Rafting the American River

Jackson always convinces me to do daring things when I'm really not much of a daring person. I agreed to go whitewater rafting thinking it would not be too scary since California is experiencing a large drought and all. Nope. Wrong. All wrong. It was insane. I ordered the c.d. of professional photos because the ones I had time to snap with our GoPro don't do the river's intensity justice. I'll post those as soon as the c.d. arrives!

Our guide was a former Navy guy who made me feel pretty safe out there. He got a good laugh out of how much I did not want to fall out of the boat and had to remind me when we got to calm water that I could release my death grip on the boat's handles. Oops. :)

Our guide, Danny, and another rafter

The river was a little wild

Jackson hopped out for a swim during a calm time

There were 6 total rafters plus our guide

We had to exit the boat to go around this class 6 rapid

Danny loving life

Coming up on some fast water

We made it through stopping for lunch without having anyone fall in accidentally. I felt good about things. Lunch was awesome and served on the side of the river. I thought we were homefree. I was wrong. We got back in the boat for a few minutes to approach the class 6 rapid that we were not allowed to go over. When we were getting out of the boat I jumped directly onto a hidden rock and banged up my left knee (my formerly good knee) something awful. I didn't know if I was even going to be able to walk let alone scale this waterfall. I made it, though. Soon enough my knee didn't hurt because the very next rapid that we approached caused Jackson to be thrown from the boat. I freaked out. Danny assured me that Jackson was fine and that pulling him back in the boat at that moment was not feasible that he'd have to ride out the rapid with just his body. It was then that I saw Jackson headed directly for a boulder the size of Texas. I screamed from my soul and by the grace of God he didn't smack right into the thing. The woman in front of me clearly wasn't feeling my panic (it wasn't her husband in the water, after all) so she was not paddling very hard. I had to make it crystal clear to her that she needed to paddle. I don't think she liked me much after my message to her was relayed. In the end we got Jackson back into the boat and he was safe without a single injury. I was traumatized. It was so scary and I felt so helpless. 

Needless to say this will be the last whitewater rafting trip for us for quite awhile. That evening we stayed in Grass Valley, CA which is a cute little mining town. We ate at a little Mexican restaurant before returning to our room for the night to ice my aching knee. Getting old is not fun! 

We had a slight change of plans and instead of going to Tahoe for the 4th (all of the hotel rooms in the area are booked- oops!) we are headed back to Sacramento for the evening. It should be fun to explore the city a little bit. 

Yosemite

You guys, Yosemite is amazingly beautiful. It is also amazingly CROWDED. Jackson, ever the liar, told me that he wanted to do an easy hike when we first got there to warm up.

Easy was a roughly 1 mile climb STRAIGHT UP the side of a mountain. Sure, it was a paved path but I'm certain I saw at least 5 people die attempting to make it to the top. OK, that isn't true. It was torturous, though. I'm talking 15+ incline on the treadmill climbing at altitude. People kept stopping to take breaks in the middle of the path. Sigh. I'll blame the altitude for their lack of sense.

How I looked after our "easy" hike

The view was stunning, though.

Happy Jackson

Tired Jenna

The Falls

"I look tough!"

Yosemite.

Hiking.

This kid accurately portrayed how I felt on that hike.

I loved the rocks!

More rushing water

Seriously gorgeous.

Yep. Still pretty.

Still.

After we did the hike we decided to go get some lunch. We'd read about this hotel tucked deep into the park. The magazine article we read called the prices "fair" for good food. Clearly this person lived in NYC or something.

The Ahwahnee Hotel

Jackson mapping out where to go next

It was $40 for a sandwich and an order of hummus. Yes. We SPLIT a sandwich and had an order of hummus and it was $40! How is that fair?! Who calls that fair?!

Behold a $40 lunch!!!!! This photo makes it appear to be more than it was, admittedly.

Once we finished lunch and explored some more we realized that we just weren't loving the park like we thought we would. It was just so, so crowded. We decided to make an early exit since we had a long drive ahead of us to our next city.

A LARGE waterfall

On the drive out we did stop some and get a little solitude so we could truly enjoy the park.

Yosemite makes you feel small.

