Kings Canyon National Park

Jill's Journal: We found Kings Canyon National Park, outside of Fresno, California, to be an unexpected gem.

Located in the southern Sierra Nevadas, it’s very close (as the crow flies) to the more-heralded Yosemite National Park to the north and the adjacent Sequoia National Park to the south. Mt. Whitney, the tallest point in the contiguous 48 states, is immediately over the ridge to the east (with Death Valley just a little farther east of that). The San Joaquin Valley, the heart of California’s agriculture, is immediately to the west.

Much of the landscape of Kings Canyon is reminiscent of Yosemite, but only slightly less spectacular, and with the exception of the Giant Sequoia groves, very much without the heavy crowds and high traffic of its more famous cousin. With only a tiny percentage of the park available to vehicles, this is nature as its most pristine and must be a hiker’s paradise. Have I mentioned it’s beautiful? Around every bend, it just gets prettier and prettier.

Kings Canyon is best known for its Giant Sequoias. Can you spot the girls, looking like tiny specks, in the parking lot standing near the base of one?

Although often confused, Sequoias are very different from Coastal Redwoods, which we spent a lot of time visiting up the coast last year. While both have reddish wood, can be a couple thousand years old, and are found almost entirely in California, they are very different trees. Sequoias are the widest trees in the world; Redwoods are the tallest. Sequoias grow only inland and generally at altitude (found only in the Sierra Nevadas above 4,800 feet); Redwoods grow only near the Pacific Coast, primarily in Northern California and very Southern Oregon. Redwoods grow in clusters; Sequoias are usually more like lone wolfs. Both are absolutely majestic in their own way, although having now seen both, we’d have to admit if pressed we think the Redwoods are more impressive.

This Giant Sequoia is the General Grant Tree, the third-largest tree in the world by volume. And with a trunk at over 40 feet in diameter, it is the widest-known tree in the world.

With a height of 268 feet and an age of about 1,700 years, the tree is wider (at the base) than a three-lane freeway and weighs more than 700 large cars. It is something to behold indeed. Discovered in 1862 during the Civil War, it was named for the leader of the Union forces (and later our 18th president).

The General Grant Tree was named the “Nation’s Christmas Tree” by President Calvin Coolidge in 1926. Thirty years later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower would proclaim it a National Shrine, a memorial to those who gave their lives for our country. It’s impossible to show the scope of the world's widest tree in a photograph (this picture is taken from quite far away), particularly as the tree is fenced off to protect it from human traffic/damage. In a now-funny moment, the Grant Grove was crawling with French tourists (there were dozens!) on the day we were there. One rude Frenchman leaped the fence so his companions could get pictures of him with the tree. While everyone else gaped at the man’s audacity, Rob wasn’t about to let that go and yelled --in his most stern Dad voice-- at the Frenchman in no uncertain terms to get out of that fence immediately. He certainly got the attention of the scores of other tourists around us. One American lady said to Rob, “Well done!”

Giant Sequoias require occasional fire to thrive; the Grant Tree bears fire scars.

Here’s the girls at the base of a fallen Giant Sequoia. You’ll realize how big it is in the next photo…

…when you see Erika going down steps to get inside.

Inside the Sequoia! The tree had already fallen some time before when it was used as an employee camp at the time General Grant National Park was established in 1890 (this park was folded into Kings Canyon in 1940). Later, it was used as a house for homesteaders and then as a hotel and saloon to serve visitors refreshments. Eventually, the U.S. Calvary used it as a stable, housing up to 32 horses in it at a time.

The wood on these trees decays very slowly, as a high tannin content repels insects, fungi, and bacteria. No one knows how long this tree, called the Fallen Monarch, has lain here although it is believed to be centuries.

Giant trees aren’t the only attraction in Kings Canyon. There are lovely vistas with deep canyons…

…spectacular meadows (I fell head over heals in love with this one)…

…unusual plants…

…the Kings River…

…and stunning waterfalls. This 75-foot one was called Grizzly Falls and is just a short walk from the main road.

One of our favorite places was near “Road’s End,” where, you guessed it, the road ends. There’s a trail to “Zumwalt Meadow,” which starts with this beautiful spot. Before man intervened and built a reservoir downriver, this water flowed all the way down to the San Joaquin Valley. Spanish explorers first saw it in 1805 and named it El Rio de los Santos Reyes, or River of the Holy Kings. Take that original name along with the many canyons in this area (some of the deepest in the U.S. at over 8,000 feet and one specifically named Kings Canyon) and the moniker of Kings Canyon National Park was born.

Here’s the sheer face of North Dome, which rises above the canyon floor more than 3,600 feet. That's nearly identical to the more famed El Capitan in Yosemite, although it more closely resembles Yosemite’s Half Dome.

