After we left Monterey and the aquarium, much to Alyssa's dismay(she probably could have spent the whole vacation there), we drove to Hume Lake. This happened to be on Bryan's birthday, so I kinda felt bad, because all he did was drive all day. Well it wasn't that long of a drive, only about 4 or 5 hours, but we took our time. We were going to be spending the next three nights staying at Hume Lake Christian camp, for free!! Our pastor had suggested that we look into Hume lake because it was really pretty, and because they probably would give us a discount, since Bryan helps teach the youth group at our church. When Bryan contacted the camp to ask for rates, they told him that we could come and stay for three nights on them as long as they were week days(since they have retreats, etc. on the weekends.) It was awesome! The setting was so beautiful with the lake and the trees and the snowcapped mountains in the distance- the idyllic mountain lake scene. On top of that, our room was very nice,clean, and big, and the location was great for visiting the national parks. We spent the next few days exploring Sequoia and Kings Canyon and also just spent time relaxing by the lake and vegging in our room. We went on a tour of Boyden cavern in Kings Canyon which was very cool, and saw several very awesome waterfalls as well as the gushing King River. In Sequoia we saw the huge redwoods, of course, and hiked all 300 some stairs up Moro Rock. I was so proud of Alyssa, because she climbed up all the stairs on her own. I was pretty impressed that my little 2 yr old did so well and actually handled it more easily than I did. You do have to cut me a little slack, though, since I was 5 months pregnant at the time. The view from the top was definitely worth the effort, with several mountain ranges in view. After our three nights at Hume Lake, we stayed one night in Three Rivers, which is at the base of the mountains. The change in weather was slightly shocking. We had just spent the last few days in 60s-70s during the day, and then to come to this town were the temp was around 95. We took Alyssa to cool off in the hotel pool, and she loved it. While we were down at the pool we spent about half an hour chatting with a very nice couple from Holland; they were both flight attendants. After a good night's rest, we let Alyssa go for one more dip in the pool, and then headed out for our long drive to Big Bear to meet up with our parents at their place there and spent the weekend hanging out with them and with Scotty, which is always very fun. We were blessed with a very enjoyable and safe trip, and we were very happy with how well Alyssa travelled. As usual, I wasn't ready for the vacation to end and to have to go back to reality, but I felt relaxed and grateful that we were able to go on this trip.
