'Rarášek'

Rob is sailing the bay tonight and I was hoping to see at least some pictures.
But sorry! There will be none! (PS: at least a picture taken by Rob's colleague Miguel)



This is actually the last picture I took with our camera. And I believe this little face tells enough already.
Yesterday before we left for the orientation day at Maarten’s preschool he took the camera out of my bag and simply broke it to pieces. You can understand that all my good intentions to make the school visit as relaxed as possible were gone.

Maarten seems to like his new teacher but there were also some tears flowing when another little boy kept shouting ‘Ethan’ toward him.

Maarten quit his afternoon napping this weekend! Does the heat wave we are coping with these days have something to do with that? Anyway I’m happy and exhausted at the same time. He would stay the whole day outdoors in the heat. We are the only ones at the neighborhood playground. Even the cows are squeezed in the shade of the few trees in the dried out grassy hills and the vultures keep circle above us…
At least the water sprinklers keep showering the park grassy area. That’s where you find our Maarten of course.

San Simeon SP (23 - 26 August)

Thursday August 23rd

The twisting road of the Big Sur coast lulled Rob and Maarten to sleep. As the road finally straightens I hope to see the Hearst Castle, the destination of this weekend trip. I know this is going to be different but I’m excited the same way I’ve used to be long time ago by spotting castles in Czech.

And there it is on top of one of the sunny hills on my left! It fits beautifully with the landscape.
We will see more tomorrow.

The camping is less impressive. We still have a nice secluded site and hope we can enjoy couple of nice days here. The walk to the beach is short but we have to go under the busy highway. The sites next to the highway are exposed to a loud noise of the passing cars. We are lucky to be more inlands even we still can hear it.



Maarten is so happy to be on the beach again. The water is cooler than I’ve expected. There is a huge flock of seagulls, pelicans, crows and other kinds of birds on the beach and around the San Simeon Creek. Maarten is scared of crows but the birds are too tempting to run after.









Friday August 24th

This is the first night I’m not freezing. Yes, I’ve finally bought a new sleeping bag and it really makes a difference. I can’t believe it but it’s keeping me nice and toasty…. till three o’clock! Why so early? Ask our neighbors!
Anyway they are leaving so we have a good hope!
Today we have a reservation at the Hearst Castle. We have to park our car at the visitor center and take the bus to get to the castle on the top of the hill. The curly five mile drive through the Hearst Ranch is a pleasant trip. I love the 20’s music they play on the bus. While traveling we see the animal shelters of the past private ZOO and the remains of the mile long pergola which was built for a walking path.
We are doing the Garden Tour not just because of my interests in gardening but especially because of Maarten ;-) He is most impressed by the bus ride of course. And we had hard time to keep him away from the Hearst’s two swimming pools:

Neptune Pool









and Roman Pool.














We still visit some indoors like the guest house Casa del Mar.


This cozy residence with a stunning view of the hills and ocean is built and furnished like being this way for ages.




I was warned to see an American kitsch and arrogance of a rich man who collected antique European objects to build his American dream.
I can't agree! I find the Hearst family story very fascinating and can’t think of the castle in any negative way.
On the contrary I would hardly recommend visiting it.

Too bad Hearst couldn’t bring his dream to an end. But that’s the part of the whole story...



Saturday August 25th

Another night I couldn’t fully enjoy my warm sleeping bag. We are thinking of going home since the camping reminds us rather a roomy parking lot than a nature setting. We decide to stay and try to enjoy the nice coast anyway. We hike from the Leffingwell Landing to the Moonstone Beach. It is too warm for hiking today but this is an easy stroll. A lot of tourists are watching the surfers waiting for perfect waves.

We see some seals at the cliffs and turkey vultures who don’t want to share their prey with seagulls.

This evening we get new neighbors. A group of surfers and they are ready for the party!
Even the ear plugs are not working properly. What a nightmare!





Sunday August 26th


Passing the Hearst Ranch on our way home I spot a coyote wandering near the highway and we see a herd of grazing zebra’s, the descendants of those from the Hearst Castle Zoo.

We make a stop at the Piedras Blancas to watch the elephant seals and sea lions rookery. Here you can’t come so close like at the Año Nuevo SP but considering the mass tourism here it is better to keep the tourists at a safe distance.
We are looking for signs not to miss the cliffs of Jade Cove. We park at the Jade Cove Beach hoping this is it. I take the path descending down the picnic area to check it out. It is very steep and treacherous at certain places so I’m happy Rob is waiting up there with Maarten.

I can’t find much of jade but a rocky beach. I believe this beautiful spot is already a treasure. Rob and Maarten don't come even to the lookout above the cove. I wonder why. They have a better show.

There is a huge rattlesnake under the stairs leading down from the parking lot! I believe he was already there when I went down. I just stepped over it.

Aphthous Ulcers?

