California Archives | Travels With Baby https://travelswithbaby.com/blog/category/california/ The Best Advice, Resources, and Tips for Traveling with Babies and Young Children. By award-winning author Shelly Rivoli. Tue, 23 Aug 2022 20:00:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://travelswithbaby.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/cropped-favicon-32x32.jpg California Archives | Travels With Baby https://travelswithbaby.com/blog/category/california/ 32 32 Photo Fave: Our happy place… and yours? https://travelswithbaby.com/blog/photo-fave-our-happy-place-and-yours/ Sat, 31 Dec 2011 23:52:00 +0000 https://travelswithbaby.com/blog/?p=314 In 2012… may you go to your family’s happy place! Well, here is the last Photo Fave I’ll be posting for 2011. As I look back over the past year (okay, actually the past 3 or so), it’s shocking to realize how many places and experiences I still haven’t managed to mention in this blog!...

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]]> In 2012… may you go to your family’s happy place!
Well, here is the last Photo Fave I’ll be posting for 2011. As I look back over the past year (okay, actually the past 3 or so), it’s shocking to realize how many places and experiences I still haven’t managed to mention in this blog! However, I’ll gladly take the problem of “too much material” to draw from over the alternative! My Photo Fave posts have been a nice excuse to hop, skip and jump around in our family’s travel timeline (you can browse them here), and touch on some of the places I haven’t managed to give the full attention I hope to… eventually! Here is a snapshot of me and the little guy on this year’s trip to Yosemite – the first place my husband always asks to go when I say I’m planning a trip again! Of all the places I’ve dragged him to, we continue to count ourselves so lucky to live with this spectacular national park so close at hand, and we do our best to get there each year at least once. Yosemite holds a dear place in each of our hearts, and as long-time followers of this blog know, it’s actually where Travels with Baby was conceived (the book – not the baby!).  

Does your family have a special place you return to each year – or try to? Whether it’s the place itself or perhaps the very special people you journey to see there, here’s wishing you the best of “happy places” in your 2012.And on that note, I’ll be back next week with some tips to help fit more travel into your family’s New Year!

Safe journeys,

Shelly Rivoli
Author of the award-winning Travels with Baby guidebooks

All content of this blog (c) Shelly Rivoli 2007 – 2011

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]]> Photo Fave: Arlington West Memorial at the Santa Monica Pier https://travelswithbaby.com/blog/photo-fave-arlington-west-memorial-at-the-santa-monica-pier/ Sat, 12 Nov 2011 00:16:00 +0000 https://travelswithbaby.com/blog/?p=301 A kid’s view of Arlington West from the Santa Monica Pier. In honor of Veteran’s Day today, I’m posting this photo of the Arlington West Memorial in Santa Monica, California. As you head down the pier, lined with ice cream and cotton candy vendors, seafood restaurants, and gift booths toward the beckoning roller coasters and...

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A kid’s view of Arlington West from the Santa Monica Pier.
In honor of Veteran’s Day today, I’m posting this photo of the Arlington West Memorial in Santa Monica, California. As you head down the pier, lined with ice cream and cotton candy vendors, seafood restaurants, and gift booths toward the beckoning roller coasters and carnival rides, this is sure to stop you in your tracks, as it certainly did for our family. 

This temporary memorial began in 2004, and each Sunday and Fourth of July since, it is reinstalled beside the Santa Monica Pier in southern California. As the numbers of fallen soldiers has grown so tremendously since then, some red crosses are used to represent ten passed service men and women each. Coffins draped in flags commemorate the soldiers who have died over the past week.
The project was created by the Veterans For Peace in order to: 
  • Remember the fallen and wounded
  • To provide a place to grieve  
  • To acknowledge the human cost of war
  • To encourage dialogue among people with varied points of view
  • To educate the public about the needs of those returning from war. 

While the memorial stands in sharp contrast to the busy Sunday beach crowd and landmark center of family fun beside it, it seemed a very appropriate opportunity for us to pause and reflect on how many American men and women–and their families–have sacrificed so much just since the year that we became parents.  
Today, in addition to honoring my Great Grandfather who served in World War I and my Grandfather who served in World War II, I want to also acknowledge and honor all of the military families who are among my readership, for whom traveling with their young children is not necessarily a luxury nor a vacation but is a necessary part of “family life.”

This post is part of Photo Friday at DeliciousBaby.com. 

Safe journeys to you all,
Shelly Rivoli
Author of the award-winning Travels with Baby guidebooks

All content of this blog (c) Shelly Rivoli 2007 – 2011

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]]> Photo Fave: Night view from the Westin Bonaventure, Los Angeles https://travelswithbaby.com/blog/photo-fave-night-view-from-the-westin-bonaventure-los-angeles/ Sat, 03 Sep 2011 21:48:00 +0000 https://travelswithbaby.com/blog/?p=277 A room with a great night view at the Westin Bonaventure, Los Angeles. Believe it or not, just days after we’d finished what was to be the last road trip of the summer, where I subjected my young children to 7 hours of driving on the final day, but it being well worth it (come...

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]]> A room with a great night view at the Westin Bonaventure, Los Angeles.
Believe it or not, just days after we’d finished what was to be the last road trip of the summer, where I subjected my young children to 7 hours of driving on the final day, but it being well worth it (come on, a gray whale in a RIVER? Driving our car through a TREE? Petting sharks?)–we were suddenly presented with a great and unexpected opportunity for adventure–which meant waking the kids, packing the family, and being buckled into the car with one hour’s notice. (You might recall I have always been a fan of the Amazing Race (with baby?)!)
It’s a long story, but we pulled it off! However, the expected 7-hour drive turned into 9 with a flat tire at the Fresno County line, and it was the day I broke all my own rules as far as traveling unplugged (more on that another time). We needed movies, and lots of them. Not to mention air-conditioning and the cold sticky things mom didn’t allow in the new car just the week before.
By the time we reached downtown L.A., it was as if my kids were completely jet-lagged from traveling half-way around the world in an airplane, although we had traveled the entire day in the back seat of the car in our own time zone. Thankfully, the Westin Bonaventure in downtown L.A., with its glass elevators and the view from our hotel room windows, provided plenty of late-night entertainment for the young ones.
In the morning, we were rewarded with a view of the HOLLYWOOD sign right there on the hills in the background!
Need some road trip tips for the long drive with your family? Check out FAQs and Popular topics, Part 4 of Travels with Baby and get them by the dozen to keep in the glovebox (or on your favorite device) in Take-Along Travels with Baby. 
Safe journeys,
Shelly Rivoli
Author of the award-winning Travels with Baby guidebooks

All content of this blog (c) Shelly Rivoli 2007 – 2011

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]]> Photo Fave: Gray whale in the Klamath River, northern California https://travelswithbaby.com/blog/photo-fave-gray-whale-in-the-klamath-river-northern-california/ Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:32:00 +0000 https://travelswithbaby.com/blog/?p=271 Whale-watching at the Klamath River, California. As we drove away from Crescent City, California, earlier this week, we were surprised to find a number of people walking along the raised edge of this bridge pointing down into the Klamath River and snapping photographs. By the time we crept through the crowd to the other end...

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]]> Whale-watching at the Klamath River, California.
As we drove away from Crescent City, California, earlier this week, we were surprised to find a number of people walking along the raised edge of this bridge pointing down into the Klamath River and snapping photographs. By the time we crept through the crowd to the other end of the bridge, we remembered hearing someone mention a whale having traveled up a river somewhere in northern California earlier this summer. Sure enough, this was it–still there since late June.  

Any whale sighting can be exciting, but watching a gray whale swim below you in a fresh water river is unforgettable. My daughter, a budding marine biologist, did not want to leave. You can read more about the gray whale in this article at the Huff Post SF. 

This post is part of Photo Friday at DeliciousBaby.com and the Travels with Baby Photo Fave series. Have a great weekend! 

Safe journeys,

Shelly Rivoli
Author of the award-winning Travels with Baby guidebooks

All content of this blog (c) Shelly Rivoli 2007 – 2011

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]]> Anderson River Park: A great pit stop for family road trips through Northern California https://travelswithbaby.com/blog/anderson-river-park-a-great-pit-stop-for-family-road-trips-through-northern-california/ Wed, 10 Aug 2011 08:46:00 +0000 https://travelswithbaby.com/blog/?p=268 As I mentioned in my earlier blog post, my family has seen quite a lot of the I-5 corridor (actually all of it over the past 2 years). Finding new and exciting places to break up the drive without breaking the bank has always been of interest, so I was thrilled to discover the Anderson...

