February 21, 2007

• Venturing Into the "Wilderness"

  I was going to write about our family vacation to Sequoia National Park a little later, but I can't sleep, thanks to being too excited about the big ultrasound later today! So, here we go ...

  This past weekend, my family took a trip together for the first time in a few years. The six of us -- my parents, Johnny and I, and June and Charles -- rented a three-bedroom cabin in Three Rivers, CA, a mile away from the entrance to the park. On Friday, my parents, June and Charles came by our apartment, and then Johnny and I caravaned (is that a word?) with them in our RAV4 to make the 3.5-hour drive.

  Aside from Johnny, who actually enjoys camping and getting in touch with the real outdoors, the rest of us aren't the woodsy type. We wanted to see the big trees and enjoy nature, but this would be the closest we've gotten to camping as a family. As usual, when my family's involved in traveling, a lot of food was involved. Between snacks for the drive to and from Sequoia, ingredients for meals to make at the cabin and snacks to take with us on our drives into the park, my mom prepared and brought enough food to feed a small army for about, oh, a month.  We even brought along the rice cooker, which turned out to be a real lifesaver -- it did triple duty as a microwave, a steamer and, of course, a rice cooker. All the provisions were awesome for me -- it meant I never had to look too far for food!

  On Friday, we made it up to Sequoia in good time. The weather was great, and we had a lot of fun on the drive. Once we unloaded our stuff into the spacious cabin, we walked to the Kaweah River, located just a few hundred years behind the cabin.

  We managed to fill the fridge in our cabin with all the food we brought for three days

  

  My mom at the kitchen window

  

  My parents in front of the cabin

   

  June and I on our way to the Kaweah River (this was taken in our cabin's "backyard")

  

  My parents embark on the journey to the river

  

  The four of us

  

  Just one of the many photos we took at this big pair of rocks -- here are my dad and June

  

  The Kaweah River

  

  

  That night, Johnny built a successful fire in the little stove in the cabin's living room. Unfortunately, I didn't capture the impressive "after" photo. But, trust me, the fire blazed on for hours!

  

  On Saturday, we drove up into the national park. Three Rivers, where we were staying, was at about 670 of elevation. The giant tree forest, which is where we were headed, was around 6,500 feet of elevation. It was crazy! It took only an hour or so to drive. The temperature difference was about 30 degrees -- it was in the mid-60s in Three Rivers, and in the mid-30s up near the giant Sequoias! It was a sunny, beautiful day, though, so we didn't mind. It was amazing -- all of a sudden, as we were driving, the terrain changed from rocky hills with bushy plants and a few willowy, tall trees (kind of like the Kaweah River pictures) to moist and snowy, with these enormous trees all around. It literally happened in the blink of an eye.

  June and I in front of the Giant Forest Museum -- look how much snow there was on the ground! And we had just left 65-degree weather a few minutes ago!

  

  Johnny and I are very dark in the foreground here. This is in front of General Sherman, the largest tree in the world by volume.

  

  That afternoon, we had an appointment to go on a ranger-led showshoe walk. I've never been snowshoeing, and I was so glad that after much convincing, Johnny and my mom reluctantly agreed that snowshoeing would be a safe activity for me to do.

  Here we are, receiving our snowshoeing lessons. I'm in the foreground, Charles is to my right, examining a camera, and June is off at the very right, managing somehow to look very hip on her snowshoes.

  

  Meanwhile, since looking hip isn't one of my specialties these days, I throw all care to the wind and sniff a very fragrant tree (I forgot what it was, but it smelled like vanilla and jasmine!) on the snowshoe walk.

  

  June and Charles on their snowshoes. They're so cute! They look like they should be in a snowshoeing catalog

  

  The snowshoeing group. I was proud that I managed to stay upright on the snowshoes! (I'm the last person in the line -- on the left side of the photo.) It was a lot of fun

  

  After such a long day, we all went back to the cabin, ate a meal of drumsticks (which I baked before we left for Sequoia), rice and warm soup, followed by a dessert of fresh fruit and Marie Callendar's custard pie (yes, we brought a custard pie to the wilderness!), and an evening of entertainment from playing Wii games and watching DVDs. We watched Match Point and Wimbledon. I'd seen Wimbledon before, but I love it, so I didn't mind. I really liked Match Point, although it gave me the creeps. Anyway, it's just not camping if you don't bring the electronics and June's pirated DVDs!

