Lake Tahoe, Yosemite & LA (2024)

What kind of vacationer are you? Or maybe a better question - how do you want to vacation with your family? I've written about different trips in this blog (including the most recent post about our Spring Break 2023 trip to Utah / Arizona) and it got me thinking both about vacation types in general and then the specifics of our latest trip. 

Growing up there seemed to be two kinds of Malphurs family trips. 1) We went to the beach on 30A and spent the week playing in the sand and watching movies. (We got two "free" movies per day from the place we rented from and in the era before streaming. This was almost as exciting as the Gulf of Mexico.) 2) We did long roadtrips to places like the Grand Canyon. I remember significantly more of the 1st kind of trip.....probably because the beach was relatively close (5-6 hour drive), didn't involve a plane and was more relaxing. 

Now I'm in the stage of life where we have a new family of four that is establishing their own traditions. When L & J were babies / toddlers, trips were less about having a relaxing trip and more about "parenting on location." (I'm stealing that line from a friend who mentioned that when we all went to Toronto.) We could have pockets of fun and the pictures looked great, but even with the benefits of nostalgia I still don't think I would want to do those trips again.

The kids are older and we are presented with a fork in the road. Do we want relaxing trips? Or do we want to "go and see stuff"? We don't have unlimited time or unlimited money, so a decision had to be made. For the last two years our big trip has been the go and see stuff. Without further ado here is my recap of Lake Tahoe, Yosemite & LA.

Wednesday, 7/17/24 - flight out

• No issues with our flights to Atlanta and then to Reno. We got in late, but everyone handled it well. We all slept well at M's Uncle's place that evening

Thursday, 7/18/24 - first day in Lake Tahoe!

• We were able to sleep in and have a pretty relaxing start to the day / trip. It was nice having a home at the front end of our trip, so that we could have both the physical comforts (a nice bed) and mental comforts (things feel different in a home than a hotel).

• We started the day going to the overrated (no matter what the rating is) tourist trap of Virginia City. I had a bad feeling driving into a town with tons of political signs (when did it become ok to have curse words on large signs?) and the situation never really improved. 

• Virginia City was an old mining town and now it's a small stretch on a road with bars, tourist shops, etc.

• The two best things about the city was a good milkshake and an ok (B+ / A-) tour of one of the old mines. We had about an hour tour of the Collar Mine and it's amazing people actually did this for a living back in the 19th century

• We left Virginia City and went to Lake Tahoe. My first thoughts on Lake Tahoe was its as gorgeous as you can imagine and that the water is so incredibly clear and cold. 

• Our big activity was to go see a Shakespeare play (The Merry Wives of Windsor). M & L loved it. J and I thought it was ok mostly because she is 8 and I apparently have the comprehension skills of an 8 year old. Regardless of our divergent thoughts on the quality of the play, we all agreed the setting was spectacular (see below). 

Friday, 7/19/24 - Lake Tahoe (on land and water)

• We started the day off kayaking and playing in Lake Tahoe from Sugar Pine Point State Park. We had planned on some hikes, but as expected the parking situation in the middle of summer was challenging. Thankfully the State Park was awesome.

• That afternoon we did get finally find parking at Emerald Bay State Park and did a hike down to the water and then back up. The views were spectacular and the crowds weren't too bad

• That evening we had our big 2 hour boat tour with Captain Sean through his company Imagine Charters. This was one of the highlights of the trip. M's Uncle and Aunt came and joined us

• We could see the sunset and then at the end L, J and I jumped into the fridgid Lake Tahoe. That was such a cool experience with both of them. I highly recommend a boat to explore Lake Tahoe.

Saturday, 7/20/24 - relaxing day in Nevada

• We didn't do as much this day....a small hike, a visit to the Nevada State Museum in Carson City and a nice dinner with M's Aunt and Uncle. 

• We were very fortunate to start our trip with a home base and it was great learning more about M's Aunt and Uncle.

Sunday, 7/21/24 - driving to Yosemite National Park

• This was one of the best days of the trip. We left Gardnerville and went to Yosemite National Park!

• The entire time I had been preparing the family for a long, long, long wait to get into Yosemite. My fears were unfounded as it took about 5 minutes to officially enter the park. For certain parks (like Yosemite) there is a reservation system and thankfully our lodging in the park allowed for us to go in. This was an extremely pleasant surprise.

• We entered Yosemite through the Tioga Pass (this is on the east side of the park). One big takeaway from Yosemite is that the park is absolutely massive and it's imperative that you plan your activities into sections of the park. We explored 3 sections: 1) the Tioga Pass section on the east side 2) the valley 3) Mariposa Grove on the south side. 