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As I mentioned in my earlier blog post, my family has seen quite a lot of the I-5 corridor (actually all of it over the past 2 years). Finding new and exciting places to break up the drive without breaking the bank has always been of interest, so I was thrilled to discover the Anderson River Park, between Redding and Red Bluff, on our recent road trip. 

The expansive park is just a few minutes’ drive from the Interstate 5 Exit 668 for Central Anderson / Lassen National Park, and although it has a playground and tot play area, we never made it back to explore them. Instead, we hit the Anderson River Park trail to stretch our legs and enjoyed blackberry picking along the beautiful Anderson River itself. 

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of being singled out as tourists in a foreign land and offered a wealth of tips and insights from locals who want to be sure you enjoy your visit, you’ll appreciate how residents continued to appear before me and my husband in our Bay Area jeans and corduroy (it was 57 degrees when we left home that morning) and guided us to the kid-friendliest berry vines and most excellent shallow bays along the river where even our toddler could refresh himself as the temperature reached 100 degrees (that’s 37 Celsius).

When we were on our second jaunt of washing blackberry juice-stained hands and faces in the icy river, a dad-and-daughter team suggested we might also like… what? The gravel beach and WARM pond we could access just around the next bend. 

When I say warm, I mean tropical, waveless pond water with such clarity that we could watch the small fish swim around our legs—and identify one variety as what had to have been, no kidding, someone’s tropical fresh water aquarium gone free range.

kids at Anderson River Park

If that weren’t fun enough, we were buzzed by a constant barrage of enormous dragon flies wing-splashed in lavender, face-painted in green, and representing half a dozen tribes from their mysterious kingdom.   

Our one hour stop turned into two and gave way to ice cream sold by a peddler and eaten by the river. The kids were exercised, refreshed, and ready for a few more hours in the car—but only after we promised to stop at Anderson the next time we passed through the area on I-5. 

If you’re driving by and need a good pit stop with the kids, be sure to check out Anderson River Park for yourselves.

For more help planning your family road trip with a baby, toddler, or young kids, see Part 4 of Travels with Baby, and don’t miss the Five ways I used my Take-Along Travels with Baby to help on this latest road trip.

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Safe journeys,
Shelly Rivoli
Author of the award-winning Travels with Baby guidebooks

All content of this blog (c) Shelly Rivoli 2007 – 2018

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]]> Photo Fave: "Big tree," Big Trees Calaveras State Park, California https://travelswithbaby.com/blog/photo-fave-big-tree-big-trees-calaveras-state-park-california/ Fri, 29 Apr 2011 20:00:00 +0000 https://travelswithbaby.com/blog/?p=232 In celebration of national Arbor Day, I thought I’d post one of my favorite photos of one of my favorite trees. There are many trees to like at Big Trees Calaveras State Park in northern California, but I especially remember this moment when my daughters had been scurrying through the trees, happy as your average...

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In celebration of national Arbor Day, I thought I’d post one of my favorite photos of one of my favorite trees. There are many trees to like at Big Trees Calaveras State Park in northern California, but I especially remember this moment when my daughters had been scurrying through the trees, happy as your average dusty squirrels just to be in the woods, when they suddenly paused and realized–though it was plain to any of us watching–that the object they were circling was in fact one, massive tree. 
We told them to go stand in the “doorway” of the ancient tree for a picture. As their chins tipped skyward I felt the first goosebumps of a mom who realizes, “They are old enough now to get something out of this trip that may actually stick with them. For life.”  ?
Big Trees is a fantastic place for families to visit on northern California road trips, and if you’re lucky enough to get a space (reserve well in advance), it’s also terrific for camping with kids. Check out my tips for planning your visit in the related posts and pages below. 
This post is part of Photo Friday at DeliciousBaby.com. 
Related posts and pages:
See Big Trees
Tips for Camping at Big Trees

Safe journeys,

Shelly Rivoli
Author of Travels with Baby and the new Take-Along Travels with Baby
https://travelswithbaby.com/   Travels with Baby on Facebook

All content of this blog (c) Shelly Rivoli

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