Maarten’s mood was not improving. Yesterday he even asked to go home from the playground! You could obviously see he isn’t well.
Brushing his teeth turned to be a real drama. Very annoying and sad at the same time. His gums were even bleeding a little. I believe he really is in a bad pain.
During the night he wakes up crying in pain.
Last night I’ve called the nurse for an advice. She was very friendly but I didn’t make much progression with her opinion.
I took Maarten to my dentist this morning. She inspected Maarten’s gums. Don’t think he would let her look inside! I had to lay down with him and hold him firmly but at least he was not screaming and crying like when we’ve tried to examine him at home.
Afterwards she disappeared somewhere after the curtain for at least half an hour probably to spent a while at her PC like I did last night ;-) According to her it should be nothing serious most probably ‘just’ a virus infection of an indefinitely cause. We have to get through that with some teething gels.

Even the dentist couldn’t give me the exact diagnosis I was happy to hear there is nothing wrong about Maarten’s teeth as the pediatric nurse had suggested.

After Lassen...

Coming home from the beautiful mountains means laundry laundry laundry…nothing exciting to write about.

Unfortunate Maarten had another fever attack this Thursday. No other symptoms and it lasted just one day again! I hope it’s nothing since I’m already worried about the PFAFA.

At last we’ve managed to get together and ‘organize’ another Czech play date on Friday. I was not very comfortable to take Maarten there. He was very quiet sitting on my lap most of the time so I was feeling pretty guilty. He might still be tired or was he really that shy?
Probably since Friday he has got a small aphthae in his mouth which makes him very unhappy. I don’t recognize his behavior. He does eat very little and he fights back when we try to brush his teeth.

I was planning another hiking trip for this Sunday. However my proposal was accepted with little enthusiasm so we ended up at the Oakland ZOO.
Nothing changed from the last time we’ve been here. Maarten is still frightened by the goats and sheep at the petting ZOO.

His favorites are the bats (Malayan Flying Fox). I’m never much impressed by this ZOO but I agree the bats are interesting to observe.







PS: Tonight Maarten graduated to a big-boy bed. And surprise surprise… he stayed there the whole night! He still fits in his crib easily but since he is jumping out and climbing in for a while it’s not that safe anymore. Considering our trip to Europe next month and being without a crib out there I believe this should spare me a lot of trouble.

Lassen Volcanic National Park (2 - 12 August)

I’ve made some notes (and pictures of course) during our last hiking trip to Lassen Volcanic NP so I can easily recall the past everyday happenings.

Thursday August 2nd

After a long journey through the hot and dry Sacramento Valley we could finally exit the I-5 in Red Bluff and head to the mountains.
The scenery was also improving. I had to take a picture of those nice cliffs even the temperature climbed here to a high of 100 °F (some 38 °C).
I believe you can feel the heat even from the picture. Even there were almost no cars on the highway 36 to Mineral a sheriff car appeared suddenly. Luckily just with a friendly question if we are all right.

We have been already warned about the road from Chester to the Warner Valley. The road is partly paved but then turns to fair dirt with some washboardy parts. But since there is no other way to get here from either of the main Lassen Volcanic park entrances we hoped to find a quiet place with no crowds.

At first I was not very impressed by the campground maybe because of my high expectations but when we choose our campsite I understood the positive reviews this campground gets from his fans. The extremely clean and even well smelling! vault style potties were a big surprise since I was a bit skeptic about the pit toilets.
The drinking water was cold and nicer than what we brought from home.
Also Steve, the host, was very friendly and helpful all the time.

The Hot Springs Creek gurgles by the campground and makes it all a serene nature setting. This became our bathroom for the couple of days we spent here and I have to say that this was also one of the most delightful experiences.

Compare to the coast campgrounds here we were encouraged to scatter old wood to make a fire.
(and we needed to make a fire twice a day because the nights were really freezing!)



Friday August 3rd






Our first hike in the beautiful Warner Valley was to the Devils Kitchen. The name says already a lot about this unique geothermal area: mud pots, fumaroles and vents with strong rotten egg smell of the sulphur.





Maarten didn’t really appreciate this natural phenomenon asking to put on his sunglasses to avoid the hot stinky steam. He improved his hiking from 2 to 3 miles but you can imagine that his interests in sticks and pinecones slow us to a snail’s pace.






Anyway we are happy he enjoys the outdoors as we do and there is always time to splash in a creek or a lake on our hikes.












Saturday August 4th



The Boiling Springs Lake is one of the Lassen Volcanic Park thermal areas. This warm-water lake has some hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles along its shore. From the south shore you can see the Lassen Peak still with some snow.

Our only company at the lake was the black-tailed deer which made it even more exciting for Maarten who is afraid of it.


Because Maarten was not allowed to approach the Boiling Spring Lake (surprise?) we took another short trail to the Dream Lake where he could practice his swimming ;-)





Sunday August 5th


I was extremely pleased that Rob agreed to stay a couple of days longer at the Warner Valley!
We had to drive to Chester to get more ice (we already got some at the nearby Drakesbad Ranch). I also had to do something about my hair since the wonderful creek bathroom turned it into one huge dreadlock. And even we managed to buy the dry shampoo it unfortunately doesn’t work with my hair at all. We forgot our bucket at home and this really was a big deal. Thanks to our trip to Chester we got a new one and I could properly wash my hair. What a relief!


