California — August 4 to 18

Don't forget

The things that will bite us if nobody handles them.

• 🎟️Print the Muir Woods voucher before we fly (barcode #223989810). Parking and entrance are paid, but there's no cell service at the park, so a reservation living in an email nobody can open is a reservation we don't have. Arrival window is 10:30–11:00am.
• 💺Ellie needs a booster seat. California requires one under age 8 or under 4'9". Still to decide: rent one with the van or fly hers out.
• 🌊The tide is why Monterey sits where it does. Every really good low tide this trip lands before dawn. The 16th at 8:22pm (+1.4 ft) is the best one we can actually get to, and it's the only evening low that still has light on it — sunset is 7:58, full dark about 8:24.
• 🥾Point Reyes lighthouse is a trap with little kids — about 45 minutes each way plus 300-odd stairs.
• 🛣️The van covers 2,100 miles. Everything above adds up to roughly 1,575, so there's cushion — but Yosemite would eat it, which is part of why it's off the list.