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Meet Lukas. Lukas joined our family on Emelie’s first birthday and has more or less been a part of everything we’ve done since then. Although for over 2 years, Lukas didn’t have a name. Whenever anyone asked Emelie what her baby’s name was, she looked at them like they were crazy and said, “It’s a baby” or some variation of……
Our next destination was the Grand Canyon. But the drive from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon was a little longer than our typical day’s drive (Google maps predicted 4 hrs and 40 min). Adding in our stop at the Hoover Dam, we decided to stop for a night in between and chose the Blake Ranch RV Park in Kingman,……
Heading east from Las Vegas, our first stop was the Hoover Dam. An impressive feat of engineering, to be sure. But to be honest, we were disappointed by the Hoover Dam and in the end we didn’t stay long. It was difficult to find information about visiting the Hoover Dam online ahead of time, and even that which we did……
A little known fact about Las Vegas: there is a campground on “the Strip”. There’s a wall around most of it for security and sound-dampening, so if you’re not looking for it, you probably wouldn’t see it. But nevertheless, there is a large parking lot behind Circus Circus, and it’s run by KOA. Really there’s very little about camping on……
When was the last time you saw a 5-letter word using only the last 3 letters of the alphabet? No? Me neither. It’s in the middle of the Mojave Desert in California, but the car ahead of us exited so apparently people go there. Imagine my surprise when I asked Mr. Google about this word and it turns out it……
(Fear not, loyal reader… after a brief hiatus when celebrating Christmas and the New Year with our families took priority over blogging, we’re back. We WILL continue sharing our trip and we’ll hopefully finish before memories start to fade. Thanks for sticking with us and for your patience!) Our last night spent in California was a stop at the KOA……
October 17 (no comment about this post coming 2 months afterward…) was the anniversary of my birth (thanks Mom!) and I got to spend a beautiful Southern California day at the San Diego Zoo with my favorite people. Am I such a huge zoo lover that we planned our trip around going to the world famous San Diego Zoo on……
Welcome back! My apologies for the recent blogging hiatus. I realize it wasn’t clear whether the blog would continue to recount the rest of our adventures even after we have returned home. I will continue writing it for myself even if no one continues to read. But I hope you will, because there’s still about a third of our trip……
(For those who don’t speak any Spanish, this post is called “To Mexico” in Spanish. Not “A Mexico”) To Mexico or not to Mexico, that was the question. As we headed to San Diego, we knew we were only a short distance from the border. Should we cross the border or not? Cons: risk of insurance issues, possibility of border……
Crystal Cove State Park is along the Coast Highway in the Laguna Beach area of California. We went there mostly to check out the tide pools and let the kids play in the sand on the beach while we waited for low tide. What we discovered was a beautiful beach, perfect conditions for a swim in the Pacific, and an……
Our friend Maggie lives in Orange County with her five kids. We connected over Facebook and she invited us to come and stay with them on our way through California. We happily took her up on the offer! A chance to catch up with an old friend and a free place to stay? Definitely! Here we met our first driveway……
We left Santa Barbara, headed for Orange County, California, and took a detour off the interstate to drive through Beverly Hills and Hollywood. Even on a Saturday, there was a lot of traffic and since we were towing the trailer it was nearly impossible to park. So Beverly Hills for us was a drive-by, and all our pictures were taken……
Meanwhile, back in Santa Barbara… We went to a pumpkin patch with our friends Gary, Jeanne, and Tatyana. I had not been to a pumpkin patch in years, and for the rest of the Lindstrom clan, it was a first time experience. The cutest little pumpkins in the patch! While we were paying for our pumpkins, Emelie ran off with……
Tomorrow we are heading back to my parents’ house in Pennsylvania. I know the blog is dreadfully behind and if you’re only seeing my blog posts, you’d think we were still in California. We’re not. With the exception of tonight’s post, I plan to “go back” to California and continue to add each post in chronological order of what we……
In Santa Barbara we were hosted by the Parsons, some of the sweetest, most encouraging, most hospitable people we’ve ever met. Also some of the busiest – though they always seem present in the moment and you never get the sense that they’re overwhelmed or stressed when you’re with them. Someday I would like to learn that skill. Among other……
