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Pismo Beach & Caves Tour

Saturday, September 7th, 2024

My husband and I recently had the opportunity to spend two nights at Pismo Beach, California. Alan wanted to take me because he had good memories of going there as a child. I had never been to Pismo Beach, so it was a treat for me!

We arrived around noon on the first day, so this vacation lasted a day and a half. I had wanted to go somewhere else for a week, but we didn’t have the budget for it. We were already in the area, so it was a relatively inexpensive day and a half of refreshment.

I had a delicious lobster sandwich at a local cafe, since it was one of the specials of the day. Alan had a chicken wrap. Then we walked along the beach and explored the caves.

Our Pismo Beach & Caves Tour

It was so much fun to explore the caves! Some of them are shallow, as you see in the 6-minute video tour, but others went much further into the cliffs. The colors of the cave walls were interesting–some dark red, yellow, and green! It was fun to walk barefoot on the sand inside the caves, which I’ve never done.

On the walk back along the beach, my ankle was swelling, so I had to go slower. We saw clams breathing under the sand and squirting water up. (We caught it on video!)

I swung on a swing on the beach. By then we were hungry and ready for dinner, since we had spent several hours on the beach. I ate steamed clams for dinner. Alan ate a burger. He encouraged me to eat seafood because it was fresh from the ocean. After dinner we walked back to the hotel.

I really enjoyed watching all the birds while we were there. My favorite was a long-necked heron that we caught on film. It was walking along the edge of the seashore. After resting for a few minutes, we decided to go up to the top floor of the hotel to the restaurant, where we split a dessert while watching the sunset.

The next morning, we had coffee in our hotel room, and we split a cinnamon roll. We walked around the beach town. We strolled out to the pier and realized that there was a pod of whales spraying water up near the beach. I caught one on video. For years I have wanted to go whale watching, but I could never afford it. God brought the whales straight to us that day, so it was free!

It was Taco Tuesday, so we had inexpensive tacos. My whole plate of tacos was $5. Then we had a coffee at a cute cafe.

We walked into a thrift shop and found a couple of pieces of clothing for a few dollars each, and then headed to dinner, which was a salad with fish. After dinner we sat on the beach to watch the sunset. Alan dug a hole in the sand while we were waiting for the sun to set. I caught on film (at the end of the 6-minute video) hundreds of birds flying through the air at sunset.

Since there was a clear sky with stars, we took a blanket down to the beach and went stargazing. It was a beautiful end to a one and a half day vacation. I’m thankful for the restful time we had!

Tags:beach, California, caves, travel
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Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse Tour

Saturday, January 15th, 2022

I’ve always been fascinated by treehouses, ever since, as a young girl, my parents took me to Disneyland in California, where one of the amusements was a replica of the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse from the famous classic book and movie. My young eyes widened at the thought that people could survive without electricity and running water by creating their own sustainable lifestyle, which today would be called homesteading. Being a homeschool family, my husband and I built a fort in between some trees in our backyard that looked and felt like a treehouse, complete with a rope ladder.

Over the years, the kids played in their treehouse-like fort, and we eventually went to stay the night in a large treehouse in Oregon. We filmed our experience back then and put it into the Unit Study Treasure Vault, under our description of all the hands-on activities we did for the literature unit study for Swiss Family Robinson.

Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse Tour (video)

Well, today I have a treat for you, which is a tour of the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse in Disneyworld, Florida, where my husband and I took our kids for a family reunion last summer. We walked through the entire treehouse, stopping at each area with the video camera, giving you a virtual tour:

Years ago when we read the book Swiss Family Robinson as a read-aloud, my kids were excited to draw treehouses from their own imagination. I think my oldest son was 8 years old when he created this drawing:

Years later, my sister (my kids’ aunt) and I created a 3-D model of a treehouse from odds and ends of wood and other bits of cloth and pebbles. We fastened it all together with hot glue. This is what it looked like, along with a description of how we created the entire project:

Make Your Own Miniature Treehouse

One of my younger sons (about 5 years old at the time) drew his own version of a treehouse:

So kids of any age can enjoy creating drawings and sculptures of treehouses. One year at a state fair in our area, we saw some children’s models of treehouses. The children used popsycle sticks, branches, and other odds and ends to glue together their masterpiece:

We have truly loved the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse theme over the years, and now that we are able to give you a taste of it with this tour, we thought we’d add the drawings and treehouse models to inspire you. To find out what other hands-on activities we did for the Swiss Family Robinson unit study, you can see our cram-packed article inside our Unit Study Treasure Vault, along with our real-life overnight stay at a treehouse down in Oregon!

Tags:Disney, Disneyworld, treehouse
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Our Disney Adventure

Tuesday, December 28th, 2021

This year we had the opportunity to take our family to Disneyworld for the first time, for a family reunion. My husband got a bonus at work, and we got a military discount through my son Stephen, who is in the Air National Guard. It is something my husband had always wanted to do with the kids, because when he grew up in California, he used to go to Disneyland, and he had many happy memories he wanted our children to also experience.

While at Disney for four days, we entered four different theme parks: Magic Mountain, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. If you ever go in the summer, be aware that is is hot and humid, because that might affect your energy level. Oh, and there were downpours of rain almost every day. Regardless of the long lines, the Lord answered my prayer that my feet would hold out, and that I would not be limping through the park. That was truly a miracle because I’ve had problems with the arches of my feet, and I’ve often limped home from a short neighborhood walk.

Magic Kingdom

One of the first rides we went on was the Pirates of the Carribean. It was nearly exactly as I remembered it as a kid. Yes, even though my parents were missionsries in Guatemala, when we came up for furlough, we sometimes went (at least twice as a child) because my grandma lived near Disneyland.

