4 Wheels 4 Girls

On May 15, we went to Adventure Playground, a playground that was built and keeps being rebuilt by kids, in Berkeley. It was very fun. I built a fort with Owen. Greta helped us paint and I got paint all over my winter coat. It’s OK though because Perry said it will wash out. And then we climbed through a spider web thing and I got stuck. And then we left and went down to the beach and built sandcastles. After that we went and had pizza. We had cheese and sausage pizza. It was really good.

In the nets at Adventure Playground

May 10 we were camping right next to the Pacific Ocean. It was very blue and had large waves. It sounded like the wind. We saw an animal in the Pacific Ocean. I thought it was a dolphin. Daddy and Stella thought it was a sea lion. It was black and it had a big fin.

We went on a very cold bike ride. It was very hard to bike in the wind. We rode our bikes to the beach. I did not get wet like the day before. I did get a lot sandy. It was hard to push my bike in the sand.

Then we rode our bikes to a pizza restaurant. We were really cold when we got there. My sisters didn’t know we were going to get pizza. I knew, but I kept the secret. It was a nice surprise for my sisters.

Warm pizza on a cold night

We got a cheese pizza and a pizza with cheese, canadian bacon, and pineapple. They were good. Cheese pizza was my favorite. I liked it because it was warm and it had good crust. We also got a salad. I didn’t like the salad because it was too cheesy and the croutons tasted icky.

Then we rode our bikes back home. The ride home was more cold. I was so tired that I did not have a very good surprise because we had to go uphill to get to our campground.

Done.

On May 7th, we went to a ranger program at Yosemite National Park. It was the Bear Walk. It was a walk with a ranger about bears. We learned about the bear traps, where a bag of fish guts is hung inside and the trap door closes when a bear tries to get them. One bear learned how to stick his leg out when he gets the fish so the door can’t shut and lock.

The ranger told us about a bear called Orange-5. She would go into campgrounds to find human food, and the rangers would chase her away. She would sneak back five sites down and try again, and they would chase her all night long. The rangers would yell at her, “Drop it, bear!” and then they would chase her.

We learned that bears would break into cars and RVs. They learned how to open the doors using the handles. So, don’t forget to lock your car every time you go to Yosemite and other places with bears, too.

We learned that bears like apples and apple blossoms. They climb up into apple trees to eat them. So, don’t forget to not park under an apple tree where bears like to eat the apples. The ranger told us that there was a nice car parked under an apple tree with a bear in it, and the bear pooped on his car and then hopped down onto his trunk when he was ready to leave.

In a bear trap, a ranger was fixing it and the door slammed shut and he was trapped. He had no radio with him. The ranger called for help when people walked by.

The ranger told us where the bears are usually at. They are usually at a fen, which is really a lake.

On May 5, after we saw the giant trees, we drove down into Kings Canyon along the Kings River. Kings Canyon was named by spanish explorers. Momma says it was named for the three kings in the christmas story.

Kings River was going fast, and it looked like it was going backwards, because it was full of waves and they looked like they were going backwards. There were so many waves because the water had to make its way over rocks and to the left and the right of the rocks. It was a very long river. It went all the way through Kings Canyon. The river was wild all the way up into the canyon, and then where all the trees were, it was calm and it looked like a lake, but it was a river.

We stopped for a short walk to Grizzly Falls. It was a big waterfall and it had a lot of melted snow coming down. It was like a big thunderstorm. We couldn’t walk right up to it because it was too wet and the air was full of cold water. Instead, we walked up to a rock along the side of the falls where it wasn’t so wet.

Happy and wet in the mist of Grizzly Falls

We walked to Roaring River Falls. I heard water. I smelled the smell of water. I saw a lot of rocks and a waterfall and a river with rapids and two lizards fighting on a big rock. I was careful near the rivers because I didn’t want to fall in. It would be scary and cold and I would drown maybe.

Sitting on the banks of the Roaring River in Kings Canyon

On May 1st, we went to Las Vegas to get Momma from Denver. We were in a big rush to get Momma, because I wanted to see her. But then she texted Stella and guess what she said? Her flight was delayed for one hour. So we stopped at a Subway for dinner. We had a big surprise, it was closed. We kept driving and found a Subway that was open. I had a BLT. Then we drove all the way to Las Vegas.

Driving in, we saw the big needle building. It had a roller coaster on top. We drove past Circus Circus. We saw our campground in back of Circus Circus, but kept driving so we could see the casinos. They were cool. We Daddy said Caesar’s Palace was on the left, I thought he said Caesar’s Salad. We saw part of the pirate show on the way back to Circus Circus.

We did not gamble in the casinos.