Rob found a little Rubber Boa next to our tent!







Monday August 6th


Even though it’s supposed to be enough of a climb (800 feet) we decided to try to reach the remote and secluded Drake Lake.
The last steep mile was indeed pretty heavy although still nothing compare to the Upper Yosemite Falls Trail we did last summer. But Maarten is also getting heavier…
The emerald green lake was the payoff!


And again we had the whole place just for ourselves. Except of the frogs and the snakes in the swamp around the lake than. (a harmless Striped Whipsnake)

Beside of the everyday company of the deer we saw a couple of marmots and there were hummingbirds drinking on the thistles along the trail.

The evenings at the empty campground were lovely: the sound of the bubbling creek, the bats and at dusk a howling coyote made the close-to-the-nature feeling even stronger.
I knew we have to move somewhere where we can finally take a real shower. And we wanted to explore also the other part of the park. Despite of that I was not happy to leave this serene place.



Thuesday August 7th


It was indeed quite a shock when we arrived at the Manzanita Lake campground, the only place in the park with showers. Luckily our site (# 18 again!) in the tent only loop was backed by forest and was at the very end of this giant campground. But you would most likely hear rustle of all the hundreds of people here instead of the nature sounds like in the Warner Valley. Anyway next to the necessity of taking a shower it was not possible to make trips to the main area of the park from the Warner Valley without a long drive.
We had nice neighbors – fishermen: father and son. They offered us fresh caught fishes but I had to refuse it since we didn’t have any frying pan (beside of that I was not really in mood of cleaning the fish). I believe I hurt the feelings of the good man since after that he wouldn’t even look at me not to speak about saying ‘Hi’. Did I miss something about the fishermen etiquette?


Wednesday August 8th

Our first hike in the main area was to the Bumpass Hell. I had to admit it really was worth it to visit also the parks higher elevations. The mountains views were stunning. I believe every visitor of the Lassen Volcanic takes a picture of the Lake Helen










but I liked the Hat Lake likewise.









The parking area at the Bumpass Hell trailhead was already getting very busy when we arrived. And also the beginning of the trail was crowded. I have to admit I was really annoyed by that since at the Warner Valley trails the deer were more plentiful than people.





The Bumpass Hell might be the most spectacular of all the Lassen geothermal areas so I gave it a chance and it was worth it. The place is named after a cowboy from the 1860’s who broke though a thin crust above one of the mud pots and he burned so severely his leg that it has to be amputated. A horrifying story when even coming close to the smelly steam is very unpleasant.

Anyway the hike was worth it and the views of the valley were lovely compare to the gruesome Bumpass Hell.
Well, there were no Dutch tourists at all as I’ve expected but Czechs and Slovaks at every step!


PS: The beautiful Upper Meadow and...


…a calm evening at the Manzanita Lake next to the campground.






Thursday August 9th

I was a bit skeptic about the Shadow Lake Trail. I thought it will be crowded like the Bumpass Hell. All right we were earlier this morning but even when we returned there were just a couple of cars at the trailhead. I was surprised that so little people are willing to walk few miles to reach those stunning lakes.
O.K. there was some steep climbs and because of the high altitude some hikers may experience shortness of breath since the trailhead is at 8,000 feet (2438 m).
This trail was really above mine expectations. The lakes were just beautiful and each in a different way.





The Terrace Lake (don’t miss the two hikers down there ;-))






The Shadow Lake







Unfortunately we weren’t sure if our car is locked or not so I decided to go back to check it… (and it was locked of course!) which made an extra mile something for me.
From the Shadow Lake we continued to the Cliff Lake.










I’ve never seen more beautiful lake than that! I’m so sorry I couldn’t capture the reality with my camera. This shallow gray-green sandy lake is probably overlooked because it rests off the popular hike between Summit Lake and Terrace Lake. I would say keep it like that since again we had this blissful solitude just for ourselves.



Friday August 10th



...a relaxed day at the Manzanita Lake. I have to admit it’s a beautiful lake as well and it wasn’t crowded how we would expect. We had a picnic at the lake and Maarten was playing in the water. We even had a race with self made boats from bark and sticks.






...and we had a lot of fun on the trail back to our tent ;-)








Saturday August 11th








Our last day at the Lassen Volcanic was less romantic. The Summit Lake it’s a beautiful spot but most probably because of the weekend it was really crowded. Anyway Maarten enjoyed the swimming and was very upset when we had to leave.



PS: evening at the campground.







Sunday August 12th



Maarten was so excited to be at home and to see all his toys and teddy bears again. The last days he was often asking about them. I just wonder how he will be doing when he and I will be traveling to Europe in September leaving all the toys and daddy! at home…