We drove up to Santa Cruz with our first stop being Dustin’s family’s old house: a log cabin up in the forested hills. Though the house was hard to see, Dustin snapped a shot of the very woods he used to play in when he was 4 (including some redwood trees):

Pretty amazing the woods were still there. We met the current owner who has lived there the past 13 years and learned how the house had changed.

Then we dropped 2,000 feet in elevation to enjoy the Santa Cruz boardwalk and beach. It was beautifully sunny with a refreshing ocean breeze.

This was the first beach we really got to sit down and enjoy on this road trip! The kids promptly got thoroughly down and dirty to really experience it Yay for sand on the scalp and in the ears!

We told Aven to go fly a kite while we soaked up some sun, then we departed the beach to drive Grandma Susie to the Oakland airport. See you back at home Grandma!

Next we visited our friends Jeremy, Kim and Kaia at their house in Oakland to catch up, enjoy an amazing home-cooked meal & play spies!

Then we drove a couple hours further North to Santa Rosa, CA for our latest check-in yet: 1am. Happy early Easter!

We kicked off the day with an excursion to Hearst Castle. It was fun to learn the history about how it was built and the countryside views were amazing.

Aniya managed to hold her bladder through the entire tour. We were afraid she might pee on one of the million-dollar rugs. Guests are forced to use a port-o-potty: what a stark contrast to the luxurious castle!

We stopped for gas at a pier that Dustin’s great-great grandfather may have helped build. After admiring the dolphin statue, we were lucky enough to spot three dolphins swimming past the pier (they escaped our pictures)

Next stop was the San Simeon beaches to see elephant seals. This time of the year the younger seals dominate the beach – we can’t imagine how big the older adult seals are (5k pounds).

Then we continued our trip up the windy, rugged coast through Big Sur. Unfortunately it was very foggy, so cool rock formation sightings were few & far between.

In the morning we said goodbye to cousin Emma’s family, then abducted Grandma Susie to take her up the California coast.

As usual, the kids have perfect timing on when they need to go to the bathroom. It is much more adventurous to choose points in our travel where there is no sign of civilization 100 miles in any direction, of course   Among other bathroom luck- one stop we were supposed to pay for bathroom use, but both doors were open: the Women’s had water constantly flowing out of the toilet and the Men’s had cockroaches. This time we were in the middle civilization (L.A.), but we struck out – gas stations without ice and employee-only bathrooms without toilet paper. We were saved by a grocery store.

Onto the more pleasant parts of our day: the California Coast. We weathered typical L.A. traffic to make it to Carpenteria where we visited Dustin’s aunt who was renting a house for a month. We checked out a nearby farmer’s market with beautiful plump local avocados and strawberries, then picked up some delicious tacos (and sampled the amazingly diverse salsa bar). The weather was cooler than Seattle’s, which meant no beach fun, but the park was super cool:

Then we headed up a mountain to view the Chumash Painted Cave. The drive up was a little hairy: a steep, skinny road with sharp turns & locals who whipped around the corners much too fast, nearly for the their last time had we plowed them off the cliff. We emerged above the clouds to get to the cave:

The cave was easy to find as it was heavily protected by iron bars:

Being paintings on rock, they are technically pictographs, as we learned on our last road trip. Some say these were inspired by a solar eclipse.

Finally, we drove up to Atascadero for a late night check-in, once again. Our average check-in time thus far is 9:30pm.

Finally a break from driving. We packed a few days worth of waiting in lines into one day at Disneyland. We joined cousin Emma and her parents, plus Grandma Susie. Big thanks to Uncle Scott who used his Disney powers to get us in for free!

Aniya & Grandma both wore Disney birthday buttons which triggered trained “Happy Birthday” responses from a full range of Disney workers.

We rediscovered route 66, this time from the Cars movie.

Finally on the 6th day of our trip, the kids get ice cream–at the Cozy Cone, no less!

The lines were long due to it being Spring break for some. The one ride the boys wanted to go on was a 3-hour wait (which only dropped down to a 2.5 hour wait by 9pm – fast passes were all taken for the day before we even entered the park).

Here’s a few more pics from the day, including Aven’s favorite store in the world (LEGO).

We drove back to Vegas, and this time the city was all lit up. Turns out on Saturday it went partially dark for Earth Hour. We spent the night at the Excalibur for a whopping $25 a night. In the morning we played a few games, gambled & lost $0.45, went to the Bodies Exhibit, then headed to California for a day at Disneyland.

The kids tried to look into the sun for a shot in front of the Castle. You can’t gamble long w/ kids around before an angry waitress kicks you out. So much for teaching Aven odds via gambling.

Four-way competitive Pacman where you can eat each other – fun!

We took advantage of the Luxor hosting the Bodies Exhibit. We’ve been kicking ourselves for a couple years after we missed the exhibit when it was in Seattle. Aven & Katie were in human anatomy heaven. Aniya was kind enough to point out the penises on each display to other patrons in case they didn’t notice them.

Next stop: Disneyland (California Adventure)

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We explored the much-anticipated Upper Antelope Canyon on the Navajo Nation reservation in northern Arizona! The beauty we discovered was completely unmatched. Our minds were officially blown.

It seemed other-worldly as we navigated the narrow slot canyon, created from thousands of years of flash floods. Treading on the fine orange-hued sand below, we peered upward to the cracks of the bright sky- over 200 feet deep and only 2 feet wide in some areas!

We explored the canyon purposely at noon so that we could experience the sun beams poking through, illuminating the colorful textured walls beautifully.

Next we ventured northwest into Utah to explore Zion National Park!

We took in the enormity of the towering peaks and amazing stone monoliths. We sighted many deer as the shadows lengthened, and let the kids hike deer (and dropping, much to their delight) tracks through the hills.

We’re starting to get used to everything seeming larger than life! Perfect end of a perfect day.

Some road trip fun facts:

Percent of days Aniya naps in car – 100%

Level of caffeine necessary for Dustin to drive so far – moderate

Emergency travel potty uses so far – 2 (1 false alarm)

We started off our road trip with our longest day of travel. Apologies for the short writeup, but we literally have been off the grid and only have a few precious minutes with Internet access before heading out again.

First stop was Hoover Dam which we drove over twice.

First inspired by Route 66 from the Cars movie, we couldn’t help but take a little extra time on the slower route to the Grand Canyon.

We saw some fun sites on the Route 66, including Tow Mater, Red, and Herbie!

Then, we finally made it to the Grand Canyon just before sunset: