lilydarais – Page 2 – Darais Days

On Thursday I did laundry, walked Basil, practiced with Ammon and Mary, did Clarissa’s reading lesson, read with Ammon, cleaned the house, grocery shopped, and cooked. Oh, and I woke up early to do three reps of the 500 work out with Abe. It was a big day, and Abe is working incredibly hard too. We were both so tired by the end.

Jere, Pinnacles, San Francisco and the Hongs

We woke up early on Saturday morning and drove an Nour and a half to Pinnacles National Park. Jere came with and helped us know where to go.

The trailhead was hard to get to because the rangers were blocking it off due to “10-15 cars up there circling for spots.” We convinced them to let us through to drop off another man who was trying to get back to his family at the trailhead. They said we could go through on condition that we returned immediately. But when we got to the trail head, there were no cars circling and a ton of open parking spots! We didn’t know what to do but eventually just parked because we couldn’t find a ranger to talk to.

The trail was amazing, and the ladybugs were swarming. There were literal clouds of ladybugs, and Clarissa was content to just stand in the clouds and try to let as many crawl over her as possible. The other kids loved it too, but Clarissa almost could not be persuaded to move from the clouds.

After the Pinnacles, we drove back to San Francisco. We first parked in China Town and trekked to the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory. We bought a lot of fortune cookies and then parked near Little Italy. From there we walked down to Pier 39 to watch the seals, and then we hiked up to Coit Tower to watch the sun set.

After that we went to Tony’s Pizza and got some slices to go. We sat in a park by the Washington Square church and ate our pizzas at the end of the long, very fun day.

Fortune Cookie Factory

But our day was not over yet! After we got the kids down at 10pm, we rushed to shower and get to our friends, the Hongs. We visited from 10:30-midnight. It was SO fun to see them. Jon and Abe have been friends almost their whole lives, and Shirley and I text a lot. It was wonderful to visit in person. We love them so much!

King’s Canyon National Park

In the morning we packed up the car, said goodbye to Clark and Swathi’s gang, and headed to King’s Canyon National Park. The drive to the park strongly reminded us of Greece. There were olive and orange groves everywhere, and the landscape looked like Naxos!

Once we got close to the park, the giant sequoia forest and the misty air took our breath away. It was the most gorgeous park entrance I have ever seen.

At the visitor center I couldn’t believe the pictures of what this year’s snow did to the park!

We did a very short hike around General Grant’s tree.

After the hike, we debated going to Sequoia National Park, but because of this year’s snow, most of the roads in both King’s Canyon and Sequoia National Park were closed. If we had gone, it would have taken two hours and we wouldn’t have seen any sequoias.

Instead, we opted to drive straight to our magical Airbnb in Hollywood. We drove through the central California valley and were stunned at how much food is produced there! It was just farm after farm after farm.

Orange Groves

In Hollywood we loved our airbnb but didn’t take pictures! It was a darling house hidden behind rose gardens and towering shrubs. We were so grateful to have a washing machine because Clarissa and Ammon were having so many accidents, and we were getting very low on clothing.

We ordered Ethiopian food for dinner, and it was okay. We always remember an amazing Ethiopian dinner we had in Tucson, and that is hard to beat.

Mist Trail

In the morning we headed to the Mist Trail. It was an absolutely stunning hike! The views were incredible, and because of the epic snow this winter, the waterfall did much more than “mist” the trail. When we got to the waterfall, we got drenched! Everyone but Abe, Swathi, Soren and Ammon turned around. After helping Clarissa back down with me, Jere turned back around and joined them all at the top. From there Abe, Swathi, Soren and Ammon hiked back on the loop while the rest of us went back the way we had come.

Tom was amazing getting Clarissa to walk!

Clarissa and I went ahead, and I enjoyed spending one on one time with her. We looked for spots of sunshine and made it to the bottom of the trail about thirty minutes ahead of the group. That gave us a lot of deep time together to look at the river. Clarissa threw a couple sticks in and watched the way they bobbed downstream.

After the hike, we all had lunch in Curry Village, after which we had ice cream. We talked to a ranger there who told us a lot about different species of wildlife in Yosemite.

After that we took a shuttle to the visitor center, and from there we walked to the big general store. I bought some t-shirts because we were running low on clothes.

Then we walked back to the car. The walk was as stunning as the hike!

After we drove home Clark and Swathi cooked us all dinner and cleaned everything while Abe and I did nothing. Well, Abe napped on the floor and I sat on the couch. It was our anniversary, but more than that we were pooped. I am so grateful for my amazing brother who just saved the day for all of us. What a gorgeous day full of beautiful images!!

First day in Yosemite

In the morning we drove and hiked to Mariposa Grove. The road was closed so we actually had to hike over a mile to the trail head. It was a very pretty hike.

The grove featured the tree where John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt first envisioned our national park system! Incredible.

After our hike we walked back to our car via the road. It was also so pretty.

Papa spent a lot of time being Clarissa’s walking buddy, which was very sweet and not always easy (as she doesn’t always want to walk).

Then we had lunch back at our condos. After a couple hours of rest, we headed into the valley. The view at the end of the tunnel was absolutely stunning.

And then we hiked to Lower Falls. Apparently the water is five times as much as any other time Jere has seen it!

After that we watched the sun set by El Capitan. Abe was googling the person who free-climbed it and remembering a documentary he had seen about that. It was so impressive.

What an amazing introduction to Yosemite.

Driving day

On Saturday morning we learned that yet another campsite had cancelled because of flooding. So we rejiggered our entire trip and packed as fast as we could, and we finally pulled out of the door around 11:30am. We hardly stopped except for a couple bathroom breaks and to grab some food. We arrived around 1am in Yosemite, which felt amazing because we kind of suspected we’d arrive closer to 3!

Last day of school

After the last day of school, Lydia hosted a party for her friends. They dyed shirts and made friendship bracelets!

Clarissa at home day

I took my mom to the doctor in the morning and came home to discover Clarissa and Abe playing together. Abe was her guide on an adventure and they went down cliffs (stairs), used her binoculars, saw a dragon (toy), saw a skeleton (Halloween decoration), caught fish (Lincoln Logs), built a house (craft table with paper walls) and more. Clarissa had me bring down some snacks for them and it was so cute to see them together.

Abe worked very late to make up for the fact that he was incredibly available for us during the day. I have been very clingy so it was really nice to have so much time with him!

Mary has an adorable new bookmark from Ozzy’s birthday party

I did Ammon’s piano practice, helped Mary with her piano lesson, played Wingspan with Mary, and got dinner (tacos) on the table. I have been very non-functional since contracting this virus but today was a baby step in the right direction!

Birthdays and games galore

In the morning Abe and I played some Wingspan and Lydia painted Abe’s toes. She has been dying to paint them and put all sorts of flower and glitter stickers on there.

The kids spent a lot of time building a fort/nests upstairs and then reading in their fun nooks. Ammon was very proud of it, and wanted to tell us about it in this video: