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jayYesterday we turned homeward, stopping in two national parks/monuments en route.
Sleeping was poor... the Sierra Lodge in Mammoth had a nice room, extra pull-out bed for James, a kitchenette, wireless net access... but was obviously designed for ski season. No air conditioning, or windows (other than a patio door). It was persistently 10 degrees warmer than outside. 80s all night keptpatgreene awake.
We headed out groggily to Devil's Postpile National Monument, riding a mandatory shuttle bus. Since this was operated by the Forest Service, they wouldn't honor our Golden Eagle annual parks pass... annoying. But the formation itself was fascinating:
Viewed from the top of the formation, note both the polygons, often six-sided... and the glacial smoothing and striations.
After lunch we drove northward towards Tioga Pass... there was no snow left there, so the kids were disappointed. But we stopped at beautiful Tenaya Lake for an hour of wading, running around and floating pieces of bark and wood.
Then we entered Yosemite valley... here I am, lounging on some warmed rocks ;)
And we went on a short hike to Bridal Veil falls...patgreene actually led us up the trail! The kids played around the stream below the falls... Kevin eventually fell in and had to change his clothes.
Checking in to our B&B outside Mariposa, we headed back to town and had a late dinner at the Happy Face Burger Barn (yes, that's really the name ;) which had buffalo and ostrich burgers on the menu. And a time-warped pinball machine in the corner (note the early 70s astrology motif, and pictures of beautiful women handing flowers to a satyric water-carrier...)
Pat defeated James and David. Back at the B&B (The Restful Nest), we saw four deer wandering around the grounds grazing... after dark,patgreene and I went out and relaxed in the hot tub, sipping Chambord that I'd bought almost a month ago in Edmonton...
Sleeping was poor... the Sierra Lodge in Mammoth had a nice room, extra pull-out bed for James, a kitchenette, wireless net access... but was obviously designed for ski season. No air conditioning, or windows (other than a patio door). It was persistently 10 degrees warmer than outside. 80s all night kept
patgreene awake.We headed out groggily to Devil's Postpile National Monument, riding a mandatory shuttle bus. Since this was operated by the Forest Service, they wouldn't honor our Golden Eagle annual parks pass... annoying. But the formation itself was fascinating:
Viewed from the top of the formation, note both the polygons, often six-sided... and the glacial smoothing and striations.
After lunch we drove northward towards Tioga Pass... there was no snow left there, so the kids were disappointed. But we stopped at beautiful Tenaya Lake for an hour of wading, running around and floating pieces of bark and wood.
Then we entered Yosemite valley... here I am, lounging on some warmed rocks ;)
And we went on a short hike to Bridal Veil falls...
patgreene actually led us up the trail! The kids played around the stream below the falls... Kevin eventually fell in and had to change his clothes. Checking in to our B&B outside Mariposa, we headed back to town and had a late dinner at the Happy Face Burger Barn (yes, that's really the name ;) which had buffalo and ostrich burgers on the menu. And a time-warped pinball machine in the corner (note the early 70s astrology motif, and pictures of beautiful women handing flowers to a satyric water-carrier...)
Pat defeated James and David. Back at the B&B (The Restful Nest), we saw four deer wandering around the grounds grazing... after dark,
patgreene and I went out and relaxed in the hot tub, sipping Chambord that I'd bought almost a month ago in Edmonton...
