Mt. Pinos Camping

 Wheeler Gorge was (again) booked up, but we made our annual (much belated) birthday camping trip over the weekend with our favorite camping friends.

McGill is up past Frazier Park on Mount Pinos, only about an hour from home. It's a big tree area that I know as a cross-country skiing region in the winter.

It was beautiful, and we had perfect weather. 

We four adults took a nice hike on a trail that connected to the campground.

The wildflowers were amazing!

Colleen looked them all up, and this one was called a snow plant, which is like a fungus.

Our home away from home!

We played campfire games, and laughed a lot.

Marshmallows and s'mores - you can see how huge the sites are, with how far away our campfire was from their trailer, and then our trailer behind again. The large sites made for very quiet mornings, which was so peaceful and relaxing.

Packed up and ready to go! It was nice having such a short drive back home.

Camping in Paradise

 We went camping at one of Violet's favorite spots, Paradise in Santa Barbara County, over the weekend. This time, joining us and the Rosaleses were two other families, including Eric and Christina, who Stace helps when he has worked on the tiny house.

We were so blessed to stay in Colleen and Rigo's new vintage tent trailer! It is so roomy inside, and in such great shape. 

You can see the setup with the kitchen outside, and we had two large beds.

The men above, and the ladies here.

Rigo promised cold hard cash if Violet would bring back stones that he could take home to his garden. Vi was game.

Violet has said she'd like a dog like Koa someday.

Stace was nervous about backing up while towing the trailer, but all went very well.

We have a new way to camp!

Yosemite: Glacier Point

 Stace and I woke up Monday, made coffee and tea and took a walk along the river. 

We spotted these pileated woodpeckers, which were crow-sized and "one of the most sought-after" birds to spot in the park. So we were lucky! Acorn woodpeckers, like we have at home, are more common in Yosemite, too.

We got back to our cabin and Violet was finishing up making breakfast.

We packed up the car again, and took a final bike ride before driving off.

We decided to go about an hour out of our way to Glacier Point, which offers a gorgeous vantage point of familiar sites from the weekend.

There's the Merced! We could also see where we stayed, both Housekeeping Camp and Curry Village.

Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls are visible in this photo.

We got back on the road, and made it home around 7:30 p.m. A beautiful little trip we'll remember.

Yosemite: Mirror Lake, and More

On Sunday morning, we checked out of our tent cabin and loaded up the car and our bikes, for a day's adventure.

We rode down to Happy Isles Nature Center, and admired the views.

Violet found this cool bit of wood.

We the rode down to Mirror Lake, a spot I remember visiting on our first trip, but Stace hadn't been before.

The bike routes around the Valley floor are so well done, and the weather and scenery were awesome.

Mirror Lake is nearly right under Half Dome, so the views were fantastic again.

But as for the lake? Missing in Action!

"It's so clear, you can see the bottom," Violet remarked. Love her sense of humor.

We found a nearby boulder to sit on, under the trees, for some snacks and drinks before riding on.

We stopped at the fancy, nearly 100-year-old Ahwahnee Hotel to look around. We checked out the shop and ordered nice drinks at the bar.
 

Cheers!

Violet found it amusing that her dad was enjoying his pricey gin and tonic with a PB&J from our bag.

We rode on to Yosemite Village, where we went in the big store and the Ansel Adams Gallery. 

By then, it was late enough to check into our night's accommodations at Housekeeping Camp, right by the Merced River. We got settled in and made dinner - at Housekeeping, you can cook food and have a fire pit near your cabin. We cooked up onions and sausages and put them in pitas with hummus - so tasty and a new idea for us for camping food. We took the finished result with our chairs to the river. 

Now that's a dinner view! After eating, we walked along the river, returned to our cabin and made a fire and read until bedtime.