Sequoia National Park (Part 1)

Saturday I realized we've lived in California for nearly a year and hadn't done a single California-y thing. So the next morning we drove to Sequoia National Park. 

The great thing about  living California's central valley, while there's not much in the actual valley, is we're pretty much 2.5 hours from many California landmarks. Sequoia is even closer than that -- just 70 miles from our house to the Ash Mountain entrance of the park. 

The "problem" (not really a problem, just something to know and consider) is that it takes quite a while to drive up the mountain to the different landmarks within the park. The kids had been watching a DVD during the drive, but we quickly turned it off once we entered the park -- not necessarily because we thought they should enjoy the scenery (children never appreciate such things as much as adults do), but because they were all going to lose their breakfasts unless they looked out the window or closed their eyes. The twisty, winding road up the mountain is bound to make ANYONE carsick. 

In fact, we had to stop halfway into our trek upward to give everyone some fresh air. 

Sydney was feeling the worst, with Ford close behind her. Lorelei was doing okay, and Ruthie was hardly affected:

Sydney cracked half of a smile for a millisecond...

...but the rest of the time she looked like she was concentrating on not needing a barf bag:

Ahh, family fun.

The second half of the drive up the mountain was better, not sure why. Our destination was the parking lot to see the General Sherman Tree. It's the biggest tree in the world, by volume (meaning, it's not the tallest and it doesn't have the biggest circumference, but it has the most wood). It is still VERY tall and VERY big around.

From the parking lot you walk 0.4 miles to the actual tree, all downhill (and all paved, with intermittent stairs).

There's a lookout about halfway down where you can see the tree from the distance (it's the one slightly to the left):

It was impossible to capture it's size with a mere mortal camera:

We didn't the typical photo in front of the tree where the sign is; it was crowded and Chet and I were anxious to get onto the trail we had planned to hike. But a nice lady snapped this one of us:

...and we decided that was good enough.

More later -- happy Monday!