June 14th:
Uhg. Yosemite.
At 8am, we were out of bed for pancakes and bacon. Got everything packed into Nathan’s car, because Nathan would be driving us today. Dad gets a break, yay! It was to be a hot day.
There was some bickering about stopping at certain spots. And a long wait in the park due to road construction. And a long line of cars for pretty much anywhere close in the park. Anyhoo, our first major stop was Bridal Fall. We parked right at the entrance to the parking lot, on the shoulder. There was a steady crawl of cars going in trying to find spots. This was our first glimpse of the Yosemite crowds. Just hordes of tourists swarming the path. A stream of water was coming down the trail from the area of the fall. As we were fast approaching, the air became misty with vapor from the falls. Then it became a light rain. Mother and father stopped before they got too wet, but Nathan and I continued on. Our feet were totally soaked by the inch worth of running water that covered the lookout area. And by feet I mean sneakers. We were also fairly damp, but it was quite the misty site. Lovely.
Then we spent some time struggling through traffic.
We parked at the cathedral and walked about. I made a postcard. We walked to another waterfall, which was considerably less damp making.
Then a picnic was attempted, but we became bug bitten in less than a minute, so we ate in the car with the A/C running.
Then we became very frustrated in traffic trying to navigate through the “Yosemite Village” but we did grab a spot, which became where the car stayed for the rest of the day. We wandered through the crowds at the Village area. Yosemite is so much more a resort with crowds and hecticness, than a docile park. Some of us were becoming unnerved and stressed by it all. Still, we got our stamps and saw a video about the park, and went to some museums, and kept hydrating and eating ice cream and getting some souveniers. We did a lot of wandering around the paved area, and eventually were exasperated and decided to leave.
We drove to a couple hiking points and hiked at the first one for about fifteen minutes. Saw some deer. Totally frustrated with all the day and the crowds and poor access to hikes and views, we went back to the RV Park and had dinner.
Today’s Portrait Is: Eugene Mirman
June 15th:
The dry heat of Utah is great because you are warm but not sweaty, the muggy heat sucks because you sweat and it doesn’t evaporate. It is much worse here, all though probably colder by 10-15 degrees.
We arose bright and early, had hash browns and bacon and eggs. Yum! Then we packed up our site, and went down the hill. Mom went down the narrow winding road in Nathan’s car (with Nathan) and waited at a historical marker in Chinese Camp. Dad and I descended in the motorhome, a journey which made mother too scared. It actually was a lot better going down than up. We kept a steady pace, and as we were near the cliff side and not the cliff edge, it was less frightening. There was a road construction stop and shortly after that, we pulled off to let people pass. Then for the rest of the journey down the hill, we had no pressure from the presence of people behind us. We ambled along at fifteen miles per hour and before we knew it, we were picking mom up and saying goodbye to Nathan.
And thus began another long day of driving. We are headed home through Northern California and Oregon now. First stop: Lake Shasta and the caverns. We tried to find the Hersey’s Plant, but it was closed. Got some groceries from a semi-open area grocery seller. I took a nap. I read the latest Ryu Murakami novel, which ended almost exactly like another one of his novels. Time creeped onwards, as did I-5. We stopped for sandwiches.
Soon we were going down another winding road and found ourselves in an RV Park next to Lake Shasta. We got popsicles and ice cream before dinner. I took a shower. Mom made a stew with lots of tidbits from the fridge. After dinner mom and dad went Kayaking. I am scratching at my numerous mousquito bites. Another reason why Yosemite isn’t all that great.
Today’s Portrait Is: David Lynch
June 16th:
Woke up nice and early. Dad made me a fried egg with toast. Mmm! We didn’t set right in to driving. We moved from our RV Park to the Lake Shasta Cavern tour place. It’s a pretty cool tour system. You park, and they take you on a boat across the lake to a place where a bus picks you up. Then you go up a special one way road that is mostly inaccessible to everyone else. Up this narrow winding road, you get a tour guide and go through these really awesome caverns. You can get really close, but can’t touch, to all sorts of cool rock formations. And you wind through the mountain on these numerous steps. Hard to take pictures though. Oh well.
It was 80 steps up to one cavern part, and our tour guide pointed out lots of interpretive formations, like this saber tooth tiger looking cluster. It was fun. I wonder how many cave systems like these are hiding out waiting to be discovered.
From there we headed for Crater Lake National Park. We stopped at this middle of nowhere grocery store and picked up some provisions (and the ever present ice cream). As soon as we started climbing another mountain side, snow became present. Long fallen snow, and the roads were clear. However, it was well packed many feet deep. We stopped for a view point and I chased mom and dad with a snowball, and dad tripped over a log. He scraped his leg up but took the fall with good humor.
The Crater Lake Visitors Center was closed, due to still being stuck in snow. But the gift shop, with a snow entrance, was open. So we got our stamps and souveniers there. We walked around the snow and took pictures and had a light dinner. I made another post card.
At around 8pm we set out for a campground. Back down another mountain. We arrived at Silver Lake, Oregon a bit after 9pm. Tomorrow we head for the border, and camp there. Day after we might return home a day early.
Today’s Portrait Is: Werner Herzog
June 17th:
Everyone woke up cold. Where did this chill come from? Boo! Poached egg on toast with melted cheese were served for everybody and we took off bright and early. Stopped for some propane and candy and post card drop off.
Just before Bend, Oregon we stopped at the High Desert Museum for a few hours. It is a combination museum with historical reenactors (which I’ve since found freak me out a bit) standard historical item recreations and exhibits, AND indoor and outdoor live animals. There were also a fair share of children, something that also freaks me out. Anyway. The ye olde exhibits were neat, though a bit repetitive by this point. I’ve seen some wagons on this trip. The bobcat and lynx were awesomely adorable. Big soft things behind glass that had once been pets and were neglected. We saw the special raptors of the sky performance thingy. They had several sizable birds come flying over head (outdoors). They came to perch at different trees and I got some good photos of the Harrison Hawk. There were some owls and eagles in closed in exhibits, and dad cooed at them. We ate lunch in the museum and picked out some things from the gift shop. We spent a good 3-4 hours there, which broke up the rhythm of all day driving that we have been accustomed to.
We headed to Timberline Lodge for a quick visit after that. The exterior of the lodge was used in The Shining. We saw some Buddhist Monks. I picked up a patch at the gift shop. It is a lovely place, I’d like to return and stay there for a weekend some time in the future. It smells fantastic.
We migrated onwards for another hour and a half, and have arrived at a campground near the train tracks, hurrah! Mom has reheated her soup and put some chicken in the oven. Yum.
Tomorrow we return to Seabeck.
Today’s Portrait Is: Wes Anderson
June 18th:
We managed to sleep fairly well, even with the trains going by so near to us. It was a soggy pacific northwest day that greeted our return to home. It rained heavily on us all the way back through Oregon, but it let up when we stopped by the Mt Saint Helen’s Visitor Center. They have recently imposed a fee on the center, so we didn’t look at the exhibits (besides, we already have seen them in the past). So we took a loop walk to stretch our legs a bit and see the marshy land.
It is amazing how 4 hours on the road feels like a light driving day. The original plan was a late Sunday return (but we skipped Zion and didn’t do an extra day at Yosemite) and had a late afternoon Saturday return, which was lovely.
We unpacked the motorhome, started laundry, mom got Holly doggie, Dad ordered pizza from Seabeck Pizza and when the long day was over, we watched some tellie and enjoyed food. After all that time together, we don’t hate each other!
It’s been a wonderful trip, now to get back to life.
Today’s Portrait Is: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
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