Jackson losing himself in the beauty

Jackson finding himself being silly

The view on the drive out of the park

Jackson on top of the world :)

We had what felt like the longest drive ever to Roseville, CA that evening. We got stuck in gnarly traffic outside of Sacramento before finally making it to the 'burbs for the night. We got dinner there and went to bed early as we had to get to whitewater rafting early this morning. Wish us luck!!

Chukchansi

We spent most of the day around the casino/resort grounds today. We hopped into the town closeby to get donuts that were renowned and we were not disappointed!

The casino is a pretty nice joint. Jackson kept pronouncing it, "ChuckChaShancey" when it was really closer to "ChuckandNancy" which gave all of the employees a great laugh.

Jackson watched the USA lose in the World Cup. I napped. It was lovely. I love to nap during soccer matches. It makes me feel American.

Just a little warm out there today...

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool.

I love pool days

I remember when I was little wondering how the old people could stand sitting out in the hot air instead of getting in the pool. I am happy to report that I must still be young because I still have to get it. It was just too warm not to! I just don't like to get my hair wet these days...so maybe I am a little older than I want to admit to myself! 

After a day of sun (with the proper SPF on, of course) we headed over to Fresno for dinner. It was awesome and I enjoyed my date. 

Date night in the casino. Again.

The casino gave us $60 this evening for free and we turned it into $48. That sounds like losing, but since we actually didn't front the $60 we walked away ahead. Jackson was so excited. He wanted to keep playing with his winnings. After last night's results I made him take his money and run. :) He's spent that $48 at least 5 times in his head now. Siiiiiigh.

Tomorrow we head to Yosemite! I'm so excited! :)

Sequoia

We woke up on the surface of the sun. No really, it was 108 degrees in the valley by like 9 a.m. I'd never experienced anything like it. After spending the morning getting caught up on work stuff (Jackson) and blogging (Jenna) we slathered on the sunscreen and headed to Sequoia. It was, in a word, magnificent. 

The parks are so weird out here. You get to the entrance and then have 30+ miles to go before you're at the desired destination. They're just that massive.

The view during the drive to the park

We are mildly obsessed with the blue, blue sky

Handsome boy

Soaking in the view.

I've wanted to see Sequoia for as long as I can remember so when we got to the entrance with the trees surrounding the road I actually clapped my hands and exclaimed with glee.

I've dreamed of this entrance. 

Important note: I LOVE trees. Trees are some of my favorite things. Another important note? I'm severely allergic to trees. I know. Nature is so cruel in that manner. More on the allergies later...

General Sherman...the world's largest tree (by volume)

You park at the top of the tree and descend the mountain to get to General Sherman. It was so, so steep. I was amazed at how difficult it was to get to this tree! 

Now THOSE are pine cones! 

It is hard to get a feel for just how large these trees are when you're standing in front of them because everything around is so large. It isn't until you stand in one and snap a photo that you realize, "WHOA!"

A tree dwarfing Jackson

A tree dwarfing me!

There were right at 300 people surrounding General Sherman at any given time so I kept trying to keep my distance to get good photos of it.

The General again.

Mildly obsessed. It was 275 feet tall.

I mentioned that I have dreamed about seeing this park for a long time. I was just SO excited about it that I could not even pretend not to be. Jackson took the opportunity to mock my joy because he's a jerk buzzkill little boy meanie.

My joy! Jackson's mocking. Jenna's anger.

I don't care. I was so happy. I love trees!

Still joyful despite Jackson's attempts to calm me.

A triple trunk tree!!

I eventually got close enough to General Sherman to get a good look at his top. It was amazing.

The General. AGAIN.

Bask in its beauty.

Some of the surrounding forest

Remember those allergies? Yeah...we intended to hike at Sequoia but by the time I'd finished basking in the General Sherman's shadows I could hardly breathe and couldn't even dream of setting out on a hike without some medicine to stop my windpipe from restricting so much air. It was terrible. We got back in the car and cranked the air conditioning which helped but my chances of hiking that day were shot. Bummer. :( 

The view on the way down...amazing!

We drove from Sequoia to a casino resort hotel just outside of Fresno, CA that evening. We stopped for some awesome Mexican food before trying out our luck at the casino. The hotel gave us $40 to spend upon check-in and we were able to turn that into $6.75. That is why we don't gamble. The casino was still fun, though they allowed smoking which also upset my allergies so we didn't stick around too long. We took a walk that evening around the property and enjoyed a lovely starry night. I like California. I don't see a need to return home at this point...