By Tania & SophiaAfter braving the heights at the Hoover Dam, we made it to California! This is state 45 that we have all been to together (Sophia would like to point out that she has been here twice - Tania & Derek have as well). It’s a pretty big state and we figured why not just see it all in one trip?! They don’t call us the “Hartford Explorers” for nothing! We got to Beverly Hills 90210 late on Monday night. Us girls headed out early to find a Starbucks to see if we can find someone famous the next morning. We must have looked like tourists because some guy came up and asked us if we were looking for Rodeo Drive, which we were because that is where Starbucks was. So he decided to take it upon himself to a) show us the way to go and tell us all about the city, and b) tell us not to go to Starbucks and go to Blue Bottle Coffee instead. That was good advice, the coffee was very good. Here’s the thing. He told us he used to work in Massachusetts, but wouldn’t tell us where, he only told us it closed. He was walking to work, but when we asked what he did he answered ‘public relations’. And we didn’t know his name. Kinda sus... maybe he was famous. So, if you are seeing this, thanks for showing us around, sorry if we gave away your secret. The boys met up with us and we walked a bit in Beverly Hills looking for famous people before we headed off on our quest to see “LA in one day”. The day started with bagels outside the Hollywood Bowl - we couldn’t get in but sat outside and heard the rehearsal. Then it was onward to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Chinese Theater. We found our favorite stars and tried to fit our hands/feet in their prints. From there, we drove Sunset Boulevard to the Pacific Coast Highway stopping in Bel Air for a visit to UCLA’s campus, Sophia’s first college visit! We took a side trip up to Malibu to have a late lunch/early dinner at Duke’s. It was the first time in a while that we could sit and relax. The view of the Pacific crashing up next to our table made it perfect, the waves were HUGE. Unfortunately we didn’t get any strawberry ice cream in Malibu (but we did drive our Honda past the Hollywood sign, iykyk). From there, we drove down to Santa Monica Pier to finish the final stretch of Route 66. Sam and Theo tested their strength at Muscle Beach, we saw a shark standing on someone’s shoulders (?) and we all got to put our toes in the Pacific. After hanging out on the pier for a bit, we cruised down to downtown LA (and by “cruise” I mean sat in traffic) so we could visit the Last Bookstore. It’s a pretty cool spot with a book tunnel, tons of quirky art, and an awesome collection of new/used books & albums. The day ended with a trip to “City Lights” at the LACA - a cool urban place making project! Whew - it was a lot but super fun. Quite an exciting, fun-filled day. Until next time!
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By Yosemite SamYosemite was a really cool experience. We camped on a nice lake with cool Mountain View’s. We got to see our amazing cousins, Henry and Zeke and got to explore Yosemite with them. The first day in Yosemite we went to a huge rock mountain and got to climb up the sides. We then walked the Soda Springs trail and I drank from the spring it tasted irony. I then read the sign that said you shouldn’t drink the water because animals could have infected them (you only live once right?). We then got ice cream at this pop up store on g the Pacific coast trail and we got to meet some thru hikers. It was hot that day so we found I nice lake to stop for lunch. Henry, Zeke, Theo, and I got a bunch of logs from the woods and made a raft. We used the raft to carry rocks to this big rock in the middle of the lake where we made a little country. We found some other kids, Martha and Teddy, who also helped us build our country. We were called “Lunk”. Henry and I were put on an expedition to cross the lake with the raft. So we swam our raft across the lake, it was breaking apart but we got it back to shore. The country of “Lunk” is still there in Yosemite if you would like to see it.
