Northern California National Parks Part 2

Sunday morning the kids were able to complete the Lassen Volcanic National Park Junior Ranger program by looking around the visitor center and the area around it.

We then drove west to the Whiskeytown–Shasta–Trinity National Recreation Area, where the kids tried panning for gold, and learned about the history and geography of the Shasta Lake area. 

On Sunday afternoon we left Whiskeytown and went northwest to the Thomas H. Kuchel visitor center of Redwoods National Park, where we enjoyed walking on the beach as well as learning about the park.  

We continued up the coast today, exploring Redwoods National Park, including Lady Bird Johnson Grove, and stopping at the Trees of Mystery for a few hours. We walked the trails and rode the gondola to the top of the hill. When we got to Crescent City, we stopped at the park headquarters to turn in the Junior Ranger programs, then camped nearby.

Northern California National Parks

We enjoyed our first RV trip so much we decided to upgrade our rig and take more. Late Friday, we left for a week long trip down to California, to visit several National Park Sites and have the kids earn Junior Ranger badges. 

 

After staying Friday night outside Klamath Falls, our first stop was Lava Beds National Monument in Northern California. We checked out the visitor center and explored some of the lava tube caves.

We were also able to attend a demonstration by fire fighters while we were there. The kids earned Junior Fire Fighter patches.  

From there we headed down to Lassen Volcanic National Park, where we spent the night. We weren't able to drive through the park because some of the roads were still blocked by snow, but the Loomis Ranger station and the Manzanita Lake campground were open.

Busch Gardens & De Soto National Memorial

 

On Friday, we spent some time at Busch Gardens. Susan and I visited this park early in our marriage, and took the kids here on their first trip to Florida. While the Williamsburg park is themed to countries in Europe, Tampa’s park has areas based on regions of Africa, plus both have a kid area called Land of Dragons. We looked at some of the animals and rode some of the roller coasters.

We really enjoyed the Rhino Rally ride. The kids rode the new wild mouse coaster, Cheetah Chase, a couple of times, as well as Scorpion. There are no family style dark rides at Busch Gardens, and the theming is light, but it’s a nice park. 

We also drove down to the De Soto National Memorial, which commemorates the 1539 landing of Hernando de Soto and the first extensive organized exploration by Europeans of what is now the southern U.S.

Bryan enjoyed trying on the chain mail at the visitor center. Both kids earned Junior Ranger badges there. Yesterday we flew back home.

More Disney World

After our friends left, we spent most of a day at Disney's other water park, Typhoon Lagoon. We enjoyed the new water coasters there, Crush N Gusher.

In the evening we returned to Downtown Disney and DisneyQuest to enjoy some games there.

On Thursday, our last day at WDW, we visited Animal Kingdom in the morning to enjoy a couple of attractions and shows we missed on the first day.

In the afternoon we went to Magic Kingdom for a few more rides and to meet some characters. The kids had their hair done in the barbershop on Main Street. We then headed out to Tampa.

DisneyQuest

Monday evening we went to Downtown Disney and spent some time at DisneyQuest, a huge indoor arcade. We had a great time playing some of the games there.

They had several large scale games which used virtual reality or very large screens to surround you. It was pretty cool.

Yesterday was the last day our friends were here. We spent most of the day at Epcot, catching anything we missed on our first day. We ate lunch at the teppanyaki restaurant in the Japan pavilion. Even though there aren’t a lot of rides there, the kids really enjoy walking through the World Showcase pavilions of Epcot, doing crafts at the Kidcot areas and talking to the cultural representatives.

In the evening we took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom to ride a few more rides and watch the fireworks.

Disney-MGM Studios

On Sunday we went to Disney-MGM Studios, the third park opened at Disney World. Like Animal Kingdom, it only has a handful of rides, so could use some more, especially ones the whole family can ride. We rode all of them and watched several shows, including the new car stunt show.

I was picked to take part in the special effects show. We had lunch at the Sci-Fi Diner, which was a lot of fun. Diners sit in tables that look like cars and watch clips of old sci-fi movies. We finished the night by watching Fantasmic!

Today we returned to the Magic Kingdom. We rode most of the rides and watched the parade and a show in front of the castle, and of course met characters, mostly princesses.