Yosemite 2007 - Sunday June 3

This is how our camp looked in the morning. Not too bad. The temperature was in the lower 40's when we woke up - quite a contrast to our toasty sleeping bags.


As you can see, we don't starve when we camp.


This was our "bear box" where we locked up all our food and toiletries. Nothing with any kind of scent could stay in the van or tent.


Bob getting ready for a week of photography heaven.


We decided to see the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia Trees today at the southern end of the park. On the ride down we saw people pulled over at the side of the road so we stopped too and saw a mother bear and a cub. They were not too cooperative in getting in a position where we could photograph them both together.


Bob was getting a little too close to Momma Bear for my comfort.




The sequoias are big in girth and tall.




















After hiking through these giants we had lunch and then stopped to get our first view of Yosemite Valley for the trip.
These views are from "tunnel view"








A Stellar Blue Jay


Next we stopped to see Bridal Veil Falls.




We drove to the El Capitan Meadow where we watched rock climbers settle in for the evening. El Capitan is a 3,000 foot vertical granite rock and depending on what route climbers choose it takes 2 -3 days to climb.










Here are a few close ups. If you click on the picture to make it larger, you should be able to see climbers in the crevices, ledges, or suspended on a scaffold.








We then drove back to the campground and had supper.




Jenny fixed us Jiffy Pop.






And we toasted marshmellows.












Then we packed up the bear box and called it a night.

Yosemite 2007 - Saturday June 2 - We Fly and Drive

The airline portion of our trip to Yosemite went without a problem. We flew out of Indianapolis to Dallas and then to San Francisco. We rented a minivan and packed it with our bags and drove four hours to Yosemite. On the way to Yosemite we passed through the Altamount Pass Wind Farm.


We stopped in Oakdale and did our grocery shopping and made it to the Hodgdon Meadow Campground in time to set up the tent before dark.

Yosemite 2007 - Off With A Bang

Remember the last post of the garden - all nice and dug up, ready for planting. Well in the course of about a week I had gotten it planted and then came the weeds. Lots and lots of weeds. We get two major weeds that try to take over the garden, thistle weed and this vining type of weed that wraps it self over everything. On Wednesday I decided to clean things up so when we came home from vacation it wouldn't be a lost cause already. So I attacked all the thistles and all the vining weeds. In my zest to get things right I pulled up everything I didn't plant and on Thursday morning I realized that I might have gotten into some poison ivy. I woke up with a dime size itchy spot on my right leg and over the course of several hours it grew to the size of my kneecap and other spots started to show up. I went to Redi-Med on Thursday night when I was sure this was an allergic reaction because I know once it gets started with me, it gets worse for many days before it gets better. They gave me a shot in the butt of steroids and said that should help things out. A nice way to start a vacation I thought.

Then came time to leave last Friday. We packed up the van with all our gear and headed out on 469 to spend the night in Indy and then fly out to San Francisco on Saturday morning and drive to the campground in Yosemite National Park. We just got up to cruising speed; 70mph and got the cruise control set, when all of a sudden we heard a big bang. I looked to see if I had hit something in the road and there was nothing and when I stepped on the gas, we went nowhere. Our newly rebuilt transmission had blown. We called AAA for a tow truck and lucky for us we were near Jody's house and she saved the day, driving Bob, Becky & Jenny back to our house to get Becky's SUV while John and I unloaded our van and watched the tow truck guy load up the van. He was very friendly and actually stayed with us on the side of the road for an extra half hour after he had loaded up the van, so we wouldn't be by ourselves waiting for our new wheels to arrive. We all gave Jody a thumbs up and continued our journey down the road and made it to Indy uneventfully.

John and Jenny are out exploring the area off the road, Bob and Becky are surveying our options, while I'm in the van calling AAA.


Jody comes to save the day!


Our van gets its second tow truck ride in a week's time.


Here I'm waiting for Becky's SUV to arrive to take over driving duties to Indy.

(photo credits to John L'ski who found this little side trip just as important part of our vacation to document as the planned portion)

Garden Preparation

This week I got the garden turned over and ready for planting. This may look like just dirt to you, but think of it as a blank painters pallet with endless possibilities. Okay, if you know my string of luck the last few years you'll know that in a few months there might be some vegetables in this plot. But most likely the weeds, rabbits, birds, and insects are going to use this as their summer playground. But as of right now I'm optimistic that this will be a great gardening year. While I was in the garden the boys were out playing in the backyard.

Semi- Annual Plant Migration

People say I have a lot of plants. Well, in the winter we have lots of oxygen to breath and in the summer we have a nice botanical feel to our screened-in porch and deck. The past few days (and it does take days) I've been moving all the plants from inside the house to outside.

BD Undergraduate Awards

Bishop Dwenger recently had their undergraduate awards ceremony. Jenny was recognized for being a Scholar,(4.0 gpa for one semester)a member of the National Honor Society, & the Matisse Honor in Art for drawing.

Hurshtown Reservoir

We counted down the days until May 3 when the Hurshtown Reservoir opened for the season. We've been there almost everyday since it opened, sometimes twice. Here are a few of the scenes from last week.

Joey Swimming.


Joey & Boomer running towards me for a treat.


An ant on a dandelion.
(Annette L'ski has corrected me. This is a spider and not an ant. It seems ants are abundant all over the world, and insect predators that rely on vision to identify their prey such as birds and wasps normally avoid them, either because they are unpalatable, or aggressive. Spiders participate in ant-mimicking. Click on the picture for a larger view. If you want to study up on this a good start is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant_mimicry.)



A dandelion from an ant's perspective.


Bob took some time to work with different filters on the camera.


I titled this picture, "A long way from home". We found this boat abandoned on the far end of the reservoir. It was a very windy day and we think the occupants of the boat gave up trying to row against the wind and parked the boat on the shore to wait for another day.

A Sign of Spring - The Boy's Pool is Back in Action

When you run around with a fur coat 24/7, it's nice having a way to quickly cool off when the temperature starts to rise.