Observations

Last week, we were in California and we spent a day in LA. If you have never been up to the Griffith Park Observatory, you gotta go. You have these huge sweeping panaramic views of the entire city. You can truly see how spread out LA...you also get a nice view of the Hollywood sign and pretty much everything else in the area. Inside, they have exhibits that talk about the stars, space, meteors, etc. Interesting and pretty cool and all free (unless you want to leave a donation). To get in the building, they have 4 or 5 large doors but they tried to confuse us with having it be an entrance, but then saying it was no entrance. We took our chances and luckily made it inside without incident.

Trip Review: North by Northwest (Seattle, Parks and Islands)

We got back last week from our great Northwest/Washington trip. I had actually never made it over to Seattle, so it was a lot of fun to visit an area that I have heard so much about. Let me just say, my lovely wife did a much better job talking about our trip here and here so if you want a laugh and see more pics visit her site.

Let me start by saying--it was a lot of driving. We decided to drive. And we drove and we drove and we drove. We went with Brodi's parents and her sister and their family. Let me just say that 6 total kids under the age of 11, there will be a lot of bathroom breaks, snack breaks, lunch breaks, etc. Carter and Becks both decided that they didn't care much for the seatbelts either after about 3 miles...so most of the driving was with me saying/yelling 'get back into your car seats and put on your seat belts!!'

There were two main components of our trip--visiting the Olympic National Park and the San Juan Islands. Both places are absolutely beautiful. It always took some long driving, but it was well worth it to see countless waterfalls, ride many ferries, many hikes, and do lots of exploring.



We also drove through Forks (Twilight reference for all of us that were not quite sure the importance of really small little town) on our way to the national park. Let me just say, Forks is much prettier on the big screen than it is in real life, though the trees and everything is very pretty that surrounds the town. I will say though, just outside of Forks is 2nd Beach which was pretty terrific with a nice beach, cool rocks sticking out of the ocean. We spent several hours just exploring that beach.


Seattle was very cool. We only spent a day there, but we were able to visit the Aquarium, the famous Pike Market as well as the Space Needle. At the Space Needle, they also had a little crummy looking amusement park-we skipped that. At Pike Market, Carter found fresh shrimp and that boy loves few things more than big fresh shrimp, so we got him a couple and he ate as we walked.



The San Juan Islands were awesome. Even with the bumpy ferry rides, I somehow managed. I get car sick pretty easily. So imagine the joy knowing that we were driving our car onto a boat and taking a boat ride. A car + A boat = not awesomeness. But with the views and everything, it was very cool. The kids kept themselves entertained by running around to see everything and when they got bored with that, they huddled around a DS.



Olympia National Park is very cool. One of the most impressive things was seeing Thunder Ridge. You go from sea level and then drive up long winding roads to get some spectacular views of the mountain range. The kids quickly headed for the snow for some bum sliding.




We spent a lot of time in this park exploring. Whether it was the mountain range or the Rain Forest, there was always a lot to see and do. I believe that it is the only rain forest in the United States.




Every hike had a water fall, or so it seemed. Our oldest nephew, nephew A would say 'Are we going on another hike to see another waterfall.' Why yes, we are. Another one. We have only seen 37 of them. 2 of our nephews also lost a battle with stinging nettle. I have bumped into poison ivy and that was bad...but these boys just had welts and bumps all over their legs. Pretty brutal.



Overall though, a great trip. If we weren't hiking and exploring, the kids were using their scooters, playing tennis and swimming. 8 days. 2705 miles. Thumbs up to the Great Northwest.

Rocky Mountain High, Colorado (sung in a totally metrosexual John Denver kinda way)

We had a great trip to Winter Park/Granby, Colorado. We went with Brodi's parents and Brodi's sister Erin and family. This is the Rocky Mountain National Park area. Even though we lived in Denver for a little bit, we never made it to this area, so it was fun to check it out.

