Welcome back, Boris, good the hear from you. Looks like a great trip that
mirrored the one my wife and I took to SF and Yosemite in 1993. We hit a
lot of the same spots (little fog during our trip so I got some good bridge
shots from the north side). We rented a car and drove to Yosemite. It was
all I could do to keep the car on the road when I was hit by the view at
the western entrance. We were there in spring, so the valley was
comfortable and uncrowded but there was two feet of pack snow up at the
rim. My only regret was not climbing the back side of Half Dome. Maybe next
time.
Charlie
On Sun, Dec 21, 2014 at 9:03 PM, Willie Wonka via olympus <
olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I have been lurking lately, but found a little time andmaterial to
> post.The pictures can be found here:
> http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=13775My son finished high
> school and as a reward we took him onhis biggest vacation up to date – trip
> to California. Yes, we have taken himabroad, but this was much bigger. His
> favorite movie of all times is “BigTrouble in Little China” (rolling my
> eyes…), so San Francisco it was. San Francisco is one amazing city. More
> amazing are itsinhabitants…they are so laid back and relaxed and…pretty
> sure none of themrealize that the car they drive actually has a horn.
> Really, what’s wrong withthese people? And who wears winter coat at the end
> of June, we felt so out ofplace in shorts and t-shirts. There was another
> reason we felt so out ofplace-we drove the biggest car in the city, but
> more on that later…The first day we “rented” a tour guide whom we found on
> theNet. We choose him, because we didn’t want to participate in a cheesy
> tour,going to all the tourist places. Our effort paid off and we actually
> learned something.First stop, China Town. It was very unlike China towns
> onthe East Coast. To get there we took one of the old trolleys. Funny, they
> havewooden brakes that smell like burning pine downhill. There was one
> funnyincident, where the tour guide who happened to be a jokester, pointed
> to a verynarrow side alley and told the group that it’s an unique
> photographicopportunity and upon hearing this, each one of them started
> clicking away. Hejust laughed and told them that he was joking. I think
> they gave him dirtylooks, because he didn’t joke like that until the tour
> ended.San Franciscans seems to love their coffee. Everywhere yougo, you are
> greeted by this big, beautiful coffee machines. No idea how good itis,
> since I don’t drink coffee, but I can attest, that the local beer
> issuperb. We were renting houses anddespite having all the amenities, we
> ate out. The food was edible, unlike thefood found in the tourist
> destinations. Speaking of San Franciscans, did youknow that one can smoke
> pot in public transportation…:)I really wanted to have a picture of the
> iconic SanFrancisco bridge, but it wasn’t meant to be. There was entirely
> too much fog.Well, you see my best effort…On the way to Mount Carmel,
> starting picture 452. Alexchased the birds on the beach. We were so happy,
> as we hadn’t seen a real oceansince July of 2013, the time we left Rhode
> Island. Mount Carmel was touristy, the beach was cold and aftercompleting
> the famous 17 mile drive we headed to Santa Cruz, where we spent therest of
> the day. Having lived in RI for ten years, we weren’t impressed by the17
> mile drive.Next day we headed towards the Yosemite where we spent twodays.
> It was too hot in the valley (yes, that deer passed right by me) and inthe
> afternoon of the first day we headed for the high country, which we
> likedbetter. The second day we spend hiking at high elevation, where one
> couldreally feel the lack of air in the air sans the unrelenting
> heat.Pictures 894, 941, 944 and 945 are from a place called “SodaSprings”.
> I love seltzer and it was amazing to see it bubbling right out of
> theground. Of course I drank it and am still alive.The following pictures
> were taken either on the way or atMono Lake, some of them through the car
> window. I hate the sunset/sunrise lookwhere everything is orange, so the
> pictures of the tuffas were taken right aftersunset.Now we start with the
> part of the trip which was mostinteresting to Alex. He likes old stuff and
> he is fascinated by the abandonedtowns in the West. First stop-Bode, an old
> mining town that was deserted in theearly part of the twentieth century. I
> didn’t see any generators, but if youlook closely the lamp on picture 1152
> is still glowing. It was hot, really hot,but as you can see the person on
> picture 1161 was not deterred to dress inlayers…:)After that, we explored
> via back roads a few more abandoned towns.We had rented an SUV in order to
> accomplish this task since they were far awayfrom pavement.Alex was upset
> when we reached the first town. As mentionedabove, he really likes old
> stuff and the fact that people used everything,especially the cars for
> target practice, did not go well with him.On the way back (at the end of
> our vacation) we stopped by a train museum, Alex has atrain fetish. We were
> informed that the train on picture 1371 is a movie starthat starred in more
> than 100 movies, including the famous scene from “Back tothe Future”, but
> you movie buffs already knew that.Unlike now, California was really dry.
> One can see from thepictures taken in-between how scorched everything was.
> I have never seen fieldsand hills made of pure gold…Now, keep in mind, that
> I was forewarned-this wasn’t goingto be a photography trip, all pictures
> with the exception of one were made prettymuch while walking/driving. Only
> one time during this trip, I (put my footdown, much to Alex’s annoyance
> and…) took 20 minutes in order to take one ofthe pictures, so here it is:
> Whoeverfigures out which one it is first, gets an award, I will think of
> something.Hint…it took me nineteen minutes and a half to find it and half a
> minute totake it. BestBoris .................................
> =================================
> I am not easily happy with things. I work hard for my happiness.
>
> --Bob Whitmire
> --
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