Easter Island

We boarded a plane in Santiago, Chile at 5:30 in the morning on Thursday bound for Easter Island, after traveling all day and night the previous day. Jeff had upgraded us to first class, so we could stretch out and get some sleep, and it was a brilliant move on his part. We arrived well-rested and ready to begin a new adventure. That first day, our priorities were showering and finding a place to do laundry, and we had moderate success with both. The shower was cold but got us clean, and we were told that the only laundry facility on the island had "blown up" last week. However, our landlord's mother offered to do our laundry, so we were not completely out of luck. After those important tasks were taken care of and our national park tickets and groceries were purchased, we found a place to have lunch and then visited an awesome playground overlooking the ocean. The kids played there happily while Jeff and I wandered down the path to see our first moai statues, which was just amazing. We have both always wanted to visit Easter Island (also known as Rapa Nui), and we couldn't believe we were actually here! We all reconvened just as the sky opened up and started spilling its contents, and we headed back to our cozy little cabin.

The next day, we set out to explore the tiny island, which has a total area of only 63 square miles and contains three volcanos but only one town. The drive along the coast is absolutely stunning, and we had so much fun stopping to look at all the moai, especially the large group of 15 that stands on the coast and the ones scattered along the slopes of the Rano Rarraku volcano, which is believed to be the birthplace of all 887 statues on the island. We also visited another volcano, Rano Kau, which houses a mysterious village and has amazing views of the Pacific. It also has an amazing crater, which is now filled with a freshwater lagoon that acts like a greenhouse for many different types of plants. There is one spot from which you can view all these things at roughly the same time, and we believe it may be one of our favorite places on Planet Earth. Later in the evening, we had dinner at Pea, which sits right on the water.

On Saturday, we set out for another day of exploring, revisiting a few places and hitting some of the sites we had skipped during the rain storm that moved through the day before. We kept being astounding that we were actually here! It is such an amazing place and has been on our bucket list forever. We ended the day with an amazing dinner at Te Moana.

Today was our last day on the island, but we had time to visit the museum and Rano Kau again before our afternoon flight. We are so thankful we had the opportunity to visit this magical place!

Moai

Rano Kau
Clockwise from left top: Crater, Orango Village,
View of the Pacific, Rock carving

Amazing Rapa Nui

Fun for the whole family
(Notes: Top left--We never check bags, so it was special for
Clay to pick up his bag in the baggage claim. Bottom right--
Ruth wanted to say she had driven on Easter Island, so she
had the opportunity to learn to drive a stick shift.)

Arranged by size

Some of the moai scattered on the slopes of Rano Raraku

One of our favorite places on Planet Earth

Mount St. Helens

We spent the morning hanging out around our KOA--working out, doing laundry, eating doughnuts, and playing in the awesome club house--waiting for the rain to clear out. Then, we headed over to Mount St. Helens, where we got to watch a video about the 1980 blast and hear a presentation from a park ranger about the geologists who were working in the area at the time of the eruption. The clouds were low, so we couldn't see the blast site or the crater, but it was still a very cool experience. At the bottom of the volcano, we stopped for a late lunch at Fire Mountain Grill, where Weston attempted to eat the Bigfoot Burger -- 4 hamburger patties, ham, turkey, cheese, pulled pork, bacon, fire sauce, crispy onions, caramelized onions, lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles -- and a pile of cheese-covered chips, in 30 minutes, with the hopes of winning a free t-shirt. He polished off the burger but couldn't make his way through all the chips, so he didn't get the t-shirt, and he may have expressed a few other regrets at the end of the meal, but it was an experience he will not soon forget!

Mount St. Helens

Race to the top of the volcano playground

Fire Mountain Grill

Lunch time view of the Toutle River

Ridiculously awesome burger

Playing with the trees and other fun things

We left Napa around 5:30 this morning and headed northwest. We stopped for breakfast in Garberville, before pushing on to the Redwood Forest, which was some combination of  lovely, amazing, and awe-inspiring. We got out to examine some of the trees more closely and to snap some photos, and when it was time to move on down the road, Clay whined, "But I want to stay and play with the trees!"

Not even close to filling up the stump

Peek-a-boo

 My gang and me in a cool hideout

Majestic Monsters

Even our monkey couldn't climb the redwoods

Out on a limb

He just wants to play with the trees.
Is that too much to ask?

As we continued our journey, we came across Elk Meadow, which was actually a meadow filled with elk and not just a clever name for a wide spot in the road.

So many elk!

Many hours later, we arrived at Crater Lake in Oregon, only to find it almost completely obscured by fog. But the bigger adventure may have been tromping around in the substantial amount of snow, dressed for 90° Napa. We were quite a sight!

