Road Trip 2014 {Petrified Forest National Park}

Road Trip 2014 {Petrified Forest National Park}

The final stop on our road trip was Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona on June 23rd.  As we drove home on I-40 we passed by the exit for the Grand Canyon, but we didn't stop.  It took a lot of focus to pass it by, but we just didn't have time to see such a large National Park.  Instead of stopping there, we stopped at Petrified Forest National Park that was located off of I-40 further east.  We wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, but that was going to be somewhere we wanted to spend a lot more time at than we had.  It was the end of our road trip, and we had to be home because Vacation Bible School was coming up the following week.  Petrified Forest was the perfect detour.  It was much smaller in comparison.  We didn't do any major hikes, and we mostly stayed in the car and viewed it from the road.  It's similar to how we saw Joshua Tree National Park.  As always, I'm surprised by something in the park.  I didn't know that the Painted Desert was such a beautiful place.  Of course, the petrified wood is the main focus, but the surrounding desert landscape is breathtaking.  

The boys like Petrified Forest National Park a lot more than they did Joshua Tree.  Will thought the petrified wood was really cool.  Ben really appreciated the dinosaur exhibits in the visitor center.  I remember going to Petrified Forest National Park as a kid, but my memories are vague.  I'm glad the boys liked it, and I hope they remember it when they get older.  

Checking out the dinosaur exhibits at the visitor center after they got their passports stamped.  Ben and Will would have stayed longer, but we just didn't have the time.  

Taking a short hike outside of the visitor center to see the petrified wood.

They look so small in comparison.  

I think they are tired

One of the views from the road as we drove through the park.

"The Teepees"

Newspaper Rock Petroglyphs are examples of Native American pictograms and symbols that I can use in my history classes.

Ravens were everywhere when we stopped to see Newspaper Rock.  

The ravens would fly pretty close to humans, and the boys didn't like that at all (I didn't either!).  

Painted Desert

We actually saw this as we exited I-40 to go to the park, but I just threw it in here at the end.  In Holbrook, Arizona on Route 66 is the Wigwam Motel.  It was the inspiration for the Cozy Cone Motel in the movie Cars. Such a cool example of Americana.  

This is my final blog post about our 16-day road trip across the Pacific Northwest, West Coast, and Southwest United States.  If you'd like to see my advice on how to take a successful road trip with small children, check it out {here} over at Unexpected Elegance.

Road Trip 2014 {Joshua Tree National Park}

Road Trip 2014 {Joshua Tree National Park}

By the time we made it to Joshua Tree National Park on June 22nd the quota for appreciating nature had been met for Will and Ben.  I can understand their lack of interest since this was our fourth National Park to visit.  At their ages you can't expect them to fully value the experiences they were having.  Mark and I understood that so we didn't get upset at their lack of enthusiasm.  Even if the boys didn't appreciate it, we definitely did.  I thought the desert was beautiful.  The Joshua trees and rock formations were unique and unlike anything we'd seen on our trip.  The funky trees and odd rocks were like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

The stop at Joshua Tree National Park was possible because we chose to head home on I-10 once we left Anaheim.  The park is located just off the interstate.  We took I-10 to the park and exited through the north and hit I-40 to continue making our way back East.

Here's the visitor center at Twentynine Palms.

Trying to recreate the U2  Joshua Tree album cover, just kidding.  

Will was really proud of his Passport Stamps. The big stamp is a desert tortoise, which we did not see.  We learned a new word from the park rangers--estivate (or aestivate) estivation is like hibernation but in the summer they spend time in burrows to avoid the desert heat. 

Ben had fun looking at all of the stuffed animals.  He picked up every little creature he could find and wanted me to take his picture with them. 

We didn't make a lot of stop for photos.  This is one of the few times we stopped. 

This view...

Can you see Will?  He's in the shadow of the tree.

The desert was one giant sandbox for Ben.  I love this photo. 

Me and Will

In some places the Joshua Trees were more abundant, like here. 

I didn't know that these rock formations were a big part of the park.  I just thought it was the trees.  Now I know differently.  

One of our family photos taken with the timer.  We were in the middle of the desert.  There weren't a lot of people around that we could ask to take a photo of our family so we got creative. 

Skull Rock

We are about ready to exit the park.  Ben is excited!

Look closely at Will's face.  He was so over the desert at this point.  Anytime we wanted to get out for a photo or to take a short hike he said it was too hot.  I guess my answer was along the lines of Love and Logic, but my response was "We're in a desert.  It's going to be hot."  I couldn't think of a clearer explanation. I guess we can gather that Will was not a fan of the desert environment.   That's ok, to each his own. 

  

This is one of my favorite photos from the day and also from the entire road trip.  I shared this on Instagram.  I haven't played around with any photo editing programs, but I'd like to put some different filters on some of the photos we took at Joshua Tree.  I think they'd turn our really cool with the desert background and trees.

Road Trip 2014 {Rangers vs. Angels}

Road Trip 2014 {Rangers vs. Angels}

We did it!  Our final game of the Rangers West Coast Road Trip was on June 21st!

Like all of the other games we attended the Rangers lost, but we had a great time and made some memories.  If I had to rank all of the ballparks we visited, Angel Stadium would be second.  I loved Safeco in Seattle, and I didn't like O.co at all.  Angel Stadium was nice.  Mark said it was once owned by Disney so it was "Disneyfied" and you could tell by the exterior details and the big waterfall in the outfield.  We met some fellow Texans outside and they took our photo.

