We wanted to take the girls to see the Biltmore house. What girl wouldn’t want to see a real castle. In addition we recently read a fictional story that takes place at the house at the turn of the century. We wanted to see the house details that were in the story. Our tour time was for the afternoon and we arrived with time to see a storm brewing close by. To our great luck the rain did not start until we entered the home and it ended before we exited the home.

Nothing shows the grandness of the house more than the scale of each room and space.

The spaces inside and out were decorated with beautiful plants and flowers.

Watch out where you go, you might find a lion that will sneeze on you. There is a family photo of the Vanderbilts around this lion with Mr. V sitting on top of the statue. It was great to see that they lived and loved their house as a home and did not treat it only as a museum. The pair of lions were referenced in the story we read so we needed our own family photo by one.

The house was amazing! Not that we didn’t expect to be impressed, but the grandness was evident in every room. One special gift for us was that someone played the pipe organ while we visited the first floor. The music moved into the rooms we were in just like we were in the same room as the organ. Our favorites were (Robby) the library, (Emily) the library and Mrs. Vanderbilt’s Room, (Julia) the whole house, and (Rachelle) the billiard room.

The house was to be lived in and enjoyed. It had its own bowling alley. Maybe one day there will be a tour that allows people to play a bit.

The stairway was inside and built into the outside. Two of each window sets were “doors” that could open and allow access to the balcony outside and allow fresh air into the house when needed. What cool detail.

Part of the “working” farm included sunflowers planted along a crop line.

The strawberries came in early this year. We made our annual trip out with our friends to pick a few buckets full. With kids in school now, we went out in the late afternoon. While it could have been super hot, there was a nice breeze and the humidity was low, so the day was perfect. This year was the easiest hunt for our family. We had boots to take away the problems of the mud, the girls were able to pick a full bucket themselves, they were busy with friends while they worked, and we came home with plenty of red sweet snacks.

Our friends – only missing one trooper

This is how to pick strawberries – find a good spot, be willing to climb into the plants to find good ones, and hang with a friend.

Arches National Park is one of our favorite places to visit. While this park wasn’t on our volcanic event list, we drove right past it. How could we not stop for a quick visit? We took a few hours off the road to stretch our legs and show the girls another American wonder. We took two short hikes. One involved Emily and Mama doing some climbing to get up into a window. Climbing to Double Arch was one of Emily’s favorite things. It allowed her to explore and complete a challenge. Together, the four of us took another hike to Turret Arch, North and South Windows. We look forward to returning and doing a lot more hiking and exploring. This stop was our last official stop of the trip. There were still a lot of hours to get home, but we had seen a lot. We are grateful for the wonderful things we could introduce the girls to and to discover their favorite things from this trip.

All the girls on our hike together.

This was the arch that Emily climbed up and into.

The climb gave us a great view!

Sometimes a nap is necessary to enjoy an adventure more.

Hiking a bit more.

Visitor centers have cool things to check out (and pose on)!

Perspective on the scale of the arches.

There is an unusual rock formation found in the remote Mono Lake in California. It is called “tufa tower” with spires and knobs composed of calcium carbonate. It is formed due to an interaction between the freshwater springs and alkaline lake water. We wanted to see them and got there just before dark. There was just enough light for our hike out to the lake to see them. The moon added a cool feature to our viewing. There was a lot of bird activity around the lake. Because of the water resource issues in California more and more of these towers are viewable. The hike from the parking lot was not long and the time of day we visited made the temperature fantastic. We stayed about a half an hour.

The back side of Half Dome

The famous valley view with the girls (and Pooh)

A happy Daddy to be showing such cool things to the girls.

Checking out the waterfall

We gave ourselves two days to explore around Yosemite. It was just a taste of future trips. The first day we drove into the valley and looked up a lot. The girls could name the large rock formations and main waterfalls. They even spotted a fox that Mom and Dad missed. That night we camped at Hodgdon Meadow northwest of the valley. The campsite was busy and we had to hike our stuff in a little bit to get to our site. The trees around us gave us great shade and were huge. The next day we introduced the girls to even bigger trees.

The tree by our tent.

The next day we explored Mariposa Grove before we had to head on over the mountains. There is no way to explain how big the Giant Sequoias are. Even when looking at the grove of Sequoias it is hard to value the size until you can walk by or through one. We took a tram ride through the grove to get a better look at the trees. Common sense told us that if the girls had to hike the whole trail, they would miss the wonder because of being tired. We all enjoyed the ride and a short walk. Emily really picked up a lot of facts about the trees and loved being able to walk into one of them. We look forward to a return trip to this natural wonderland to explore further.

We had to work hard to hold this tree up. The middle of the tree is not necessary to bring food to the tree. One reason this tree can be so old and so big.

Just an attempt to show scale.

The trees are unbelievable!

Crater Lake National Park is an old volcano that lost its top. Now in the crater of the volcano is the deepest lake in America. Early June is still an early time to visit this park. There were still piles of snow melting at the edges of the parking lot that was kept clear year round. The portions of the park that close for the snowy season were still closed. This limited the options for our visit. We stopped at the visitor center and took in the vista of the crater and lake. The views were amazing. No filter was required for any photos. The blue of the lake brilliant.

The funny thing we discovered at this site was the metal tunnels to the restroom entrances. Because this portion of the park remains open year round they want to make the restrooms also accessible year round. They have built metal tunnels from the parking lot to the entrance of each of the restroom doors to reduce the snow clearing work. There was not snow on or around them now, so it seemed a bit odd to have to hike through them to get to the doors. We only stayed an hour at the park since some sections were closed and to try to make up some lost time from our trip. It was definitely worth the stop.