Ladd Photos

Our family got to mark another MLB team off our list today, seeing the Astros play the Blue Jays at Minute Maid Park.

The Astros were down 6 to 5 in the bottom of the 9th, but Alex Bregman walked it off with a 2 run blast to win the game!

This NASA museum was amazing! We got to tour the NASA campus and see the original mission control center for the Apollo missions. The speaker in the picture below is the original one the Neil Armstrong broadcast over when he took his first steps on the moon.

We also got to explore a giant Saturn V rocket, see where Astronauts train before going up to the International Space Station, touch rocks from the Moon and Mars, and walk around inside a space shuttle and its hauler. By the end of the day, I think the boys’ heads were ready to explode with space facts, but they had a blast.

The water was as warm as a bathtub! We played in the water along the Galveston coast before exploring the city.

We explored the Texas State Capitol, learning some Texas State history along the way. Afterwards, we visited a nature center before having some delicious Austin BBQ.

We started off our day in Arlington with a picnic in a large park along the Trinity River. Then we headed to Globe Life Park, home of the Texas Rangers.

This was the 10th MLB stadium we’ve seen as a family. The stadium was nice but man was it hot! After a few innings in the sun, we retreated to seats further from the action, but in the shade.

The Rangers ended up losing against the White Sox, 10 to 5. Afterwards, the boys and I got to run the bases.

Longhorn cattle everywhere! We saw the famous cattle drive at the Fort Worth Stockyards twice throughout the day, and visited them when they weren’t walking up and down the main road.

Along with the cows, we visited the Stockyards museum, where we learned about the cattle drive, Fort Worth history, and saw the second longest running light bulb.

The boys ran though a human-sized maze in the afternoon, before we finished off the day with steaks at Riscky’s Steakhouse.

This huge museum in Dallas had it all: sports science, dinosaurs, minerals, space, earthquake machines, meteorology, evolution, and hands on STEM activities. And, being Texas, there was also quite an extensive exhibit on hydraulic fracking.

After driving from Texas to Oklahoma, we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the State Capitol. It was under construction but luckily still open, so we had the whole place to ourselves.

We spent the evening watching the OKC Dodgers play at their nice stadium in the Bricktown neighborhood of the city. After the game, they had an awesome fireworks show for the Fourth of July.

Outside of Amarillo, TX there are ten old Cadillacs buried halfway in the ground. Visitors are encouraged paint them as part of an interactive art installation.

There wasn’t much else to do between OKC and Albuquerque, so we all pretended to be graffiti artists. The boys managed to spray paint the cars more than themselves.

Albuquerque has a nice old town that we walked around during the morning, before having a picnic lunch next to the Rio Grande River. We spend the afternoon at the International Balloon Museum, where we learned more that we ever knew there was to know about ballooning.

The Grand Canyon is one of my favorite places on the Earth. We dealt with some monsoon rains while we were there, but it was still beautiful.

We hiked about a mile down into the canyon on Bright Angel trail, much easier going down than coming up. Gavin made friends with a squirrel, who was ready to come home with him.

For the first time in a long time, I was in the same city as my parents, brothers, and sisters for a family holiday. We all gathered in Portland at my Mom and Dad’s house to celebrate Thanksgiving.

My brother Nick came down from Seattle and cooked a delicious Turkey. Connor and my little sister Michalea made a cake for my niece Camdyn’s birthday. The house was packed with food, family, and dogs!

We started off the first full day of our trip by showing the boys around Cal Poly, where Aliciana and I went to collage. Then we went for a hike through Poly Canyon and up to the top of the mountain containing the “P”.

The hike was beautiful but a bit longer than I remembered. We saw tons of wildflowers along the way, along with wild turkey and some cows. The views from the top of the ridge are amazing!

Gavin wanted to start his birthday in the pool, so the boys and I had a lot of fun swimming together at the hotel. Then we headed out to walk around downtown San Luis Obispo.

We stopped by Cal Poly to take a photo in front of the entrance sign, and in the process I had to save a poor college girl who was being accosted by two wild turkeys. I don’t remember turkeys existing on campus back in my day, but I managed to scare them off.

We finished off Gavin’s 11th birthday by eating pizza at Klondike, a favorite of ours in Arroyo Grande. Then we had some birthday cake back in the hotel room.

We spent the morning in the pool, the afternoon at beautiful Avila Beach, and dinner at Firestones in SLO.

So, with the last hour of sunlight we had left, we decided to wrap up the day at Dinosaur Caves Park in Shell Beach. I got some good photos of my family, and Connor playing on the park toys, before throwing around the baseball.