Yosemite - Heaven on Earth!

On the morning of the 28th we headed out to Yosemite. It was a fairly short drive, about 3.5 hours long and scenic, for the most part. Once you leave the main populated area and enter the Joaquin Valley it is pretty sparse. Lots of rolling hills and farm land. As you get closer to the Sierra Nevada range the rolling hill have increasing erruptions of small jagged stone protruding from the ground. It appears that any cultivation of vegetation in this area quickly transitions to the farming of happy cowsfrom California. The closer you get to the actual mountains however gives way to unfarmable, but gorgeous, scenery. From the gently rolling foothills we abruptly made a windy (and very scary) mountainous ascent up to about 4,000 feet where we arrived at the Yosemite Rose Bed & Breakfast. The nicest B&B ever!

The Yosemite Rose Bed & Breakfast and its feline mascot, Little Boy, a super lovey fat black cat. If you ever visit Yosemite you owe it to your self to stay at this reasonable and beautiful establishment. The rooms were cozy and spacious, the food was delicious and organic and the company absolutely marvelous. Oh yea, the prices are really reasonable too. Also, Rene Zelwigger has stayed here!

As we got to the west entrance to Yosemite we discovered we needed snow chains or we would be forbidden entry. We had to turn around and buy a set of chains for the rental car - for one day's use! LOL Still it was well worth the expense because, as you can see from the above picture, they were very necessary. The roads were predominantly snow and ice covered and, as we ascended to about 7,000 feet, we felt very grateful for having gotten them. They served us best, however, when trying to negotiate our way out of the parking spaces we found ourselves in. All in all it was totally worth it!

At one of the many view points was this spectacular view of Half Dome to the right of El Captian and to the right of the Cathedral Peaks.

Here is a less close up view from the same lookout.

Further up the road was another turn out where we parked and stopped to shoot some pictures of the snow covered trees and a section of the Merced River.

The Merced River from the same turn out.

This was anothe section of the Merced River. It was so picturesque I couldn't stop snapping.

This is a great view of El Capitan.

This was another section of the Merced River. As the sun came over the mountains and into the valley it warmed the air causing this blanket of mist to hang over much of the snow covered area. It was breathtaking.

This is the famous Yosemite Chapel. I have never seen a cuter little chapel and the snow made it more perfect, particularly with the massive granite mountain in the background.

Yet more of the Merced River and the awesome mist that hung in the air.

This is Bridalveil Falls.

This is Horsetail falls. Notice the faint rainbow near the top.

One of about three dozen small snowmen in this open field. Again, the mist was amazing.

This is the Awahnee Hotel. It is the most famous lodging in the park and the most expensive at a minium of $450 a night! It was really packed, despite the snow. Still, it was glorious tucked in a beautiful corner of of the valley.

This was a path leading away from the Awahnee Hotel. We would not have found ourselves on this path were it not for several people who created their own parking spaces in the hotel parking lot thus blocking the park buses which in turn blocked our car in its parking space. How fortuitous because on our walk I took some great shots.

I couldn't get enough of the mist.

Most mist in the trees.

I could have snapped pictures here all week!

That lovely open valley area near the hotel.

Ice covering moss on a branch (in case you couldn't tell). LOL

A closer view of Half Dome from the Cury Village parking area. Had we more time in the park we would have ventured further into the valley towards Half Dome. It is every bit as massive as this picture implies.

Leaving the misty calley as the sun faded.

Ok, we drove around in this circle three times, mostly because we got misdirected, but on the third pass I finally gota picture of this lone bald tree hiding in the mist under the glow of the setting sun against the mountain.

El Capitan in the setting sun. Sadly we only managed to get two thirds of a day in the park - far to little - but it only whet our appetite to come back again and explore at greater length another time, maybe the fall of 2010? Wouldn't that be spectaular.

Escape TO Alcatraz!

After we left Muir Woods we travelled back to San Francisco and to Pier 33 where we took a tour boat into the bay and over to Alcatraz. If you ever get the chance to take the tour, I recommend it, it is really interesting. Did you know that in the 1970s, after Alcatraz had been closed for around a decade, native Americans claimed their right to the island under a law that permits them to occupy and government land that is deemed abandoned. Apparently they felt Alcatraz was abandoned and took it over for several years until they were given a university and something else in exchange for leaving. There is still graffiti on the water tower and buildings from that time. They also burned down several buildings while they were there too. Most fascinating!

The Rock - as seen from the deck of our ferry to the Island.

This is the burned out remnants of the warden's house with the lighthouse as a backdrop.

This is another building that suffered the the torch.

