Long time, no post... sorry! Things have been busy, busy, busy around our Los Angeles casa. I'm writing a review article, a major draft of which is due on Wednesday. And Jay just can't be bothered to post. So we'll be back after Thanksgiving, with more pictures and exciting stories about how much we work. Till then, I leave you with this recent exchange:
Scene: Our living room, watching the AMAs. Enter Meow stage left. She starts crying and staring at the couch.
April: Meow, stop it. Just get up here!
Meow: Meow! Meow! Meow! Meow!
April: (Patting sofa) Meow, get on the couch if you want to!
Meow: Meow! Meow! (Hops up on sofa and curls up next to April.)
April: I don't understand why she has to be invited up on the sofa every time she wants to sit with me. She's a cat. Why doesn't she just get up here?
Jason: She's a vampire. She has to be invited. I don't understand why you never see the obvious.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Sequoia National Park
So the Sunday after Kings Canyon NP, we were in Sequoia NP.
Big. Ass. Trees.
Okay, so there's more to it than that, but it really begins and ends with the Giant Sequoias that dominate the northern end, and higher elevations, of the park.
To the left you see April standing in front of a small stand of the giants. She's the little blue speck at the bottom of the photo...
This was taken at General Grant Grove, which is at the northernmost point in the park.
In the photo below, I am standing on the trunk of a fallen tree. Most of the fallen trees have been down for 50-80 years or longer. The wood has a very high concentration of tannic acid, making it very resistant to the parasites that cause bad breath and gingivitis...er, that's not right, is it? I guess it's the parasites that would normally cause the wood to rot.
So after seeing the the Grant Grove Saturday morning on the way into Kings Canyon, we headed south to the Giant Forest, aptly named, on Sunday. This forest of over 1,600 acres, contains more than 8,000 of the giant trees, and has more than 40 miles of hiking trails. We will definitely be back to enjoy them!
So as soon as we arrived at the Giant forest and began the walk down to see the General Sherman tree, we encountered a mother Black Bear. See below as she high-tails it off the trail. They tend to get the heck out of dodge when the rangers show up...
Here is the General Sherman tree. The damn thing was too big to get in one shot- the photo to the right is a composite of four shots...
Just to emphasize how massive these trees are, here is an outline of the base of the General Sherman:
After checking out the General Sherman, we went to Crystal Cave. It's a 30-minute drive at 10-15mph to get there, and then a 1.5 mile hike to the cave, yet there is still a lot of visitors that make the trek. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot at the trail head, it began to flurry a little bit. It was very strange to see snow again after almost 4 years away from MA, but it wasn't cold enough (yet) to stick, and it made the hike to the cave feel a bit like hiking in the foothills of the Appalachians in the fall, back in Georgia.
The tour of the cave was about 45 minutes long, and was worth it- we are hoping to find a geologist or cave scientist that can maybe get us into one of the other 250+ caves in the park that are off-limits to the public...
So as you can see from the photos, we had a great time and saw some cool stuff for such a short trip. We intend to get back there next spring for sure, and do some serious camping and hiking. It's less than 5 hours away, and is worth it for a weekend trip!
-j
Big. Ass. Trees.
Okay, so there's more to it than that, but it really begins and ends with the Giant Sequoias that dominate the northern end, and higher elevations, of the park.
To the left you see April standing in front of a small stand of the giants. She's the little blue speck at the bottom of the photo...
This was taken at General Grant Grove, which is at the northernmost point in the park.
In the photo below, I am standing on the trunk of a fallen tree. Most of the fallen trees have been down for 50-80 years or longer. The wood has a very high concentration of tannic acid, making it very resistant to the parasites that cause bad breath and gingivitis...er, that's not right, is it? I guess it's the parasites that would normally cause the wood to rot.
So after seeing the the Grant Grove Saturday morning on the way into Kings Canyon, we headed south to the Giant Forest, aptly named, on Sunday. This forest of over 1,600 acres, contains more than 8,000 of the giant trees, and has more than 40 miles of hiking trails. We will definitely be back to enjoy them!
So as soon as we arrived at the Giant forest and began the walk down to see the General Sherman tree, we encountered a mother Black Bear. See below as she high-tails it off the trail. They tend to get the heck out of dodge when the rangers show up...
Here is the General Sherman tree. The damn thing was too big to get in one shot- the photo to the right is a composite of four shots...
