July 18, 2017. Grosse Ile, MI to Three Rivers, CA

About ten years ago I met a woman from Boston who was traveling with her teenage granddaughter. She told me that she was going to take each grandchild on a trip of their choosing. I thought that sounded like a great idea! So I've been trying to get together with Toby (oldest grandchild) for this trip for a couple of years. Finally we set a date in April, and now that date is here.

We got up very early and Bill took us to the airport at 5 AM. We had a layover at Dallas Fort Worth airport, with enough time there to get takeout food from Pappasito's Cantina. We carried the food back to our gate and finished it before our group was called to board the plane for Fresno.

We landed at Fresno, got our rental car and immediately headed out of town. We arrived at our lodge near Sequoia National Park at around 3 PM, checked in and then went for a drive into the park.

The view from the park road pullout was beautiful. We'd been warned that some days are so smoggy that there is not much of a view. We drove in as far as the first visitors center but it had already closed for the day.

We stopped a little roadside diner/gift shop and had dinner and cold water to drink. It was 102 degrees by that time, so we did not want to do much outdoor activity!