Field Trip!

On the fifth week of James' graduate program his incoming class was invited to attend a field trip for 4 days in the Sierra Nevada Mountain area. This educational experience included tours and trips to Mono Lake, Yosemite and a ghost town called Bodie. We camped for 4 nights with his class in Lee Vining, just outside of Yosemite. The most amazing thing about this trip was that it brought us back a previously visited location on our big cross-country trip on the motorcycle. This area was the place that was the hardest day on the trip, as we ran from snow and crossed Tioga Pass (a road that is closed most of the year, with no guard rails and a 9,000 ft. drop). Traveling on this route again really made us both feel like we were right where we needed to be in life. We had make it through that difficult journey and now we had the pleasure of experiencing it through an educational and professional capacity.


Mono Lake

The group trip ended on Thursday. We spent the previous day hiking through Tuolumne Meadow in Yosemite where we crossed streams, climbed on top of a granite hill and found cougar prints. We broke up into smaller groups: hiking, discovering and drawing. The utter pristine conditions of this location was spiritual. We ended the day by all of us hiking up Lembert Dome. It was incredibly steep and the white stone looked like snow. We sat there as a group waiting for the moon to come up and soaked up the sites.


Where we crossed the stream.


On top of Lemert Dome

After the 4 nights as a group James and I continued on to spend 3 more nights camping, making this our longest camping trip ever. We continued through Yosemite, crossing through the valley and continuing straight through to a campsite just outside of Yosemite called Summerdale Campground. A wonderful spot with a stream that I jumped into.

The next day we were on the road early and made it to Kings Canyon National Park. We found a great campsite called Crystal Springs and spent the rest of the day seeing: General Grant Tree (the biggest in this park), we took a panoramic drive and hiked to see the vista, and finally made an awesome campsite dinner with veggie sausage, mashed potatoes and rice.


James down in the canyon.

The following day we woke early and drove over to the Boole Tree, which consisted of a few miles on dirt roads and a hard hike uphill until finally you're alone with the big giant. This site is one that most don't get to see because of the difficulty of the hike, but that really just made it that much more awesome. On the hike down we discovered that the trail we were on was also used for cattle, and we encountered a cow that was lost from its herd. After the hike we got back into the car and drove down to the Cedar Grove area, which was in the canyon of these mountains. The views were dramatic and unlike anything I had seen before. The final stop was by Hume Lake and then back to the campsite where we had pizza.


The lone cow.


The Boole Tree and me.

The last day of the trip we woke knowing that were where going to see the biggest tree on Earth. We had saved the best for last and boy was it! The first stop was right to this tree: General Sherman, and its was definitely worth the wait and the mile hike. We had wanted to see this tree 3 years ago on our big cross country trip, but couldn't fit it into the schedule because of the difficult location of the park. Next we drove over to a meadow area and hiked around a while while it lightly rained. There was a whole grove of giants, and we even drove through one. The hike in the meadow was amazing, and we were able to see a bear and a deer within 100 feet of each other. The final stop before we left the park was Moro Rock, which is a round boulder on top of a mountain. There is a trail of mostly stairs that you can hike up to it. Once on top you are higher than anything else in the area. The trek down was a little scary, but the most frightful part was the lightening we saw in the near distance once we were off the rock. The rest of the day we spent driving home, arriving by 6:30pm.


Driving through a tree.


Walking through a tree.


The Bear!


An average tree in the meadow.


Hiking down from Moro Rock


Together on top of Moro Rock

3 Year Anniversary!

This is an image of our second night of camping. This is the bounty of food that our camping neighbors gave us.


This is the wonderful restaurant that we had our anniversary dinner at: "Windows on the Water." An amazing meal, which was referred to us by the local wine tasting store downstairs.


This was our first attempt at kayaking. A ton of fun!

This year our3 year anniversary found us in Los Angeles. Last year we celebrated our anniversary in Boston, and the one before must have been Florida, I imagine. Given our flexible schedule we decided to take about four days--the first 2 for camping, and the next for our favorite spot in Morro Bay, at Bayfront Inn. We spent the first night camping in the Los Padres Forrest. THe following night we had planned to stay at a different camp site in the park, but this required a river crossing on the motorcycle. We attempted it, fell and then decided to head over to Morro Bay early. We spent the second night camping at the state park in Morro Bay. This campsite, though very crowded, ended up being one of the best camping experiences ever! That afternoon we made our way over to our hotel. The Bayfront Inn is a wonderful little hotel that has some great deals, and is right on the water. The first day we went to a small local music festival, the farmers market and walked around the little beach community. Later we kayaked, went to a wine bar and then an awesome dinner. It was a great couple of days that made me feel lucky to have James in my life.