Over the Hills and Through the Woods.....

....to Mickey's House we went (in an attempt to distract us from be homesick because we weren't at 'Grandmothers House' over Christmas)!  

We just returned from a week long road trip (sans trailer) through California which culminated in spending Christmas Eve and Day at the Disneyland Resort! We had a great time and really enjoyed seeing all the different regions/town as we drove. We saw a lot of attractions (Yosemite! San Francisco! The Desert! San Diego! ) that we plan to experience next time! We took hundreds of photo's which I condensed into collages (Thanks PicMonkey) for your viewing pleasure,lol. So, without further adieu....may I present The ------ do California

First, we drove East through Oregon to Klamath Falls to get something on the truck fixed again - we found cold, snow and icy roads and decided we don't miss that AT ALL!

(see our 'Christmas Tree' this year - a lighted garland strung across our mega slide from which we hung our ornaments)

From Klamath Falls we headed down the very boring I5 to Fresno, where we spent the night before heading off to our first destination - Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. I am definitely my fathers daughter - he has passed on his love of big trees to me and we wanted to see the Giant Sequoias.  We were able to start at Grants Grove on the northern, Kings Canyon, side of the park - while the sequoias are massively impressive we really enjoyed the beautiful drive through the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain and the climb up thousands of feet in elevation.

(foothills)

Grants Grove home of General Grant - the 3rd largest tree in the world.  The kids thought it was pretty cool to walk through a fallen log!

From Grants Grove we drove the Generals Highway though the parks to the Giant Forest on the southern end of the park. The Giant Forest is home to General Sherman - the largest tree on Earth!  It is pretty astounding to consider - trees are so amazing!

Girls got to make two tiny snowmen - we had hoped to take them sliding but it is a dry year and there wasn't much snow!

After visiting General Sherman we descended from the Sierra Nevada's along an insanely twisty, stomach churningly high, jaw droppingly beautiful stretch of road.  There were miles and miles of hairpin turns that had to be taken at less than 10 MPH - thank goodness for a sign recommending we descend in a low gear or we would have burned out of brakes for sure! 

The Sierra Nevadas are very different from the Rocky Mountains we know, but beautiful in their own way.

We spent a night in Visalia before speeding along the I5 through the smoggy San Joaquin valley to our next destination - DISNEYLAND! We arrived early enough to spend some time at Downtown Disney.

The next day was Christmas Eve and we were up bright and early - a good strategy which allowed us to experience more rides than we thought we would be able to given the Holiday crowds! It was a fun, tiring day - poor Violet and Joses feet were so sore (Hazel scams a ride on my footplate)! 

It was really special to experience all the Christmas decorations and experiences such as the Feliz Navidad parade/street show. Unfortunately we didn't realize that our World of Color fast passes didn't guarantee us a decent spot so we weren't in line early enough, therefore we couldn't see at all - major bummer as the Winter Dreams WOC was one of the Christmas events we were most looking forward to!

We got back to the hotel where the girls had hung their stockings....

(See the photo where V is sprawled out OVER H? Despite her assertions that H takes up the whole bed and wriggles all night....)

They awoke Christmas morning to find that 'Santa' (We don't 'do' Santa, yet the girls insist on believing?) had filled their stockings.  Because we had already exchanged and opened presents with my parents when they visited, we were able to head straight for Disneyland!

The girls bought each other the doll sisters Elsa and Ana from the movie Frozen - so sweet how their dollies experienced DL with them and played together all the way home.

We were able to ride Its a Small World twice in a row - I love all the attention to details at Disneyland, so it was nice to be able to experience the ride twice!

Disneyland got more and more crowded as the day went on, but we were still able to ride a few rides before waiting over 2 hours to secure a prime viewing spot for the parade...

After the parade we attempted (unsuccessfully - accessibility FAIL) to ride Pirates of the Caribbean before waiting for the fireworks - which ended up being cancelled due to wind - MUCH TO OUR DISAPPOINTMENT.

We had a great time at Disneyland and hope to experience Disney World next year - maybe not at the Holidays though! 

We headed home over 2 long days of driving, with a stop in San Francisco for the night - definitely a city we need to return to!  Driving home along the 101 was beautiful, we enjoyed watching the landscape change from dry hills (where Jose had to fight the urge to jump on a donkey and ride up and down the hills...lol) to redwood forests....It was great to get 'home' to our trailer!

Accidental tourist.....

Now it's back to the same old routine, I'm psyched up for a fresh start at the school with the girls and looking forward to our next adventure.....

What a Fantastic Week....

Yesterday, we said a sad good-bye to my parents who had driven down to spend a week here with us.  We had missed them terribly, and miss them already again.  We had a fantastic week with them though, sharing what we love about our winter retreat here in Oregon, and discovering with them even more to love.

Apart from the first (rainy) day the weather was clear, but chilly - my parents were more acclimatized to it than us, I am ashamed to admit that anything less than 10 C has started to feel cool to me!