Just to emphasize how massive these trees are, here is an outline of the base of the General Sherman:
After checking out the General Sherman, we went to Crystal Cave. It's a 30-minute drive at 10-15mph to get there, and then a 1.5 mile hike to the cave, yet there is still a lot of visitors that make the trek. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot at the trail head, it began to flurry a little bit. It was very strange to see snow again after almost 4 years away from MA, but it wasn't cold enough (yet) to stick, and it made the hike to the cave feel a bit like hiking in the foothills of the Appalachians in the fall, back in Georgia.
From the trail:
Stellar Jay
The tour of the cave was about 45 minutes long, and was worth it- we are hoping to find a geologist or cave scientist that can maybe get us into one of the other 250+ caves in the park that are off-limits to the public...
Marble Hall
So as you can see from the photos, we had a great time and saw some cool stuff for such a short trip. We intend to get back there next spring for sure, and do some serious camping and hiking. It's less than 5 hours away, and is worth it for a weekend trip!
-j
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
King's Canyon National Park
For our anniversary, we decided to get out of L. A. for the weekend. We headed about 5 hours north to Sequoia and King's Canyon National Park. Jay had booked a room for us at Montecito-Sequoia Lodge in Sequoia National Forest. The lodge was a fun place. It is used as a summer camp for children part of the year, and still retains a lot of that atmosphere. Meals are included in the room rate and you eat in the dining room buffet-style. We met quite a few interesting people during our stay! The only downside to our trip was that we knew we wouldn't have enough time to do all the things we'd like - another spot to add to our list of places-we-must-return-to! That list is growing as quickly as our list of places-to-visit-someday. I'm going to break our trip into two parts, King's Canyon on Saturday and Sequoia on Sunday.
We left Los Angeles on Friday afternoon and headed north on the I-5 to Bakersfield, where we picked up CA-99. This is where our directions went bad... I knew there was a road the lodge had advised us not to take. That road is CA-245. But somehow, that's the road we ended up on. I know that the curviest road in the U. S. is supposed to be in San Francisco, but I wonder if they considered CA-245 for that designation. It is incredibly curvy, and climbs over 2000 feet during your ascent into the Sierre Nevada mountains. Jay was driving, and he got car sick. Not a good sign at all! It was late and very cold when we
finally arrived at the Lodge. We headed right to bed to get an early start on our day. When we woke up that morning, deer were grazing next to the pool outside our window. It was cold at 6000 feet, so we wore our parkas and hats and headed further north into King's Canyon. Our first stop was to see the General Grant tree, pictured to the left. The Sequoias are not as tall as the Redwoods we saw in Yosemite, but they have much more mass. Their size is difficult to convey in words, and actually quite difficult to take in even when you are standing next to them. They are truly majestic trees.
We spent some time exploring the sequoia grove before we headed further upward to the top of King's Canyon. We stopped to get a quick picture of the two of us together:
The scenery descending into the canyon was amazing. The road takes you right between the sheer rock face of the cliffs. We stopped many times to enjoy the vista on the way down. Our first stop at the bottom of the canyon was Boyden Cavern where we stopped for a tour. There are many cave systems within the parks, and most of them, like Boyden, are marble caves. Most are also not accessible to the public, to retain their scientific and ecological value. Jay got lots of interesting shots in the cave. The little girl standing next to him we think was German; she LOVED the cave, especially when we shut the lights off to experience total darkness. We also had an excellent guide who told us all about the discovery of the cave, and the different formations inside the cave. Another nice aspect was that it was warmer inside the cave than outside!
We then headed off for a hike in the Zumwalt Meadow to Roaring River Falls. We covered around 6 miles or so to the falls then back, and headed out to do the meadow loop. That loop took us beside Roaring river, into a grove of trees ringing the meadow, then over a boulder field back to the bridge. The grass on the meadow was turning gold, and the only sounds we heard besides our foot fall was the wind in the trees and the flow of water. So peaceful, and a wonderful way to start our anniversary weekend. To the right is a view of the meadow from the boulder field we crossed.
We then headed up to Panoramic point for an amazing view of the Sierra Nevada mountains. We got back to the lodge just in time for our dinner, and collapsed into bed at 7:30. Whew!
I'll post more about our weekend once I get my hands on Jay's pictures! He always takes much better photos than me!