This area is all at around 8500 feet in elevation and it just got worse when we moved up higher into the Rocky Mountain National Park. We hit 12,000 feet and even went up a few more hundred feet as we did some more hiking. This area was simply built for biking and hiking. 6 days of that along with swimming, tennis and soccer made up our days. The tree line tops out around 10,000 feet, so it is desert like as you hit this altitude...and windy. We got some nice hail coming down on us as we hiked to the top.

Carter learned how to ride his bike this summer and he was a star out there...we did some mountain, single trail riding and Carter led the pack with his cousin Necie. There was also a little dirt biking with little hills obstacle course that he went after and did great on it as well. I have been amazed by how good he has gotten on a bike in such a short time. He wants to ride everywhere every day (can I ride to Amma's house? Can I ride to school? Can I ride to Grandma Kate's?)

Now, figure this out with me...you decide to build some condos and you want to include a hot tub with each unit. So, what do you do? Put the hot tub on the balcony? Put the hot tub in a seperate room with glass doors? Put it in the living room? NONE OF THE ABOVE. This genius put it right in the master bedroom, about 4 feet away from the bed. Any of you own a hot tub...if you haven't, then you should know they are not quiet. They constantly whirrrllll and hummmm. These didn't turn off so every couple of hours, it booms to life to re-heat the water. Awesome. Because of the noise, Brodi slept in the living room in a pull out couch. Carter slept in the living room on another pull out couch. Beckham slept in the 2nd bedroom. I slept next to the sexy hot tub. Lucky me.



We rented out a Pontoon and went out onto Grand Lake. Half of the homes/cabins on this lake are not accessable by walking or by car so they have to drive their boats to it where the have boat garages that they drive into. The weather changes quickly in this area where one minute it will be 75 degrees and partly cloudy skies and literally the next minute, it will be 60 degrees and beginning to rain. Luckily, the weather stayed nice and Carter and Beckham were both able to take their turns driving the boat.




One of the days, we headed off to Estes Park which is on the other side of the National Park...it is a nice little town similar to Park City. This is also where they filmed the Shining. It was a lot of fun to walk thru the hotel...Brodi gives a better description of that part of the trip, here

It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun, I would be curious as to what the area is like during the dead of winter. Anyway, crazy to get home only to send off Carter to his first day or 1st grade.

Yes, the middle name is Puker

When I was a kid, I had a problem. I got carsick the minute that I got into a car. If I was not staring straight ahead, I would get sick. Two stories stick in my head specifically about this problem—

When I was in 4^th grade, we were living in Bountiful and we lived at the top of Cave Hollow Drive which was basically one of the highest points in all of the valley. We were going up the street when my older brother Josh took out a bag that he had…inside was a very large jumping grasshopper. Well, Josh being the very funny 9^th grader that he was, decided to quickly take it out and put it in my shirt. So my dad is driving and I have a grasshopper going crazy in my shirt. I start screaming and scrambling to get the grasshopper out of my shirt. With 15 seconds, not only was I in near complete meltdown to rid myself of the grasshopper, but I was getting carsick…fast. We pulled in the driveway, I jumped out of the car, threw the grasshopper out and proceeded to throw up on the driveway.

Story #2: Probably around 6^th grade. I went with my friends to Lagoon (for those not familiar with it, think a really, really crappy Disneyland for Salt Lake ). I loved Lagoon…rides everywhere and good friends…it was awesome. Well, we saw the ride that still gives me chills to this day: The Hammer. Basically it is a prison like contraption where you and a friend get in (barely fits two people in there...the ride has also been called the Looper) and it starts swinging side to side and getting higher and higher until it gets to the top and you go completely over into a circle motion and it just keeps doing that for like 3-4 minutes. Well, we got off…and nobody was in line (shocking I know for such an awesome ride) and we did it again. And again. And again. 4 times. I was laughing and walking around like a drunk. Well, my friend’s mom picked us up and we started driving home. We reached an intersection where I told the mom to stop the car, I popped open the door and proceeded to puke my guts out on the cement.

