oliviandchris.com

Monday, July 13, 2009

July weekends

We had a great summer weekend in San Francisco.

Monday, July 06, 2009

Beverly Beach, Crater Lake, Shasta, Bumpass Hell and Lassen

We tacked a few days onto the Independence Day Holiday and took last week as our summer vacation.

We left K&M at the Golden Gate Bridge,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

and drove north through the Central Valley (it was hot there!)

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

Late that night, we arrived in Beverly Beach State Park, a lovely spot just a few miles north of Newport, OR. We spent the next few days enjoying the cold Oregon sun,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

exploring tide pools,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

drawing in the sand,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

and camping kid-style.

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

It turns out Oregon Coast is a cold and windy place in the summertime,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

but we found ways to enjoy ourselves,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

and even managed to fly this kite with a considerable amount of skill.

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

We warmed up at the coffee shop,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

and parted ways, with O and I driving east to Crater Lake.

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

Crater Lake is very blue. Do you know why?

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

Olivia tried to find out by taking a swim,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

but it turned out the only way to really understand the blueness of the lake was to jump in.

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

Yeah. Pretty awesome.

Crater Lake also has a lot of mosquitoes this time of year, so we spent a lot of time in here:

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

To avoid the mosquitoes we drove south, around Mount Shasta (which, incidentally, makes Chris' Top 5 Mountains list),

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

and went swimming in Lassen Volcanic National Park.

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

Lassen is also a pretty volcano,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

with a lot of snow,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

and a place called Bumpass Hell,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

which is like a mini-Yellowstone.

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

The summertime meadows were beautiful.

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

We ended our trip with a climb up 10,500 foot Mount Lassen,

From West Coast Road Trip for Website

and drove home.

Friday, July 03, 2009

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Monday, June 29, 2009

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Visitors!

They say it best:

http://kandm1.wordpress.com/

Monday, June 22, 2009

What did we do this weekend? Oh yeah, we moved. Check this photo of
our truck backing up our "street", with one of the movers standing in
the back of the truck, holding up the power lines as the driver
threads his way between a cliff, a telephone pole and an SUV.

Please ask me if you'd like our new address. You may even get it
without asking.

Olivia also played a lovely concert with her orchestra.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Yosemite Otra Vez

Last weekend Chris' parents road-tripped from 'rado to Yosemite. We met them there on Thursday night, an after-work drive made that much easier by having a tent set up for us when we arrived (thanks mom and dad!).

The weather was unseasonably crappy so we had to get creative as the monuments of Yosemite Valley were cloud covered for much of Friday and Saturday. As you'll see, there's more to Yosemite than Half Dome.

The Merced River with Yosemite Falls...almost a scroll painting.