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November 16, 2005
Trip to California, pt 2
Time for the second installment of my journey journal. We’re still in Yosemite, this time it’s day two—Bridal Veil Falls and Glacier Point. I doubt this is very interesting to anyone but I’ve got little better to do. Does it help that I’m trying to post pictures that have people in them as much as possible? Or what if I offer some recent news? Nate and I found a terrific apartment in Kansas City!!! We get to move in mid-December, after another trip to California.
I’ll discuss details of the new place later; I have to get on with the rest of my trip pictures before I start getting bored with them:
There is Bridal Veil Falls, one of two waterfalls that was still flowing during our visit. The other was Vernal Falls, which I think will be part of the next installment.
There’s my mom, at the very bottom of the picture. Even Bridal Veil was barely a trickle compared to how it is in spring and early summer. If we’d been there then we could not have gotten as close as we did.
That’s an oak tree I took a picture of for its beautiful golden foliage. Yosemite in fall is really amazing if you’re into autumn leaves, which I happen to be. A few days later I went to the doctor’s office with my sister (just a prenatal check up) and there was an issue of Sunset magazine whose cover story happened to be Yosemite in fall. We stole it.
There’s my mom’s back at Glacier Point, a place in Yosemite I’d never been to before this. It’s something like 4,500 feet above the floor of the valley and the views are spectacular—something the next photo only hints at.
That’s a view of El Capitan from Glacier Point. On the map they give you when you enter the park, the road going to the valley floor looks like it’s right next to the road going to Glacier Point. They would be except for the latter being thousands of feet straight up, something that doesn’t translate well on a two-dimensional map, even with shading to indicate elevation.
Posted by April at 05:06 PM | Comments (0)
November 13, 2005
Home Again Home Again Jiggidy Jig
I’ve returned to Misery after nearly four weeks in California—and I can safely say that I will never again take such an extended leave from home without Nate. Despite feeling incredibly homesick four days into the trip I had a good time. For the most part. Imagine spending more than ten days with your immediate and some extended family in close quarters and you’ll get an idea of what I mean. It was just too long of a trip. My itinerary began with the famous PMA antique show in San Mateo, followed by five days in Yosemite with my mom, followed by two weeks in Fortuna (Humboldt County) at my older sister’s house- along with her husband, son, my mom, and my younger sister. Oh, and three dogs and a cat. My newborn niece, little Olivia Rose, joined us on October 28th. I’ve got lots of pictures and even a few amusing anecdotes to share, so this begins part one of my Grand Vacation Recap. I hope you’ve packed your Dramamine because this is going to be a wild ride!!!
I’m sorry- I know this is the seminal picture of Yosemite Valley, and I’m not Ansel Adams—but I had to include it. Taken from the main entrance road into the valley you can see El Capitan on the left (over 3,000 feet tall!), some other formations on the right (I don’t remember what they’re called), and way off in the hazy distance is Half Dome.
Here is my mom standing in front of a group of trees called the Bachelor and the Three Graces. I really like that, ‘The Bachelor and the Three Graces.’ The Bachelor is the big one in front, with the Graces in a row behind (the third Grace is obscured by the Bachelor in much of the picture). This is a composite of three pictures, as giant sequoias are- well, giant.
There I am, dwarfed by a tree aptly named the Clothespin Tree. This was our first day in Yosemite and we hiked through the Founders’ Grove—famed for its giant sequoias, the largest trees on earth. California redwoods are the tallest, also in the sequoia family, but the giant sequoias are the largest by mass. There’s one more species in the sequoia family, but it’s not very large and it's indigenous to China.
This is another well-named tree, the Grizzly Giant—also in the Founders’ Grove. I know it’s not a super-interesting photo because the scale gets lost in translation, but some of those branches are larger than most whole trees.
This is still on our first day in Yosemite, at Founders’ Grove, after we discovered that the distances on the trail signs are one-way. So instead of a 2.5-mile hike we did five. This picture was from the top of the grove, about 400 feet above the point where we began. I know it doesn’t sound like much but I’m really out of shape and (in her words) my mom is “no longer a spring chicken.” We were trying to look as tired as we felt, does that come across?
Well, that’s part one; more to come soon. Next time you can look forward to Yosemite’s famous Bridal Veil Falls and breathtaking views from Glacier Point.
Posted by April at 08:58 AM | Comments (0)