For our vacation this year we went to California. It has been 5 years since we were there last (with the kids) and 15 years since we left to move back east. We visited friends and family in San Jose and Santa Cruz and spent a week in the Sierras hiking and camping. It was good to mix up the wilderness experience with the "luxury" of being in the cities.
Our kids are not used to hiking much, especially at altitude, so it was sometimes challenging to get them motivated. We ended up hiking 2-3 miles a day, but saw some amazing scenery. On each hike one or the other kid was usually having an issue so we had to come up with some motivational techniques.
We brought lots of water and snacks on the hikes and sometimes lunch so food was a good motivator- especially when it was the sweet variety. Bill is much better than I am at being playful with the kids so he and Kai came up with a game we called hatbee- basically it's frisbee using Kai's hat. They also had rock- throwing contests into lakes. We did a lot of talking and convincing and sometimes just let them be mad.
All in all we had a great time and bonded as a family. One of the highlights was seeing the Perseid meteor showers at a campsite near Bishop Creek in the eastern Sierra. Next time we want to take a month and drive across the country.
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