This is a shot of the fence as you walk back from the yard into the building with all the cells. This pretty much exemplifies the condition of a greater portion of everything on the island.

This was a small glass window that was in the library, if I remember correctly. What a tease! You look out this little porthole at downtown San Francisco which is about a mile away, while you are in a prison for the worst of the worst.

This is what is left of the warden's house. I imagine it was pretty palatial back in the day. From the outside it looked like it was pretty huge.

This was the office in the Administration area of the prison. it looks like when the prison was closed, they sealed it up and left it as is since Alcatraz closed.

These are representative of the typical cells in C-block. OK, seriously, if you ever felt like your living space was too small, have a look at this and feel better! I would go stark raving made couped up in this little box. And I won't even get started on having to crap in public!

This was a close up of part of the floor in the dining hall. It was really weird because it looked like someone laid burlap over the concrete and poured some kind of linoleum something over it. I have never heard of such a method, maybe it was to keep their feel warm in winter?

This was a view of a tanker meandering through the bay as seen from next to the prison block facing I believe Oakland.

This was a shot of the roof top of the electric shop (background) and the "rifle range" (foreground) with their moss covered roofs and ubiquitous seagulls.

Long before Alcatraz was a federal prison for the dregs of prison society, it was a military installation. This cannon is a remnant of that era. Looking down the sight line of this cannon, I am not really sure what it would have shot other than fish because it seemed to only aim at the water. I certainly hope this big wall wasn't there, otherwise cannon fire would have been futile of not hazardous!

This is another shot of the burned out warden's house and the lighthouse with the sun gently setting in the background.

A lovely shot of downtown San Francisco as the sun sets on our way back from Alcatraz.

Muir Woods

First thing in the morning on Saturdat the 27th we be-lined for Muir Woods. WHile mom swears I was there once when I was a kid, I have (even after going there) no recollection of it whatsoever. That said, it was really spectacular and a great place to makeyou feel really small, insignificant and that ours lives are remarkable short compared to these giagantic trees!

A nice little creek runs through the park.

More of this pretty little creek.


See what I mena about feeling really small...and these were shorter, younger trees!



A nice view up a hill covered in big trees and ferns everywhere.

Where there weren't trees and ferns there was lots of moss. Apparently this area of California has its own micro climate which is why these trees grow there and have been there for so long.

Ok, this was a really big tree that must have gone up at least 150 feet.

This view of the trees flanking the path give a better idea of the size of these massive giants.

There was really cool lichen and mosses on all kinds of different surfaces, not the least of which being the trees.

Shrooms anyone? I guess with moss comes mushrooms and toadstools of all sizes shapes and colors. These were particularly cool because they were growing from underneath the layer of bark on the trunk of this fallen tree.

As we ended our walk through the woods we came upon this tree. I am not sure if this was the only one like it, but I didn't really notice any others that werethe same in that they had all these ferns growing on the top surface of nearly the entire tree. I am still baffled as to how the spores got up there and no place else. It's a mystery!

Leaving For San Francisco

When we woke up on December 26th at 3:45 a.m. we were horrified to see a good amount of ice covering thewindows of our bedroom. I figured for sure there was no way were were getting to the airport and even if we did there was little chance we would leave O'Hare. Much to our surprise and delight, not only did we make it to O'Hare but managed to leave with only an hour and a half delay. Not because the runway was iced over, but because the paths for the luggage trucks were not plowed or salted.

Once we finally left the gate and headed for the runway you can see there was a bit more of delay with planes lined up read to leave.

This is us leaving O'Hare an hour and a half late - hey, at least we left :)

Once we lifted off we climbed through the clouds and at long last saw the first sunlight we'd seen in ages. How refreshing and encouraging that was!

I coulod be wrong but I think this might be somewhere over or near Yellowstone. Clearly it is mighty cold there in the winter!

Despite arriving at Seatac after our connecting flight was supposed to leave, we managed to have yet more luck when that flight too was delayed. We actually made it to the gate, out of breath, but with a few minutes to spare. As with O'Hare, they too had a bit of a traffice jam to the runway. The only difference this time was that we were in the relative front of the line!

This is us leaving the slushy snowy airport at Seattle. You'd think we were leaving O'Hare by the looks of it!

This is the coast off California just before we landed in San Francisco. I believe it was slightly north of the Muir Woods area.

Ahhhh, you've got to love a niceskyline. This is San Francisco just before we turned around to land at SFO.

Out of the window of our hotel, the Hilton in the financial district, was this building. We really couldn't see it that well. We knew there were statues on the top, but had no idea they were this creepy until we saw them the next morning. Seriously, thank god I didn't know the three faces of death were watching over us in the night or I might not have slept at all!