We made good use of the first day, by driving down to Ocean World - something the girls had been looking forward to. Ocean World is small but has many hands on experiences from touching star fish and anemones, to petting sharks and watching a sea lion performance.

The next day we headed straight through the Jedidiah Smith State Park along Howland Hill Rd.  We stopped at Stout Grove to walk among the awe inspiring, stunning, mystic, gorgeous coast redwoods.  I can't describe how amazing they are, nor do the photo's below do them justice - they really need to be seen and felt in person. I can see why the aboriginal inhabitants wouldn't live among them, as they considered the redwood forest a sacred space.

That evening we walked through the gorgeous light display at Azalea Park, as well as the huge display at our RV park - even our little trailer is decked out for Christmas.

The next day was my 32rd birthday, and we spent it at the beach, followed by yummy Mexican food at our favourite restaurant and cake.  I am so fortunate to have lived such a wonderful life, and to have been loved through out it.  I look forward to another 32 years!

Next on our itinerary were the Trees of Mystery which were well worth every penny of the admission.  Though, the trails would not have been wheelchair friendly to anyone in a chair less rugged than mine - I am so, so thankful for my power chair and its ability to plow through snow and sand, and climb steep, gravel trails. The gondola ride was stomach dropping (for me and my mom) but well worth it for the views at the top.

Jose and I had Tuesday off, while my parents took the girls tidepooling.  All too soon, their visit was over, and we spent one last day attempting to fly kites and watching the sun sink into the ocean.  We exchanged Christmas gifts early, and the girls are set for adventure with classy canvas backpacks (thanks Uncle Ross)  and binoculars (thanks Grandma and Grandpa).

Now, we have to buckle down for one last week of school before we head off to Disneyland for Christmas (with a day in the snow, among the sequoias in Sequoia National Park on the way there).

I hope to post again, before the holidays, but if not - MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Photo Bomb....

Can't find enough time or inspiration for words tonight, and if I don't get these photo's up soon I never will....so if I picture is worth a thousand words, here are 10,000 - LOL.

I finally got to watch the sun set from beginning to end.

We had to drive to central Oregon to get my power chair and the truck bed lift fixed, so we went to a Wildlife Safari there.

On the way home (the second time) we drove down the stunning Howland Hill Road through the Jeddidiah Smith State Park to Crescent City. We can't wait to take my parents there next week when they visit.

Then, of course, we had to go to our favourite beach again now that my power chair was repaired.  The girls had a blast making sand dragons (have you read Dragon Tide by Ingrid Lee ? It is a fabulous favourite of ours), mermaids and getting their feet wet.

Speaking of the girls, they are great - enjoying rollerblading, and Christmas shopping and decorating.

We are all looking forward to my parents visit this next week - stay tuned for a big post of all our adventures with Grandma and Grandpa!

And These Are a Few of Our Favourite Things....

We have been here, in Southern Oregon, for two weeks now and every day we love it more.  The town is big enough to have all the necessities (and many restaurants - so far we have enjoyed delicious Mexican food at Pancho's Restaurante y Cantina, unique Pizza from Zola's Pizza and, our girls favourite - ice cream from our neighbourhood/harbourfront ice cream shop. Next up, Baja Fish Tacos and Clam Chowder at Sporthaven Marina <-- all this, while watching my calories 8-S ) but small enough to feel friendly and homey.  There is a great homeschool group where my oldest has already made a friend who came over to play.  Tonight, she is off to a wrestling match in a nearby town with friends of mine whom I met and befriended years ago on a website for other people with spinal cord injuries - it was great to finally meet them in person last weekend!

I received an early birthday gift from my parents a couple of days ago - a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS30 (thanks Mom and Dad) so we have finally been able to take some good quality photos!

Our most favourite thing is definitely the beach! There are many, many beautiful beaches here but our favourite is Harris Beach - not only does it have large stretches of sand and rocks for the waves to smash against but it has a ramp all the way to the sand!

Another favourite is Azalea Park, which is a beautiful, quiet oasis with a huge, fabulous, unique wooden play structure. Today, when we were there they were starting to install what is rumoured to be a magnificent Christmas light display. Christmas lights amongst blooming flowers will be a first for this Canadian girl - not that I'm complaining!

If we are out and about near sunset we always try and catch the sun setting over the Pacific ocean - it is spectacular even when we spend five minutes to long at the grocery store and have to settle for a quick stop at our neighbourhood beach to catch this.....we are spoiled!

Until next time,

E.

Finally Settled....I hope!

Well, we are finally settled in in our winter location....I hope! It seems that all of my careful, time staking, planning was absolutely pointless - as absolutely nothing went according to plan. I find it very, very, difficult to 'go with the flow' but that is just what we did - and it was just fine!

After one more day at our campsite in Canada - and a great day it was, with an attempted hike up to Bridal Veil Falls.  It was a beautiful walk through the mossy, fall forest even though a few steps prevented us from reaching the falls.

The hike turned out to be a beautiful farewell to Canada, as the next day we received the longer lift which we had had to wait for, and were able to cross into the United States of America!  The border crossing was pretty hassle free, considering all the horror stories I'd heard, the customs officers didn't look at any of the documentation I had gathered, and only confiscated some baby bell peppers!

