Steve and Kelly Plus Two: October 2009

Last weekend we headed out of our house into the beautiful cooler weather (high 80s!) for the first of the fall traditions, the pumpkin patch. We never really did the pumpkin patch in SC because as far as we knew, there weren't any near us, suprising considering all the farms nearby. But anyways, I was sure this trip to the patch would be just like the overpriced, cheesy pumpkin farms of my childhood, and I was right. Brian loved it though, until some bratty little boy started drop kicking him in the bouncy house. Our boy stood his ground though, telling his attacker "no!" and only occasionally shooting us looks of terror. The bouncy-house rage continued though, even after Steve had a stern talk with the future gang-banger's mother, so we vacated the bouncy house until the brat was gone. The patch was complete with a "train" ride, which fooled Brian, but not me--it was an ATV pulling some hollowed out old barrels. The most important part was that we found a suitably round and clean pumpkin to take home and carve (and some delicious fresh corn on the cob, yum).

Feeding the "Goaps"

The "Train" Ride

My tomato and melon heads

Last month we drove home to CA and went north to Yosemite with my parents and their dog Yeager in their motorhome. We camped for 5 nights and did all the typical Yosemite things, visited the falls (which didn't even have a drip of water), checked out the different villages with their gifts shops, mountain shops, and eateries. My favorite activity was a trip up to Glacier Point where you get the best views of the valley floor below and the surrounding valley walls and Half Dome. Steve enjoyed fly fishing the Merced River that passes through the valley. He figured out the fish were biting right at dinnertime and thus got out of helping prepare food each night and came back to camp for his cold dinner (can't run the motorhome generator after 7pm, thus no microwave means cold dinner for tardy fishermen). He caught several native trout but couldn't keep any because there are strict catch-and-release policies in place in the park to protect the native fish. Brian and I followed along on one fishing trip where he caught a little one. On that same trip, a super friendly duck came right up to us and we were able to feed it some cookies straight out of our hand. Brian didn't seem to understand how exciting this was and was highly concerned that he had to share his favorite "bumpy cookies" with the duck. Every time I'd hand him a cookie to feed to the duck, he'd pop it in his mouth before I could explain that he was supposed to give it to the duck. He did eventually catch on but was only satisfied to share with the duck if he got to eat one every time the duck got one! Brian's favorite camping activity was riding the free hybrid valley shuttle buses to and fro around the park (this was my least favorite thing considering the Yosemite hippees which number in the thousands tend to congregate on these crowded buses going to and from their hiking and camping experiences while totally avoiding good personal hygiene or cleaniness--even Brian at one point noticed the stentch of one particularly ripe hippee and from then on, called the bus, the "yucky bus")

The motorhome sleeping arrangements were: mom and dad in their little bedroom, Steve outside in a tent (his own choice, just in case he decided to get up early to fish, it never happened) and Brian and I on the top bunk or what he called "sleeping in the window" since he slept next to the window at the front of the motorhome. He insisted on spending every night sideways with his little feet stashed into the back of my neck or my upper back (it sort of reminded me of a massage I once had on a beach in Thailand). We even got up one morning and headed to the beautiful Ahwahnee hotel for a fancy breakfast to forget that we were camping, if only for a few minutes. After the fancy breakfast, we made a 3-hour stop at the nearby Yosemite Medical Clinic since Brian had developed a cough, sore throat, mild fever, and loss of appetite very similiar to what he had when he had strep throat a few months ago. Three hours and one educated hippee doctor later, the diagnoses was: your child has a cold virus, continue to do nothing until it gets better. Thanks for nothing Dr. Hippee! But it was a relief to find out he was strep-and-pneumonia-free. He's finally gotten rid of the cough (3 weeks later) and has stopped requesting daily to go "see the doctor Mommy" because "this hurts" (points to throat).

On the way out of Yosemite on our way home, the repeated whining and demands of one particularly annoying camper (Steve), caused us to stop at the giant Sequoia grove, so he could see the big trees. Wow, big huge trees, big deal. Steve and I have seen the Redwoods outside of San Francisco, same darn thing. It was quite a hike (uphill both ways) to the closest of the giant trees almost a mile away from the parking lot. Mom and I made it about halfway, where we settled for some smaller but still gigantic Sequoias and a rest. Dad and Steve with Brian atop his shoulders continued on to the first of the giant trees and came back impressed but tired. Then back into the vehicles and down the hill into Oakhurst, CA where we stopped for a little train ride at an old logging railway. Then on to lunch at the Forks in Bass Lake, basically a neat old diner on the water where we used to eat every time we went boating there. Eventually we made it back to Mom and Dad's house where we all got lots of rest and showers!!

The train ride (actually a "jenny car" that used to haul loggers out to the trees)