Other Stuff on the Mission Trail

Those of you who know me will not be surprised by this post about the other things we did along the mission trail.  I will try to keep this brief but there were so many other things we did that it will still be a long post.  For those of you who might think we did too much...well maybe so but we enjoyed ourselves and never really felt rushed or pressured.  There were some places that we would have enjoyed spending more time but we in general we felt like we saw enough to have a good memory of the various locations along the way.  We will likely not make it back to southern California before heading back to Texas so we knew it was now or never so we took the opportunity to see EVERYTHING we had time to see along the way...except the LARGEST LEMON in the WORLD...so disappointed!  LOL!

December 17

Our first night on the road we stayed in the Wigwam Motel.  When I began planning this trip, I thought we would be picking my mom up at the San Diego airport.  I thought this would be a fun hotel to stay in with the children (famed in their generation from the movie Cars) the night before her flight.  This arrangement turned out to be much more expensive so I worried that my mom would not enjoy this hotel choice.  I decided before we left that we would allow for an additional hotel room at another location if she disapproved (not that my mom is fussy but you never know).  Well, I sent the basic idea of our trip to my mom before she arrived and she did not say anything to me about the plans.  So, I was so surprised when we drew closer to our stopping point that first night and she became very excited.  It was a surprise to the children all the way up until we drove into the parking lot, so the van was filled with cheers when we arrived!   Once we were settled in our teepee room, my mom explained that she had always wanted to stay at this hotel as a child but her parents refused (likely because of the cost).  We had a great stay in the newly renovated iconic motel (originally built in 1947).  It was a nice bonus that I was able to give my mom a special dream gift from her childhood.

December 18

After our first day on the road (really meant to get us in a good location for he remainder of our trip), we made our way to Joshua Tree National Park.  This park is very big and there would be no way to see it all in a day...or even a week...but we had a great plan...go geocaching to lead us through the park!  National parks no longer allow physical caches so there are virtual caches that are just as much fun.  We were able to locate nine of these caches that took us around to fun sites and geological features.  The children especially enjoyed climbing the rocks...they really felt like rock climbers on these easy to climb forms.  We learned about tors, xenoliths, tafoni, conjugated joints, fault lines, and people who died in the park!  Not sure what those things are?   I encourage you to look up this information or take a trip to this amazing park!  It was a geological study unto itself.

I think we all got a kick out of climbing through a HUGE skull rock formation and looking at the funny trees that give this park its name.  We were also able to see the San Andres Fault Line and views of Mexico from the highest point in the park (Keys View).  The children would love to return to this park one day.  One never knows where our adventures will take us but it might need to be a trip on their own instead.

We were on some what of a time line because we were determined to take the boys to Cabazon Dinosaurs (built in 1964) before leaving this area.  We actually passed the dinosaurs going into the park and the boys were a little surprised when we did not stop.  What they did not know is that we already had it in the plans and it was easier to stop on the way out of the park.  They were so excited when we pulled under the largest of the dinosaurs to find parking.  We were probably one of the last visitors of the day just barely making it there in time to go inside these huge dinosaur creations!
The first dinosaur was the "brontosaurus" gift shop.  Then we walked through the path of  their enormous collection of dinosaurs ending with a walk inside the T-Rex.  While in the T-Rex we were able to sit in his mouth and look out at the parking lot.  Michael scared a young family roaring at the most opportune time.  I am not sure what they thought but they seemed relieved when the T-Rex then began giggling at them.   It was the perfect stop before making our way to our hotel in San Diego, and definitely worth the stop if you have children who like dinosaurs (or husbands!).  This was a long drive made longer by the traffic.  This is also why we missed seeing that large lemon...it was just too dark by the time we got there.

December 19

The next day we woke up early and made our way to Tuna Harbor.  We were there just as the sun was rising and I think it made a beautiful stop to start our day.  This is where the USS Midway is located but we were actually here for another interesting site...a memorial to Bob Hope.  Somehow my children did not know who he was so we gave them a brief explanation the night before and let them watch one of his old movies.  So, when we arrived at the memorial, they were so excited to have a life size statue of him laughing with the troops just like at one of his USO tours.

 Along with this memorial was a LARGE statue of an image you might remember from an iconic World War II photo (This was just in the news because it was 70 years ago.).

Although we came for the Bob Hope memorial, it turned out to be an entire plaza full of statues and memorials associated with the navy and World War II.  My mom and I even made it to Australia (our dream trip).  There were also some old ships in the harbor to view.  We enjoyed the morning seeing the area before moving on to other sites.

Our next stop was Cabrillo National Monument, which included Point Loma Lighthouse.  I had mentioned in an early post how nice it was to have this monument relate to our mission trip.  The children sure enjoyed learning about the Spanish explorers of this area, especially when they had the chance to dress up like the era Spanish soldiers.

