Around the holidays last year, Jen and I were talking about family roadtrips when we were kids…and we realized the kiddo is now at an age where he can really understand and appreciate the importance (and teenage chagrin) of being trapped in a car with parentals for a week.

So, we started planning our summer roadtrip with the idea of showing him some stuff he’s never seen before. We whittled it down for a massive several thousand miles through Nevada, Utah, and Arizona, cut out the Arizona since we were just in Sedona, and went for Zion and Vegas with the first and last legs here at my parents little slice of heaven in Lake Arrowhead.

I love it here. With ideal traffic, it’s an hour and a half from home and transportation to a totally different universe with trees and wild animals and fresh air. It usually takes a few days to get used to the altitude, but the payoff for overabundance in chapstick and drinking water is an absolute spoiling of relaxation and peace.

I packed up the car while Jen was at work on Wednesday and we left as soon as she got home. The kiddo packed his own bag, something he said he’d never really done before, making sure to leave nothing he can’t live without for a week. He brought several pairs of his signature large pants, but we also convinced him to take a few pairs of shorts, since everywhere on this trip is clocking in at over 100 degrees.

Driving up the 15, and really anywhere within a whisper of LA county, is gonna be a traffic nightmare. Most of us SoCal veterans know the woes of LA traffic and avoid it at all costs. I remember leaving for our annual Yosemite trips at 2am because my dad was committed to outsmarting the trap of driving through LA and the Grapevine. So, our 1.5 hour drive took 3 hours…Temecula being the worst of the leg, and the kiddo put in his earbuds and napped in the backseat.

Our ETA put us in town just as restaurants were closing up, we were ambitious, but then the kiddo got a phone call and wanted to chat on the balcony outside for a few minutes, I went for a pizza but the wait was bananas, so I ended up at the local grocery store picking up fried chicken from the deli counter and some veggies for a salad.

The next morning we made our way down to the boat dock and discovered a baby raccoon hanging out on the boat! Having little experience wrangling wild anything and a strong aversion to rabies, we opted to call the lake association for assistance.

At first they said, they don’t handle wild animals and it’s our problem to solve. But the guy said he’d come see if he could help…he brought a big stick…and just nudged the little guy, who was def way more scared of us than we were of him. He scampered off back into the wilderness. It didn’t look like he was trying to make a home on the boat, it kinda seemed like he lost his mom.

After that, it was all about swimming and floating in the lake and hanging out on the boat.

We became reacquainted with the family who has the boat next to us, we shared the lily pad and they offered to take us out for a ride and grab some ice cream at the nautical gas station.

The kiddo made sure to document his adventure ❤️

Our boat neighbors mentioned a fun 4th of July event at the Lake Arrowhead Brewery, so we headed over there for some music, local brew, a Jamaican food truck (omg plantains!!!), and a vintage shop.

But the kiddo ran out of gas right before we left the house…he begrudgingly came with us so we could get some food in his belly, but the lake fun exhaustion struggle was real…at least for him.

He got a second wind once we got back to our pad, did some twerking and we all learned a little more about each other when Jen opened up The Book of Questions. We all weighed in about God and religion, saving people, relationship conundrums, and making difficult choices.

July 5 is when the fireworks go off here at the lake, so we woke up and headed back down to the boat after breakfast for another day of floating in the sun and jumping off the dock.

We grilled hot dogs for dinner and headed back down to the boat, where our neighbors offered the kiddo a chance to fish before the fireworks…and within 5 minutes he caught a catfish!

There was a little snafu because none of us knew how to take the hook out…and we needed assistance, Jen got in there with the pliers…I stood there like a lump, impotent, reminded of the one time I went actual fishing with my dad and willed the fish not to bite because I was scared of having to look on its eyes upon taking the hook out and he was like “Um, you can just sit in the boat from now on while I fish.” I’ve had some dad-healing moments already on this trip, but that’s for another post.

We released the catfish back into the water and it swam off right as the fireworks started. Some of them were so big and bright, we sat right under them and watched in amazement from under our blankets. It was a wonderful way to end the first part of our trip

We’re off to Zion today, with some roadside attractions on the way. Let the adventures continue!