The only difference that my husband noticed was the pirates were not chasing women. Instead the women were chasing the pirates, or one pirate was chasing another pirate. For those of you who remember the ride (or for those of you who have never been), we filmed the ride:

The next ride we took was the Jungle Cruise. You get into a boat, and your tour guide gives you a description of the jungle and its cartoon-like animals. He used a lot of humor, as you can see:

We rode on a lot of other rides at the Magic Kingdom on the first day: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Tiki Room, Haunted Mansion, and Space Mountain. Since we had entered the park at 9am, by the time it poured rain at 4pm, we were ready to go back to the hotel.

On day four, we returned to the Magic Kingdom and did the Mad Tea Party, It’s a Small World, Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, Astro Orbiter, and Seven Dwarves Mine Train.

Epcot Center

The second day, we went to Epcot Center, which is like traveling around the world. It was an overcast day and somewhat drizzly, but we got some clear plastic rain ponchos so that we could keep going. We went to all the countries, including the ride Grand Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros in the Mexico section:

One of my favorite areas of Epcot was the Morocco section. You could walk around the cobbled streets and feel like you were at the Moroccan market. I loved all the architecture, textiles, and lamps.

Later we went to Soaring Around the World—which I LOVED! It felt like you were hang gliding around the world on a virtual ride. We also did the Mission Space, Test Track, and Spaceship Earth rides from Epcot.

Hollywood Studios

At Hollywood Studios, we went on the Tower of Terror, Star Wars Millenium Falcon, Muppet Vision 3D, and Star Tours. The Tower of Terror is basically a Twighlight Zone episode that you are involved in, and the elevator drops. It was definitely high intensity.

Star Tours and Star Wars Millenium Falcon were both Star Wars themed rides where we were in spaceships, trying to outrun enemy ships.

The Mupper Vision 3D was super fun, where we sat in the theater of the Muppet Show, seeing everything in 3D, including the hecklers on the balcony to the right of the theater. Years ago our family created our own episode of the Muppet Show, so my whole family enjoyed this experience.

Animal Kingdom

At Animal Kingdom, we went on Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, and Avatar Flight of Passage. By far, my favorite ride in the entire Disneyworld parks was Avatar Flight of Passage, which was virtual reality where you ride on top of a dragon through the air, over clifftops, and through ocean waves. It was breathtaking—so much so that I rode on it twice. I never knew that one of my bucket list wishes was to fly through the air, and now I got to do it!

The Kilimanjaro Safari was a lot of fun. Come with us on our safari:

All in all, our Disney Adventure was truly magical. We got to see the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom on the final night, which we enjoyed greatly. I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to visit Disney with my whole family, along with Alan’s sister and her kids. My kids got to know their cousins in a much more in-depth way, and I had many good conversations with my sister-in-law. It was an unforgettable trip!

Tags:adventure, Disney, Disneyworld, family reunion, Florida, rides, summer, summer fun, summer vacation
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Camping: Great for Family Bonding

Friday, August 2nd, 2019

If I had known how wonderful camping would be for family bonding, I would have gone camping with my family a lot sooner. Yes, I find it nearly impossible to sleep outdoors because of all the noises and light, a feeling of not being protected, and the constriction of a sleeping bag which is way too hot and tight for comfortable sleeping. During the day in the summer months, the outdoor temperature induces sweating and wilting, not the ideal conditions for a pleasant experience.

Notwithstanding the aforementioned drawbacks of camping, I still have to say that the beauty of nature, the delicious food cooked over a campfire, and the deep conversations without any electrical devices can be refreshing and invigorating. And it helps if there is a lake or river nearby to dip your feet into to cool off.

Years ago we were given a family tent that was big enough to sleep our whole family, back when our kids were young. We used this family tent for church camps because we couldn’t afford a cabin. During those church camps when my children were toddlers and preschoolers, the sheer amount of work to take care of the children was enough to bring me to the brink of tears out of sheer exhaustion.

Now that the kids are older and starting college, we took a weekend to re-connect as a family. I found a new 2-person tent at a yard sale for $5, so we even had separate quarters for us, the parents. My sons immediately started whittling sticks with their pocket knives. It had been years since they had learned to use their pocket knives at Cub Scouts, which my husband and I used to lead.

We set up the tents and threw our backpacks into the tents and settled into our canvas chairs around a campfire. We had brought food to cook over a campfire for each meal, and of course, we brought S’mores. As we sat around the campfire in the evenings, we would talk and talk. It was wonderful! My kids are interesting and their thoughts run deep. They have opinions about everything, and they are hilarious. We laughed a lot while sitting and telling stories the second night around the campfire. My kids all have active imaginations, and their conversations reminded me of when I was young and all of life stretched out before me.

During the day we went exploring the area, finding beautiful other-worldly places. The marshy ground revealed long-necked birds and more exotic insects than are found in the city. A small lake reflected the blue sky and was surrounded by low mountains. It was a beautiful sunny day, both days that we were camping.

It was nice to smell bacon and eggs in the morning, especially when cooked by someone other than me. My son Stephen made pancakes the second morning, and we were always ravenously hungry. Maybe the fact that we were outdoors caused us to expend more energy through exercise, causing us to need more food. And the food always tasted wonderful.

The conversations we had as a family enabled us to bond in a beautiful way before we sent two kids off to college. One of our sons left to Oregon for Bible college, while our second son is commuting from home, but both have definitely matured into godly men. Sitting and sharing our hearts over a campfire is definitely an experience I would not have traded for the world!

Tags:camp, camping, family bonding, family time, hiking, outdoors
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