California, Here We Come! (Part 1 of 3)

For our first full-fledged family vacation in several years, we took a trip to beautiful Northern California!

We drove out there, and it was quite an adventure. The kids had several seating arrangements to choose from in our tiny little 15 passenger van! -- We actually took out 5 of the seats, so there were only 10. We have 8, so I guess there wasn't too much extra space to move around, but there was enough that the kids could mix things up and move around.

Our first stop on the journey was actually a little place Danica and I found quite a few years back. We were up at the Utah State Capitol Building and noticed a giant tower way out near the Great Salt Lake. We wondered what it was and decided to go out and find out. On this trip, we showed the kids what we had found. 

It's actually the Kennecott Garfield Smelter Stack. It looks rather impressive up close, and also from far away. The reason is that this smelter stack is the largest free-standing structure west of the Mississippi River! It's 1215 feet tall. It's the 4th largest smokestack in the entire world. But don't take my word for it. You can read more about it here.

After that fun excursion (where we were eaten alive by mosquitos, I might add), we drove off into oblivion until we finally made it to Reno.

The biggest little city in the world was quite good to us! Since we were staying there on a Thursday night, the hotel rates were incredible. We stayed in Harrah's, a 4-star hotel and casino (pronouced CA-sin-oh, the emphasis on the ca, pronounced like cat, by the kids...)

We got in pretty late, so we didn't really get to enjoy all 4 stars, but that's ok. 

We headed out bright and early on Friday morning and headed to our next destination - Lake Tahoe!

It was nice and cold at the lake, but the kids had a great time! We skipped rocks, gathered pine cones, dipped our fingers in the icy waters, and played and played and played.

Our crazy kids even decided that they were brave enough to get IN the lake! They didn't bother taking off any clothes, and just got right in. These tiny people are insane!

Ok, so they didn't REALLY get in the lake, just the display. But I wouldn't put it past them!

Tahoe was not our ultimate destination, however. We were headed to the redwood forests near Santa Cruz, after all. But we still had one more stop along the route. It was a little out of the way, but not too much. Close enough to justify hitting it up.

I'm talking about San Francisco of course!

Most of the kids have never been to San Francisco. Only Jessica has and she was too small to remember it. But they have seen every single episode of Full House and Fuller House! So one of their favorite parts of the entire trip was going across the Golden Gate Bridge.

We also made a special stop along the route at the actual Full House! The kids were going crazy. Of all of the sites in San Francisco, these were the only two that mattered to them. 

We didn't stay long in San Francisco, but that rounds out the first part of our California Trip. I'll be back soon with the next part - our wonderful stay at Mt. Hermon in the redwoods - so stay tuned!