We took a two week road trip at the end of February. Our destination was sunny Arizona, so we could soak in some heat and vitamin D in the middle of winter. We had never taken a long road trip as a family before, but discovered we really loved it! It felt great to be in the wide open spaces, and to choose stops along the way. We drove 4-6 hours every other day or so, that way we always had a day or two to play at stops.
After passing the beauty of Shasta and many flowering almond groves, our first stop was to see the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Painted Ladies row houses in San Francisco. We thought the kids would enjoy seeing the sites that are in the intro of Full House.
The blooming almond trees smelled so good and looked so pretty for miles on end.
From there we made our way down to Pismo Beach. My Papa (grandpa) had recommended we visit and we loved it so much! Clams were all over the beach. We stayed in a cute hotel, where we were able to roast marshmallows and make smores on the patio overlooking the ocean. Our hotel also had bikes that we made use of. We had some amazing clam chowder and seafood while there and enjoyed the food truck restaurant on the pier.
Love of my life.
We drove through the beautiful Santa Barbara Hills on our way to Palm Springs. Josh worked and the kids did their school work while I drove. It was such a peaceful and beautiful drive with good music... until I hit LA traffic. Josh took over until we got past the crazy stretch, which I was thankful for. :)
We encountered rain on the day we were scheduled to be in Palm Springs laying by the pool, so we decided to escape the rain for the hills of Joshua Tree as soon as Josh was off work. We got to do a wonderful evening hike and were so happy it worked out that way.
(We hiked Mastodon Peak Trail, 3,440 ft elevation.)
These stairs were amazing!
As was the unique foliage!
You know that feeling you get when you feel like you're being watched by a mountain lion? It sounds like a funny question, but we've had experiences with large cats on our property before, living in the country, and boy did we feel it there amongst those large rocks at dusk. The feeling made Ben uneasy, so he stuck a little closer to Josh. :) When we finished our hike I googled if there were ever cougar or puma sightings amongst those rocks on that specific hike, and sure enough there were! But thankfully the cats keep to themselves.
Days later, in Scottsdale, this statue on large rocks made us smile. ;)
But back to our hike in Joshua Tree! The view from the top was beautiful. We could see a lake off in the distance behind Jude here.
Right as we finished our hike it began to rain and the smell was heavenly!! We just couldn't get over how dreamy it was. A good memory for sure.
On our way back to our hotel we stopped in La Quinta for nitrogen ice cream and dinner, and in that order. ;) Everything was lit up and so beautiful.
The next day we hit the road for Arizona to meet up with Dad and Janet that evening for dinner. As we stopped at a rest stop we spotted Dad and Janet! It was such a fun surprise to bump into each other hours before we had expected to meet up! Ben also spotted this sign and he was not thrilled, ha! :)
That evening we got to have dinner with Josh's college friend. His backyard was so pretty!
I'll finish up our trip in the next post, since this is getting so long. :)
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