And finally, the beautiful Zumwalt Meadow, named for a Southern Pacific Railway Company attorney who worked to conserve this land. The meadow itself was formed when an avalanche during the winter of 1968-69 ripped the forest away.

Taken at the edge of Zumwalt Meadow, this is just one of the picture-perfect spots in Kings Canyon. The half-mile high cliffs all around are called the Grand Sentinel.

Not far away is Roaring River Falls, which isn’t overly tall but certainly is powerful.

Kings Canyon National Park, which is actually split into two detached sections divided by the Sequoia National Forest, is a testament to nature's beauty. Whenever we visit a place like this, I wonder what our country must have looked like before it was settled and the land and rivers tamed. It's enough to make one stop and think a moment, isn't it?

A 'Home Day'

Today was mostly a quiet day.  We've run around a bit the last couple of days, visiting a couple of National Parks (more posts in the coming days), but today was all about school, and a little rest.

Jill had the girls get computers out after school, and the funniest thing happened.  We started figuring out how many computers I keep on the rig.  As an IT guy - I have a lot of backups, extras, and used stuff.  We have the girls use our old laptops when they can.

Fact is, I finally counted it all up.  We have 11 wireless-network computers on the rig, and that doesn't include the three phones.  In our rig, that means I have one device per 3.5 square feet.  We're probably more saturated than most IT companies... I knew I was an IT guy, but I didn't know I was that dedicated...

Madelyn decided that she was more interested in playing outside than on BreyerHorses.com or StarFall.com.  Her sisters love those sites on the Internet.  Madelyn, however, has such an imagination playing outside with water.  I joined her outside after about an hour and at one point she spilled a huge jug of water on my papers.  Out of her mouth came one of my favorite lines of the entire trip - "Daddy, I'm sorry, but if I don't mess things up - how can I learn?"  Make mistakes, learn from them - I love the lessons from my kids.

A surreal shopping experience

Since I'm usually up late, like to get out, and don't usually have to drag the kids along with me to the store, I've elected to do most of the marketing for the house in recent months. I enjoy it, and have actually become quite the grocery shopper. I can tell you what the better deal is on steak/pork/chicken, how much I should pay for Cheerios by the ounce before it is a 'deal', and can run down our 'staples' list pretty quickly when asked.

When shopping, I usually tend to stick to the stores I know. I like to venture out on occasion, but when pressed, especially in California, I try to stick to Vons, Safeway, Albertsons, and, when in Hemet, Stater Bros. So, when shopping here in Visalia, I plugged grocery into Garmin and drove to the familiar. First, I ran by Vons, because it was fairly close at 5 miles away. When I drove by, you could almost still smell the fresh ink on the For Lease sign... so on to Albertson's - 8 miles away. Now, there were several 'markets' that were close, but they all sounded small and independent, or large and Food4Less-ish, which I try not to shop at. Anyhow - on to Albertson's, regardless of which freeways I need to take to get there...

When I arrived at 'Albertson's' according to Garmin, there was no Albertson's, but a different grocery there. Once again, I'd been "Garmin'd". It turns out that a Hispanic-focused grocery store, Vallarta, bought out a number of Albertson's and opened shop there. I've run into this chain a couple of times before, most memorably back in Salinas, but hadn't gone in yet. I figured this time, with the three-strike rule in effect (No Vons, No Albertson's, No other recognizable Grocery chain within 15 miles), it might be time to just bite the bullet and shop the store. It was a life-changing experience for me - in the way I think about things, and how I might react to other things in the future. More on that at the end - first, let me tell you about the store.

Now, I've been in A LOT of Japanese/Asian markets, and I expect what they usually are. A Japanese television program playing in the background. A Couple of people in the back doing what, I have no idea. Most of the product in this little, tiny, poorly-lit and kinda-smelly storefront is in Japanese with odd (to us) labels, and they try their best to have some kind of English label on them if they can. Much of the stuff looks other-worldly, but I know enough to wander around and find what I want to eat and buy. It’s a niche market on a small scale, and it works. I know that in some towns they are bigger, but they are still niche.

Vallarta was a completely different deal. It was big, well-stocked, and put me in a different world. I felt like I'd been transported to Mexico City and had to wander around the supermercado, not the tienda, to get provisions. I will start off by saying this - these guys do it right. They know their market, they cater specifically to that market, and they aren't worried about having everything for everyone. I didn't think to look, but I was probably the only non-Hispanic person in the place. From the music over the loudspeaker to the check stand calls (spoken too fast for me to understand anything other than "lina tres" (must be a phone call on line 3).

The clientele was fitting too. I passed the fully-dressed Mariachi band member looking like he just got off work to the usual bright-colored dress of the teenagers. Not a word of English to be heard.