We left Los Angeles on Friday afternoon and headed north on the I-5 to Bakersfield, where we picked up CA-99. This is where our directions went bad... I knew there was a road the lodge had advised us not to take. That road is CA-245. But somehow, that's the road we ended up on. I know that the curviest road in the U. S. is supposed to be in San Francisco, but I wonder if they considered CA-245 for that designation. It is incredibly curvy, and climbs over 2000 feet during your ascent into the Sierre Nevada mountains. Jay was driving, and he got car sick. Not a good sign at all! It was late and very cold when we
finally arrived at the Lodge. We headed right to bed to get an early start on our day. When we woke up that morning, deer were grazing next to the pool outside our window. It was cold at 6000 feet, so we wore our parkas and hats and headed further north into King's Canyon. Our first stop was to see the General Grant tree, pictured to the left. The Sequoias are not as tall as the Redwoods we saw in Yosemite, but they have much more mass. Their size is difficult to convey in words, and actually quite difficult to take in even when you are standing next to them. They are truly majestic trees.We spent some time exploring the sequoia grove before we headed further upward to the top of King's Canyon. We stopped to get a quick picture of the two of us together:
The scenery descending into the canyon was amazing. The road takes you right between the sheer rock face of the cliffs. We stopped many times to enjoy the vista on the way down. Our first stop at the bottom of the canyon was Boyden Cavern where we stopped for a tour. There are many cave systems within the parks, and most of them, like Boyden, are marble caves. Most are also not accessible to the public, to retain their scientific and ecological value. Jay got lots of interesting shots in the cave. The little girl standing next to him we think was German; she LOVED the cave, especially when we shut the lights off to experience total darkness. We also had an excellent guide who told us all about the discovery of the cave, and the different formations inside the cave. Another nice aspect was that it was warmer inside the cave than outside!
We then headed off for a hike in the Zumwalt Meadow to Roaring River Falls. We covered around 6 miles or so to the falls then back, and headed out to do the meadow loop. That loop took us beside Roaring river, into a grove of trees ringing the meadow, then over a boulder field back to the bridge. The grass on the meadow was turning gold, and the only sounds we heard besides our foot fall was the wind in the trees and the flow of water. So peaceful, and a wonderful way to start our anniversary weekend. To the right is a view of the meadow from the boulder field we crossed.
We then headed up to Panoramic point for an amazing view of the Sierra Nevada mountains. We got back to the lodge just in time for our dinner, and collapsed into bed at 7:30. Whew!
I'll post more about our weekend once I get my hands on Jay's pictures! He always takes much better photos than me!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Happy 7th Anniversary!
Happy 7th anniversary! It's been a wonderful year for us both, full of friends, family, and national park vacations. In fact, we celebrated this weekend with a trip to King's Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. Stay tuned for pictures later this week.
I still remember how happy I was the day I married you. That day was the beginning of a life together, and while I doubt we had any ideas about what really lay ahead, we've faced all of them together.
I love you, and I can't wait to see what our next year brings.
I still remember how happy I was the day I married you. That day was the beginning of a life together, and while I doubt we had any ideas about what really lay ahead, we've faced all of them together.
I love you, and I can't wait to see what our next year brings.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Tammy's California Adventure
Well, the blog has veered into the political lately, and I think it's time to get back to talking about what we've been up to. The big news around here, besides all the babies this year, is that my mom came for a visit! Tammy hasn't ever flown before, and my dad's illness kept them from making the trip to Massachusetts while I was getting my PhD. So she had her first plane ride, and her first vacation since before my dad was diagnosed with cancer. He passed away two years ago, and so it was really past time for her to have some fun. And I hope she did have a good time, because I know Jason and I really enjoyed her visit. She flew in on Monday afternoon and we spent that day making lasagna together and going to the mall. On Tuesday we headed down to the Santa Monica Pier and more shopping at the 3rd Street Promenade. This is my mom at the entrance to the Pier:
You may notice the diet soda in her hand. She was absolutely appalled when she got to my house and found out that all we have to drink is water, and the only snacks we have are fruit and vegetables with some granola bars. She tried to make herself some sweet tea, but we didn't even have granulated sugar in the house. I guess we've really embraced the healthy lifestyle more than I realized! She was so happy to get to buy a soda. She was a good sport about taking the bus and walking everywhere too!
I took Thursday off of work and we spent the day in Hollywood. We visited Grauman's Chinese theatre (where you find the hand and foot prints of the famous in the sidewalk out front), we walked Hollywood Boulevard to see all the stars, and had lunch at the Disney Soda Fountain next to El Capitan theatre. We also visited the new Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. It was a blast, and honestly the figures are very lifelike. You are allowed to touch them, and they encourage lots of pictures. It's the closest I've come to spotting a star since I got here...
