Day 10: Video of the Stove

Mom just e-mailed me asking me how the propane stove was working out for us, since it is a new one we bought right before the trip. Well, the best way to answer is to show it in action in the video I took of it last night. It does work out great, but it is a little dangerous when it first starts up. Dad actually caught the table on fire when we used it yesterday morning for tea, but that did not happen when I videoed it last night.

Mik’s Food Scrapbook: Camp Dinner

I pretty much wrote all about having a campfire and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over it last night, but I just had to post about it again because I got some great photos of it last night and mostly of Mik eating.

First one is of Mik being helpful and crumpling newspaper and throwing it into the fire pit. He did two and then said he was done helping and went back to watching NCIS on his iPod.



Next one is of Mik eating the veggie dog.



Below is of Mik eating a roasted marshmallow as a snack while I make pasta for dinner. The pasta was supposed to be a side with the hot dogs, but I forgot to get it going on the propane stove until Mik finished the less than satisfactory tasting veggie dog and reminded me. This is the marshmallow he roasted himself. I tried to take a photo of him roasting it, but he would not let me and then it was soon in his mouth.



Next one is of him eating the pasta. He loves his big orange camping spoon Mom helped pick out before the trip.



Last three are of Mik and Dad eating S’Mores. The first one Mik is eating with milk chocolate and one marshmallow. He made me roast the marshmallow for him as payment for him posing for the photos of him eating S’Mores. The second one Mik is eating is one with two marshmallows roasted by Dad and dark chocolate (I think I have converted him to the dark side!). This one was an oozy mess, but he loved it.

The other photo is of Dad eating a S’More because when Mik got mad at me for photographing him eating pasta and said no more photos of him eating Dad was like well you never take photos of me eating, so now there is a photo of Dad eating. There will be more of Mik despite what he said last night, as I think his main problem was I had to use flash last night and he does not like that, but he is the one who started the whole taking photos of him eating stuff.

Day 11: Finally Out of California/Oregon State Line

After nine days in California we have finally left that state. We packed up the tent and finished packing up the car and hit the road around 9am this morning. About an hour into the drive we reached the Oregon border on US Highway 199. They had a pull out so we stopped and took photos with the Welcome to Oregon sign. That is something nice about the US Highways versus the Interstates.

Also, nice about the past few days was driving on the US Highway 101 and all the little towns you actually drive through and not speed past like on the Interstate. Now, however, we are on Interstate 5 and speeding along. That is good for a lot of the trip since we do kind of have to get places at certain times, but the drives on the lesser highways are more interesting. At least the scenery is still nice.

Mik’s Mini Bat Collection: Oakland Athletics

We were early enough to the As game that we went to the team shop before the game, but they did not have any mini bats in there and we only got our sticker from the car in that shop. The guy told us, though, that the program guy in the park had mini bats. Mik did not have a selection to choose from, which is kind of odd since usually there is at least a few colors to choose from and sometimes even different logo designs to choose from. The bat he ended up with is black or dark green (Dad thinks it is black, I think it is dark green) on the top part and natural wood on the bottom part. The logo is a nice Oakland Athletics circle logo with the A in the middle. It might have been the only choice, but it is at least a good looking bat.

Day 10: Mik watching NCIS in the Tent

Afternoon and evening has been spent relaxing at the KOA. Internet access turned out to be intermittent and we eventually gave up. Dad built a fire and we roasted veggie dogs for dinner. Mik rates them almost as bad as a Dodger dog because they were the tofu pups brand, which were on sale. Should have just paid the $1 extra and stuck with the tried and true Yves ones.

S'mores were a hit, though. The IKEA brand chocolate turned out tasty. Mik even tried the dark chocolate and discovered he likes it. Mik mostly just watched his iPod while dad and I roasted, but he did roast one marshmallow himself. He would not let me take a picture. I did get one of him eating the s'mores, though, and will upload tomorrow, as I am hoping for good AT&T Internet at least when we get on the I5 to Seattle.

After Dad washed the dishes we went up to the Rec Hall, so Mik could charge and watch more NCIS on his iPod. While he did that Dad and I played some ping pong for about an hour. Dad beat me every time, but I got close once losing 19-21. Maybe, there will be one at the next KOA and I can beat him then. At least I know I will challenge him again when we are at Grandpa Kjos'.

Now Mik and I are in the tent. He us watching NCIS in his iPod as seen in the photo in this post. Dad is packing up the car, so that it is just the tent stuff we have to pack up in the morning. We are going to try to hit the road by 8am tomorrow, as we do not want to get into Seattle too late and also want to stop at the Visitor Center in Oregon to take photos since Mik and I have never been to Oregon. Have not been to Washington state ever, either, but we know we will get plenty of photos in Seattle of us.

Mik's Food Scrapbook: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum

Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum or more commonly just called the Coliseum is where we saw the Oakland Athletics game a few days ago on May 26, 2009. The only thing Mik tried at the Oakland game was the hot dog and the fries. Supposedly the Oakland hot dog is the best in the majors, but the guidebook is five years old and we have found that so many of the vendors do not even exist anymore. Plus, the worst dog is supposedly at the Padres and that is not the case anymore since it is not even the same brand anymore. Actually, so far I think Mik's favorite is the Padres hot dog, since they also had good buns. He did not think the Oakland one was bad, but it was not amazing either. He did not enjoy the fries at all, though, because they were garlic. I thought the fries were okay, but they were kind of soggy and overloaded with garlic.



At the game I got a baked potato with cheese and brocolli as well as a veggie dog. The baked potato was really good, but the veggie dog was not that great because the bun was crap, which seems to be the case almost everywhere except the Padres. Most annoying is the bun was even crappier (i.e. not the same) as the one the regular hot dogs were on.

Day 10: More Redwoods

This morning we got a somewhat early start around 8am. We started by going into Crescent City to the Redwood National Park Information Center. We had to wait a little while for it to be 9am and it to open. There I got my National Park passport stamped. We then headed out to the point to see the Battery Point Lighthouse, but it was not very impressive with all the morning fog.

We then drove the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park on a loop near the campground. The loop was about 25 miles, which is only a little shorter than the loop we did yesterday, but this loop just had a few trail stops. We only stopped at the Smith Grove Trail, which was one of two wheelchair accessible trails. It was barely accessible with a steep hill down to it and a few spots the wheelchair barely got through, but overall not too bad. It was a fun trail and Mik even left his PSP and DS in the car and only took his camera on the trail. He has had the privilege lately of taking his PSP, DS, or iPod at all the stops since he has been good, but for once he choose to leave them all in the car and actually notice the big trees.



We got done with the drive around 11:30am and headed back to Crescent City to get some groceries for dinner. We then headed back to the campground to do some Internet stuff, which only includes getting this post for me, as I promised Mik my computer so he can catch up on watching some of his shows. Tonight we are doing veggie dogs and roasting marshmallows on the campfire.