Mojave Desert, Ca. Sept 10 through 12

Hi friends and family and especially our little Vernons.  You will love this!  We met up with George Jr. at the Jawbone Visitors Center.  We drove our rigs to a deserted area in the mountains and parked our campers.  It is a Bureau of Land Management area that is free and was it ever neat!  We were nestled into a mountain right in the desert.  George Jr. has a toy hauler camper with a quad (razor).  The fun started for Dad and Son as soon as we got there.  They took off for a great ride.  The next day Kathy came and what a doll!  We got acquainted and had a great time.  Sat. morning Georgie took me for a ride.  He was very conservative with me.  But, what fun!  When Kathy arrived, we drove our Jeep and and razor to Red Rock Canyon State Park.  I thought I was in the Badlands.  We walked around the rocks and saw a lot of little caves.  Fun!  Kathy fixed the men some Jalapeno poppers and we cooked Salmon on the grill.  And of course, we had a fire and s'mores later.  Great weekend!

Sequoia and King's Canyon, Sept. 8 thru 10

Hi everyone!  We stayed in Fresno Tues. night between Yosemite and Sequoia Parks.  On our way, we drove along the most beautiful mountain range.  So lovely!  As usual, pictures don't capture the beauty.  We stayed at Azalea campground which is in King's Canyon Nat'l Park.  We saw a lot of the Park the first day and saw some beautiful vistas.  Just breathtaking!  Both parks encompass the most rugged portions of the Sierra Nevada.  Ice age glaciers carved some of the country's deepest canyons.  This sawtoothed mountain range is over 400 miles long and 60 to 80 miles wide.  This range exceeds the whole Alps area, French, Swiss and Italian.  There are 6 peaks exceeding 14,000 ft. of elevation.  Impressive?  The next day we visited Sequoia Park.  Sequoia is home to the largest Sequoia tree on earth.  At least one tree species lives longer, one has a greater diameter, three grow taller, but none is larger.  In all the world, sequoias grow naturally only on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, most often between 5,000 and 7,000 ft. of elevation.  The General Sherman tree is an estimated 2,200 years old.  Its largest branch is almost seven ft. in diameter.  Every year the General Sherman grows enough new wood to make a 60 ft. tall tree of usual proportions.  We walked through trees, drove through trees so big, it is hard to believe they grow like that.  We had a wonderful time.
More than anything, I have wanted to see a bear and today we saw three of them!  Was I ever excited!  They are so sweet.  When they appear, the rangers noisily chase them away so as not to incite them.  I loved seeing them.  The parks are wonderful!  We are so lucky and thank God every day for these blessings in our lives.  Tomorrow we are seeing George Jr. at the Mojave Desert.  Can't wait!

Yosemite Nat'l Park, Sept. 6 & 7

Hi everyone,  We left our KOA on Monday morning and headed to Yosemite.  Our trips have been somewhat of a challenge because of the hills and curves, but we are tenacious and arrived at our park in one piece.  Yosemite is a 100 sq. mile park that would take a long time to see everything.  We spent two days touring the park and saw some majestic and beautiful sights.  We were most impressed by the granite cliffs.  The summits are so high when you look up at them close by, you cannot see the tops.  Awesome!  Half Dome and El Captain were the most magnificent to us.  There is a legend of how they came to be that I thought was interesting.  American Indians tell of a woman and her husband who argued and fought.  The displeased spirits changed them into stone, Half Dome and North Dome, forever to face each other across the Valley.  But how these cliffs really formed has challenged geologists for over 100 years.  They think the granite of Yosemite's walls solidified over five miles underground.  As the overlying rock eroded away, the granites rose to their current exposed level.  Nature's dynamic forces continue sculpting this exposed rock.  The waterfalls have mostly dried up because of the dry summer.  But we can only imagine how beautiful they are!  There are giant Sequoias here also.  They need fire so they can reproduce and fires they definitely have!  We are so lucky to have these parks.  They are ours to enjoy, hopefully, forever.  John Muir said "Everyone needs beauty as well as bread, places to play and pray in, where nature may heal, cheer and give strength to the body and soul alike.  Love you and we will see you in Sequoia Nat'l Park.

Yosemite

Napa Valley, Sept.3 & 4

Hi everyone,  Get ready, this may take awhile.  Yesterday, our friend and Ft. Jefferson buddy, who is the Law Enforcement Ranger at the Golden Gate, met us and we had a wonderful time with her.  (See picture)  We drove to Sausalito and met her there.  We bought lunch at Miss Mollies and took it up to the North tower overlook.  The view was of the Golden Gate and San Francisco.  Beautiful!  We then drove to Fort Mason and Sarah met up with some of her co-workers who were investigating a case of a body that was found on shore.  Sometimes bad things happen in this beautiful place. We had a  wonderful view of the Golden Gate, but very foggy.  We drove to the Nike Missile Site in the Marin Headlands.  That was awesome!  The ranger there took us on a complete tour of the Site.  We never, ever thought we could go down to the magazine where they kept the missiles.  When the Site was closed down, some energetic volunteers started re-furbishing the Site.  And now it is open to visitors to view.  Thank God we never had to fire the missiles.  They had 40 kiloton nuclear warhead in one missile which was more than we dropped on Japan in World War 2. 
We then drove to the Mammal Hospital which was founded in 1975.  The Marine Mammal Center rescues and treats more than 500 ill and injured marine mammals along 600 miles of California coastline each year.  This is a nonprofit veterinary hospital, research and educational center.  We saw 6 sweet sea lions that were recuperating so they could go back to the sea.  When we left Sarah, we drove around Sausalito and found a neat pizza place for dinner.
Today, we drove to Napa Valley and drove the 31 miles of beautiful grape vineyards.  Amazing, that a valley between 2 mountains could be that productive.  Did you know that one barrel of wine makes 20 cases, or 1200 glasses of wine?  A ton of grapes equals 720 bottles of wine or 60 cases.  One vine annually produces between 4 and 6 bottles of wine.  Each bottle contains about 2.8 lbs. of grapes, each 5 oz. glass of wine a little over 1/2 a lb.  Some wine trivia for you wine lovers.  We did visit 2 wineries.  We noticed that roses were planted in front of the orchards and we thought maybe they were for the bees to pollinate, but we were wrong.  They plant them to attract aphids so the bugs don't eat the grapes.  Interesting, huh?  I thought so.

A message to my beautiful daughters who will get together tomorrow for Britt's birthday.  I just want you to know how much I love you and how proud I am of you all.  You are the light of my life and this trip is my legacy to you.  Stay just like you are because you are perfect!  Love Mom

Napa Valley

San Francisco

Alcatraz, Ca. Sept. 2

Hi folks,  I didn't know what to expect and wasn't that excited about going to Alcatraz, but what an experience!  There is so much history there.  The island which is in San Francisco bay was known as the "Rock".  It was a maximum security federal penitentiary l934-63 that once held such notorious criminals as Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly and Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz".  When we got off the boat, we walked up a hill that was like climbing 13 stories.  We then took a self-guided tour of the prison with ear phones and radio.  We went inside the cells, the dining hall and the outside recreation area.  The tour was done by former Alcatraz inmates, correctional officers and residents as they reminisce about life on Alcatraz.  It was like going back in time, it was so real.  It originally was a Fort but was never used for combat.  After the Fort closed, many tribes of Indians came over protesting occupation of their lands by Americans.  They lived there for 18 months.  It ultimately saved their tribes.  Rich is history, this island is a natural habitat for wildlife.  A beautiful view of the city, it is an island that we are so happy we were able to see and explore.  
Our friend, Sarah C. who is a ranger for the National Park Service told Ranger Owen S. that we were coming to the island and he showed us the "dungeon" which is not open to visitors.  That was fun.  By the way, Alcatraz belongs to the NPS. 

Alcatraz

San Francisco, Ca. Aug. 31 & Sept. 1

Hi everyone,  Yesterday was one heck of a driving day.  We drove the coast highway with our motor home and tow car.  And what a ride!  It took us 7 hours to drive 180 miles.  It was slow going with all the switch backs and steep hills.  We unhooked our car for awhile to get up the hills.  But we made it!  We always do.  We rented a spot right outside of San Francisco and are sticking for 6 days.  We wanted to make sure we had a place for the holiday weekend.  We drove into town this morning and had a great day!  We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and that was fun.  The views are spectacular!  We had a good parking spot.  There are lots of them and boy do you pay!  We toured the Fisherman's Wharf District which was fun.  We went to the famous sourdough bread factory and had lunch there.  We went to Ghirardelli Square and you can see I was enjoying a hot fudge sundae with dark fudge topping.  Yummmm!  We took a cable car ride and saw a lot of the city.  That was really fun!  And last but not least, Pier 39.  I was so surprised at the wonderful shops and the sea lions playing on the pier.  Even though we prefer quiet places, we really enjoyed the city for a change.  Tomorrow we will go tour Alcatraz.  See you then

San Francisco