We then drove through Yosemite Valley to see the waterfalls and there weren’t any! (The water was down to a trickle). We then found a hiking trail and did a small hike. We saw a bear sign and guess what? “Timmy don’t stand there, Timmy!” Is back. We then had a long drive back to the campsite that had a lot of heights and cliffs. I got to sit up front and Dad sat in the back seat where I usually sit called “The Rat Den”. The morning was nice, we had eggs and potatoes for breakfast and we packed up and went to go explore Yosemite once again. We stopped at the store and picked up a junior ranger for Theo, Zeke, and I. We climbed up Pothole Dome to complete the book. We then brought it to a ranger and became junior rangers (you are never to old for a junior ranger). We then drove through the valley again and out the other side of the park. We then looked for a camp site and found a not so normal one. There was a pool and a petting zoo. You also had the option to stay in a covered carriage. Me as a swimmer love to race so when I saw a bunch of random kids racing I saw an opportunity, I said that I learned how to swim 3 weeks ago and they believed me, I then went and beat a bunch of kids in a swim race. Yosemite has to be one of my favorite national parks so if you can go, GO. That’s it. Day 4 - no matter how hard I try, I can’t shake these kids. We had dinner at the birthplace of James Garfield (well, the Panera nearby), yet they stayed with me to St Louis. I thought for sure I could lose them in the City Museum as there were a number of parents who had seemed to successfully lose their kids in that amazing maze of a place. Like a horror movie though, no matter where you went, children were crawling through every nook and cranny, hole, and ceiling everywhere. It was crazy. We did take a break near the classic pinball games. Theo and I had gone to Marvelous Marvins in MI a couple weeks ago, but the collection of 20’s era pinball games was impressive here. However, once again, my efforts were thwarted as they left the museum with me (I got lost trying to flee, and by the time I found my way they were there.)
We picked up Tania, and revisited the Arch at night. We had visited earlier in the day and did the museum, but nighttime at the Arch was beautiful, and as always life is better when the five of us are together (so I guess I wont try to lose them after We started our trip down Rt 66 (we have previously visited the start in Chicago during our last road trip) and headed to Uranus (insert Beavis and Butthead laugh here). We were cracking up with Uranus puns, like Sam buying a shirt from Uranus. Other stops included the Blue Whale, which sadly, only allows you to imagine the greatness of the place in times past. You can almost see the people jumping off the Whale into the pond, or taking the slides and splashing in the water. It’s heyday has passed (is past) but it was a great stop. The totems were a little off the road, but its important to see the worlds largest totem on a trip like this. Hope to get some more large objects on this trip. And for the record, Tania and I have only discussed putting up a police car-like barrier between the front and back seats once. Day 5 We finally got to camp last night, and found a great National Park site in New Mexico just outside of Arizona. Cool weather, no bugs, and the kids were awesome in setting up camp quickly and efficiently. It was at Ft Wingate (I made sure not to point out the ghost town to the kids on the way up the mountain road - Sam would have never slept), but that was surreal (as are many sites on this trip) 1st stop today was the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. A fantastic stop that included Petroglyphs from over 2000 years ago, as well as those petrified trees from dinosaur times (millions of years old, give or take a couple million). We continued to get our kicks and passed the Wigwam motel (no stay this time, been there done that). We passed on the jackrabbit stop (which had ads leading up that we saw, but nothing like Wall Drug advertising). I guess there was a big hole in the ground from a meteor, but Dam! We still had to go to the Hoover Dam and LA by the end of the day. We did manage an attempt to visit our nephew, Jared, in Flagstaff but alas, he was not home. We got out just in time though as were saw the lightning and thunder and drove into a major storm(and out of it) and then received flash flooding alerts for the next hour as Tania drove under sunny skies. Scary storm though. Another wonderful stop at the Snow Cap Drive-In Restaurant for good food, and a fun time (look for the Dollar Bill with our signatures) and off to that Damn Dam. 1st time in Nevada for all of us, Vegas here we come! Damn that Dam is high. That dam bridge is even higher! Tania and Theo got the best views as they dared the walk, Sophia and Sam went a little ways, I of course sat this one out. As tempting as it may be, stress and paralyzing fear is no way to safely enjoy this dam site. I think we all had a good dam experience, and maybe we return one day for the dam tours and some dam souvenirs. And as for Vegas, we all know what happens there stays there. We made Beverly Hills last night, and that’s where we wanna be. - Derek By SophiaWe have been on the road for four full days now, and boy has it been a journey. The first day felt like a drive to Michigan, but unfortunately landed us in Ohio (I say unfortunately because it’s Ohio, it’s actually where we were trying to get that night). I did get to drive a bit (yay!), making it my 3rd time driving on the New York thruway this summer. I’m practically an expert. I think I’m a pretty good driver, not great, but no tickets or crashes yet, knock on wood. day two we drove to St. Louis. The drive was rainy, and we stopped a lot. But we passed through our first time zone, so we made it an hour earlier than we were supposed to :)
