A sneak peek at my life.
On our family vacation to the Big Island in Hawaii, we had to go to the Kona coffee farms. This is one of the only places in the world that can grow coffee. We went to Coffee Joe, Mountain Thunder Coffee, and Hula Daddy.
At every stop, we got to taste coffee. I didn’t of course, but I did get to try tea. Every place had a lot of different flavors. At two of the places, I got to try white and dark chocolate covered coffee beans. They were so good, we bought two bags, one of each.
This week, for my school’s February Break, my family and I all went to the big island in Hawaii. For the first leg of the trip, we stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa. Our room in the Lagoon Tower looked into pools of dolphins. Turns out, you can pay to do Dolphin Quest. You swim with dolphins, kiss them, pet them, play with them, and learn about dolphins.
This year we spent New Year’s Even in Tahoe — and it was so cool! We went skating and sledding, we played in the little snow there was, and just relaxed and played! I had so much fun hanging out with my baby cousins Riley and Chloe this vacation because they are super silly and extra cute!
One day while in Tahoe, we went to Northstar for the day and got to go ice skating.
Ice skating was the coolest thing ever! It took a lot of time to get the hang of it and it was hard, but when I did, I was skating around the middle of the rink and in circles around everyone. I even figured out how to do a spin although I fell A LOT trying that. I also fell A LOT when I was starting out because it is way harder than it looks! NOT KIDDING! So hard! I loved skating and trying something new!
At the vacation house, we did a lot of arts and crafts! We made numbers and decorated them with sequins, feathers, and stickers for a New Year’s Day photo and we did a lot of coloring and made princess hats to wear on New Year’s Eve!
New Years in the snow = lots of fun with family!
There isn’t much snow around Lake Tahoe this year, but there we did find an awesome shady spot close to our vacation house to go sledding.
I was so nervous the first time, but when I went down that first hill… It was the coolest thing ever! I knew my brother would like it because he loves exploring and the outdoors, but I was surprised that my mom and dad tried it too! One of the many hills we rode on had a giant bump at the bottom and everyone that went down that hill flew into the air! It was a bit scary, but totally fun!
Pismo Beach over Thanksgiving was amazing. We visited Hearst Castle, explored downtown SLO and little beach towns along the coast, hiked through the Cal Poly Architecture Graveyard, and on Thanksgiving Day, we did something extraordinary.
We drove dune buggies through the sand dunes!
The company we rented them from gave us special motor cycle helmets and goggles for safety and to keep the sand out of our eyes, and we had to watch a special safety video too!
They were so fast! We sped up and down gigantic sand hills — it was a little scary, exciting, and fun all at the same time! My brother and my mom were in one dune buggy and my dad and I were together in another because we like to go WAY FASTER and we did!
There is a section of the dunes called Worm Valley and near that location there was a note: DO NOT GO HERE! Not For Beginners! we were also warned not to go in that area by the rental company too. My dad and I we made sure we drive over there, but my mom and brother didn’t pay attention and they did and got stuck on the side of a giant sand mountain! We got stuck too and some guys had to help us … but it was soooooo coool!
When my almost-cousin Melanie left for college and Cal Poly, I was so sad. But we got to see her a lot of our week-long vacation to Pismo Beach!
In addition to hanging out and touring Hearst Castle together, we all walked around San Louis Obispo and explored the shops! We also visited Melanie at Cal Poly and she took us for an awesome hike through the Cal Poly Architecture Graveyard.
We were all so exited to see it and once we arrived, I couldn’t believe my eyes because it was fantastic! There were all kinds of weird structures, buildings, forts, and sculpture-ish things spread out in what feels like the middle of nowhere!
The first piece was a dome shaped tunnel that looked like a house, but you could go all the way through it! My brother Carter and I had a blast exploring the buildings. Then …
Is it a bird or is it a plane? Nope its a… pirate ship!
Okay, maybe it wasn’t a pirate ship, but it sure looked like it. It looked like it was a ship wreck that happened a long time ago! Carter and I climbed aboard the ship and pretended we were on a pirate quest!
The next building was what we called “the batman lookout” — we both climbed up the stairs and from the tower we could see the whole graveyard and it was an amazing and slightly creepy and weird view.
As we were looking out over the open space, we saw a giant dome! I thought they might be big tinker toys, but the pieces were metal and that creation was just an awesome fort — or it could be with some giant sheets!)
Our last stop was a stone spiral staircase! It was really fun to climb up the stairs!
Over Thanksgiving break, my family and I went to Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo. While we were there, we spent one day exploring the famous Hearst Castle with Melanie, who is as close to a cousin as you can be without actually being related! When touring this 125 room mansion, we saw beautiful pools, rooms, furniture, gardens, and so much more.
Just before we reached Hearst Castle, we saw a bunch of cars pulled over on the side of the freeway, so we pulled over to see what they were looking at. When we hopped out of the car, THERE WERE ZEBRAS BY THE FENCE! It turns out that William Randolph Hearst at one point had his own private zoo. When it was getting shut down and the animals were being sent to zoos, his daughter let the zebras out and they have let them roam ever since!
We first stopped at the visitor’s center, browsed through the museum and store, and watched a movie about Hearst. Then we hopped on a bus that took us all the way to the top of the mountain where the extraordinary castle is built.
“Come on, we gotta get to the ride!”
While we spent much of our camping trip enjoying nature, our day at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk was soooooo fun! I am so happy Xan came with us on the trip because we hung out and rode all the rides together. My family really doesn’t like fast rides and roller coasters. Xan and I went on tons of rides, like the Dinosaur Train, the Ferris Wheel, the Dragon Coaster, the Big Dipper, the pirate ship, and more.
The Dinosaur train was a slower, traditional ride that I loved when I was little. Inside the ride is a blast from the past. It’s all dinosaurs and cavemen, which my brother Carter loved! Xan and I also went on super fast roller coasters together. One was a dragon coaster that went super fast and had a lot of ups and downs. The other one was a music car ride that went in crazy fast circles, forward and backward, for a really long time. My mom did join Xan and I fir the big dipper, but she felt sick afterward!
I rode the Ferris Wheel with my Dad and from the top we could see the whole Santa Cruz beach. It was the prettiest view of the whole trip.
There’s nothing like playing on a beach on a sunny day in Santa Cruz, California.
Our camping trip to New Brighton State Beach was so much fun. We found a live crab on a morning walk, we made marshmallow sculptures, and we hung out at the beach.
The days we spent at the beach on our trip were my some of my favorite! One day, my Dad and brother built different sand creations like, a Darth Vader head and R2D2 — they turned out amazing! Another day we explored the rocky coast in Santa Cruz, climbing over big rocks, exploring huge rock tunnels, and enjoying the ocean. That day we saw some pretty awesome views.
My nana and grandpa, aunt and uncle, and cousins Riley and Chloe also joined us one day at the beach, too. I showed Riley the art of building a sand castle and played with her in the surf, showing her how to wait and let the waves come to you and cover your feet in water. Chloe slept, ate, and watched with my Aunt Julie on a beach towel in the shade.
My favorite part of the day was the Sand Fort!
We just got back from a magnificent and exiting vacation — camping at New Brighton State Beach in Santa Cruz!
Early one morning, we woke up early and decided to take a walk on the beach to look for seashells. It was so peaceful and beautiful. We thought it was going to be a normal walk along beach until… We found a living crab! It was alive and AWESOME!
Check out the video of the crab in action:
