Weathering the Storm

Even old-timers in Yosemite hadn’t seen so much snow in 30 years. The storms started the weekend of March 19, and kept going through 11-15 feet. That’s right. Feet. Of. Snow. Roads closed as trees and rocks fell across the road, and plows failed to keep up with the snow. Power lines were also hit, … Read more

Mountain Storms

What an exciting week this has been!

Our planned trip to the East Side to visit a friend in Bishop was a catalyst for being on the outside of a whole bunch of crazy that has been going on in Yosemite. The stay in Bishop was wonderful. Ahough we didn’t get in as much skiing as we had anticipated, we enjoyed hanging out and being out of the valley.

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Fall Foliage in VT

After 14 years together, Tom and I finally went to visit Tom’s parents in VT for a week during fall foliage season. Foliage season in VT is a little like the Holiday season in other towns – the hotels fill up and are charging peak rates, there’re a million people running around with cameras, snapping … Read more

Anniversary Vacation – Mt Tyndall

Celebrating our Anniversary atop Mt Tyndall
Celebrating our Anniversary atop Mt Tyndall
I promised myself that this is the very week that I would (finally) put something on this blog about the vacation that Tom and I took the week of Aug. 10th for our 11th wedding anniversary. We’d tossed around some other ideas, and we may have even gone to Hawaii if we’d planned ahead a little further (for people that know us, the beach vacation is a radical departure from our typical vacation mindset). It turned out that a shorter vacation to the East Side of the Sierra was absolutely perfect. Our trip had three parts. We had time to finish up some projects ahead of time so that they weren’t hanging over hour heads for the vacation, and then hiked to the top of Mt. Tyndall, wandered slowly through the Bristlecone Pine Forrest, and climbed in Clark Canyon.

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Sick Day

Ugh. Sick. I’ve taken a sick day from work and spent most of the day in bed. Thank goodness for nasal decongestants. At least it’s been a rainy inside sort of weekend. although Tom has managed a couple of day hikes with our guests while I slept and hid from the weather. Lots of down time means time to gather together a few loose ends over the last week.

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Travel Notes

We’ve arrived safe and sound in Stowe, and have been spending a relaxing morning with family. The trip went very smoothly, no delays and no surprises – except that the San Francisco to Chicago flight got in about 20 minutes early. The Fresno Airport has started putting their Giant Sequoia displays in. The California tree … Read more

Bay Area Hair Cut

My new haircut
My new haircut
This weekend, Sarah Land at Land of Locks helped me donate my hair to Locks of Love. I found out about Locks of Love when a couple of friends mentioned that they were donating their hair to an organization that provides hair prosthetics to children who are suffering from long-term medical hair loss. Since then, have been surprised at how many other people I know have made the same decision at some point.

Locks of Love requires that the hair is at least 10 inches long – so the cut is usually a dramatic one, and since I’ve never done it before I was really looking for someone who knew what they were doing. Fortunately, Sarah was recommended to me by a mutual friend who has excellent taste, so I felt confident that I was going to get a great hair cut, and that the 3.5 hour drive into the Bay Area was worth it for her expertise. Besides, it is always fun to have a chance to visit friends, check out my old stomping grounds, and do ‘city things’.

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Happy March

Previous year's poppies
Previous years poppies
We’re a couple of days into March already, but I thought I’d wish you a happy new month anyway. March is a good month. The days are getting noticably longer, daylights savings is coming up, and although it’s been rain/snowing outside the last few days, in my mind it is starting to feel like spring. The wildflowers have even started blooming down canyon already. (On his blog, local photographer, Michael Fry, has a great image of the poppies that are springing up where the Telegraph Fire burned last summer.)

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