Day Two -- Was Awesome!!!!

 Day two began like any other day on a road trip.  You get up.  You drink some dirty water in a cup that the hotel calls coffee.  You scramble as fast as you can to throw everything together just so you can get to a Starbucks and come alive.  

Two venti coffees and a grande hot chocolate (no whip) and we were off for California.

(photo compliments of that world renown photographer, Chloe Lalor)

The smoke in Northern California was pretty bad, but that didn't deter us from a day of adventure.  First stop...  McCloud Falls.  We had to drive a little bit off the beaten path to get to the falls, but it was sure worth it.

But the adventure was only beginning!!!

Next stop, Subway Caves Lava Tube.  This was the best lava tube.  It was long, it was dark and it was spooky.  Well, maybe only spooky when Papa got ahead and scared Grandma and Chloe.

Leaving the caves, we had a few hours drive to get to the resort.  Driving through Northern California is really eerie due to all the fire damage.   Acre after acre burned.  But you could see in some of the spots that burned in previous years, that Mother Nature was bringing it back to life.

We got to our resort around 5pm.  My brother Joe and his wife, Holly, had already arrived.  After the normal greetings and hugs, it was time to get down to some serious business.

The girls were not the only ones that know how to conduct business.

With all this serious work we're doing, we were hungry.  And being that it was Sonja's 39th birthday, a celebration was in store.

Day three looks like it's going to be another tough one.  Hopefully, we'll survive.