Mammoth Camping 2008

Our camping trip and trip to Sea World have been the two biggest things Hannah has looked forward to since getting out of school. And now, sadly both are over, with four and a half weeks left before school starts.

The drive to Mammoth takes five hours from our house and thankfully, Steven was able to get the portable DVD players to work, which works nicely when the girls asked how much longer and the reply is in how many more movies they'd have to watch. LOL. Hannah's ride was a lot more comfy this year as she is out of the booster seat and simply sitting in the seat. She was free to move about her seat without the restraints of the booster.Once arriving to camp and getting our tent and campsite all set up, Uncle Bart had constructed a tree swing by tossing a rope over a branch and tying about a piece of wood for the seat. All four of the girls loved it. Once they grew tired of the swing, Gramma brought out a horse for each of them along with a big box of good ole popsicle sticks, which the girls used to make fences. They had so much fun!Months and months ago when I told Hannah's teacher that we'd be going camping in Mammoth, Miss Barrett told me about a ghost town that has been preserved in the state of decay, called Bodie. It sounded interesting, so on Friday morning, part of our group loaded up into two cars and made the trip one hour north to the State Historic Park of Bodie. I was really surprised at how well Hannah did at looking in the windows of all these once lived in houses and buildings of a once well populated town. But she explored and didn't complain once, at least not to me. Friday and Saturday nights were especially exciting ones for both Hannah and Rachel, they both slept in the bunk beds of Gramma and Papa's trailer! Gramma and Papa actually paid the extra money to have the trailer with the bunk beds just in case it was cold in the tent. And while it wasn't totally unbearable in the tent, having the girls sleep inside the trailer meant not having to worry through the night about it they were staying covered and were warm enough.As Saturday afternoon approached and a lot of our family were packing some things up to make for an easier and early departure towards home, Hannah started to cry. She didn't want out camping trip to come to an end. She'd been having so much fun. But, all good things must come to an end, and just like the rest of the family, we packed up Sunday morning and made our way home. But not without a stop at the Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery. We started stopping at fish hatcheries two years ago on our trip to Pismo, and since then we've made it a point to stop at fish hatcheries when we see them. This particular one was simply beautiful. There was a beautiful pond out front that was home to huge rainbow trout. The building itself was amazing and inside housed the baby fish and fish eggs, something you don't normally get to see at the hatcheries. But this time the hatchery worked invited us in and showed us around and even gave us a big bag of fish food to feed to the trout outside. It was a fun stop.Our route home is within ten miles of one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, and like last year, we planned to eat dinner there. This year we planned ahead and called Gramie the day before and she was able to meet us for dinner! After dinner, and a detour due to a major accident, we were home.

Check out the rest of our Mammoth Camping 2008 pictures.