My Trips to California

Starting in 1983, my parents sent me a plane ticket every year or two to fly to California to visit them. The first time I took the kids with me, because Casey was a newborn and I had developed gallstones. My mother didn't think we had any surgeons in Arkansas as good as the one she had in California. (She had gallbladder surgery the previous year.) So we went to California so I could have her surgeon, and she could play with the new baby in the family. My grandfather went with us, to help me wrangle the babies on the flight out there. (Grandma was already in California for the winter. Papa didn't usually stay in California all winter.)

The surgery went well, and we stayed a total of 6 weeks, as I recall. So we got to do a lot of sightseeing while we were there. These pictures are from that trip, and also from the second trip in 1985, in which I went by myself for 2 weeks and left the boys at home with Keith (and his mother). Mom believed that a full-time wife/mother should have a vacation every year, like other folks with jobs. Keith and his mother didn't agree with that philosophy at all. But -- nobody crosses Wathada. Hence, the tradition continued and I had my vacation every couple years.

These pictures were taken at Santa Barbara. I made sure both of the boys dipped their feet in the Pacific Ocean. (Casey has also been in the Atlantic Ocean since then -- I don't know about Christopher -- and they have both also been in the Gulf of Mexico.) My mother painted a picture from one of these photos of Dad and Christopher feeding the seagulls at Santa Barbara.

The pictures below were taken at Solvang. (A Danish-style village.) In this toy store Mom bought me a little nesting doll. She said I had one like it when I was a little girl, but I don't remember that. Anyway, through all the years they were in California she collected nesting dolls. By the time they retired she had a very extensive collection.

The pictures below were taken at the Roy Rogers museum in Victorville, California. My dad loved Roy Rogers.

I think these pictures were taken at Big Bear. Or on the way to Big Bear. There is a ski resort there, where my brother John went sometimes in the winter. It's pretty fascinating to me that in the L.A. basin you can go surfing in the ocean and snow-skiing in the mountains all in the same day.

The last trip I made to California was in 1994. Mom and Dad retired and moved back to Michigan in 1997.

Zion National Park

 Zion National Park, Utah

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Teton Mystery Spot

Elk Antler Arches

Sequoia and King's Canyon National Parks

I don't know how many times my parents went to the Sequoias and King's Canyon. I went with them once. It is an enchanted place. We were there during one of the meteor showers and got to see over 100 "shooting stars".

Being among those ancient sequoias made me think of this verse --

Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground. ~Acts 7:33

Yellowstone National Park

 Red and Wathada at Yellowstone National Park

Natural Bridges National Monument (Utah)

Mom and Dad at Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah

Kinda makes you appreciate the quality of digital photography, doesn't it?

I had to make several adjustments to these pictures to make them easier to discern. Remember the olden days when you had to wait a week and just hope the pictures came out okay? And if they didn't, well, that's a shame. No second chances.

Bryce Canyon

Red and Wathada at Bryce Canyon 

From looking at the sequence numbers from when I scanned all the negatives, it looks like these pictures (which I already posted) belong with the Bryce Canyon trip.

Randsburg

 That's my dad in the top picture. Mom in the second one.

What's Randsburg, you ask...

https://www.goridgecrest.com/randsburg.html#:~:text=Along%20with%20Johannesburg%20and%20Red,and%20enjoying%20the%20historic%20town.

Bodie Ghost Town

 According to Google images, this is Bodie Ghost Town, in Bodie, California

These pictures were taken 30 September 1995

Trips Out West

My parents made a lot of camping trips out west during the years they lived in California. I've tried to get them all sorted and identified as to location, as best I can. I'm not sure where they were when these pictures were taken.