California 2025-Last Days on the West Coast

July 10th

We traveled back to Pleasanton from Lassen. Lots of dessert looking small towns along the way! We did get to stop for the newly returned McDonald's snack wrap which was a highlight for me!

The boys in front of our house in Shingletown.

 

It was super hot when we got back so we took the kids to the community pool.

Dave helped Aunt Amy cook dinner. It turned out great! Alex came over again and we all hung out on our last night with them. 

July 11th 

I don't remember how it came about but somehow they all went golfing again the next morning. Another good round and then Amy and I met them for a delicious breakfast at the racing track.

It was so great to get to visit with their family and they were the best hosts! Totally opened up their home to us and fed us fantastic meals. We really appreciated everything and would love to get back out to visit! 

After breakfast we loaded up the car and headed back into the city. We stayed in a hotel by the airport since our flight was at 6 am!!

First stop was to the Nintendo store. I didn't even realize they had one in San Francisco but I saw it when I was looking for directions so we decided to pop in. It was so cool!

The kids wanted to walk around the fancy department stores so we did that for a minute but we are clearly not the correct clientele!

We skipped the Palace of Fine Arts before so we went back to walk through that. It is crazy, like being on a movie set or something.

Ike got one more mango and Chamoy on top. It's actually quite delicious. Then we spent about 30 minutes figuring out where to park so we could walk on the Golden Gate Bridge. Also it was freezing and cloudy again!!

That rounded out our tour of San Francisco. We went back to the airport, turned out rental in, and then took the shuttle back to our hotel. We Doordashed Jollibee chicken (delicious) and the kids played some Guess Who before hitting the pool for a while.

We turned in as early as we could since we had to be up at 3 am (great planning huh?) to get on the shuttle to the airport. No pictures were taken because we were all super exhausted. But we made it home at 6 that evening which was awesome! This was such a fantastic trip, I cannot recommend it enough!

California 2025-Lassen Volcanic NP

July 8th 

I woke up bright and early to watch the sunrise (along with what felt like a million mosquito friends). I spent the morning going in and out of the lodge to avoid my lovely friends while trying to get a pretty sunrise picture!

Lots of mule deer roaming around.

We took Dave around the majority of the loop before heading back south.

We passed Mt. Shasta along the drive.

We stopped at Burney Falls-this was one heck of a waterfall!

Another quick stop-Subway Cave Lava Tubes. I absolutely loved this-how cool that lava flowed through these "caves". The kids were freaked out because it was pitch black in there!

 

From here we went into Lassen Volcanic NP to do a short trail around Manzanita Lake before heading to our home for two nights in Shingletown.

Mt. Lassen

This was in our backyard off of the deck. This area was so peaceful! At this point we were done for the night and settled in to rest for the next day!

July 9th 

We always listen to the Guide Along app when we are touring national parks and he told us to stop at the Devastated Area Loop Trail. This was so cool, it showed giant rocks and other landscape features from when Lassen erupted in the early 1900s.

Lake Helen

The main hike we wanted to go on was to Bumpass Hell but the trailhead was completely shut down because of snow drifts. Don't worry we found a way later!

So much snow! It seriously looked like winter, and up at this point was around 55 degrees out.

We found out from the visitor center that you could get to Bumpass Hell from another trail, it just added about 4 miles! We decided to give it a try and whew that was an adventure. Hiked out from the Kings Creek trailhead and traipsed up a mountain to get there finally.

This is part of the Cold Boiling Lake which was honestly not very impressive. This was pretty though!

I am pretty sure this is Crumbaugh Lake-we only saw it from above. It was so blue!

There were definitely times this hike felt treacherous. At one point the boys about had enough but we convinced them to keep going. I'm so glad they did, the end was worth it!

It was kind of like a small version of Yellowstone thermal features. Smelled very strongly of sulphur and hot lots of bubbling stuff.

Quick selfie along the hike.

The kids wanted to check out Manzanita lake again (Dave was hoping to kayak but that was shutting down as we got there). Ike swam for a bit and Josh and Dave hung out with these strangely friendly geese.

We were exhausted and starving (major theme from this trip!) so we stopped to get pizza at Pioneer Hillside Pizza. Well half of us got pizza and half got burgers. Overall it was pretty good considering it was one of the only restaurants in town! And that concluded our National Parks of Northern California/Oregon loop. Back to Pleasanton and San Francisco!

California (Oregon) 2025-Crater Lake

July 7th

On our way to Crater Lake we stopped off in Crescent City because it was so sunny and pretty!

We could actually see the lighthouse this morning :)

 

As we were driving along the coast a bit we noticed signs for Point St. George so we walked out to the this area and man was it beautiful!

Once we got to Crater Lake we popped into the visitor's center then drove part of the loop (you couldn't go completely around due to construction) and did a couple of short hikes-Sun Notch Trail and a wildflower trail before heading to the lodge to check in.

There was so much snow on this trail! It was completely covering parts-so crazy to us.

The views were incredible.

The lodge was very old (no air conditioning) but we were able to get a lake view room! And major bonus points the wifi was super fast!

Snacking with a view.

Dave stayed back and enjoyed the internet while the rest of us drove the loop all the way around. 

This little guy was on a photoshoot for me, hilarious!

Ike had to climb this giant pile of snow.

Back to gather Dave and have some dinner. 

We packed up a picnic dinner before we left the redwoods-chicken bacon ranch wraps with some chips and fruit. There were not a lot of food options in this area!

After dinner Ike and I took a hike along the Discovery Point Trail. We saw a bunch of mule deer and another ground squirrel and then the mosquitos joined us. Holy moly the mosquitos were so bad here!!

Everyone came back together to watch the gorgeous sunset but we bounced right after because we were getting eaten alive!!