We went to the campground and went to bed, because it was getting very late. We did not pick up Momma at the airport because she was getting to Las Vegas late. Even later than before her flight got delayed the first time. When Momma got to the campground I was the only kid awake. She hugged me. I was glad I was awake so Momma could hug me.

April 30th was our third day in Zion National Park. Me, Ellie, Stella, Greta, and Daddy went to Taylor Creek, which is in a different part of the park, in Kolob Canyons. We went on a long hike up into a canyon, where you cross Taylor Creek about 40 times to get to the end of the trail, then you hike back. Actually, not a long hike, because around the 13th creek crossing, one of my feet went in the icy cold water when me and Greta were crossing.

This Taylor Creek crossing was long and difficult, but we made it across this one.

Daddy took his clean shirt and put my wet sock in it and rolled it up to squeeze the water out. Then he stuffed his shirt inside my wet shoe. Greta felt very bad for me, so I decided to give her something that she wanted, which was to go swimming. Daddy asked me if I wanted to go back or keep on hiking, so I said go back. On the way back, we were crossing the creek at another difficult place, and a lady helped us get across. She tried to pick me up and lift me across the rocks, instead of just holding my hand, and both my feet went in the water. This time we just kept on walking because it took a long time before to dry out my shoe and this time both were wet and we were close to our RV anyway. It wasn’t so bad walking with wet shoes.

We drove to a lookout over six different canyons. My dad says they were the Kolob Canyons. They looked like fins, all lined up in a row. We could see Zion Canyon from the lookout, far away. My dad pointed it out.

Looking out at the Kolob Canyons in Zion National Park

After Kolob Canyons, we drove down to the campground and went swimming. The pool was heated and it was inside. It was nice and fun. We played who-can-jump-the-farthest and who-can-have-the-littlest-spash and who-can-have-the-biggest-spash and who-can-have-the-loudest-spash and dolphins. Then we took showers and walked to Subway for dinner. I had a footlong BLT with pickles on it. It was good.

One day Daddy left his big pitcher of tea on the side of the counter when Mommy started to drive down a bumpy road. We know that if it falls, it makes a huge mess. It has fallen twice before. Ellie and I realized it was going to fall again. She ran up and caught it just in time. Then Daddy said he was so grateful that the next time we have ice cream she could have half of his ice cream as well as hers.

That pitcher is in a dangerous spot

On Easter we went to Capitol Reef National Park. At Capitol Reef we hiked to a natural bridge. Me and Ellie were playing horses. Along the way, Mama spotted a little natural bridge. I didn’t see it, so she had to point it out to me. It had three bridges over where water runs when it rains, and we could stand on it and under it.

This natural bridge was easy to go under and walk over

Once we got to the big natural bridge, Stella took a picture of it. She was the only one to take a picture.

This picture looks lopsided, but actually the world is lopsided.

On the way back, me and Ellie found a rock that we could sit inside. It looked sort of like an arch. Someday, maybe it will become an arch.

This rock looked like an arch

At Capitol Reef we drove through an orchard. In a flash we were at the Visitor Center. We got our junior ranger packets as usual and filled them in. We had a ranger talk with Ranger Crystal. She was very nice. She told us what trees are in the orchard and what animals live here and how Capitol Reef got its name. One reason Capitol Reef got its name is because there is a mountainish thing that looks like the Capitol building. Ranger Crystal told us that the old schoolhouse was never bigger for all its life; it was always small.

Capitol Dome at Capitol Reef National Park

We checked out our junior ranger packets with Ranger Rick. He was very nice. He asked me a lot of questions and he told us about a lot of things. I liked his stories because he told us about the kids in the old schoolhouse.

On April 23, we went to Goblin Valley State Park. It was a place where there were faces all over, and it was very cool because there were so many places for running and hiding and climbing. The faces were in the stones. There were a lot of nooks and crannies. There was no trail so we could do whatever we wanted. Me and Ellie were playing horses. There were nooks where you could hide when it was raining. I wish I could have spent the night in a goblin.

Standing in a group of goblins

We went to Arches on April 22. I really wanted to see Bighorn Sheep, but we didn’t see any.

These statues are the closest we have come to seeing bighorn sheep

After the first hike, we went on another trail to Delicate Arch. I tripped and fell and I scraped my hands and knees. It hurt. We arrived where we could look and see the Delicate Arch. It looked very small because it was far away. I could see it pretty well, but it was getting dark. On the way back it got really dark, and there was a bird looking thing. My dad got to see it closer than us and told us it was a bat. Stella and Ellie were playing a game that looked really fun. I was anxious for the next day because it would almost be Easter. Now my story is all told.