It snowed last night and tomorrow we are going tubing on Heavenly Mountain in Lake Tahoe California. If I wrote that three days ago nobody would have believed me (I probably wouldn't have believed myself). After leaving Las Vegas we drove north and west and spent the day in June Lake California. I doubt if you could be any further away from Vegas if you landed on the moon. June Lake sits on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada's a little south and east of Yosemite, sorry for the geography lesson but it's free of charge. The closer we got to the lake and the higher up we went, the more and more snow we kept seeing along the drive, I didn't realize what an excellent unexpected site it turned out to be. We stayed in a cabin overlooking the lake with the snow capped mountains in the background ( you can see the photos posted on Emily's Facebook as she is able to post a lot quicker then I can type, I don't anticipae that changing anytime soon). Drive the June Lake Loop (it's thirteen miles long) as I can add this as one of those hidden gems I had no idea existed but glad we stumbled across.
The next day we drove from June Lake to Yosemite Valley on the western side of the Sierra Nevada's. The drive is so spectacular that pictures really can't do it justice. Most people who go to Yosemite enter from the west and never travel the Tioga Pass through the heart of the Sierra Nevada's.
There are a few things I have learned about the Tioga Pass that you should know, first it is about ten thousand feet up at its highest and only opened a few weeks ago because it was still impassable because of the winter snow, second I still don't like heights and had my brother drove the entire time, third my brother will pull off to the side of the road whenever he thinks that Emily should take a picture no matter how close to the edge of a cliff the road is located. Not only did he continuously pull over for photos, he would also lead hiking trips into the wilderness ( I would hope the car was still there when we got back), discovering frozen lakes (this is June isn't it?), rattlesnakes in Yosemite (what can't this guy find?), and make the ride so full of stops and suprises I really can't tell you how long the drive should really take from June Lake to Yosemite Valley.
Yosemite is awesome and the valley contains what everyone is familiar with (El Capitan, Half Dome, Bridalveil Falls and all those sites Ansel Adams took black and white pictures of that are so familiar), but the park itself is much more then the valley and worth the effort to explore as much of it as you can.
We hiked a mile straight uphill to get to Vernal Falls and I must tell you at seven thousand feet hiking at that altitude takes it's toll on you. Thanks to the sheriff (she is always prepared and took snacks with her for the hike) I was offered one hundred dollars for the bag of peanut M&M's that she handed to me when we finally arrived at the falls. I didn't take the offer and even gave the guy some (she must be rubbing off on me).
We debated what to do next and decided to continue north toward Lake Tahoe. After spending every waking moment with three guys it was time for Emily for some female companionship so we drove to visit our very dear friends Terry, Paul and their kids. They live close to Tahoe and it was the perfect place to have dinner, spend the night, catch up with great friends and watch Zach tangle with a dirt bike ( if you are keeping score at home it is dirt bike one and Zachary nothing, I will let him give you details), oh by the way, another shocker, The Big Cat is an amazing dirt bike rider who proceeded to zip around the entire property at breakneck speed. They also have like a mini-zoo with a pig (Rudy, very friendly), chickens ( I had the yellowest scrambled eggs for breakfast ( is yellowest a word?), sheep, an emu (the other one tangled with the fence and lost), dogs, cats and three donkeys. They live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada's and it is beautiful country. After it was on to Lake Tahoe where we currently are settled in.
We are staying at the base of Heavenly Mountain with the gondola to the top of the mountain right outside of our room. We are staying in a condo with a full kitchen and a washer and dryer in the unit (shocker The Big Cat is a clean freak who had gets up at the crack of dawn (literally) and does everyones laundry before you wake up, but was not satisfied with the capacity of the in unit washer and dryer and decided to commandeer all of the washers and dryers on the floor in order to speed up the process, apparently nobody complained.)
Today we spent the day in Virginia City, Nevada, where silver was discovered in the eighteen hundreds, the town has remained the same and is a great place to walk around and feel like you are going back in time. Speaking of going back in time that's exactly what we did. There was no way we were leaving Virginia City without having Emily dress up as "The Sheriff" with the three of us along for the ride as her side kicks. The photos are great and I am sure they will be posted (facebook probably) soon. I must give Zachary and Emily all the credit in the world for allowing my brother and I to take them places they normally wouldn't go and do things (ride dirt bikes, dress up in silly period costumes, listen to my bad jokes ( my latest was asking the park ranger at the foot of Lake Tahoe , how do we get to Lake Tahoe? when it was starring us in the face. His reply was priceless when he said with a straight face "let off the brake") and never complain about anything , when I look back and think to myself that they certainly could. I don't know of any children who can spend this much time with their Dad, especialy when he is monoplizing the macbook to blog at such an agonizingly slow pace any never complain. Thanks for everything, Dad.
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