Redwood Natural Park, Yosemite National Park, Las Vegas & Hoover Dam

We have had some computer problems the last few days and have been traveling some really long days, so I have not been able to post updates on what we've been up to. I have been trying to slow this train down but the guys continue with the goal to fit as much into this trip as they possibly can! Some of our days have been 10 - 12 hours long, stopping at 7:00 p.m. or later at night [one night we stopped at 9:15!!!] and that is before we have had dinner! OK, enough complaining . . . [well not really but I will stop anyway] . . . back to the update . . .

On Thursday we continued down the California coast to see the magnificent redwoods at the Redwood National Park. We went through the first part of the park and saw a big herd of Elk feeding in a field. We spent the night in Eureka, California and had dinner at Hurricane Kates. Dad decided to take a slower path home so he took off Friday morning on his own heading east. The rest of the group continued through the Redwood National Park and stayed the night in Williams, California. Saturday as we traveled down the road, we passed by numerous orchards and were curious about what type of trees they were. I suspected that they were almond trees as they looked like they might be nut trees and I know that California grows a lot of almonds. We stopped and picked a fresh nut off of one of the trees [hoping that we wouldn't get in trouble] and tasted the absolute BEST almond I have ever put in my mouth! [Thinking I need to make friends with a California almond grower!] Later in the day we entered Yosemite National Park. We took time for a special watermelon birthday party for Raymond before driving through the park. We stopped at one of the Sequoya groves and hiked down to see some massive trees [this species includes the tallest trees on Earth]. The hike to the grove was quite easy because it was all downhill. You know what that means about the trip back to the bikes though . . . uphill all the way . . . and boy was it a steep hike back. By the time we completed our trip through the park it was getting dark. We finally found a room [actually a cabin] in June Lake and got checked in around 9:15 p.m.! We left the next morning a little after nine and headed for Las Vegas. As has been quite common on this trip, it was raining as we left and the temperature was a bit cold. It took a couple of hours before the rain stopped. As we passed into Death Valley, the weather started to warm up. We checked into the hotel in Las Vegas around 4:30 p.m. Scott and Raymond have never been to Las Vegas so they went down to "the strip" to check it out. Jim & I went to Sweet Tomatoes, a restaurant that we have visited at other locations around the country that has an 'out of this world' salad bar and some great vegetarian soups. We left this morning in the rain [once again . . . seems to be a trend for us] in the direction of the Grand Canyon but stopped by the Hoover Dam before leaving the area. Although the weather cleared up for a while, we hit rain again a couple of times before we made it to today's destination. We got to the hotel in the Grand Canyon village around 4:30 and went to dinner after we checked in and took our things to the room. We will be going to see the Grand Canyon tomorrow. I have been to the Grand Canyon several times but am always amazed at it's unique beauty.