Come Visit Cali (Muir Woods)

Muir Woods is just a hop, skip and a jump from San Francisco.

I mean, if you could actually hop, skip or jump over San Francisco Bay.  Instead you get to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge and through the Rainbow Tunnel!  Much more exciting.

Most coastal redwoods have been cut at some point but Muir Woods is one of those protected places that has never been logged.

The trees are enormous and beautiful. 

It has a 1-mile loop hike that is easy to manage with little ones.  Pick up a scavenger hunt before embarking on the hike.  It keeps the kids engaged with the informational signs that are sprinkled along the way.  And there's a prize at the end!  Of course, we also look for tree faces.

And make fish faces at the salmon in the creek.

Armstrong Redwoods is another place to see the Redwoods that isn't too far from us.  Since it is in Sonoma County, we would go there if you choose the Napa Valley option when making your reservations to...

Come Visit Cali (San Francisco)

Reason #3 to

There are so many places to explore in California and many of them are within driving distance of us.  San Fran is only about 3 hours away and it has something for everyone.

Golden Gate Bridge + Crissy Beach

Trolley Cars

(Abby will show you how to act like you've been doing this your whole life.)

Seals at Pier 39

The Presidio

where I will force you to play the statue game with me.

we are totally awesome!!!

And so many wonderful museums.

The Zeum (below) where you can make your own claymation movie or music video, the California Academy of Sciences has an aquarium and a living roof, the Exploratorium is every little scientist's dream, or the de Young Fine Arts Museum.

There's still more but you'll have to wait for the next post.

In the meantime, give us a call, tell us when you're coming so we can put you on the calendar! 

New Film {eating alabama}

Eat locally.
Eat seasonally.
They even do it in Alabama!

Andy Grace was one of Jono's roommates in college.  He is the director of the new film Eating Alabama that will have it's world premiere at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX.  Pretty big stuff.  Watch the trailer above and learn more at the website, www.eatingalabama.com.

Their other roommate, Joey Thompson, scored the music for the film.  You can catch a glimpse of it in the video here.  Listen to more of the Archibalds at their website, www.thearchibaldsmusic.com.

Are you going to have a back(or front)yard garden this year?  It's so much fun and you don't get much more local than that.  Come on!  Let's get back to playing in the dirt.

Come Visit Cali (home sweet home)

If you are coming to Cali, we would love to have you stay in our cozy little home.

Remember we live at an adventure camp.

You can try blobbing or swinging or sliding or hiking.

Do you have little ones?

We have a wonderful toddler training program here at the house.

We teach two very important lessons.

#1

How To Make the Most of Bathtime

#2

How To Wrestle

(aka Defend Yourself or Be Thrown into the Couch)

They can also learn about eating locally.

We have blackberries.  And green beans.  And more.

We also offer electives like...

 How To Wash Dishes

and

The Best Way To Wear a Fake Mustache

These are really just the tip of the iceberg, folks.

You are going to have to see it for yourself.

Come visit!

Come Visit Cali (old sacramento)

The next few posts are going to be shameless plugs at getting you to come out to visit us. 

Just letting you know up front. 

We recently had a great visit with some sweet friends who agreed to let me use them in this advertising series called

and when I say 'California' I really mean 'the Gardners'.

come visit the Gardners.

we miss you!

and California is so much fun.  especially with us!

So, when you come to visit, you will most likely fly into SMF, good ole Sacramento airport, where either Jono, myself, or the whole crew will greet you, depending on the number of seats required in the swagger wagon.

Starting with a little history, we will procede to "Old Sac", the historic part of downtown Sacramento.  Back in the day, Sacramento was the gateway to gold country and little part of that world still remains.  We can see the trains...

say 'hi' to Black Bart and maybe the mounties...

and if you time it right you can see it in all it's 1850's glory at

Gold Rush Days

There's also the train museum and candy and the river.

And that is just the beginning!

Stay tuned for more reasons to come visit us in California...

Two-Faced

(left pic) field staff                   property staff (right pic)

While we were at the Young Life conference in Orlando, Jono had the opportunity to help one of the speakers.  He was illustrating some differences between Young Life field staff and property staff. 

Those on field staff spend hours with teenagers on a daily basis and need camouflage that is relevant to, say, a high school lunchroom.  Thus, you have designer jeans and satchel/man bag.  But, they also have to look respectable for the donors who support their ministry.  Thus, the clean shaven face and collared shirt.

When you look at the right picture, you see the property staff version.  Plaid flannel shirt, boots, and bushy beard are naturally found on someone who spends most of their life in the middle of the woods, booniesville, usa.  You might find property staff wearing designer jeans but that is because they were pulled out of lost and found after last summer.

In all seriousness, we have the utmost respect for our partners in ministry who are going out daily in pursuit of lost teenagers.  The jobs may look a lot different but the heart behind both is the same--to share God's grace and forgiveness with kids.  If you'd like to find out more about the ministry of Young Life, you can visit their website here.  If you would like to find out more about Woodleaf, the camp where we live (and work), you can go to that website here.

You may cast your vote for clean-shaven or bearded Jonathan in the comment section below.

Voting will close in one week.

Flying {over utah}

I've flown into Salt Lake City a time or two but this time when we flew over Utah I was blown away!

Maybe it was the time of day we were flying.  Or maybe the fact that we were flying without kids and I was free to look out the window.  Either way, we saw some amazing, big, crazy rocks.

The pilot was throwing out names like...

Monument Valley, Bryce Canyon, Pinnacles something.

I don't know which names go with what pictures.

Feel free to educate me.

I want to go there!

Walk through those monuments.  Stand in the valleys.  Climb one.

Who's going with me?!

As breathtaking and awesome it was seeing those massive rocks jumping up out of the ground,

it was even more humbling (and comforting all at the same time) to remember...