So, why am I telling you these stories? Well, my youngest adorable son Beckham inherited this from me. He is our little puker. He can watch videos in the car. But, if you give him his DS game system while driving, he will be puking within minutes. Give him a book to look at, he will begin puking. Well, driving up to Winter Park, Colorado can be a ‘long and winding road’ (that would make a good song title) and Becks got the look and proceeded to puke all over the place. We pulled over and cleaned him up…new clothes, etc. and you can see by the pic on the left that he was doing pretty well. Uh, 20 minutes later and roads kept winding and Beckham puked again. All over the place (our poor door). We had driven nearly 7 hours but in the final brutal 30 minutes before we arrived at our destination, Beckham puked liked there was no tomorrow. 2 years ago, we had a trip to Jackson Hole...he pulled off a single puke on that trip as well. Love the boy, hate the puke.

South Carolina recap

We had a great trip to South Carolina (with a bit of Georgia sprinkled in). We went up with Brodi's parents and Brodi's sister and her family. We spent 3 days in Hilton Head riding bikes, strutting our sexy stuffs at the beach, eating at the Salty Dog Cafe and just having fun.





We then spent a day in Savannah, Georgia walking around in a huge rainstorm. Savannah is cool with the real southern feel and we ended up having a nice lunch at the Mellow Mushroom.











After that, we headed up to Myrtle Beach for another 3 days where it was more beach time as well as going to an amusement park, playing in a kiddie swimming area and just staying active. Myrtle Beach is much more touristy, more crowded and crazier than Hilton Head but we were able to still find some good things to do. A lot of fun.






:







There are a few things that I did learn about though:

• 3 years living in Washington DC did NOTHING to prepare us against 97 degree 70% humidity.
• Gas was 20 cents cheaper on the East Coast as it is in the Intermountain region.
• 4-hour plane rides with a 2-year old was not as bad as I thought it was going to be.
• Miniature golf in Myrtle Beach is huge...incredible surroundings and setup, though the actual holes were pretty average.
• Paying for airline food, yes airline food, is crazy talk.
• Carter loves vacations, 'Can it be vacation forever?'
• 6 kids under the age of 9 can drink A LOT of milk...gallon after gallon after gallon.

The prison inmates stamping out these plates must be getting a good laugh

One thing that has caught my eye here in South Carolina is the fabulous license plates. Seriously, I am assuming that their new license plate is supposed to give you warm fuzzies but it has simply left me giggling (not a full on laugh, but a hearty giggle).


How was that ever approved? Who thought that was a good idea?

Was 'We Welcome you with open hearts and a loving embrace' already taken? Was 'Great Scenery, Inviting Homes' also taken? C'mon, that is a license plate that Utah would approve, not a great Dixie state like South Carolina that is proud of its heritage. I am disappointed in them for coming up with this.

THIS is how we ride

We picked up our car in South Carolina from our car rental place. I think they must have confused who I was--I am not a Pimp or a Mafia guy or an 80-year old man, yet they still gave us the beautiful silver Grand Marquis.

Seriously, this car is awesome. Trunk space that would make you the envy of anyone who wants to live in their car and use the trunk to store a gazillion things...an interior that screams 1970s with nondescript updates (a cd player update on what used to be an 8-track tape player, etc.)...and a sex appeal like no other car. I have grown fond of this car and I dread having to give it up. I would buy one but I think they only make these cars for 30+ year olds who rent from Avis--just so people can laugh at us.

Things that we learned in SoCal

During our trip, we had a chance to do some fun things--spent several days at Disneyland, several more days at the beach, a day at Balboa Park and Old Towne in San Diego and some time in the San Juan Mission Capistrano.