I’m not a huge fan of riding in the car, but sometimes it s worth it. St. Louis was fun to explore, and I hadn’t been in quite a few years. And we would have completely missed it had we flown to California. Mom was flying in to meet us later that night, so we stopped at the City Museum and the Gateway Arch. The City Museum was wild, there was so much there. I especially liked how everywhere you looked there were children in the ceiling or coming out of holes in every direction. But it was cool, they had fun slides and tunnels and some old pinball machines. Once we left the museum we made our way to the arch. We stopped to get ice cream at this cute little cafe near the park. I got pineapple dole whip, which was a little taste of Blue Lake, the camp I went to this summer. They had dole whip, and it was pretty much a staple in campers diet. The arch was so amazing, we didn’t get to take the tram to the top this time, but we did look at the museum. I learned some fun facts about what Thomas Jefferson wanted to name the new states in the US (I put a picture of it), a bit about Lewis and Clarks journey, and learned how the arch was designed and made. Did you know it was actually a contest? Pretty interesting stuff. I also got in a debate with some of the people working there over the flavor of Sprite, does it taste more lemon-y or lime-y? I think lime-y, but there was some disagreement. Once we left the museum, we walked along the greenway of St. Louis. I don’t think that is what it is called, but it was a nice park that stretched a few blocks with some interesting sculptures and buildings on the side. We made our way to the airport and picked up Mom, and now the whole gang is back together. On Saturday, we made our way out of Missouri along Route 66. We saw record breaking totem poles, whale water slides, weirdly named (and themed) towns (I’ll let someone else write about Uranus), and a town that looked kind of like Radiator Springs from Cars. and I got to drive. On Route 66. After a brief stop at Pops to get some fun sodas, we got to see Oklahoma in all of it’s greatness. Which was pretty much cows and farms. Yesterday we drove through Texas and New Mexico, which is where we spent the night. New Mexico is my 44th state that I have been to, and today I should be able to cross of Nevada too. Onward to the next part of our travels. I have been updating the instagram more frequently, so feel free to give us a follow @hartford_explorers. And, to wrap this all up, a quote from my good friend Lightning Mcqueen. “Kachow.” Sophia is driving and we are trying to distract ourselves in the backseat. Currently we are between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. We started the day in St. Louis and are still hoping to make it to Amarillo, Texas tonight. All that said, let me back up to get you all up to speed on our upcoming journey...
After over a year of being in quarantine, stuck together in our house, we thought what better way to celebrate than cramming ourselves into our minivan and driving across the country...but seriously, we had planned to come out to the West Coast to see Tania’s sister and her family and the plans on how we would get there evolved over time until we settled on road tripping so we could finish the lower 48 states that we’ve all visited together. With Tania working a new job and our bathroom being under construction, we decided that Derek and the kids would take about 3 weeks for the journey in our trusted minivan and Tania would fly out/back at points along the way for two weeks of the trip. The states we have to hit are: New Mexico, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, and North Dakota. Derek and the kids set out on Thursday morning and drove through Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and stopped in St. Louis, Missouri. Tania flew in that evening to meet them and today we set out on Route 66 (well on/off the Mother Road) which we will take through Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, side trip to Nevada, and end at Santa Monica in California. We are going to spend some time in California visiting Yosemite, San Francisco, and up to redwood country in Humboldt County where my sister lives. After we leave there, we will head up through Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and finally North Dakota (our final state in the lower 48!). Tania will fly home and the rest of the family will head up through northern Michigan to pick up our dog , Annie, and then make it home for Yankee Homecoming (we hope!). Phew - did you follow all that? No worries if you didn’t, just like our last Big Road Trip in 2016 we will try to keep you updated along our journey. Sophia and Sam are updating our Instagram feed (which is linked on our homepage) and we will try to summarize through posts regularly...although if our Orlando trip is any indication we may not be the best at keeping up the blog! More to come on what we have seen so far. For now, we are going to try to keep our sanity as Sophia cruises down the highway in the rain. Tania, Theo & Sam |