CA Vacation!

We decided to revisit some places we loved in the past and see some new things as well on a CA vacation to celebrate school out, summer and school about to begin (for Bean).  We took almost a week, tried our first Airbnb rental and had a great trip!  Had time to spare after arriving at our motel the first night and took a beautiful evening hike at Pinnacles National Park - new to us!

Went to church in a great little ward the next day with a very diverse congregation that had the missionaries translating prayers and testimonies.  After lunch we took a hard to find, one-lane, beautiful, sometimes heinous canyon road down to Hwy. 1 and when we came out of a fog bank there was the shore!  Enjoyed amazing scenery of Big Sur, beach walks and a less henious, very beautiful Carmel Valley road back to our digs for the night!  

The next day we headed for the Monterrey Bay Aquarium!  It was awesome...almost too much to see in one day!  

Next day we hit Glass Beach and a few others, and then our first redwoods!  Then we drove another crazy, beautiful road and ended up in Ferndale for Pizza and then on to our Airbnb.

The next day's adventures included Trinidad's Old Home Beach and Agate Beach.  Also Fern Canyon,  and Crescent City and Jedidiah Redwood Park.

Next day we went to Indian habitations and the beach at Patrick's Point, had lunch at the Loleta Cheese Factory grilled cheese bar and Garden, saw beautiful old stonework, heard sea lions and saw more big trees.  

Time to leave our Airbnb (it was a little bit of a hippy style place in McKinleyville, CA) and stopped by at Lassen Volcanic NP (it was still partially closed due to the deep winter snows) and then to Truckee for the night.  

Saturday it was time to head home.  We enjoyed  cool temps at Tahoe Lake, the still snow-capped Sierra Nevada's, and finally the 103 temps at Death Valley (no pics - let's get out of here and get home).  

Overall it was a great trip.  The gas prices out there amazed and terrified us.  It all cost too much, but we are glad we saw all of these beautiful places.  Our new car got great gas mileage, thank goodness!