But Friday was the day my mom had been waiting for. Universal Studios. We were there when they opened, and we stayed till they closed. We rode pretty much everything in the park and took the studio tour. My mom wasn't crazy about the Simpson's ride, but she loved the Mummy. Here's my mom and I at the entrance:
We had a blast. Saturday was her last full day here as she flew out early Sunday morning, and we spent the entire day at Long Beach. Unfortunately, Jay's memory card for the Nikon D300 pooped out on us, and we have no pictures! I can tell you we did the Ghosts and Legends tour at the Queen Mary, and visited the Aquarium of the Pacific. We had dinner at Parker's Lighthouse where we saw a sea lion playing in the waves. It's really a shame about the pictures, because it was a lovely evening. And a great visit! My mom is an old pro at flying now, and we both hope to see her again soon.
You may notice the diet soda in her hand. She was absolutely appalled when she got to my house and found out that all we have to drink is water, and the only snacks we have are fruit and vegetables with some granola bars. She tried to make herself some sweet tea, but we didn't even have granulated sugar in the house. I guess we've really embraced the healthy lifestyle more than I realized! She was so happy to get to buy a soda. She was a good sport about taking the bus and walking everywhere too!I took Thursday off of work and we spent the day in Hollywood. We visited Grauman's Chinese theatre (where you find the hand and foot prints of the famous in the sidewalk out front), we walked Hollywood Boulevard to see all the stars, and had lunch at the Disney Soda Fountain next to El Capitan theatre. We also visited the new Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. It was a blast, and honestly the figures are very lifelike. You are allowed to touch them, and they encourage lots of pictures. It's the closest I've come to spotting a star since I got here...
But Friday was the day my mom had been waiting for. Universal Studios. We were there when they opened, and we stayed till they closed. We rode pretty much everything in the park and took the studio tour. My mom wasn't crazy about the Simpson's ride, but she loved the Mummy. Here's my mom and I at the entrance:
We had a blast. Saturday was her last full day here as she flew out early Sunday morning, and we spent the entire day at Long Beach. Unfortunately, Jay's memory card for the Nikon D300 pooped out on us, and we have no pictures! I can tell you we did the Ghosts and Legends tour at the Queen Mary, and visited the Aquarium of the Pacific. We had dinner at Parker's Lighthouse where we saw a sea lion playing in the waves. It's really a shame about the pictures, because it was a lovely evening. And a great visit! My mom is an old pro at flying now, and we both hope to see her again soon.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Good-bye Patrick Swayze
When I was 11 years old, the movie Dirty Dancing was released. I didn't see it until I was 12, when my aunt gave me a video cassette tape of the movie. My mom didn't speak to my aunt for months after that; she complained that all I did that summer was watch Dirty Dancing. And I did. Every single day, I watched Dirty Dancing, practiced the steps, and wished I could dance that well. That was probably when I realized how much I enjoy dancing, and it's only been for short periods since then that I haven't been taking some form of dance class. I also developed an enormous crush on Patrick Swayze. I still love the movie, the music, the dancing, and I still have a crush on Patrick Swayze. Not because he's handsome and moves like magic, but because over time I think he showed himself to embody a lot of the ideals I held for a person. He was married to his wife, Lisa, for over 30 years. He seemed modest and idealistic, doing films he wanted to do because he liked them, not necessarily because he was trying to be the biggest movie star in Hollywood. He did the work because that was what he loved to do. I also admired how strong he stayed throughout his fight with cancer. I admired him, and I feel for his wife and mother, and I'm so sad that I've lost my first crush. I think Jay will be getting lots of extra love today, because I'm so grateful we've still got our 30 years ahead of us.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Photos from Jess & Tom's Wedding
So it's been nearly two months since Jess and Tom's wedding, and I have just now uploaded some of the photos that I took. How does that happen? Anyhow, here they are.
For those of you expecting prints and a DVD, it's in the mail. Seriously, it is. No, really!
Jess and Tom exchange vows
Jess with her Dad walking down for wedding photos
Jess with her Mom
Fun with Cake
The new bride & groom with Dad
So the wedding was a great time, and even though it means that Jess is now in Germany for a few years, we wish them both the very best. Starting a life together is tough, a lot of work, but the most rewarding thing you could ever do.
See you two in Germany next year!
-jh
For those of you expecting prints and a DVD, it's in the mail. Seriously, it is. No, really!
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| From Jess & Tom Wedding |
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| From Jess & Tom Wedding |
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| From Jess & Tom Wedding |
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| From Jess & Tom Wedding |
So the wedding was a great time, and even though it means that Jess is now in Germany for a few years, we wish them both the very best. Starting a life together is tough, a lot of work, but the most rewarding thing you could ever do.
See you two in Germany next year!
-jh
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