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Archive for May, 2008

Faith Thinks Her Grandpa Is Funny

this smile stole my heart

 Faith in Yosemite

25th Wedding Anniversary

Alana and I just returned home from a nice vacation, during which we celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary in Yosemite. This post will mostly be about the vacation, but I mention the anniversary for two reasons:
 1) In case you might want to pick up a small gift (or send money) to commemorate the event.
 2) To present evidence that another human being actually CAN live with me for 25 years.

Let’s get started. (That was for Cameron, who just received a perfect grade in his Public Speaking class.)
Click on the thumbnails to see bigger pictures  😉

We left on the FZ1 after church Sunday. It was HOT and dry, and we were in full gear. But we were excited to get away, and the heat wasn’t bad once we got moving.

1s-departure-100.jpg

We rode almost six hours Sunday afternoon (including a fuel stop, and a stop at Arby’s). We stayed in Three Rivers that night, at the Lazy-J Ranch. I LOVE that place. This was my second stay there, and if you ever need to stay near Sequoia National Park, i recommend staying at the Lazy J!

All of these pictures were taken just steps from our room!
Lazy J Ranch Motel Lazy-J stream  Lazy-J stream (two)  Lazy J stream (three)  Lazy J livestock

We got a good night’s sleep and sallied forth Monday morning into Sequoia National Park
There was still some snow on the ground in the shadows in the higher elevations.

Sequoia Park Entrance  1s-sequoia-102.jpg  Sequoia River  Sequoia Snow  Alana recording

We spent most of Monday, and Monday night at the Montecito Sequoia Lodge. We didn’t have a camera with us most of the time…sorry. We rowed a canoe on the pond, hiked, ate, napped under some really tall pine trees, and tried to decompress. The Sequoias sure are a pretty part of the world!

Montecito pond 1  Bill and Alana  
Montecito pond 2  1s-lodge-101.jpg 

 After a nice breakfast in the lodge Tuesday morning, we loaded up the bike and pointed her toward Yosemite.
Road repair caused the closure of a few roads in Yosemite, requiring detours that made my simple maps worthless. Somewhere along the way i made a wrong turn, and we stopped to regroup in Mariposa, which is about 40 miles south of where we wanted to be. But the roads from Maripose to Yosemite Lakes were awesome!!!

Yosemite lakes is a camp ground. We stayed in a “yurt”. A yurt is like a tent-style hotel room. It has fabric walls, but it also has plumbing, heating, air conditioning, electricity, TV, kitchen, and an alarm clock! Even the skylight had a nice view!!

Yurt 1  yurt 2 
yurt skylight  1s-yurt-105.jpg

 Graham and Michelle came up for a couple of days. We walked around Yosemite, enjoyed the falls, and BBQ’d some steaks for dinner. It was very meaningful to us that they drove all the way up to spend a little time with us. Faith thought her Grandpa was pretty funny.

1s-alana-114.jpg   1s-alana-116.jpg  Graham and Faith 
Graham and Michelle and Alana  Michelle   Faith in Yosemite

What a beautiful time of year to be in this little slice of heaven!
Alana especially enjoyed the Dogwood trees

 Yosemite hike  Yosemite Falls 1  Yosemite hike 2 
 Yosemite River 1  1s-yosemite-119.jpg  mist
rock tree  1s-dogwoods-103.jpg  dogwood flower 
1s-yosemite-128.jpg  Lower Yosemite Falls  Yosemite Falls 2

Graham took Michelle out to see the countryside on the bike, then we had another nice, albeit too large, meal. Then Graham and Michelle wished us a Happy Anniversary (did I mention that is was our 25th?), and headed home. About an hour after they left it started to rain–not hard, but steadily. So, we stayed inside the yurt for most of the next few days. We ate. We napped. We laughed. We did crossword puzzles, played solitaire, and watched a little TV. We ate a lot, actually. Between the light rain showers, we’d hike along the river, do some laundry, or explore the area a little.
We didn’t get back on the bike until Sunday, when we went to church  🙂

1s-gm-105.jpg  wet deck 
wet skulight  1s-church-100.jpg

We enjoyed relaxing in the yurt. I got fat, got rested, and once or twice got “the look” from Alana

Faith with Grandpa  Alana napping  the look

I can’t think of a better way to spend my 25th wedding anniversary (did I mention that is was our 25th?) than alone with my bride in that peaceful setting. I fell in love with her all over again!

Here are a few more random pictures. Thanks for letting me share!

1s-alana-111.jpg  1s-ba-101.jpg  1s-alana-115.jpg 
1s-sequoia-113.jpg  1s-yosemite-110.jpg  1s-gm-103.jpg
1s-lazy-j-104.jpg  1s-yosemite-137.jpg  1s-yosemite-121.jpg