Was it Worth it?
This morning was a little lazier than yesterday. My new backpack really made life easier and quicker, we were able to get on the road even faster. We got some donuts for breakfast. Me, Mom and Dad got apple fritters too, but they were no good.
We entered the first of the two parks for the day, Kings Canyon, soon after breakfast. Even in the first little stretch between the entrance and the first rest stop, the trees were huge. That word really doesn't even do the trick, but how else can you describe it? We stopped at the first rest station to use the restroom before we continued. To our surprise, they were actual toilets, not the typical pit toilets that blow breezes and smells all around. A nice plus, and just outside the restroom was a massive redwood stump, which was super cool and still somehow taller than me.
Just a little while after that stop was what the National Parks call a 'village'. They're just small clusters of buildings and parking lots that include gift shops, bathrooms, visitor centers, cafés and markets. We stopped there to take a look in the gift shop. We took out all our recycle bottles and put them in the recycle bin, then watched another guy come up and put all his trash in the recycle bin. Me and Mom made some sarcastic comments. When we went to go inside, we realized the sign on the door said the hours were eleven to six. We moved on knowing there was another visitor center anyway, and worst comes to worst, we would be coming back in it's direction anyway.
We continued into Kings Canyon and into a little stretch that had a whole lot of crazy turns and cliffs. It was absolutely terrifying, so Mom decided to ease our fears by announcing it was time for a lunchtime donut. Then, we got into the second part of King's Canyon. It mainly followed this beautiful river, and Mom even had a great idea to take a short wade in it. The sun was hot, so the cool water felt great.
There was another village further up, but before we could get there me and Gideon had a little squabble on directions. Dad got really annoyed and told us to shut up and when he did he said thank you, to which I responded in a sweet voice as if I'd actually helped him "You're Welcome". Mom tried so hard not to laugh. It didn't work.
When we got up to the second gift shop, we found out it was closed semi-permanently. Fabulous. We headed back soon after that, back down the creepy road where this time: nothing could soothe our fears.
Finally on the way back, we hit up the original gift shop. I almost left without a sweatshirt, but Mom convinced me. I'm beginning to have trouble fitting them in my suitcase.
With that, we were into the second park, Sequoia. Mom and I were slightly concerned that this park was supposed to take longer than King's Canyon to travel and it was already mid-afternoon. There wasn't nearly as much to do there, though, so of course we chose to do the one thing that murdered us all: a hike. I know, I know, that's not too bad, Abby. Even one mile isn't too bad. You don't understand. It was all stairs and overwhelming slants. There was the biggest living thing on the bottom of the hike, which was so huge . . . hard to say it was worth all the pain and suffering of that hike, but it was. So tiring, I was dead.
We found a gift shop after that that had a restroom (which I was in desperate need of) and a market too. Gideon got two stuffed animals again. What did I purchase? No comment.
Because it was getting late and we still had to do laundry, we decided to look along the route for food to take into the hotel. Of course, the first thing we found was a Dominos. The place was slow and busy, but we got our food and ate at the hotel after starting up a load of laundry. The laundry room was so hot and humid . . . it was awful. Finally, after hours of hot labor, we got to sleep. Ah, my favorite part of the day.
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