Misadventures of the 10lees

Ah, Home...

It's so nice to be home. There is something so refreshing about arriving at your own home late at night to relax and sleep in and not drive the next day. The trip was amazing, but it was definetly nice to be resting. As I mentioned before, we went down the Oregon coast, saw the Redwoods, saw the wonderful family, enjoyed a fourth of July bbq, and then drove back up, stopping to see the wonderful Golden Gate Bridge, the National Lava Caves Monument, and Crater Lake.

Now we were a little bit dissapointed because the Golden Gate Bridge was mostly shrouded by fog. We did get some great pictures, Scott claims they almost don't look real - and I agree. The fog was concentrated only right there, and it was a mostly sunny and very warm day. (We were down there for the start of the current heat wave gripping most of the nation. I forgot how hot California can get, I can't stand over 100 degrees anymore.)

Next we drove up to Weed (hardy, har, yes Weed) and stayed the night there. Got some great pictures of Mount Shasta in the evening. It looks much prettier during the winter months when it has more snow on it. We got up the next morning and made our way to the National Lava Caves Monument in Northern California. This is the area where the Modoc Indians fought against going back to the reservation. I highly reccommend going, especially if you are up for some splunking. We did light splunking, mainly because we had two kids with us, one of which we ended up leading through the longest cave as she lost it. She's very sweet and she kept going like a real trooper, but it was hard to convince her it wasn't scary. Maybe she'll like it more next time, my step-son however LOVED it and was bummed we only got to go in three caves. He wanted to go in the cave where they found all the skulls in the 1930s, he's an adventurer, what can we say? But here's a picture of me!

Our last stop of the day was Crater Lake, but by the time we got there we were a bit tired from our whole trip. So here's a picture of Crater Lake, I've been there multiple times, so I am not sure what to say. Except that people need to stop feeding the wildlife! I mean when it says Don't Feed The Squirrels then Don't Feed The Squirrels!! Is it that hard to understand? I know they are cute, but they need to fend for themselves. Also, we did see the Pine Beetle at work, and that is pretty sad. The last outbreak was 1923-1930 and the current ourbreak started in 2003 and is still ongoing. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens...

And for an extra bonus, hug a tree today... bonus points if you find one this big!