We have spent many vacations in the LA/Anaheim/SD region and our latest trip reinforced some ideas that I have had about that area:









Maybe we just got lucky, but they know how to merge on a freeway or a street. In Utah, it is often a show of your manhood or womanhood to REFUSE any kind of easy merge. People stare straight ahead and will not make eye contact with the other car but will do whatever they can to not let you merge into the lane. In Cali, we had no problems and we have rarely ever had problems there.


Bikinis (I am not talking about a regular bikini, I am talking about the extra thin, barely there type of bikinis) are a nice idea in theory. In application, they rarely are. I saw many women on the beaches that had no right to wear those two little pieces of clothing on their bodies.


Speedos on a guy are NEVER a nice idea in theory. In application, the are an even worse idea, even on David Hasselhoff. I hate to say it, but men's bodies are not that attractive. A banana-hammock does nothing to improve on the appearance of a man's body.







In-N-Out hamburger joints rock. Seriously. Tasty hamburgers, 'fresh' tasting fries. Two thumbs up...in fact, I got the whole Johnson-Ashton-Gubler clan to eat there and the reviews were positive. Brodi pulled up the 'secret' menu of In-N-Out and tentatively approached the man to order our hamburgers--she asked 'Does it make sense to say that I want my hamburger 'animal style.' The guy said that it made perfect sense and we had a tasty meal.





10.5 hours in a car with 2 kids is not a fun task. But, I have to hand it to our boys...they were champs in the car. Besides one puking moment of Beckhams (he gets that from me and lets just say, Beckham enjoys a good regular puke every now and then) where he decided that pancakes and sausage do not sit well in stomach that gets carsick easily, the kids were happy tickling each other, watching dvds and playing with their DS Lite game system. The parents on the other hand were more than happy to be done with that trip.


Eastern California is not pretty. No offense to Barstow or Baker, but I can think of close to 15,785 other places that I would rather live. Though Baker has a lot to be proud of--mainly that they have the largest thermometer in the world. If that doesn't blow your mind, I don't know what will.

Most of SouthWest California is very pretty. San Diego, Dana Point, Carlsbad, etc. are all nice locations. Hard to beat 75 degree temps day in and day out.

Just like a Motel 6 only it was much bigger and much nicer

We are back from our trip to Southern California and we had a great time. Brodi and I have been to Disneyland too many times to count since we have been married. Seriously, I am not even going to try and count the number of times. All of the trips have been wonderful and it has always been nice to get a hotel room just outside of the park so that we are within a 5 minute walk to the park. This year was different. Brodi's parents friends let us use their vacation home in Dana Point.

You know that you will be staying at an exclusive place simply by being in Dana Point. But as you go thru the gates of this gated community and then have to go through a second round of gates to get to the place, you know that this place is a bit different from the 'Del Sol Motel' outside of Disneyland. The 3000+ square foot house sat on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island. It was basically a private beach for the community, but this house was one of about 20 homes with direct access down its stairs to the beach.


The house had wide open rooms. It had 5 bedrooms. It had 4 bathrooms. It was stocked with all necessary beach equipment (surf boards, body boards, beach toys, balls). Cable tv and cable internet (yes, it is a vacation but it is also NBA playoffs and the French Open). It had a terrific patio out back with a weber grill and a hot tub. There was a suburban we could use in the 2-car garage as well.




The hot tub on our back patio overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Yeah, that doesn't suck. Every day was spent walking down the stairs to the beach and playing and then coming back and spending some time warming up in the hot tub.






The beach was terrific and I was truly appreciated by all of the guests when I whipped out my appropriate speedo. Lets just say that I was a hit with all of the neighbors. At the beach, I quickly realized that if you volunteer to dig a hole for one of the kids, you are basically committing to dig a hole for all of the kids. So, the digging began. Beckham helped and though I love our little guy, he aint the best deep digger. After what seemed like hours, we finally got holes big enough to fit them all in...we then went to lunch and came back 3 hours later to dig them out. No, just a little joke.

I know you all can't wait for more pictures, so we will post them later this weekend. It was a great trip and it is good to get back.