Ben's ready for some baseball!

 When Will saw the sign for the stadium he told us it looked like "Angela" Stadium instead of Angel.  I can see how he thought that with the big A in the middle.  Kids have really funny observations.

Will's favorite player is Beltre and Ben likes Choo.

The Rangers are warming up in the background.  

My favorite photo of my guys.

Let's Go Rangers!

Fireworks after the game.

MLB Ballpark count for Will after this game:
Rangers, Yankees, Cardinals, Reds, Cubs, Orioles, Mariners, A's, Angels

MLB Ballpark count for Ben after this game:
Rangers, Cardinals, Reds, Cubs, Orioles, Mariners, A's, Angels

MLB Ballpark count for Mark:
Rangers, Yankees, Cardinals, Reds, Cubs, Orioles, Mariners, A's, Angels, Dodgers, Padres, Diamondbacks

Road Trip 2014 {Disneyland}

Road Trip 2014 {Disneyland}

Disneyland was one of the final stops on our road trip.  Normally I would do a lot of planning for a day at Disneyland, but we had so much other planning for our vacation that it wasn't my main focus.  Since it wasn't our only destination, we couldn't give it all of our attention.  We read a few things online, but overall we went into the experience with a laid back attitude.  We didn't create a big hype or have crazy expectations for our day there.  In fact, I don't think the boys had any idea what we were going to see and do.  It was almost better for us to not have really high expectations because the day ended up being as close to perfect as I could have imagined.  We only had one day to spend at Disneyland, and we chose to spend our day in the Disney California Adventure Park because our boys are huge fans of the Disney Pixar Cars movies.  Instead of staying at a Disney-owned property, we stayed at Hotel Indigo in Anaheim.  It was near the park and we walked there instead of having to drive and find parking.

We woke up early on the morning of June 20th so we could get to the park when the gates opened.  .

As we walked up the main entrance "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" was playing on the loudspeakers and I actually got teary-eyed.  I was more excited than the kids at this point.  I know it sounds hokey, but Disneyland really is a magical place.

The day started off great when we arrived and the entrance line wasn't long.  When we were getting our tickets scanned we were upgraded to the Magic Morning pass to enter the park early.  It was our lucky day because the Magic Morning was to the California Adventure Park that day.  I couldn't believe our good luck!


Cars Land is like walking in the movie Cars.  It's amazing how they recreated the movie in real life.  It was awesome during the day and even more impressive at night with all of the neon.

Since we were early in the park we took advantage of the bonus time, and we went straight to Cars Land so the boys could ride the popular Radiator Springs Racers ride.  The wait time in line for that is usually 95 minutes.  It was only about 30 because of the Magic Morning.  I never imagined that we'd get that lucky.  We also got the Fastpass for that ride for later in the day and our family rode it again.  Mark and Will even stood in line just before the park closed so they could ride it one more time.

More fun in Cars Land.

The Mater's petting zoo near Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. 

Mater's Junkyard Jamboree

Luigi's Flying Tires

Cass Della Tires was like walking in Guido and Luigi's tire shop in the movie. 

We ate at Flo's V8 Cafe.

Grizzly Peak had the Redwood Creek Challenge.  The boys had a blast "earning" their wilderness explorer badges.  Here they are posing with Russell from Up after a really cute interactive show with other Wilderness Explorers. 

At Paradise Pier we rode Toy Story Mania, the carousel, and the huge ferris wheel-Mickey's Fun Wheel. 

One of my favorite photos of the day.

Soarin' Over California was one of our favorite rides.  We used the Fastpass for this one. 

Shopping for souvieners in Cars Land.  This orange traffic cone did not come home with us. 

For their souvenir, the boys picked out a diecast car to take home.  Ben picked out a special Disney Star Wars Car and Will selected a very hard to find Tuners.  They were small and didn't take up very much space in the car (unlike the orange traffic cone above!). 

We stopped for a mid-afternoon ice cream cone at the Cozy Cone.  The best surprise of the day is when we realized that they offered free cups of ice water everywhere you could purchase food.  That saved us a lot of money.  Thank you, Disneyland!

In "a bug's land" we saw Flik and rode Flik's Flyers, Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, and Tuck and Roll's Drive 'em Buggies (just like bumper cars).   We also saw the 3D film,  It's Tough to Be a Bug.

Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University are two of my favorite Pixar movies.  We stopped by this after we rode Monster, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!  I think this is the cutest photo with the boys on the steps.  

We ended the day where we started--Cars Land.  Ben said that Mater said, "Everybody is taking pictures of me!" when they were getting their photo taken beside him. 

I can't leave out that we saw the musical Aladdin.  It was later in the afternoon and gave us the perfect break from all the walking.  We toured the Boudin bakery, too.   While Mark and Will rode Radiator Springs Racers to end the day, Ben and I chose to watch the fireworks.  Ben fell asleep before it was all said and done.  We were all exhausted, but it's the best kind of exhaustion.  It was a day full of fun.  Of all our days on vacation, this was one of our happiest.

Will and Ben loved Disneyland!

Will summed it up best when he said, "I don't ever want to leave!".



For advice on how to take a successful road trip with young children, make sure you check out my tips {here} at Unexpected Elegance.