• We did a short hike around (but certainly not all the way up) Lembert Dome before walking down in  Tuolomne Meadow to Soda Springs. Soda Springs is carbonated ground water and kind of tastes like watered down blood. Despite the unpleasant taste this was a fun and weird surprise.

• Next stop was going to Tenaya Lake. M, L & J got into the water and I just enjoyed relaxing at this lake that was surrounded by granite mountains. 

• We then got our first view of Half Dome by taking a short hike on Olmsted Point. There is a very good view from the road, but an even better view with a little bit of walking. 

• We ended the day in the Yosemite Valley checking out Bridalveil Fall and our lodging (the Yosemite Valley Lodge)

• The best surprise of the day was the fact that Yosemite wasn't that crowded. That was my biggest fear visiting such popular tourist destinations during peak tourist season. There were definitely people there, but at no point did it feel overwhelming at all. Maybe it's because of the reservation system or because people can naturally spread out with Yosemite being so big, but I wouldn't hesitate to visit again in the summer.

• The one downside was finding out that our our lodge did not have A/C and that while it was nice and cool at the top of the mountain....it was pretty hot in the valley. The location of our lodge was perfect, but sleeping there was tricky and involved fans and wet towels.

• Below is pic from Tenaya Lake

Monday, 7/22/24 - first full day at Yosemite

• In the morning we had a bus tour to Glacier Point. It was nice not having to worry about driving, but I would have preferred more than the 45 minutes we had at Glacier Point. You can see all of the valley and next time I would want to drive there and have lunch overlooking everything. 

• When we got back to the valley we had the afternoon / evening mostly free to do whatever. L and I rented bikes, which based on the tour book I used was a great way of seeing everything in the valley. The book was correct. It was so easy riding around the path and stopping when we wanted to check something out.

• We also took advantage of the pool at the lodge. While the rooms themselves were small and spartan (did I mention the no A/C), the lodge itself was specular. Great restaurants (a nice place, a quick service place and even a Starbucks), a pool, ranger led programs and of course the incredible location. Anyway, the pool was huge and had a great view of Yosemite Falls. Also, on a hot day (high of 100 in the valley) the pool was perfect.

• That night we had a fancy dinner at The Ahwahnee hotel. There was a dress code (not really enforced), piano player and a buffett with a good selection for both vegetarians and everyone else.

• After a nice dinner we went to check out Yosemite Falls and while walking around the creek we saw a bear! Thankfully the bear and no interest in us and walked the other after we audibly gasped.

• Below is a view of Yosemite from Tunnel View:

Tuesday 7/23/24 - second full day at Yosemite

• This day was hotter and more crowded than what we had experienced so far at Yosemite. 

• We started off by going to the Vernal Falls trailhead, where we found out that part of the trail was closed unless you had gotten there before 6am. 

• We had a one mile hike from the parking lot to the trailhead and then a 0.8 mile hike up a mountain to the Vernal Fall Footbridge. People were sweaty and grumpy, but the situation improved when we saw the spectacular view from the footbridge. 

• We hung out there, rested our body and thought about the "good news" that the rest of the trail up the mountain wasn't open. (There was a 1.7 mile other way you could take....we weren't doing that.)

• Anyway the walk back was much, much easier (going downhill) and we passed the time with J giving high fives and words of encouragement to 25 strangers! 

• The rest of the day was at the pool and then a nice meal at the Yosemite Mountain Lodge in the same complex as our room.

• Below is a view from our walk around the valley after dinner - it was so peaceful and we had two deer walk right next to us.

Wednesday, 7/24/24 - Yosemite to Kings Canyon National Park

• Today we headed down from Yosemite to Kings Canyon! We passed Glacier Point and I lamented that I didn't plan it better so that we could have stopped there instead of taking the tour bus.

• We stopped in the Mariposa Grove section at the south end of Yosemite National Park to see the giant sequoia trees. This officially kicked off the "big trees" section of our trip. The trees were amazing to see and we took a hike around to see different sections. 

• We continued our drive (more driving than we wanted today) and were able to see two things at Kings Canyon National Park: 1) a short hike to the General Grant Tree, which is the 2nd biggest tree in the world. 2) another short hike to panoramic point to see the sunset over Kings Canyon (see below)

• We  didn't drive the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway. It looked awesome but after 4 hours of driving already it didn't seem appealing. Maybe next time

• We had a great meal at a Mexican restaurant just south of Yosemite. My travel book had recommended it and the advice was spot on. 

