Vacations Before Yosemite

Long,long ago before we started taking the family to Yosemite every year we had different vacations. As a girl I never had vacations. The first time I ever left home was when Uncle Bay and Aunt Marva took me to Utah when I was 17. So when we got married we had our first vacation when I was expecting Jay. We went to the Redwoods and went camping with our friends the Cranes. It was beautiful and I loved it even though we slept right on the ground in our sleeping bags.

I still remember that time and many activities we had. We were very young and adventuresome. We decided to climb down into a hole in the mountain and I was 7 months pregnant. Dad let me down by a rope and that wasn't so bad, but coming up was a little scarey.

We also went to visit Aunt Maude, my dad's sister. I had only seen her a few times but it was wonderful to visit with her in her own home in Arcata. Arcata was the town my Dad was born in.

Over the next few years we took the family to the Redwoods often for vacation. It was about a four hour drive from Sacramento. We also took them to Helen's in Washington and to JoAnnes in Provo. Sometime we went to Pollack pines or to the beach. We even went to Lake Tahoe once. We had a vacation nearly every summer. I am not sure if Jay and Sherry and Sandra remember some of those vacations, but I expect they do. We started the Yosemite phase when Mike was a baby.

I am so glad we had regular family vacations. I am grateful to Dad for wanting to have a trip every year. That is one tradition I highly recommend!