G/J Ingalls Ranch

My grandparents live in Camas Valley, Oregon and they were one of the main reasons for this adventure.  We headed to their ranch where they raise cattle and grow hay.  Gannon was in absolute heaven climbing and pretending to drive all Grandpa's big equipment.  Garrett was having fun exploring and checking out the animals.  Grandpa had to drop off some parts to a guy that has llamas, emus, and a pony on his property.  To see the emus you have to walk through the llama area (and they are roaming around) Gannon was NOT a fan of these guys coming towards us to check out their visitors!  Scared to dealth.  Then Grandpa took us up the road to where he just moved his cattle and after the last walk Gannon wouldn't even think of getting out of the truck.  The cattle of course though we brought them some food so they ran toward the truck scaring the crap of out Gannon, then one moo'd! He was screaming! All I could do was laugh.  Poor guy, I guess we'll work on his cattle ranching skills!

Garrett on the other hand has become a little brave guy and wasn't afraid to get out and snap a quick picture with the cows. 

Highlight for sure was the 4 wheel ride from Grandpa.  Of course sitting on Mom's lap, but they enjoyed that!

It was a fun day and great to visit the Great Grandparents

A Whole Lotta Nothing

Day 4 took us out of California and into Oregon! The drive again wasn't too bad and we landed in Myrtle Creek.  We picked a spot close to my grandparents in Camas Valley so we could spend some time with them.  Myrtle Creek is a very small town with not much to do.  The highlight was the bridge below...okay maybe the DQ ice cream!  Garrett was just content playing catch after a stroll through town and Gannon did pick up a firetruck at the dollar store in town that kept him busy.  Nice RV park and that was really all that mattered for this stop. 

Field of Dreams

Another big hit in Redding, the best for Garrett, was the Field of Dreams baseball park.  When we got there it was about 3:30 and the man said they open at 4:30, but he was nice enough to let us take the boys around for a bit.  Garrett was so excited with his baseball bag in tow!  He was all ready to pitch, hit, and run the bases.  It's fun to watch him so into the sport.  He had to play on the Yankee Stadium field of course.  The picture of Gannon and I was about 10 seconds prior to Gannon swinging the bat as hard as he could right into my leg, it hurt. What a cool little place and a big thanks for the man for letting us play around for a bit!

Sundial Bridge

The Sundial bridge is a highlight and must see in Redding. The bridge connects the Turtle Bay and another garden park together.  Thankful we borrowed a stroller for Gannon he was tired of walking.  On the north side (side with dial) of the bridge there is a curved step covered in white chipped glass that has different times on plates in the design.  On the summer soltice, June 21st, it tells perfect time on these by the shadow of the sun.  Since we were only a few days off of June 21st it was still pretty accurate.  Really cool to see.  We went under the bridge and thank goodness Garrett didn't eat his whole sandwich for lunch and his bread is dry because the boys fed the ducks the bread! 

Turtle Bay Park

Turle Bay is a great park/wild life place to visit in Redding.  The boys had a great time running around on the play structures and checking out the exhibits.  We watched the animal show and Gannon was a little freaked out when the birds and owl flew really cloth overhead, but it was cool little show.  The butterfly exhibit was fun and Gannon even held a butterly - a dead one! Playing in the water and pebble sand was of course the coolest, we had our picnic by this part so the boys could continue to play.  Feed the birds was an experience!  I guess I wasn't aware that as soon as the lady handed me a cup of nectar a bird would land on my hand.  It totally freaked me out and I dropped the cup and screamed! This didn't make the boys too excited to hold a cup! Dave held the cup and after lecturing me that I had to be an example for the boys I did another and it wasn't too bad, but the boys still wouldn't do it.  Oops, my fault. It was a fun time anyway.

The DAM Tour

First stop for Day 2 - Shasta Dam for the DAM tour!  I have to say, it was a pretty cool tour and it was free.  We had to go through security, wear a tour badge, and we were loaded into a big elevator.  We went down one side of the dam around 400 feet.  If you look at the pictures below, the small triangle piece of grass is where we went down to and the small concrete sticking out the left side of teh dam is the elevator shaft (not small at all).  We were then in a long tunnel that made a huge echo and that too was cool.  On the grass area you could look up at the dam, the tunnels (not technical term) were to let more water out if needed.  This side is not the main release of water, overflow only.  The main tunnels (again, not technical term) are on the other side.  The main water release sends water past these HUGE wheels under water and when the spin they and the generate power that is then sold to the goverment and finally sold to companies such as PG&E.  Realy cool to see the huge generators spinning from the water pressure.  The Shasta Dam is the second larged dam in terms of concrete materials in the US. 

Dave enjoyed the DAM tour!

Day1 of Our Summer Vacation

We have had this BIG, LONG vacation planned since January and it's finally here.  Lots of people and places to see!  We are excited and although Gannon doesn't look too excited in this picture, he was just mad because I made him hold the board.  Maybe by the end of the trip they'll be used to it.

We headed out of Merced first thing in the morning to our first stop, Redding.  We picked Redding as our first stop because it was far enough yet not too far and Dave found a nice RV park to stop at during the "scouting phase".  The plan for most of the trip is drive a 150-300 miles and stop for a couple of days. The boys did great on this first 300 miles, watching movies and playing Auto Bingo that I found for a dollar.  Garrett especially loved the bingo games.  Watching for all the signs is a fun challenge for him. I of course read lots of 50 Shades!

After setting up camp, Dave checked the GPS for attractions around our campsite.  He found the Shasta Dam.  Anyone that knows Dave knows how much he loves some DAM jokes and DAM slides (in his classes) so of course we had to check out the DAM.  I have to say Shasta Lake is huge and the dam looks pretty cool.  Of course we were too late for the DAM tour so we decided we would make that the start of day 2.