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo foraged the open seas and became the first European to land on the West Coast of California in 1542.  Upon the request of the governor of Guatemala, Cabrillo departed from the port of Navidad, Mexico and arrived in was is now known as San Diego Bay.  Cabrillo was also looking for the fabled cities of Cibola believed to contain great wealth., as well as a route connection from the North Pacific to the Atlantic (the Straits of Anian).  He led the expedition as far north as present day San Francisco but returned to winter on the Channel Islands.  Although Cabrillo would die on these islands after a terrible fall, his crew pushed on, possibly as far north as Oregon, before returning to Mexico.  His expedition would lead for future expansion of Spanish territory in California.  Of course, this would also lead to the mission trail of Fr. Serra.

We made the short climb to the lighthouse, while  my mom talked with the birds looking out on the ocean.  Point Loma was only in use for 36 years, lighting its first beam in 1855.  However, due to a poor location often covered in too much fog and low clouds that prevented assistance to the ships out at sea, the lighthouse was relocated to a higher elevation and closer to the point in 1891.

At this point, we learned this is now a great place to view whales passing along the coast.  We watched for a little while but it was very rough along the shore, so we left to try for a low tide at the tidal pools.  We were told the best time for viewing these pools was just as we were scheduled to leave the park.

The tidal pools are also world famous at this location.  We were able to view several interesting creatures before leaving to go to our second mission of the trip.  It was very rocky and slippery so we were reminded that we have a very nice tidal pool not far from our house that has easy access.  I am sure another trip to those tidal pools (at Half Moon Bay) will come in the spring before heading home to Texas.  Yes, I guess we have been around the West Coast enough to be a little selective of our future trips!

owl limpets

chiton

As we were leaving the park, we had to stop to remember the fallen soldiers buried in the National Cemetery here.  It is very moving to see the wreaths placed at the individual grave sites.

December 20

We had to make a stop at this time to make the rest of our trip work.  Can you believe we actually had to figure out a way to waste time along the way?  So...what better way to "waste" a day...spend it at LEGOland (We had a second free day after our trip back in October.)!  It was fun to see the park again but I was a little disappointed that there was not a lot of decoration for the holidays.  There was more emphasis on the "winter" theme with fake snow to play in and a sled area.  However, the same displays in the mini city area that were fully decorated for Halloween on our first trip, had little to show a Christmas theme.  I guess I should not expect a Christian expression of the holiday but at least they could have tried to give the same effort that we saw in the fall.  

We still love the park and enjoyed a fun game of putt-putt golf LEGO-style and then a few rides before leaving the park.  Zaira had her own way of playing golf, and we could not help but laugh...every watch out because she was on the course!  Let's just say she gave herself an awesome handicap!  You just have to love a princess trying to win a game!  She also LOVES her roller coaster rides!  I could hear her giggles of happiness from the ground as I took pictures.

December 21

Since it was the first day of winter and the hotel did not have breakfast in time for our early departure, I made a special (yet simple) breakfast to start out our day!  Then we were off to see three of the missions and the cathedral in Los Angeles.  We were surprised to find that the drive was easy and even had time left over at the end of the day.

 We had really hoped to make it to the SeaBees museum but had only had it as a maybe on our list of things to do.  I knew Michael would enjoy the military history aspect of the museum and I had read there was an extensive hands on exhibit for the children.  Let me tell you...I did not think we were going to get the children to leave this museum!  It was so much fun...it made me wish we lived closer so we could come more often.  There are even monthly family days with science activities related to the engineers that this museum is meant to honor.  I am so glad we were able to make this stop.

December 22

The night before we began to worry about the weather.  Then we got the phone call that our surprise cruise around the Channel Islands was cancelled.  We were very disappointed but with waves crashing over 8 feet and winds that were knocking our Little Miss over the next morning, we were glad the company that planned the trip knew to cancel.  We promised the children that we would try again in the spring.

We decided to take a look at the visitor center related to the islands before moving further north.  The visitor center is small but the energy of the rangers and volunteer staff was HUGE!  We can not thank them enough for making our time at the visitor fun.  They knew that we had missed our chance to see the islands and they tried to make up for it by sharing information from the exhibits.  One of the rangers even wrote up a plan for our future trip to Yellowstone.  So sweet!

December 28

We spent the next few days focusing on Christmas and going to the remaining missions.  On the last day we did have a fun surprise stop just before the last mission.  We just could not resist the LARGE chairs that were sitting at the Sonoma Winery.  It turned out to be a fun maze to get to the chairs also. 

After making the trip and talking with so many people along the way, I can tell you that it is hard to believe it all went so smoothly.  Regardless of any mishaps along the way, we were able to take three adults and five children on a 550+ mile trip from San Diego to Sonoma (This was the mileage from south to north but we were actually in the van for 1300+ miles).  This does not even include all of our side trips and the holidays included.  I think we did a great job.

I am proud of my children for their interest in the history and spiritual aspects of the trip.  I am proud of my mom for putting up with our shenanigans.  I am proud of my husband for successfully navigating us to all the places.  And...well...I am proud of myself for taking the effort to plan the trip that would be fun for everyone.  Most of all I am thankful that we were able to do this ... God has blessed us and I am glad that this our Christmas gift was a family trip that brought us closer to appreciating God in our lives.