On walking in I decided to do what I could and expected to be able to fill my list just like at any grocery. First up, a little beer. Here's what the cooler looks like - 12 doors, 3 of them dedicated to nothing but Bud Light. They know what their clientele drink.  4 doors of several different Mexican/Central American beers and a door or two for 'other varieties'. Love it. I picked up the one size of Coors cans they stocked, and moved on.

Next on my list - zucchini. They don't have zucchini. They do have about 13 varieties of peppers, packaged so many different ways that it took me 5 minutes to go through it all. They even had stuff that I'd never seen before (left). Keep in mind - we've been in California in some pretty heavily-populated Hispanic markets, AND I look for stuff that I've never seen before just so I can buy it and learn how to cook/grill it - especially vegetables and fruits. Anyway - after going through the entire produce section I found my zucchini, now simply called ‘Italian Squash’. Perfect.

On to meats. WOW. I honestly had no idea there were that many different types of Tripe. They had it all, packaged in any amount you could think of - just like you see Rib-eye packaged in American stores - exactly the same I'd say -- think, thin, cross-cut, roast, large quantities, small quantities, all of it. Again, I was humbled in thinking that it was amazing that some Wal-Marts in SoCal carried it at all. Clearly, little did I know how many different ways Tripe is offered.

Another amazing rack of choices was with the Chorizo sausage. I thought there was only one kind. Clearly, as you can see from the picture - there are a lot of options to choose from.

I took some other miscellaneous pictures to show off the market, and will put captions with each to tell what it is. However, my shopping trip, and this post are not yet finished...

This was their prepared Carne, Pollo, etc. section - I dreamed of street tacos.

FRESH Cheeses, and I only took a pic of 1/3 of the case.  I'm going back.

Ceviche anyone?  This is a case that is stocked everyday.

While I was very tempted by the avocado dip, the green salsa and the other
interesting dishes, the 'Pork Skin in Vinegar' (left) wasn't for me this round.

It should have been apparent to me that some of my shopping list, specifically Whole Wheat English Muffins, was not going to get taken care of in this environment. Simply put, Hispanic people do not need to have 9 different kinds of this item from 3 different vendors on the shelves. This store is pointed specifically at one type of clientele, and English Muffins are not widely consumed in that demographic, (as you can see from the single package, top right) obviously.

Chocolate chips were another item that I was surprised at. A staple in our household as treats for Jill and the kids; it appears that this population does not have the love for them that we do. The first photo shows what the stores I normally shop at have - 16 different facings of various options.

Vallarta? Well, as you can see in the photo below - ONE (toll-house and peanuty, so I can't buy it) kind, and ONE kind of Powdered Sugar, and ONE kind of coconut, and ONE... just a different shopping experience from the usual baking aisle, for the right reasons.

A few facts, and then my takeaway from this whole thing. Vallarta has been voted the #1 Hispanic Supermarket, and from the pictures you have to see why. A family business, Vallarta Supermarkets started in 1985 as a single store in Van Nuys, CA with 5 employees, and soon needed a second store to increase revenue. Their idea was to take their background as a hard-working farm family from Jalisco - now a hard-working multi-purposed family of 5 boys in the US, all working various jobs in various food/catering fields, contributing to the family income even as students in high-school - and cater to the Hispanic community - one which the big-box stores were largely under serving in their offerings. Vallarta now showcases 39 stores in a number of California counties with about 8,000 employees.

What I loved about this experience was that it made me see things from a whole different side. I'm concerned that some people reading this might take it as racist or elitist, and truly - it is meant to be anything but that. Here's a store that picked one type of clientele, and chose to serve them specifically. From creating the cuts of meat they want to the produce they buy to the prepared items they eat - and doing it so well that they don't have to care about anyone else. What a great business model. Even more amazing was that there were so many things that I think of 'staples' that aren't staples - they are simply items that a majority of shoppers buy. I'm certain that if I were trying to fill out a two-week list of the things we normally buy, that I'd not have found half of them in any style that I normally buy them in Vallarta. Why stock it if it won't sell?

The most important takeaway for me was to look at how I look at things as a white male, and how catered-to I am in most of this American society. I've always been a guy, thanks to poker, that tries to look at things from the other side. This 'other side' was too big for me to see though. I'm grateful that I've had the experience and only hope that I can show my kids to look at the world from more than their own singular perspective.

I was so impressed with the in-your-face approach of Vallarta -- the 'take-care-of-our-own' attitude that it has spun me for a loop. Mostly it has made me see things from that side of the coin. Kudos to them. And now, I know where I can get 5 different kinds of everything I want when I want to make authentic Mexican dishes - which we love. Now, I just wish these folks were in New Jersey...

