Noel
I have to tell about three places that were favorites. Since my parents moved from state to state, there were places that we vacationed that still, I (Noel) remember well.
When we lived in Easton, California there were two places that I loved going to.
First: Yosemite National Park. We always had a cabin nearby since Dad and Mom were not into Camping. But I remember enjoying the waterfalls. As a family we would hike up to them and have lunch, just enjoying the Falls. The one I really enjoyed the most was the evening when they would have fire tumble down by the side of one of the Falls. Always a crowd below just to watch it. Amazing and beautiful.
Another time we took my Grandmother, on my father’s side, up to the Park with us. One afternoon we were at some parking lot when we saw, from a distance, a bear climb in through the front window of a car where it must have found a loaf of bread and was sitting in the back seat eating away. My Grandmother was curious, so she went up to the car to look in the rear window. The bear swiped its big paw against the window and frightened my Grandmother so much that she didn’t feel good the rest of the day.
Hiking around the Park was something we all enjoyed.
Second: WE enjoyed our vacation in the Sequoia National Forest. There was a Bible Camp there where families would go. Dad was always one of the speakers. We had our own cabin, which at times was interesting. One evening, we were all in the cabin when we heard a bear trying to get in through the door. Never made it. Thank the Lord they made everything bear-proof.
They also had a swimming pool. One time some boys threw me into the pool and told me to swim. At that time I had no swimming lessons, so I had to dog paddle to get to the side., That was the moment when Dad decided we all needed to take some swimming lessons. I would not recommend teaching anyone to swim that way.
Third: Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Fell in love with this park. Probably why when we (Ruby and I and our family) moved to Omaha we went out there just about every summer with friends to hike the many trails.
Dad would always rent a cabin for us to stay in. One time he decided that we would camp out in a tent. So he chose the Glacier Bay Campground. The first night it was cold. Really, every night was cold. My brother and I slept in a small pup tent. We were very comfortable. Mom and Dad and my sisters stayed in the tent. There was no floor. They had cots to sleep on. But the wind blew right into the tent. Dad froze. Put his clothes on over his PJ’s and then later went and sat in the car. In the morning, he loaded us all into the car, took us to the cabin where my uncle and family were staying, dropped us off, and went looking for a cabin. That was the end of our camping days. Dad never took his PJs off that whole day.
We always hiked up to Dream Lake. Later, when Ruby and I and two of our boys would hike up there, I was really amazed that my mother made that hike. It was a little harder than I thought as a child. But she made it. One time we decided to hike Twin Sisters. Mom went along. She only made it halfway when she decided to turn around and slowly make her way back to the car. The rest of us went all the way up. At that time there was still a Lookout Tower. A young couple that had just gotten married late that Spring were spending their honeymoon up there. We got to visit with them in the tower before we went back down.
I did get to go up to the top of Longs Peak. Two pastors that Dad knew were going up, so they invited me to go along. I was 16 at the time. Once we got up to the top of boulder field, a cable went off to the left to help us get to the top. It was a fun but tiring hike. The cable is no longer there, and now you have to go through the keyhole and hike the backside to the top.
Being in the mountains with Mom and Dad and family made me love to hike the mountain trails. Started first hiking in Glacier National Park and then Rocky Mountain National Park. Great memories.
Ruby
My (Ruby) Dad was a dairy farmer and milking up to 100 cows at one time. He was pretty much tied down to his work, both early morning and evening. He made sure we got away as a family to one of the parks in the Redwoods, about 30 minutes away. Mom made a nice picnic lunch, and then we got to swim in the river. I never learned to swim, so I couldn’t go very deep. It was a great family time.
Our favorite vacation was driving the car to Nebraska to visit our cousins and Grandma and Grandpa Hansen. We had no air conditioning and six people in our little car. Mom had fixed our lunch so we could stop alongside the road to eat. Then in the evening we would get a motel and eat food mom had brought along. I remembered I loved those canned potatoes and Spam. En route to Nebraska, they made sure we saw some of the attractions along the way. One attraction was the Great Salt Lake. We got to swim in the lake. You would just float and not drown because of the excessive salt. You had to borrow one of their swimsuits from their bathhouse. It was awesome to see the Black Hills with the carving of the Presidents also. We went to Yosemite and camped in a tent that was constructed off the ground a few feet. Then sometime in the evening, there was fire falling from the cliff with men singing from the top. Very impressive. We also visited Yellowstone with its Old Faithful Geyser and bears that would come to the car and scare us. Going through the Colorado Rockies was a wonderful experience, but we didn’t get to do much hiking.
All these vacations gave us a true feeling of family and spending time together. Our USA has so many great vacation spots.