Yosemite National Park

After returning from San Francisco we spent another day at Aunt Debbie's.  Julie’s cousin stopped by and the girls loved swimming and playing with her daughter all day. 

The next morning we loaded up the bikes and ourselves and headed out again. Although unimpressed with the 3 hr drive, the girls perked up when we got far enough into the park to see the valley and all it's splendor.  We stopped at an overlook for our first views of Half Dome and El Capitan before finishing the ascent into the canyon and stopping at Bridalveil Falls.  We decided to do the short hike up to the falls and the girls had fun scrambling on all the rocks.  

On our way back to the car we stopped once again to play on the rocks near the creek - this time the older two got a little braver and ventured further out.  As Julie and I were yelling to Palmer that she "had gone far enough" we realized she couldn't hear us over the sound of the stream and could only watch as she stepped on a slippery spot and slid into the river, plunging below the surface for a brief second before popping up with a shocked look on her face.  I reached out and pulled her to shore - she was very cold and very scared, but otherwise unscathed.  When we got back to the car we changed into dry clothes and headed to Curry Village to check into our hotel room, happy that the lesson of the day hadn't been worse than it was.  The girls became very aware of water safety and pointed out dangerous and safe swimming locations for the rest of our stay. 

After getting all checked in to our cool room (complete with loft) at the Stoneman House, we boarded a shuttle towards the main visitor center to grab dinner and wait for our ranger led floor tour to start.  The tour took place in an open air cart being pulled by a semi truck, with the ranger telling us stories about all the most famous bits of Yosemite.  We found climbers on the face of El Capitan, looked back at the valley from tunnel view lookout, and learned the native names for all the water falls over the course of the two hour tour.  We highly recommend this tour to anybody who visits Yosemite.

The next morning was the start of our last day in the park and we decided to ride our bikes around the valley floor.  The girls did amazing on what turned out to be close to 8 miles of riding.  We went to the visitor center and earned junior ranger badges, hiked the loop out to lower Yosemite falls, and went to the sweet shop in the historic Ahwahnee hotel.  Upon making it back to our car we found out the only two places to get food had 30 minute lines to place an order!  We decided to make do with what we had in the cooler and made sandwiches, loaded up the bikes, and hit the road back.  Before getting back to the trailer we had an excellent dinner at Market Tavern in Stockton.  

San Francisco

After spending a day at Julie's aunt and uncle's house in Stockton, we loaded up the morning of Father's Day and drove 2 hours to San Francisco.  Cali traffic is no joke!  We enjoyed looking at all the fancy cars while sitting in Sunday morning traffic (is that even a thing?). We headed straight to Fisherman's Warf, and specifically Pier 39, where we started to explore.  The girls got a kick looking at all the stores around the pier.  It’s a good thing they are ok when we say no to 99% of the things they want to purchase or we’d already be out of money! Reagan’s favorite line is “Can we come back and get this on my birthday?”

The girls enjoyed looking at the sea lions, riding the carousel (why are they so expensive?!?), eating lunch overlooking the water, and visiting the Aquarium (pro tip-Tulsa Zoo membership gets you 50% off).  Julie and the girls explored through a mirror maze (I saved us $10 by enjoying a minute of quiet). We also perused a bunch of street vendor stands between piers.  The girls learned a lesson in negotiating and were pleased to get some necklaces for 50% off.  

We had a hotel booked just outside of downtown where we got some much needed R&R.  We are quickly learning we need to schedule in some downtime to this trip or we are going to run ourselves into the ground. We took our time getting out of the room and found ourselves back on Pier 39 just in time to grab a quick lunch before our scheduled bay cruise.  We boarded our 65 foot catamaran with 25 of our closest friends and set out towards the Golden Gate bridge.  The girls had a blast cruising around the boat, looking out at Alcatraz, and seeing all the other boats and ships in the bay.  After our sailing adventure we went to Pier 41 where we found a vintage coin arcade.  It was fun to see all the old arcade games and music machines, many of which were over 100 years old.  It also happened to be the most affordable part of San Fran with $10 buying all 5 of us 30+ mins of entertainment. The girls found several games they enjoyed playing and I enjoyed playing a couple of old pinball machines.  We ended our time in San Fran at a candy store where everybody picked out some sugar for the drive back to Aunt Debbie's.