Inappropriate weather for mid-June, if you ask me!

Foggy Crater Lake

The boys loved the huge snow drifts
 and wanted to stay and play for a while.
It should be noted that they never once talked
 of putting on pants; they only wanted their gloves.

We finally made it to our campground in Crescent, OR, around 9:00 tonight, thrilled to have checked another state off our list but tired from the long day on the road.

Sonoma and Napa

We left San Francisco yesterday morning and made the short drive to Sonoma County. Our first stop was the Boon Fly Cafe for a late breakfast, which lived up to the many glowing reviews we had read online. Weston was pretty pleased with himself for managing to order off both the breakfast and lunch menus, because he was still hungry when he finished his breakfast, but by then, the restaurant had stopped serving breakfast items and had switched to lunch. From there, we drove to the Benziger Winery for our first sample of the famous wine country. This winery wasn't as flashy as some, but the wines turned out to be our favorites of all the wineries in the area that we visited. After that, we made our way to the petrified forest for a shirt hike and a brief education in geology. We really loved the park and were fascinated with the process of petrification.  After that stop, we got back on the wine trail and visited two more family-friendly wineries. The first was Castello di Amorosa, which is built to look like a real medieval castle. The next was Sterling Vineyards, where the kids were given their own goodie  bags and we got to ride a gondola up to the winery. When the tastings were complete, we stopped to check in to our yurt at the Bothe-Napa State Park, before heading into Calistoga for dinner at Pacifico Mexican Restaurant. After dinner, we had a nice little stroll around the main street area of the town, stopping for ice cream along the way.

Boon Fly Cafe

Boon Fly's famous bucket of donuts

Benziger Estate

Mt. St. Helena

Ash flow from Mt. St. Helena's
eruption 3.4 million years agi.

New tree, old tree

Petrified giants

Castello di Amorosa

Waiting for the gondola
with goodie bags

Gondola ride at Sterling

We lost Clay, but this nice young
 man did the tour with us.

Barrel room at Sterling

Our first time to stay in a yurt

Before we set up the cots

Meditation path in Calistoga

Some of us started our day with a challenging run through our hilly campground. Then, we collected the rest of the group to go hiking in the beautiful state park. Around lunch time we headed in to St. Helena to grab sone burgers and soak up some of the gorgeous weather at Gott's Roadside. After lunch, we visited V. Sattui Winery and spent much of the afternoon lounging in their lovely picnic area. Eventually, the troops got hungry again, so we walked down the road to Pizzeria Tra Vigne.

Hiking in Bothe-Napa State Park

The road less traveled

Trailblazers

Lunch at Gott's Roadside

V. Sattui Winery

Pizzeria Tra Vigne

More fun in Vegas

Yesterday was a full and fun day in Vegas. We started at the MGM and then hit the M&M store, where we ate some mega M&Ms (about twice the size of regular ones) and watched a 3D movie about Red and Yellow's adventure in Vegas. We even saw Red in person as we were leaving the store. Then, we moved down The Strip to Paris and the Bellagio. We were disappointed that the famous Bellagio conservatory was closed while they transition from the spring display to the summer one. But, we were still thrilled with the huge chocolate fountain and the flower display in the registration area. Searching for quality Italian food, we ended up in New York New York for lunch and then popped into Excalibur to work on show tickets. Later, we walked back down to the Bellagio to watch the dancing fountains and then wandered through The Cosmopolitan and Aria. Eventually, we made it all the way down to Treasure Island, which is essentially at the complete other end of The Strip from where we are staying. But, we had to go there so we could see Mystere, an amazing Cirque du Soleil show. When the show was over, we headed next door to see the volcano erupt at The Mirage. By the time that was over, we were beat and called an Uber to take us back to our hotel.

MGM

Max and Red

Paris

Bellagio Chocolate Fountain

The dancing fountains

No words to describe how
awesome this show is!

Erupting Volcano

Today started with a fantastic brunch at The Wynn. Then, we visited Circus Circus. After that, we decided to head back to the hotel to spend some time at the pool and take care of a few items of business before heading out tomorrow. Tonight, we saw the Tournament of Kings at Excalibur, which our little knight was especially excited about. Afterwards, we took a limo ride down The Strip, because it seemed like the thing to do while we were here in Vegas. We have had full days and have walked our legs off in 100+ degree heat these last few days, but we have had a blast!

Moving floral carousel in The Wynn

Circus Circus

We were the only family to bring
its own knight to the tournament.

Happy to support the king of France

Surprise limo ride after the show