Northern California National Parks

Late Friday, we left for a week long RV 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 kids were able to complete the Junior Ranger program by looking around the visitor center and the area around it.

This morning we 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.

Busch Gardens & De Soto National Memorial

 

On Friday, we spent some time at Busch Gardens. We looked at 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.

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. 

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. We rode all the attractions and watched several shows, including the new car stunt show. We had lunch at the Sci-Fi Diner, which was a lot of fun.

I was picked to take part in the special effects show. 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.