*gasp* short girl say what?

   A sage once opined that one should know where he is from before venturing out to explore new lands. I, for one, take that to heart. I want my sons to know where they live. I want to give them that before they leave my nest. That my friends is right here, right now!
  Before I go into all that let me just get this out. There's a funny little myth floating around against Fresno.  People are always Fresno-bashing. I know what you are thinking...and you're right. I bash as well. However I don't perpetrate Fresno's nothingness. I don't like the heat...okay I hate the heat. I think a huge majority of the architecture is shameful. True, true I could, and often do say much more. However it must be said that although I would never choose to live here, I do like several aspects of Fresno. There I've said it, and I feel good about it.
   Now that we've gotten that business out of the way, we can move on. We were in downtown Fresno three times this week. Three days in a row. Although I could extol the many virtues of downtown... I'll limit myself to sharing our three days with you.
  Let's start with Tuesday.  Ricky, along with the rest of the PSCA choirs preformed in Courthouse Park. They were at the always touching, annual  Police Memorial Service.  I told my kids for the umpteenth time about my Grandma working in a bank downtown, how they tore down the beautiful courthouse and built this funky thing etc.... all as we sat under the delightful canopy of trees waiting for the service to begin. Afterward we walked across the street for the luncheon provided for the performers. Extraordinary kindness at its best, making you question everything you thought you knew.  We had a simple meal and visited with lots of friends while inviting trees were swaying in the breeze all around us. The pavilions, courtyards and outdoor dining areas really are quite lovely.
  Now on to Wednesday. We parked our car and walked the Fulton Mall. We were exploring the historic art sculpture collection. These are dotted all throughout the six blocks or so of the outdoor mall. Then we hoped in the car and drove all around taking photos of downtown's great buildings of yesteryear. We were saddened that a few had been red-xed. I told my boys many other stories as we drove from location to location.
    Our next stop brought us to the Tower district. This is another great Fresno area, yet still downtown. Here we had the finest pot pies I've ever had the good fortune to taste. We were at the famous Chicken PieShop . They're good. I mean really, really good. Jeff asked for a menu so we could call ahead and order a dozen sometime soon. Billy and Ricky got a kick out of the swanky restaurant. As we were leaving the building we turned to get a great shot of the Tower theater lit up at night. I , of course told my boys story after story. We showed them where my Dad used to live, the Mexican restaurant where my sisters and I sat on stools and visited with the little old couple who ran the joint etc...
  Thursday, as in today...was a day of touring galleries/studios. We were traversing through the downtown section of Fresno's Art Hop. This is the time when artists open their doors for free. It occurs on the first Thursday of each month in Downtown. There are other areas in Fresno doing the same thing on the third Thursday of the month. We toured six smile inducing spots. The favorite of the night was Kliszewski Glass hands down. The boys were positively giddy watching the craftsmen work with the fiery hot glass. I was thrilled for them, they loved the demonstration.We ended our evening with a quick stop to grab some yummy ice cream.
       Three fun-filled, basically free days. Most of these stops were for our Spanish, Photography and Art classes. With these particular destinations we got more intimate with downtown Fresno. We were on an old building/art genre scavenger hunt of sorts. Fresno...you're alright.

Thank you God for Spring

It's Spring! With that comes gorgeous blossoms & absolutely wonderful rain....and errr, um.... hailman building hail storms, warm evening picnics, watch through the window thunderstorms, sunny swims &  kite flying wind.  Ricky has been keeping a weather log for Physical Science this month, it has been hilarious! Hooray for the wild ride of springtime! Hooray for the sights, sounds and smells of a quintessential Spring day, which to me means the magic of the unknown. However I mostly adore the sweet aromas from those lovely releases of green and the freshly pounded dirt. These are restorative actions for the earth and my spirit. 

"The day the Lord created hope was probably the day he created spring"~Bert Williams

.....and although I loved the beautiful weather of a few days ago heading out for a walk around the new neighborhood, sitting out in the yard lazin' around with a book, cloud watching with Ricky, some great conversation with Billy in  the garden, conducting schooling outdoors at the picnic table, leading to evening meals placed there as well.  I also love the movie watching snuggle time & the game playing that stormy days tend to bring. Rain brings a calming peace with it.  Let the rain, rain, rain come down, down, down!!!

“Boys [should be] inured from childhood to trifling risks and slight dangers of every possible description, such as tumbling into ponds and off of trees, etc., in order to strengthen their nervous system... They ought to practice leaping off heights into deep water. They ought never to hesitate to cross a stream over a narrow unsafe plank for fear of a ducking. They ought never to decline to climb up a tree, to pull fruit merely because there is a possibility of their falling off and breaking their necks. I firmly believe that boys were intended to encounter all kinds of risks, in order to prepare them to meet and grapple with risks and dangers incident to man’s career with cool, cautious self-possession...” —R. M. Ballantyne

Our journey's to the center of the earth

 FRIDAY
We started our day driving up the 49 , spiraling down the crazy path between Mariposa & Coulterville. You know the one that takes you down a mountain side real fast....real steep. That animal must have a name, but we don't know it.

  Our four-pack was in route to Calaveras Big Trees State Park. Our first agenda was to *hopefully* happen upon an apple farm. Happen we did, we have a nice sized box stuffed full with yummy heirloom apples for apple butter makin' and caramel apple crunch pie bakin'!!!
  After arriving at the park & pulling out all our stuff, in effect campifying the joint, we toured the museum. This is where I got the answer to my question. You see I was hit with an acorn while coming out of the bathroom by a squirrel (I presumed). The ranger on duty warned us about the flying squirrels stating they were rascals...known for throwing acorns at passers by. Contrary little things!

  We also walked the North Grove loop (well Jeff & Billy ran a good chunk of it) I love the pictures of the boys in this grove. However I must say they don't really capture the size of these trees.

  We then headed to the South Grove section of the park. Here we hiked down to the Stanislaus River. Although back in the foothills we just left it was hot, Calaveras was pretty darn chilly. So we welcomed the sunshine pressing into us as we rested on the boulders. Bravery took over for a few minutes as we dipped  our feet in the ice cold river water, just to feel to the strength of the current.

  Apparently it was ladybug mating season because we saw hundreds and hundreds of them dancing all around us here and then later back at the camp ground along the meadow clinging to each other trying to stay warm.

  Before leaving this side of the park we drove down to "Roads End" this was at Billy's request. It seems he has caught that bug from his Dad! Beaver Creek was reached by a short hike from the Roads End parking lot. Ricky took a dive...not the rest of us. (Ricky is the splash..he jumped before I was ready)
   Ricky learned to make a fire with only a magnesium stone, knife and a few twigs. Billy was his biggest supporter.  Ah, what you can do with patience, tenacity and a really great cheer leading team! We loved our fires most especially this trip, as Autumn camping (cuz it really was Autumn there) is really chilly!!!

  After dinner we enjoyed story telling by the campfire. Whittling, knife sharpening and rough housing. Finally calming down to sipping herbal tea with honey, munching on cookies and candy (yes we took a break from smores & cocoa)
SATURDAY
  I woke up to a warm fire Jeff built. I busied myself preparing breakfast for the day. Only packing the ingredients for lunch as it was much too cold to bother with at this point.
  After warming our hands with mugs of hot tea and a love-built fire. As well as eating a yummy bowel of oatmeal to warm us even greater. We finished our morning routine and packed into the car.

  Our first adventure of the day was Sutter's Gold Mine. Jeff & The boys took this tour. According to the brochure they went 620 feet below the surface and 1850 feet into the mine. They rode the "Boss Buggy Shuttle" which is a jeep looking vehicle. They hiked part of the way down. Then a second Boss Buggy returned them to the surface. Ricky said it was awesome, that riding down a cave in a jeep was his favorite part. Jeff really liked  the WALL of quartz with gold running right through the middle of it. Billy said they learned a lot. As a matter of fact he excitedly rambled on for quit a while about Gold Rush History and the geology of California. I sat this one out while I  made the lunch I hadn't made back at the campsite. We ate our picnic lunch here.

  Then we drove on to Black Chasm Cavern. Jeff sat out of this tour, while the boys and I took it on. There was no warning here, no gentle grade. It was an immediate steep narrow staircase going down, down, down. However I'd climb it again in a heart beat. It was an absolute jewel case. Billy practiced his picture taking skills on the beautiful helictites this cave is famous for. Ricky tried to scare the wits out of me. He spotted a clear turquoise lake WAY WAY down at the bottom of the cave. He leaned over the very narrow planked walkway to point it out. Geeezzzz boy!!! Jeff was glad he didn't see it.

 Our last expedition of the day lead us to California Caverns. All four of us went on this tour. As with most of the tours we again sported hard hats and sweatshirts. Everyone liked this cave because there were so many twists and turns and fun little spots. Oh yes, we had many bend over to get through there, watch your head here, lean this way...okay now lean the other way. Yes, we had many directional commands from our guide.  Billy again worked for photography credit getting just the right picture of this caves splendor. (Billy & Ricky are in the picture above Ricky bent down, I know its hard to see....)
  The evening was welcomed, we were all ready for a comforting fire (made by the hands of Billy), resting by the moon lite mountain glow. As well as a quick warm meal....and bed.
SUNDAY

  The lure of a winding rural road is powerful. Beautiful varying scenery with each gnarly turn. Often, though of course impossible, I find myself wishing I could stop in the middle of the road. I just want to take it all in. This happened several times today. My sweet Jeff pulled over on the side of the road several times for me to take pictures of lovely bits of this and that. My favorites are the GIANT radio wagon Billy is standing in front of and the incredible red tree, a blissful example of Autumn.

  Our first planned stop of the day was Mercer Cavern. Here we walked another very steep, staircase 16 stories underground.  The staircase was not only steep and narrow, it very was low at certain points. Even I hit my head once, oops! Having said that, this was great cave. As with every tour, there is no better way to learn the history of the area. Billy worked his photography skills here by catching shots of the rare and famous cave flowers. ( Ricky is ducking down to fit through this section of the cave & Billy is on the staircase behind him in the picture)

  Next we moved on to Moaning Cavern. This place sends you down a very tight narrow staircase. The walls of this section are NOT for the claustrophobic. After that you descend a 284 step, rusty, rickety, spiral staircase. This cave was massive. It was impressive by its scale alone. We were told the Statue of Liberty could easily fit inside the cave. Our equilibrium was thrown off as was our depth perception making for an interesting climb back up that crazy staircase!
  Before we left Ricky had his 15 second thrill. He jumped in a truck driven by a wild teenager up a hillside to a tower. Here Ricky climbed up to get  harnessed for a massive zipline. Ricky, not tall enough to reach the wiring, pulled himself up with his arms. The attendants, after recovering from their shock grabbed him and attached...the ugh attachment's?? Then they sent him on his way down the hill. Billy & I sat at a table watching his midway descend. Jeff was at the base to see him land. Ricky waved to all as he "flew through the air with the greatest of ease"

  Our very last journey was to Natural Bridges Cave. *Note to all, this place is free. We parked our car and hike about 2 miles down to the mouth of the cave. The boys climbed around and we all explored it a bit. Ricky swam in. We had a picnic snack here and then headed back up the hillside to our car. (Billy is sitting on a "shelf" & Ricky is swimming in these photos)
   This was another wonderful road trip with my guys. Yet we were all ready to go home and releave ourselves of our camp-nasty filth!

Kings Canyon according to Ricky, a guest blogger

 I know my Mom and my brother have already written about this trip, but I don't care because this is my version. We went to Kings earlier this month. There were no camp sites left for us, so we reserved one in Sequoia. We hiked around in our campground which had a couple of mapped out hikes leading off from the main road. We choose a hike that lead to a giant grove of Sequoias and the next day we went to another giant sequoia grove. This one was more famous, its called Grants Grove. Then we drove into the canyon of Kings Canyon, it was really cool!

Ricky V.

Drivin' on up to the East Side

Well I woke to a misty gray morning . I sat in the muted light & sipped my freshly brewed coffee, enjoying the silence. I had already surrendered to the inevitable. I was okay, it's a happy day in Charityland when I've seen clouds, and that was the view out my window. The neatly gathered pile sitting on the kitchen counter was not going to be used, well not today anyway, or that's what I thought.

However as Jeff came down the stairs he said, "why not? What's a little rain gonna do?" So it was go-time, off we went on our great adventurous return to the Eastern Sierras. We went through Yosemite, Over Tioga Pass. We stopped to check out the beautiful Tenaya Lake for a bit of inspiration. At Olmsted Point we took the short hike to check out the amazing view of the backside of Yosemite's Valley and the canyon below, promising a certain death (in the rain), it's just so beautiful, we risked it none-the-less.

We then exited onto 395, we exhaled with a nice view of Mono Lake as we made our way a little further down to the June Lake Loop in June CA. We like to enter through the north side of this incredible area. You are entertained by viewing high desert, an aspen forest and then a pine forest, returning to high desert as you leave this secret jewel. Yet not before passing four pristine lakes and a quaint little village. We had our lunch at the beach of June Lake in our 4runner, because it was raining pretty good.

As we sat there looking into the clear/ turquoise water and beautiful pebbles below,  Ricky began his campaign in getting us to let him swim out to a boulder in this alpine ICE COLD glacier gem. Remembering, of course the rain & cold, COLD wind. As I circled my head around the Switzerland looking snow capped, heavily misted high mountain peaks. As I looked at the steam rising from the lake, I found myself saying...fine...go ahead. The rest of us readied towels, underneath our clothing to keep the rain off, while Ricky swam out to a boulder he set his eyes on. He Climbed out, stood up & shouted his victory! He then  swam back to shore, where we wrapped him and stuffed him the car.

After a quick stop at the visitor center for some literature  for a newspaper article we drove on to Mammoth. On this route we spotted snow along the highway. We had never been to this area before, but knew there was quit a bit to it, so we just picked one destination.We hiked the amazing Devils Postpile Monument trail. (both in front and overlook). On the way back we stopped at the South Fork of the San Joaquin River. Very clear. Very cold. Very beautiful. I was humbled to realize how far up we were & that this very river cuts all the way across Fresno, out by 99. Wow. oh, and yes, it stopped raining so we could take our hike. Absolutely incredible.

We had to ride with the bus service from the town of Mammoth all the way down the Red Meadow Canyon because only certain privileged  few were allowed to use the road. Summer road trips usually bring roads we crawl on carefully passing over hairpin turns on steep mountain roads, but this was two way traffic on a one way road, on the side of a canyon...in buses!!!. I was clinging to an arm hold the whole time. The good news is we lived! Hee-hee. Actually, the good news is we had two drivers that really wanted to share their knowledge of the area...you know me, I took plenty of notes! Let us not forget the most excellent news of all...there was snow...in August! Thank you Lord Jesus for the respite.

Exploring the Kings Canyon (said to be the deepest in the US)

Unfortunately when we went to reserve a campsite, there were NONE available in Kings Canyon, so we opted to stay next door in Sequoia. We landed in Dorst Creek, which was a nice spot. We played around in Dorst Creek for awhile and then took to the majestic Muir Grove Trail . Billy and I had a wonderful long, sweet, funny talk. Something I will always treasure. On our way back we soaked our weary feet in Cabin Creek. These are the only two creeks we visited here. However we hear that there are many more that run through the area. As we were leaving Sequoia we stopped at the Lost Grove and were able to witness a bear at play.
Of course we did get to visit the Kings Canyon as was planned. After stopping at the Kings Canyon visitor center museum, we walked through Grants Grove. Then it was down the STEEP canyon all the way to the Cedar Grove area. Here we braved the South Fork of the Kings River. Of course Ricky was the bravest of us all, he swam all the way across and climbed out to sun on the opposite bank. It was a little scary watching the river under tow carry him off to the side a ways, but he is a very strong swimmer and did just fine!
Jeff felt the need to drive all the way to the end of the road. The area called "Roads End" has such a name because of the impassable gargantuan mountains in this u-shaped spot.
We also hiked the breath taking Zumwalt Meadow Loop. The boys were walking a bit faster than J & I. When we looked up we saw Ricky hanging from the suspension wires on the pedestrian bridge that lays across the river. We, of course made him get down, but secretly wish we got a picture first.
We stopped at the Roaring River, an off shoot of the Kings to take in the Roaring River Falls. Here Ricky swam in the pools below the falls. Jeff waded in a bit.
After a quick stop at Knapp's Cabin we were on our way back up the canyon and onto home.

Adventures in Moro and Pismo

Moro Strand State Beach Campground is a great place if what you want to do is use it as a jumping off point, as its right off highway 1. It is most especially convenient because this is one of the stops for the local trolley system. However if you are looking for a great outdoorsy experience, you may want to look elsewhere. The parking lot feel is inescapable. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the few steps it took to get to the beach, not to mention seeing the ocean from our campsite. Sinking into the sand, vs hard earth was wonderful, as it contoured to the shape of your body. The sound of the tide as we sat by our fire, fell asleep and especially in the early morning as we woke made it all worth it, but I don't think we'll stay here again.
After setting up camp, we made our way over a bit to Moro Bays Natural History Museum & Observation "Hill". We had a good time and got a few great shots of the saltwater marsh.
We visited Spooner's Cove in Montana de Oro State Park. This place has the coolest rock formations and a huge diversity of colored pebbles on the beach. It has exceptionally nice tidepools as well. We have passed by this park many times. So before we left home I asked some fellow stupendous goal setting creatures, you know people starving for some time among nature, what ONE destination we shouldn't miss, this is where they sent us. After realizing this park is of such colossal proportions we've decided we simply must camp here for some more in depth exploration.
After swinging back by Moro Bay to take in Moro Rock Preserve (here we saw a family of otters playing in Moro's Estero Bay) and bird watching at the Moro Estuary Channels. We ended the evening with the usual rituals and then took in the sunset on the beach, just lovely.
Sunday, as I already stated we arose to the sound of the waves hitting the beach. We were up early, and so we had an early start. We enjoyed an air of quiet activity in the Blue Heron Rookery, El Moro Elfin Forest and the Los Oso Oaks Preserve (where I collected some poison oak on the back of my knees).
Before noon we found a parking spot and spent the rest of the day at Pismo Beach where we soaked in the sun. Jeff and I took a long walk collecting shells, sand dollars and sea stones. Billy & Jeff went scim boarding. Ricky and Jeff went boogie boarding.
Our last stop was to our favorite funky little fish & chip spot in shell beach. We got our dinner to go and had a picnic over looking the ocean and tide pools below craggy cliff sides. We all came home with sun burns.