• The night of sleeping at John Muir Lodge was excellent - it was also not air-conditioned, but being at such high elevation it didn't matter. This was a welcome break from the "hot house" in Yosemite.

Thursday, 7/25/24 - Kings Canyon to Sequoia National Park to LA (Universal Studios)

• We left Kings Canyon and to see Sequoia National Park. There we were able to see the world's biggest tree (General Sherman's) and I can in fact confirm that it is very, very large.

• After that we walked 351 steps up Moro Rock to see an amazing view of the high Sierra Mountains

• Sequoia was great, but also super crowded. It seems like the crowds I expected at Yosemite all seemed to be at Sequoia. My guess is that because Sequoia hasn't instituted time entry it gets way more crowed. 

• After Sequoia we drove south past Bakersfield and into LA. We thankfully avoided most traffic (LA traffic gives me nightmares) and got to Universal Studios at 7pm.

• Universal Studios was awesome! We saw the sun set over Harry Potter World and did 3 rides + a wand fitting. Harry Potter isn't really my thing, but it was super awesome to see the excitement from the rest of my family

• We stayed at the park until it closed at 10, which made for a very long day (the longest day of the trip) but it was an awesome day. 

Friday, 7/26/24 - Universal Studio & worst / best meal of the trip

• Back to Universal Studios! They were running a Buy One Day, Get One Day Free offer, so we decided to check it out on our way into LA and then also the next day. 

• The biggest piece of advice is that you need to get there early in the morning. The lines were 10-30 minutes long at the beginning of the day, but by 11am they were 60 minutes or more. 

• We were able to get there early enough to go on 3 rides: Jurassic World / Transformers / The Mummy. They were all better than expected. I loved how the lines were designed to make the wait not only tolerable, but kind of fun. The rides themselves were relatively short, but very well done. I feel like for pure thrills it doesn't compare to Cedar Point, Universal was much better than both Cedar Point and Disney with storytelling.

• Lunch at Universal was the worst meal of the trip. Pure chaos. The online ordering didn't work and the wait / people touching me to get some average chicken fingers was just not something I ever want to do again.

• I also wasn't as impressed with the Harry Potter wands. There were supposed to do small magic tricks around the park, but only worked about 50% of the time. L thought they were really cool (which is great), but I would have been annoyed had we paid for the wands and weren't just borrowing them from friendss.

• I was super impressed with the different worlds. Both Harry Potter World & Super Mario Worlds are small, but extremely well done. Just an amazing spot to walk around get pictures in.

• The studio tour was relatively nice (again L really liked it) but M and I weren't as impressed. I think by hour 10 of being the park we were just done with the lines / crowds / theme park. 

• That being written, overall I loved Universal Studios....as a one time treat and nothing something I need to do again for  a few more years

• We went back to Santa Monica and had a late dinner at an Italian restaurant (Fritto Misto ) right next to our Airbnb. This was the best meal of the trip. We all got pasta and M and I shared a bottle of cheap wine. The waiter was great and the whole atmosphere was just perfect. If I lived in Santa Monica, I would want to eat there every week.

Saturday, 7/27/24 - beach day

• Last full day of the trip and after lots of driving around we decided to to just walk around and enjoy Santa Monica

• We got donuts from this shop (DK Diner) featured in the Donut King documentary we had just watched on Hulu. The donuts were creative and very good, but we all agreed that they weren't any better than our local donut shop Resch's Bakery.

• We spent 4 hours at the beach and the kids just really loved playing in the Pacific Ocean.

• Dinner was slightly disappointing. Our grand finale was at this fancy spot (Tar and Roses). The food quality was excellent, but the portion size was so small that we had to get pizza after. 

• We saw dolphins off the Santa Monica Pier! Look really close and maybe you can see them in the pic below:

Sunday, 7/28/28 - flight back

• Rough day travel....we boarded our flight from LA to Vegas on time, but just sat there on the plane until we had to go back to the terminal. Why? Some battery wasn't charged correctly. This took over an hour and meant we missed our connection to Columbus. Our flight scheduled to get in at 8:30pm now got in at 2am. 

• The good news is that I asked Southwest for compensation since it was their fault and they gave us $400 ($100 / each). Not bad for the delay.

Overall it was an amazing trip and one I would recommend to anyone who likes national parks and doesn't mind driving. It was very similar to our Spring Break trip last year to Utah / Arizona and at this point the perfect kind of trip for our family.