We stayed near Seattle the first night as we had originally planned to spend a couple nights there, so I had had a parcel shipped to a mailbox there (can I tell you how nice it is to have an American mailing address!  No more Amazon error messages that "this item cannot be shipped to your location").  Seattle looks like a funky, fun city and I wish we had had the chance to explore it - oh well, there is always next time!

(on another thought I don't think I have ever used 'had had' so many times before....whats up with that?)

The next day we headed for Salem, Oregon for a LOT of tax-free shopping! Even with the exchange rate from Canadian to US dollars, we were astounded at the prices for many things! We outfitted our trailer with neat gadgets from Camping World, shopped for a bike for Hazel, a coffee maker for us, shoes and a jacket for Violet - so much that we had been delaying until we were in the USA.  One of our purchases was Halloween costumes for the girls - we took them trick-or-treating at a mall, and house to house.  It was a novelty to not have to bundle up in winter gear under/over their costumes! And the candy haul was a good chance to sample some candy that is only available in the States...not that we ate any of the kids treats, mwhaa ha ha ha.

The next day, we hit the I5 and headed south to our winter location. It was a much nicer, and more beutiful drive than we had been led to believe....until we turned off the I5 at Grants Pass and onto the 199.  While it was beautiful, through the mountains and redwoods, along a river....the narrow, windy, curvy road was INSANE!! No photos as I was gripping the door handle and closing my eyes.  As usual, my Superman, drove us safely through.....

We pulled into what we thought would be our home for the winter, the girls and I went and explored the very pretty river garden while Jose set up the trailer. We were surprised to find out that the campsite didn't allow children, despite their website which misled us to believe otherwise. The owner said she would 'give it a try'...

We had a great weekend exploring the area, finding a great playground, dog park and beach (where we were thrilled to finally get to test out my Power Chair's claim that it will drive through sand - IT DOES!!!!), despite the worry about whether our children were being quiet enough. 

 Thus, on Monday morning it was almost a relief when we were informed we couldn't stay.  After getting the kids schooling done, we headed out to check out RV parks in the area.  We settled on a park in the harbor area of the town, which we moved into yesterday.  We actually like this place better so far, the neighbours seem friendly and best of all - WE CAN WALK TO THE BEACH! As well as shops....like an ice cream shop much to my kids delight!

Please excuse the poor quality photo's, hopefully my new camera (Thanks for the early birthday present Mom!) will get here by the weekend!

The Best Laid Plans....

We should have been crossing into the USA right now.  We aren't and as a person who likes to plan things down to the hour (or minute, when possible....) it is driving me crazy - thank goodness for my better half, who has been repeating over and over "Chill out, it will be fine". And it will be.....

Trail near our hotel

After my last post, we continued our drive south to the Lower Mainland of BC, it was a beautiful day for a drive.  We love all the different environments in our province - it is such a diverse place (if I remember correctly BC is one of the only places with such a range of ecoregions).  The Cariboo region is starkly beautiful and an area I fell in love with when I attended university in the area.

After leaving the Cariboo, we started to wind down towards the Fraser Canyon (yes Stacy, I took the windy road photo for you) which is a spectacular drive, though a bit nerve wracking when towing a 36 foot trailer with a sheer dropoff to a river on one side and rocky cliffs on the other!

The girls and I figured out how to do 'school' in the truck...as best as we can anyhow.  It is a good time to memorize times tables, poems and Spanish words as well as reading aloud (even Hubby got into The Land of Stories) but not such a good time to write essays!  As long as it gets done in the end.....right?

We dropped the trailer off at Sidewinder Conversions (a truly great vehicle conversion shop) and headed to our hotel where we hung out, got lots of school done, and the girls swam and swam (I swear they are part mermaid). On Thursday, we saw my aunts and uncles who live here, and picked up an umbrella that mounts to my chair (www.mobilitymount.com <-- GREAT PRODUCT ) which will be essential for winter on the West (wet) coast.

Thursday night was when a very, very stressful 24 hours began..... starting with getting stuck in a traffic jam for 3 hours! It was nearly midnight before we got back to our hotel, we were still excited because we thought that the trailer lifts were done and we would be heading across the border on Friday afternoon.We checked out of the hotel (major stress there, story to come later.....)

Well, despite an amazing amount of hardwork, and patience, from the guys at Sidewinder, it turned out that the lift they were trying to install wasn't long enough to lift me from my outside chair to my other chair inside the trailer. MAJOR BUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not only would we not be heading to the States that afternoon, we couldn't until Monday (hopefully the longer lift arrives as promised then) and would have to stay in the Lower Mainland for 3 extra nights <-- not in the budget!  Thankfully, the amazing guys at Sidewinder were able to make us a temporary ramp/platform which enabled us to camp in the trailer for the weekend.

We are at a very nice RV resort (Camperland at Bridal Falls) and have had a much less stressful day, getting some much needed laundry and organization done.