YOSEMITE: PART II

The second half of our trip are mostly photos from Mariposa Grove, an incredible Giant Sequoia Forest. This was our favorite place. These trees were seriously magical. And gigantic--no, really-- 300 feet tall, about 40 feet in diameter, and thousands of years old. The entire grove had such a peaceful, spiritual feeling to it. At one point (in a wildflower meadow surrounded by Giant Sequoias) you could hear and see the honey bees buzzing around, doing their jobs. It was just beautiful. I included lots of pictures of us next to the trees so you can see the scale. Oh, and there are a few more pictures from our mountain climb too...

When we go to the top, I sat on a large rock and was startled when one of these little cuties scurried by me. Then I looked around and noticed they were everywhere. I was fascinated by them. They move really fast and climb trees too. I'm pretty sure they are called Blue-bellied Lizards, and they are pretty common in California.

Another amazing view of the mountains and the valley.

Half Dome.

On the walk to Mirror Lake (which was also peaceful and amazing), we came across this giant, tipped over tree. The roots were pretty cool to see.

Mirror Lake, but mostly dried up at this point of the summer. There were just these little, ice cold wading pools, with the mountains reflecting into them. Lovely. When we were hiking here, it was about an hour and a half until sunset. We saw a sign on our way in that said we were entering mountain lion territory. We walked back to our car in the dark, and I was so freaked out, thinking that for sure a mountain lion was stalking us...but we made it out safely!

"Grizzly Giant"! The largest in the park.

HUGE!

The pretty wildflower meadow.

Way back when (early 1900's?), the park was trying to encourage tourists to visit, so they cut a hole in the middle of this one, and fit a car through it for promo photos. Total bummer, but it is thriving!

Sweet moment in the meadow. The sun was so perfect and listening to the bees could put you in a trance. I wanted to just cozy up on the ground and take a nap...

Crazy, right? This one was hallowed out from a forest fire.

"Faithful Couple". Two sweetie trees grew together over the years and that is what they named the tree.


The end. :)

YOSEMITE: PART I

Raf and I adventured in Yosemite this past August. We had been wanting to get out there ever since I moved here over a year ago, so it really was a special treat. And wow, that place is incredible! It is only about three hours away, so we are hoping to make it at least an annual trip. There is really so much to see, and the park is huge, so we could really use more time there. Anyway, we stayed in a little cabin in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and drove about an hour to the park both days. We spent full days there, and did a lot of hiking and exploring. I have a lot of pictures, so I'll break it up into at least two posts! Here we go...

Cute little cabin.

Good morning!

El Capitan.

Bridal Veil Falls.

The bottom of Yosemite Falls. This area was crawling with tourists (and in my worry-wart opinion negligent parents up the wazoo--seriously, people let their tiny kids crawl around very dangerous areas!). It was a really hot day, and we (and a million other people) climbed down into the rocks where the freezing water ran through. We dipped our feet, but it was so cold you could only leave them in the water for a minute!

We found this cool spot. Literally, it was about ten degrees cooler here. Raf took this picture because he liked the geometry of it.

Ahhhh....cooling off.

A nice nap on the rocks.

Off on a steep hike up the mountain! This was maybe halfway, but probably not even close. It was winding and a fairly strenuous climb, and there were little flies eating your face the whole way up, but it was TOTALLY worth it...

See? Spectacular! These photos do not even come close to doing this view justice. Holy cow...

Part II coming soon...

CUTE HAIR.

This past summer our friend Abby came for a visit from New York. I really wanted my hair braided like this for a long time, and I knew that if anyone could do it, Abby could. So, I pretty much pounced on her when she arrived and bribed her into doing it. Actually, I just asked her and she said "okay". I think we may have even gotten a little girly while we talked while I was getting my hair did. But it was probably just me--I was feeling girly! It turned out super cute, and I felt extra fancy all day. I even slept in it. It looked a little frizzy in the morning, but I didn't care. I rocked it for another whole day. And then Abby left. Boo. Maybe when I see her this winter she will do it again. Thanks Abby!

LOST PHOTO POST!

So, I have been a bad blogger. Sheesh. I have a long list of things to post about on my general TO DO list, and I sat down tonight to write a recipe down that I wanted to share. I looked in my "Blog Stuff" folder on my desktop, and discovered all of these photos that I wanted to upload months ago. Oh well, here they are--little bits and pieces of life from the past 10 months or so...

Vacation/camping with Raf's family this past summer in Maine. What I wouldn't give to be napping in that hammock right now...

Oakland/Lake Merrit Bonsai Garden. This place is very cool! Imagine a tiny redwood tree that has been Bonsai-ified! Ha--we took these goofy pictures of ourselves, but only one of a little tree!

See?

How adorable is this Bonsai orange tree?

Neighborhood California poppies, doing their beautiful thing.

One of "our" cats. This is Dexter, also affectionately known (to us) as Mango.

Muir Beach in January. It was such a beautiful day. We watched the sunset from a cliff...sigh...

Also Muir Beach on the same day. We had just found out that our friend's Mom had passed away. This was for him.

Visiting in New York with one of my bests, Emily and her little sweetie, Annamai.

Just a couple of dudes. Jason and Raf doing dude stuff in New York this past summer.

Sweetie mushrooms.

Boston buddies, post-ice cream.

After many failed attempts by me to fit us all in, Dan succeeded--yay!

***Looking back at these pictures makes me feel so grateful for our friends and families! Plus, it has been a month of amazing news: 2 of my dear friends had healthy baby boys, and another friend diagnosed with stage IV cancer miraculously just found out that her treatment went better than her doctors imagined it would and she is cancer free! YIPPEE!

THIS CUTIE...

(Berkeley visit! )

One of my bests, Miss Susie, got married a couple of weeks ago. She is so darling. Her new husband is a charming dude, and their fluffy little dog-child is adorable. I am so happy for them! ...sigh... They were so smart to have their wedding in such a beautiful place: Estes Park, Colorado. Not only was I reunited with all of my best friends and made super cool new ones, but we got to vacation in the mountains too! We stayed at a sweet and quirky little lodge where we hot tubbed with our buddies the night before the big event, walked along the quaint river walk, got coffee and breakfast at a local shop, and played a heated game of ladder ball with pals Courtney and Scott before heading to the festivities.

(see, we don't mess around...)

The ceremony had the most incredible view of the Rockies. The bride was beautiful, the groom handsome. The pup well behaved and fluffy as ever.

(Best of friends for 15 years! We all still talk about once a week--I am sooo lucky :)

(haha...this is after about 15 shots, we were tired of posing)

And seriously, the reception and party were more fun than I have had in a while. We ate a yummy vegetarian dinner, drank some white wine, and listened to the funniest, most heartfelt toast from our dear love Emily (props pulled out of her bra and all).

Then folks, we got some no-joke-party-fuel: five different kinds of AMAZING cake! And then the party began... I'm pretty sure Raf was right when he said that I am a machine that turns wedding cake into dance moves... Seriously, people. I like to cut a rug at a wedding. Sometimes I wish that I was so utterly unselfconscious in other aspects of my life. I get to a wedding, have some wine, eat some dinner, eat some cake, and then forget it! I even taught a couple of new friends how to do the Roger Rabbit. Hahaha...

One of the highlights of the night was when we saw Susie's dad (a totally unassuming, ridiculously huge Lady Gaga fan) go nuts when a Gaga song came on. Too funny. Anyway, it was just a really wonderful, really memorable weekend with my best pals....Way to go Sue and Eric!

(I love this girl...Emily and me! xoxo)

P.S. Did I mention that I got to make the jewelry for all of the bridesmaids AND the bride!! It was so much fun and they turned out lovely!

LUNCH!

Toasted bread from Tartine Bakery in SF (thanks, Maggie!), homemade pesto (which I thankfully had in the freezer), locally grown "Pineapple" heirloom tomatoes (sooo sweet), local fresh mozzarella (Belfiore Cheese Company), and local raspberries--perfect lunch--YUM!

FIGS!

Oh my goodness... Have you ever seen a more beautiful fruit? Sheesh. California, you continue to amaze me. On our way back from Yosemite (which I will blog about very soon) we saw a sign on the side of the road for fresh figs. We seriously hit the jackpot-- finding a sweet farm lined with acres and acres of fig trees-- and it was very worth the detour. This place is called Passion Fruit Farms/ "The Fig Lady" and it is located in Merced, CA. I would definitely, most certainly drive there again for more. They were hands down the sweetest I have ever tasted. I froze some, made Kadota and Black Mission Fig Jam, and ate the rest like a crazy fig addict, straight up. If you have never eaten a fresh fig, then you haven't lived! :)

So pleased.

I think I was smile/shouting..."Aaahhhh....Yes!"

Raf wanted me to make note of the fact that we got all of these for only $5.00. Yep!

So pretty.

Breakfast: 1/2 peanut butter + banana, 1/2 cream cheese + black mission fig... so many yums!