Heading west - Colorado to California via Utah and Nevada

Moab

Our first stop after leaving Colorado was Moab, Utah. We stayed at the Sun Outdoors Canyonlands Gateway RV park, which was a typical commercial campground with sites packed close together, but it was clean and had a pool.  And thanks to some pretty hot and sunny days, the pool became a favorite amenity rather quickly!

We visited Dead Horse Point state park our first full day in town.  The short hikes from the visitor center provided awesome views of the canyons down below and the main overlook at the end of the park road did not disappoint.  The girls all worked hard and earned their first junior ranger badges of the trip. We finished the day back at the RV park with some swimming and bike riding.

The second day started off with a trip to Canyonlands National Park and a hike out to Mesa Arch.  After some amazing scenery (whale rock was a favorite of the girls) and a couple more short hikes to various overlooks we found ourselves back at the visitor center where we asked a park ranger about kangaroo mouse footprints, a type of buckwheat flower, and got more junior ranger badges.  The day finished with, you guessed it, a swim in the pool.

For our third and final full day we visited Arches National Park. We spent a lot of time hiking around the windows area and saw a lot of really cool rock formations throughout the park.  The girls favorite thing ended up being a sandy hill just off one of the trails where they played for close to an hour while Julie hiked up to another arch and then waited with me at the bottom of the hill while they burned off more energy.  At the visitor center Reagan fell asleep during the park movie, but still managed to get her book filled out so she could get her junior ranger badge along side her sisters.  We went into town after leaving the park for some lunch and groceries before heading back for a swim at the RV park.

Julie and the big girls woke up early the last morning to hike to delicate arch before we had to leave.  She took the girls to see the dinosaurs at Moab Giants while I finished loading up the trailer and headed to Salt Lake.

Salt Lake City

We left Moab and headed to Salt Lake City, Utah where we had a 3 night reservation at a KOA that was nestled in the city just outside of downtown.  The sites were once again packed in but this time we had nice big shade trees and grass between each site.  Another pool meant that this campground was also kid approved.  After setting up the trailer and getting in a quick swim we headed up to Park City to catch dinner with a college friend.  We took a winding route through the mountains to get back to town and were rewarded with a baby moose and her mama hanging out in a small meadow next to the road!

The rest of our time in the city included trips to the zoo, a butterfly sanctuary, a children’s museum, and an evening at the natural history museum.  We even got to look through a fancy telescope and see the moon really close up.  On the way out of town Julie and the girls stopped at another children’s museum and the Great Salt Lake State Park where they earned another junior ranger badge.

Elko and the Sierra Nevada’s

Because of the planned activities for Julie and the girls the morning we left Salt Lake we didn’t want to drive very far.  I managed to get to our destination of Elko, Nevada in the early afternoon and got the trailer set up in time catch up with a high school friend of mine who lives there before the girls arrived. We had a lazy evening in the trailer to avoid the windstorm outside and actually got to bed at a decent hour!

The next morning we hit the road headed for Stockton California and chose to drive over the Sierra Nevada’s via California Highway 88 by turning south off of I80 in Fernley Nevada.  It was a beautiful drive and I was happy to stare out the windshield at mountains for a change after so much desert scenery had dominated our drives to this point. We got the trailer set up at Julie’s aunt Debbie’s house which would be base camp for the next week or so as we explored this part of California. The girls were once again most excited to have access to a pool!

Here we go again, but this time with five Seibels!

It's hard to believe almost 11 years have passed since we got back from our world tour - and a lot has changed. We went back to work as Petroleum Engineers in Tulsa, had three beautiful girls; Haddie, Palmer, and Reagan. Julie left the oilfield and got her Masters in Occupational Therapy. Adam started and later sold an independent oil company with his good friend and mentor James. A global Pandemic disrupted the way we interacted with friends and family for a couple of years and we decided it would be a good idea to load up in a 32 foot travel trailer for a year and see the country as a family. 

And so here we go again! This time it's more akin to a mid-life crises than a quarter-life one, but then again who's counting ;)

We put our house in Tulsa on the market, downsized to whatever would fit into our trailer, and sold everything else. We decided to make Colorado our state of residence since we plan to move there at the end of this adventure. So with new driver’s licenses, license plates, a truck, a trailer, and a minivan (and a whole lot less stuff) we set forth from Colorado Springs on June 6th, 2024 determined to make the most of this crazy adventure!