Going...Going......Gundel

Hello from Tahoe! This is the Gundels' last hurrah for the summer, and it has been fun! We are here with many Bosts- Mom and Dad, Ashley, Allie, and Andrew. On Sunday, we drove a couple of hours to South Lake Tahoe. Mom and Dad rented an Airbnb house near to the lake. In the afternoon, Aaron tried paddle boarding for the first time. He did really well, and I enjoyed watching him adventure. Yesterday, Aaron, Ashley, Allie, and I went to coffee in the morning. Then the whole family (adding mom, dad, and Roo) walked down to the Marina and did various water activities (paddle boarding and kayaking). Unfortunately, with all the fires in California, the lake and sky are not very clear. In the afternoon, we visited the shops at Heavenly Village. Playing games late into the night was fun to close the day! Today we did more water activities. It's fun having the lake so close by! In the afternoon, all the kids got on a four person bike. I love those! Aaron and I drove around togeth

The Gundels are dwelling in a treehouse! For a couple of nights, that is. I think Aaron was surprised when we drove down a bumpy road and came upon a treehouse with "Welcome, Allyssa!" posted out front. A redwood treehouse! I wanted to make our anniversary trip a walk down memory lane, with a twist.  Yesterday, we did the tourist thing by visiting "The Mystery Spot", and hit a sentimental note at the chapel where we got married two years ago.  Waking up in a treehouse was super cool! Our bed was up in the loft, the highest point of the treehouse. And heat rises. So it was a warm night. But by the early morning hours, the room felt crisp and wonderful! And it's so quiet out here!  This morning we visited Roaring Camp Railroad. The last time I rode a train through the redwoods like this, I was nine years old. It was very exciting back then. And very charming and relaxing, twenty years later.  This evening, we ha

So for our second anniversary, Allyssa decided to do something different.  I've got to hand it to her - I didn't expect it.  To clarify our tradition, we do things in threes.  The first year I do the anniversary activity, the second Allyssa does, and on the third we both do.  (As you might expect, this is a fairly new tradition it hasn't fully played out for the first time yet).  So we started the day by packing up and going to..... Coffee Cat .  Coffee Cat is a coffee shop in Scott's Valley.  We frequented it when we were going back and forth to Mt. Hermon while we were planning our wedding.  I suspected we might be.  In fact, my suspicion was that we'd be staying the night in Mt. Hermon.  So when we went to Coffee Cat, I thought my suspicions were accurate.  After we took off from there, we went to...Mt Hermon.  But, come to find out - it's not our final destination.  It's a stop along the way.  So we took some time to visit the chapel where we got ma

Mr D'z Route 66 Diner.  And a shadow. Today was a long day.  From Amarillo all the way to Kingman, AZ.  We gained two time zones by crossing two state lines on the way back (because AZ is MST instead of MDT - it aligns with PDT).  So we had two time jumps today.  They made a long day feel much shorter.  I think we drove for 12 hours, but it felt like much less - we arrived at around 5:30, but for us it's still 7:30.  I think the two-day drive from MO is doable, but painful.  If we had two full days, we could pull it off.  If we tried it today, we have ended up back in San Jose at 1AM.  We decided that was not the best idea, and we stopped. We took some time to visit an old Route 66 diner.  It was fun.  Our first trip through Kingman on the way out was short, and we didn't see much.  I found it rather underwhelming.  But this second look through the town showed us that there was a lot more to this place than we originally thought.  A lot more history, and a lot more b

God gave us a fantastic trip. He really did. Even so, it was hard to say goodbye and turn the car west. But here we are, on the road. The goal is to make it to Amarillo by bedtime. We're a couple hours out. Yesterday was a hot one, but a good one. After sleeping in for a bit, we drove about an hour to Eureka Springs. Eureka Springs is a quirky little town in Arkansas with lots of little shops. My sweet husband waited patiently while Sherry and I window shopped and sometimes walked into a store (mostly to feel the cool air conditioning). One of the things I love about states like Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas is that you can find "Christian" merchandise all over the place. Items with Bible verses or hymns on them. Those are hard to find in California. Here are a few pictures from the Eureka Springs fun. On the way out of Eureka Springs, we stopped at Bombadil's Cafe. Aaron was excited about the "second breakfast" options, a

Our stay in Missouri is coming to an end.  Seems like we just got here, but we're starting to plan out how we're going to get home.  We've never really had to do that before because we've always flown - it was planned out for us.  I considered taking us the northern route through Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada - but that's two to three hours longer than the southern route on 40.  I'm also afraid of any 4th of July traffic we might run into outside of Tahoe. So we're heading back on 40 tomorrow.  I considered doing it in two days - which is possible - but I figured it was probably better to leave at a reasonable hour on Friday and try to make it through most of Oklahoma and into Texas.  That will put us in a much better position to make some distance on Saturday and Sunday. It's been a good trip.  We spent Tuesday in Silver Dollar City.  It was the first time I've been to the park and not really been on any of the larger roller coasters.  I think there