Update 6/10/26: Desert to the Coast

Psalm 89:8-9 “O Lord God of hosts, who is like You, O mighty Lord? Your faithfulness also surrounds You. You rule the seedling of the sea; when its waves rise, You still them.”

After a morning hike at Kanarra Falls, we grabbed a quick lunch at In’n’out (see pictures from last post) and headed for Death Valley NP. On our way to Death Valley, we took a quick detour through Las Vegas, since the kids were so young when we visited last time. Micaela and Joella weren’t even born! Vegas isn’t really my thing, but they do have some neat buildings and sights.

We finally arrived at Death Valley and were hit with 117 degree temperatures. The rangers told us to avoid being outside more then 19 minutes at a time, so we opted to see the park from our air conditioned car. 

Our route from Death Valley to Santa Barbara took us on some of the remotest roads I’ve ever been on. Not a town for miles and miles…and we only saw about 20 cars in 2 hours! It was crazy and messed with me a little since I was responsible for five kids. I prayed that our car wouldn’t break down since it was about 105 and no cell phone service. It was wild, but we survived. I was glad I tipped the car off with gas and grabbed two gallons of water before we got to Death Valley. We didn’t arrive until really late that night at our hotel. The next morning, we got up to see some areas of Santa Barbara that are on Psych (my kids are slightly obsessed with the show).

We then hit the road and drove along the coast. It was such a beautiful, but curvy, drive. We spent the day stopping along the way until we reached Monterey.

Elephant seals! So many of them.

We stopped at this beach to have a picnic lunch. It was windy and we ended up having “sand”wiches.

Once we arrived in Monterey, Micaela and j headed out to try to find otters, which are her favorite animal. We spotted one in ten harbor that was having fun. We kept driving and then we found one that was eating a ray. God asnwered our prayers and she got to see not only 2 otters, but see it float on its back eating. 

Early the next morning, we drove to Pinnacles NP. We did our ranger badge and then headed back to Monterey to go to the aquarium. We weren’t super impressed with the pinnacles. It looked a lot like California and we had seen the most amazing pinnacles in Utah. 

Monterey Bay Aquarium: pretty amazing, but kids all agreed it is over priced for what you get.

Had to stop at the otters for sure. She watched them forever.

The octopus out on a show for us, the male one, not so much.

After the aquarium, we hit the road to drive up the coast to San Francisco. We stopped by j Santa Cruz to ride the old coaster, the Giant Dipper, which was my first roller coaster as a kid. 

We stopped and watched these guys kite surf!!

Being at the California coast made me miss California. You can’t beat the beauty of the coast, I felt like I was at home. 

This trip I tried to say yes to the kid’s requests. It was a trip of yes…within reason. We found a famous Taco Bell that is on the beach. We stopped and grabbed food for some of the kids who didn’t want soup from San Francisco. 

San Francisco: stopped in Chinatown for boba and then headed to Fisherman’s Wharf for soup.

From San Francisco, we headed north to Santa Rosa to see Wayne’s sister, and to attend his cousin’s wedding that inspired this whole trip. I’ll post that part in a few days. 🩷