the ceiling in the above pic?  Yep, that's Ella.  She flew right up there!  And no, you don't need to rotate the picture below.  It's Ella who is upside down!

Heather's second day was spent at the water park-- our favorite summer tradition!  We lazed in the river, we surfed waves, we climbed a million flights of stairs, we raced, we braved the big, scary, dark slide, we got stuck, we tried to set Delia up with a cute lifeguard, and we screamed for our lives when we were sure our family raft was flying straight off the water slide walls!

We had the best time and plan to keep this outing in the books every time we are together in hot weather!

Heather's third day was a bit more relaxed.  We explored a new-to-us wine country, doing a little tasting, picnicking, and bookshop browsing.  One winery specialized in sparkling wines and we thought it was fun to taste all their unique flavors-- pomegranate, peach, and almond being some of my favorites.  Made me think of Moira Rose's funny fruit wine commercial! ;) IYKYK.

Of course Delia found all 5 bookshop cats while we found a pile of used books to buy!

This day ended with good eats!  A friend recommended we try her favorite waterfront restaurant, Boathouse, which was pretty and delicious, but a little chilly.  We then drove to the nearby Ghirardelli Factory for our dessert where fancy hot fudge sundaes and hot chocolate warmed us right up.  

Heather's last day was church, 3rd of July BBQ, Jackbox games, campfire, and sparklers.  Auntie Heather got to know Ben, as together we all we roasted marshmallows. listened to patriotic playlists, and laughed till we cried about hilarious Jackbox creations like Smacky Cracky Stucky, Drunk Madonna's cones, and Jazz Hands Church.  Don't ask me to draw a vacuum cleaner or Heather to draw a tongue!  Haha!!

We love you, Heather!  Thanks for making time to visit us and for giving us a reason to squeeze so much summer fun into 4 days!