Kings Canyon and Sequoia

Jill's Journal: It was Kings Canyon National Park for us today, while Sequoia National Park is on the agenda for tomorrow. What a beautiful, spectacular country we have, truly. I have several pictures to share, but beyond these snippets, they’ll just have to wait. This is one tired family!

Overheard at the Campground

Jill's Journal: We said a sad goodbye to Kristi, Adam, and Baby Logan today, finding ourselves a few hours later ensconced in a campground near Sequoia National Park.

As we were setting up, another family pulled up and began to do the same thing. Like us, they were also a couple with three young children. Unlike us (hopefully), they were clearly a bit frazzled. It turns out they’d had a long, multiple-day drive and were simply at the end of their respective ropes.

The father, looking half-apologetic and half-happy-to-escape, left his overwhelmed wife to make dinner and wrangle their children while he went to the store. This exchange is what we overheard:

“Honey,” he said, “I’ll get you a six-pack or a 12-pack, whatever you need. What do you want?”

Without missing a beat, the mother returned, “A sedative!”

Oh, how we laughed. You just can’t make this stuff up.

Two-Year Roadiversary!

Jill's Journal: Today marks our two-year roadiversary. Two years. On the road. We wouldn’t have traded it for anything. What an experience. We’re a normal family; we have some magical days and some not-so-magical days, but it seems the magical ones when traveling heavily outweigh the not-so-magical ones. If we'd thought before that there is no education quite like the one someone gets from traveling, now we’re convinced beyond belief. The things our girls have learned from seeing it with their own eyes trumps anything they could learn from textbooks. And even at our ripe old ages, Rob and I have also been enriched far beyond what we could have imagined two years ago.

Two years. It feels like we’re only just getting started. We have so much more to see and do. Traveling is addicting. The more one travels, the more one wants to travel. I recently made a list of the things I’d like to accomplish in life, what some call a bucket list, and I’ll be darned if the majority of them aren’t travel-related in some way, shape, or form.

Two years. Our first year and our second year were so very different. In our early months of that first year, we were hell-bent on packing as much into each and every day as we possibly could. We were convinced we had to see everything, absolutely everything, and cover as much ground as possible. This second year, we’ve slowed down and savored things more. Plus, we’ve had the added bonus of being around family this second year, giving our girls the gift of knowing both sides of our extended family better. We’ve savored that too as we know it won’t be much longer we’ll be in this neck of the woods. We’ve enjoyed these special people while we can because we won’t always have that luxury.

Two years. We’ve only covered three states this year, but they were big ones. In another month or six weeks, we’ll finally be “finished” with California, Oregon, and Nevada. If we’d known a year ago that we’d be “pausing” soon due to our New Jersey plans on the horizon, we would have rushed to cover more ground instead of getting to know these states so well. My first thought with New Jersey looming was, “Crap; why’d we spend so much time in California?” But, in hindsight, I’m glad we didn’t know and didn’t rush. These three states are huge with so much to offer. All are unique and varied and wonderful and we have explored them so thoroughly. How many people get to know not only their own state so well but multiple states that well? We are truly blessed.

Two years. Yes, we’ll be taking somewhat of a hiatus from full-time travel soon while we enjoy all the East Coast has to offer from our new base of New Jersey, but we don’t intend to stop traveling. Stop? Are you kidding? It’ll be a little different, sure, but we won’t be stopping. We have so much more to see! Two years. We’re just getting started!

Nieces of Adam

Jill's Journal: Only in California does one spot foreboding signs like this. Since I grew up in California, these signs don’t phase me, but I can see how they might strike a little fear into the heart of someone from another part of the country. And just for the record, I would take an earthquake over a tornado or a hurricane any day. Somehow I’ll bet most natives to the Left Coast would agree with me…and just about everyone originally from other parts of the country would adamantly disagree. Funny how that works.

Also spotted in downtown San Luis Obispo today: one Uncle Adam walking with two of his (now) four nieces.

Spotted yesterday: two Adams in their pajamas making breakfast for the whole crew. Three siblings, two spouses, four kids…our numbers are growing!

Uncle Adam made the long drive up to the Central Coast for the weekend to meet his new niece. Look at her look at him!

Yes, another niece to adore this awesome uncle. And it’s just a hunch, but if his first three nieces are any indication, I’m pretty certain Logan will too adore Uncle Adam.

Days of Logan

Jill's Journal: Goodness gracious, I believe it’s been a whole week since I’ve had a picture of our new niece/cousin on here and I just can’t resist adding one (or two or three) more. Baby Logan is such a content and sweet little one and Kristi and Adam are so adept at this parenting gig that you’d never believe they’re only 11 days in. As for us, we’ve been so blessed to see this little lady every single day of her young life so far…oh my, it’s going to be hard to leave next week!