15 days back... 4.30.08

Well, we've been back in the states now for 15 days. How time flies!! And what in the world have we been up to you may ask?!

We've been busy planning our camping trip. This sounds so easy but those of you who have been camping lately have surely figured out it's not as easy as it sounds!! There are reservations to be made, itineraries to plan in each city, special places to map out (off the beaten path), people contacted, etc. We've been so busy making our reservations for campsites it's taken literally days of research, plotting & planning to get most of it done. And campsites have definately increased in price since the last time we camped! Campsites charging $25 or more per night are the average. That certainly shocked us!

But we have as many places booked as we can and will just have to take our chances on the first come, first served sites in the places we can't get reservations. The toughest place we've had issue with is Yosemite - we'll be there over the 4th of July and there are absolutely no reservations available. But there are several first come, first served campgrounds in and around the park and we'll just hope we get there early enough to score one of them! We're experiencing the same thing in San Francisco, Monterey, & Big Sur. So please keep your fingers crossed for us!

In the meantime, we've also been obtaining all of our camp gear. We have added a hitch & a small cargo rack onto the back of the Jeep because the storage space in the Jeep is pretty small, purchased our tent, camp stove, sleeping bags, etc. We have almost everything except for my hiking boots (I guess I have a weird shaped foot that doesn't like hiking boots!), a folding chair for me (I'm just picky on that one!), a lantern, & some odds & ends, but other than that, we're ready!! Check out our snazzy tent... (yes, we put it up in front of storage so we could see how easy & quick it was.)



We have enjoyed catching up with all of our friends as well. We've been invited to several dinners & have enjoyed running into those friends who didn't know we were back for the summer!

And after all that hard work shopping, seeing all of our old friends, & getting settled in our temporary house, we took last Friday off and went to Six Flags Magic Mountain with our friends Andy & Michelle and Andy's Dad & Daughter. We had a GREAT time!! We haven't been to Magic Mountain in a couple years. Magic Mountain is known for it's rollercoasters and we rode all of them that were open - Ninja, Batman, Scream, Riddler's Revenge (the world's tallest & fastest stand-up roller coaster), Goliath (with a 255 ft first drop that takes your breath away), & Tatsu (the world's tallest, fastest, & longest flying coaster).



We also rode the Buccaneer & took the Sky Tower to see the view of the park. This is a picture of the newest coaster - X2 & Viper - that were both not working when we were there.



This weekend we're headed to San Diego for the Red Bull Air Races. We've heard about them for a couple of years and just happened to catch wind of this one in time to get a room down there. We're looking forward to it! Check out this link for info on them.

And if you're reading this...I hope you will have noticed the Google map on the page that pinpoints our whereabouts. I'm still fixing some bugs on it and hope it's fully functional in the next couple days! But for now...just don't click on anything!! haha...

More to follow...
Rene