Wanderlust TrailerLove

Wander 019 - Avett Brothers for Valentines Day / Sequoia RV Ranch (Visalia, CA)

February 13-15, 2015 - Sequoia RV Ranch, Three Rivers, CA

Valentines Day... great excuse for an RV trip. I saw that Avett Brothers were playing in Visalia on Valentines Day and I knew it was perfect. But... we're not going to stay in Visalia (we're not crazy). So we found a river front spot in Three Rivers (near Lake Kaweah), just outside of Sequoia National Park.

Clearly Hank enjoyed the weather too.

Brian accidentally took a selfie while trying to fix my camera:

Brilliant girl scout stopped by our camp:

The river near our campsite:

The "swimming hole" near our campsite... probably better in the summer:

Saturday was spent sitting in the campsite enjoying this peaceful view... Brian played guitar, I played banjo, we drank and relaxed. Perfect:

The Fox Theater in Visalia: (why are so many old cool theaters called The Fox?)

The Avett Brothers. One of my inspirations to learn banjo. It was amazing:

Since we were only a few minutes away from Sequoia National Park we decided to swing by on Sunday before we left. Hank was up for it:

We were pleased to find out that park admittance was free because it was President's Day weekend... we were not so pleased to learn that the big trees are 45 minutes away from the entrance of the park. We knew we had a 5 hour drive ahead of us (without the visit to the park) so we almost turned around, but decided to check it out.

Some asshole vandalized the wall; but they're note made me laugh so...

Quick, short trip to General Sherman:

That's General Sherman coming out the top of my head:

What a great weekend! Other than the fact that I ended up with a head cold... perfect.

Wander 018 - Thanksgiving at Placerville KOA (Placerville, CA)

November 26-30, 2014 - A renewed Thanksgiving tradition.

We met my brother's family, Brent, Erin & Kolton, and Phil, Tracy & Bryan in wine country for Thanksgiving.

The home made table decorations:

Hanging out with baby Kolton:

Bonding with mom:

Dodging the rain:

Enjoying the dogs at Larson Family Winery

Lot's of peacocks hanging out at camp:

On the way out of Larson Family Winery I got a text from Scott saying, "what's blue and white and red all over?" Brian and my mom and I puzzled over the riddle for quite awhile. We couldn't come up with an answer. Finally, my brother let me in on the joke... the blue and white cooler (which had been full of wine) had fallen out of the truck and busted open on the road. Haha! Good memories being made.

Wander 017 - Hangtown Halloween Ball (Placerville, CA)

Not many pictures, but we had another great time at Hangtown Halloween Ball. Just trust me ;)

Wander 016 - North Shore Campground (Lake Almanor, CA)

September 25-29, 2014 - North Shore Campground, Lake Almanor, CA

Last year we loved our fishing trip with Dick and Nancy. This year we wanted to do something similar. We picked a spot on Lake Almanor and invited Dick and Nancy to join us. Unfortunately, Dick's health prevented him from joining us. But on the upside, my mom was able to come. So it ended up being a Mom's weekend.

The other unfortunate surprise is that we learned that the water in Lake Almanor is used to bolster the state's low supply and so, by the time we got there, most of the lake had been drained and our "lake front" reservations were no longer "lake" "front". (they were nice enough to lower the cost of the reservations accordingly).

But we still had an amazing trip. Here's a glimpse of one of the beautiful sunsets:

We celebrated my mom's birthday while we were there. Thankfully the power (which had been off all day) came on just an hour or so before the celebration: