Notice the date of May 26, 2010, above? Actually, today is June 29, 2010, and I'm LONG overdue to update our blog!
We took a wonderful trip to Northern California the week before Memorial Day weekend, thus the reason for the May 26 date. We left early Sunday, May 23, for our 12 hour drive to visit Fred's folks in Old Station, CA. As always, we were treated to a special time with Fred's folks, including Granny (Mary) entertaining us with her amazing organ playing!
How many people do you know who have a church organ in their home?
There's also lots of open space for bike riding! Erica couldn't get enough of riding her bike around the big loop in Old Station!
After a few days in Old Station, it was time to jump back in the car and drive 7 hours to Yosemite National Park. Growing up in Northern CA, Fred has been to Yosemite many times. Yosemite was on Fred's "short list" of places he wanted to bring the kids and I to see and experience. Prior to leaving Old Station, we were checking the weather forecasts for Yosemite, we were concerned when we learned that the "winter storm alert" had become a "winter storm warning"! Fortunately, Fred's mom equipped us with wool blankets, warm hats, and wool mittens, to bring with us just in case we needed them.
Within 10-15 minutes of arriving in the park, we noticed a bunch of cars pulled over to the side of the road and we came upon this...
That's right, a black bear grazing on the spring grass in the meadow. Amazing!
Fred drove us to a vantage point for our first view of the Yosemite Valley floor. He wanted it to be something we'd never forget. Mission accomplished! It was hard to imagine that below that canopy of trees were thousands of tourists, just like us, taking in all of God's splendor!
We drove down to the valley floor and there were so many spectacular waterfalls everywhere we turned!
After a bit of sightseeing, we decided it was time to find where we were staying and hunker down for the winter storm about to hit Yosemite that night, plus the threat of snow! Our reservations were for a tent cabin in Curry Village aka Camp Curry.
At a rate of $160 (!) a night, the tent cabin was nothing fancy! However, we were delighted to find that our tent cabin had a gas heater inside and it had not yet been turned off for the spring! We were confident we would stay warm and toasty that night, even if it did snow.
We went to the evening Ranger program and thought it was quite amusing that the movie they were showing that night was titled "Yosemite in the Winter". It was all about activities to do during the winter months at Yosemite.
The next morning we woke to NO SNOW! In fact, the weather was much nicer than anyone had predicted! Our tent cabin rate also included a buffet breakfast in the dining area, so all in all, the $160 we paid was for a warm, dry cabin and a fairly nice, warm breakfast in the morning.
Following breakfast, we took a nice hike to Mirror Lake.
Evan loved climbing some of the huge boulders along the hike path!
Evan loved climbing some of the huge boulders along the hike path!
We saw several deer along our hike trail. No more bears though, good thing!
Later that day, we took another hike to Lower Yosemite Falls. The spring melt-off made for some raging falls! Spectacular!
_
Along the trail, we were able to see both the Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls. Amazing to think this is among one of the highest waterfalls in the entire world! It spans 2,425 feet!
We truly loved our special time in Yosemite and I'm certain we'll return again!
Next stop, Sacramento! The weather in Sacramento was okay but was much cooler than normal for the "locals." We went to the Railroad Museum, what an impressive place! Fred describes it as the Smithsonian for Railroad enthusiasts.
The kids (and Fred) loved spending time in the pool and hot tub during our hotel stay in Sacramento!
Following our fun two days in Sacramento, we headed back up to Old Station to spend some time with Fred's family.
It has become a Memorial Day weekend tradition for Fred and his twin brother, Jon, to go golfing. This year they brought along Jon's youngest, Genna, and Evan.
Later we had a BBQ, yum!
Jon, Jane, Fred
We also celebrated cousin Jessica's 18th birthday, high school graduation, and her acceptance into the University of Oregon! Congrats Jessica!
The kids loved hanging out with their cousins :-)
What an awesome, memorable trip!
2 comments:
Great pics! Thanks. Good to see Yosemite again. Last summer there were tons of Calif fires hiding the mountains. We've also been to the railroad museum many times, but I don't know if we've taken the kids. It's a fun place. Good to see your trip, better late than never.
What an amazing trip and your photos are priceless.
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