  We didn't have any agenda for Sunday. It was a rainy day (which mean snowy up in the park). We drove farther up this time than the giant sequoia trees.

  This beautiful overlook was appropriately called "Eleven Range Outlook"

  

  We stopped at snowy Wuksachi Lodge within the park, where we bought two plastic "sleds" (really just mats with holes cut out for handles). I was a little bummed because I've never been sledding, and couldn't join in the fun this time (too much bumping and potential for a fall). It was so hilarious to watch my family sledding for the first time, though. At first, we started on a very steep incline that led very abruptly to an asphalt parking lot -- then, after witnessing a 7-year-old shoot become a human projectile from the top of the hill to the hard asphalt, narrowly missing a car, we moved to a less dangerous spot in the middle of a snowy field. (The kid was OK, thank goodness. It did look really funny, like a cartoon, though -- his family seemed to teeter on the balance of laughter and concern.)

  My dad tries his hand at sledding (I couldn't believe that he got on a sled!)

  

  One of my dad's early runs (not so successful, but loads of fun!)

  

  June was the best at this -- she careens down the hill on her first try. She looks horrified, though (click on the pic for a larger version)

  

  We somehow convinced my mom to give it a try. Charles leads her up the hill (she's holding the green mat)

  

  She gets off to a good start ...

  

  ... but somehow the ride ends like this!

  

  Johnny met a similar fate on one of his runs down the hill

  

  After sledding, we headed back to the cabin, where June, Charles, Johnny and I played Trivial Pursuit (by the time dinner rolled around, I had gathered all but one piece!). Then, June prepared an awesome meal of rotini with marinara sauce and tuna. We then all settled down to watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which, despite my intense dislike of Angelina Jolie, wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was actually pretty entertaining.

  Monday, we packed up and hit the road. On our way back, we stopped at the outlet center in Tulare, CA, for a few hours.  My parents got some clothes, June got some kitchenware, Johnny got a new belt and white dress shirt, and I got a whole boatload of gender-neutral-but-adorable baby stuff at the Carter's outlet. For only $65, I got:

  A green-and-white-striped onesie with three little turtles on it that says "one, two, three ... cute as can be"
  A two-piece outfit (onesie and striped pants with little pockets) that has a cute parade of animals on the front and says "Going to Grandma's"
  Four adorable bibs (they were 3 for $10, and the fourth was a shamrock one that said, "Kiss me, I'm Irish" -- I couldn't resist; after all, Baby O'Neal has to know both sides of his/her cultural heritage!)
  Six washcloths (all green/white in decor)
  A five-pack of white, 100% cotton, side-snap undershirts
  An ultra-soft white swaddling blanket with a tiny baby giraffe and the words "watch me as a I grow" imprinted at the bottom left corner

  I was yearning to get either at least one cute dress or the preppy little boys' dress up clothes -- something decidely male or female -- but had enough willpower to hold off on buying one of each. The reality is that we'd probably only dress the baby up like that for special occasions in the first few months, anyway, and I'm sure the bulk of dress-up clothes will come as gifts. Most of the time will probably be spent in an undershirt and diapers or a onesie and maybe some pants. But all the stuff was so cute.

  OK, enough babbling -- time to try to go back to bed. Big appointment in 11 hours and three minutes!

  Edit: And, oh, yes, a belated Happy Chinese New Year! It's the Year of the Golden Pig -- not just the year of the pig, but the GOLDEN pig. I didn't know this, but apparently the golden pig only comes around once every 60 years. It's apparently a very auspicious year in which to be born (Johnny and I did not plan to have our baby specifically in the Year of the Goden Pig, but it's a nice coincidence!). While up at Sequoia, my family watched this NBC news segment about how tons of couples in China (and I'm sure all over Asia) are rushing to have babies in 2007 so as to give their children a good start in life. Unfortunately this will result in understaffed hospitals and, in about 18 or 20 years, a mad dash for a limited number of jobs! Needless to say, Johnny and I are very much looking forward to greeting our own little golden pig.

  • 6:26 am
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