road trip

We had a blast on our California vacation last week. You can view pictures of our trip here. Joe wrote a great (and succinct) summary for our family journal, so I figured I'd let him tell you all about it:

We recently returned from a week in our old California stomping grounds. I attended a day-long seminar in San Francisco for work and made stops at Stanford and UC-Davis to talk shop with their public relations staffs. The trip was a huge success by the measures that really count: we broke out of our routine and had tons of quality time together.

Here is the day-by-day recap:

Day 0 (Saturday): Hadfield Christmas Party at my parents' house.

Day 1 (Sunday): Attend Sacrament in Harper Ward at 8:30 a.m. The boys are pleasantly occupied by E.B. White's book "Trumpet of the Swan" and by new Etch-a-Sketch sets given to them by my parents. Jack only fusses for a few minutes here and there. A snowstorm hits hard when we are still a few hours short of Reno. We plod on in comfort until worsening conditions convince us to stop in Fernley, where we find a Super 8 motel with an indoor pool. In the pool, Lincoln surprises us by being the brave kid that criss crosses the 3 Feet section with confidence. His recent growth spurt makes a world of difference in the pool. Daniel's unusual hesitancy soon fades and the following conversation occurs while the boys race back and forth:

Joe: you know what town this is?
Daniel: what?
Joe: Fernley.
Daniel: I am having fun in Fernley. I will always remember staying in Fernley. And if I forget, I will say 'what town was that again? Oh yeah, Fernley.'


True to his word, Daniel spent the rest of the week asking us the name of that town.


Day 2 (Monday): The storm didn't clear until late afternoon, so we delayed crossing the Sierras and advanced only as far as Reno. We learned that Casino hotels aren't really in the hotel business.

The boys loved the National Automobile Museum. More specifically, the boys loved a Model T Ford at the musuem that kids could play in. Lincoln also liked the gold-plated Delorean.

Leaving the Auto Museum, we towed a family van out of a snowbank. Saw many other cars stuck that day but chose not to rescue vehicles without children. With kids of our own to handle, other grown-ups would just have to fend for themselves.

Day 3 (Tuesday): Clear skies and beautiful scenery crossing the mountains. I loved it every time a pine tree went POOF! and dropped its load of powdery snow. Down the other side of the Sierras, snow covered the landscape clear down to the very outskirts of Sacramento.

In San Francisco, we found our old secret parking spot at the end of Van Ness near the San Francisco pier (free 4 hour parking!). Daniel and Lincoln quickly built a sandcastle. A wave of frigid seawater overtook Daniel, and in his flight he stumbled and got soaked. He is a pretty dramatic child when cold and wet, we learned. Cupcakes at Ghirardelli Square made things better.

Before heading down the peninsula, the boys requested a detour over and back on the Golden Gate Bridge (we had come in over the Bay Bridge). Request granted.

Shortly after checking into the Hidden Villa hostel in Los Altos Hills, we drove into Sunnyvale and ate dinner with our old friends Scott and Jessica Hall.

On the way home we drove to our old apartment just to check things out. The palm trees at the bottom of our stairwell had doubled in size. We remembered Lincoln's habit of following me out the door to watch me depart for work, something that persists today.

Day 4 (Wednesday): I attended the conference in San Francisco while Steph and the boys explored the farm at Hidden Villa. For dinner we stopped at the Milk Pail Market to bring some cheese and crackers to Todd and Angie Bonner's new apartment. Todd recently returned from Afghanistan where he flew Blackhawk helicopters on rescue missions. He presented us a U.S. flag they carried on a mission to ferry out 8 French soldiers wounded in action. He also gave me a piece of rocket shrapnel found outside the barracks where he lived.

Day 5 (Thursday): Lincoln and I did a "turn out" on the farm in the morning. It was a picture turn out where he shot photos of farm animals. I did a lunch meeting at Stanford while the gang hit the Palo Alto children's museum. Then we drove to Davis for the most luxurious hotel of our trip. The boys got their own room, their own TV, and we had a giant jetted tub.

Day 6 (Friday): Another storm slowed our travel back across the Sierras. The suburban handled conditions superbly, but we still had to keep it at a 30 mph pace on the steep climb and descent. Trumpet of the Swan saved us again, as well as a tip we got from the Arnold family. At every gas stop, the kids get to unwrap a present purchased previously from the dollar store. The snow slowed us down again in the late afternoon and we only got as far as Elko. The boys spent 20 minutes jumping on the beds starting the moment we got a room at the Days Inn.

Day 7 (Saturday): Clear skies and incredibly pleasant children. I totally misjudged how far the last 1/4 tank in the suburban would take us, and we nearly ran out of gas in the cold and lonely stretch between Wendover and Tooele. Fortunately a justifiably high-priced station in desolate Delle spared us from having to call a tow truck. The suburban's fuel level warning sounded the moment we exited the freeway.

In Salt Lake City, Stephanie, Lincoln and Jack visited the Discovery Gateway kids museum while Daniel and I drove north to swap vehicles with my dad. And then we were home!