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| It's Yosemite Time again! | ||
 Does this give you a sense of how tall the valley walls are? |  Half Dome from Sentinal Bridge |  Yosemite Falls |
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Last year, it rained all weekend. The year before, it rained part of the weekend. The year before, rain turned into snow on the last evening. This year, it was nuthin' but snow! We hit it just right, too. A big storm came through last week, but it cleared out early Friday before we all drove up into the mountains so we didn't have to put on chains (though it might have been smart to do so). Then a little more snow fell Sunday night while we ice skated and cleared up during the night, so we had another Ansel Adams morning. If it had stayed clear 'til we left the mountains, the weather would have been perfect. More on that later. | ||
| On Saturday, we went up to the Snow Play area by Crane Flat, where we'd had to engineer a slide path two years ago because there wasn't enough snow (last year, there wasn't ANY snow). This year, snow was not an issue, but we still had to engineer the path since we were the first up there since the big storm. At first, only the little kids could slide (the rest of us would scrunch along pathetically on our saucers). Eventually, the route got slick enough that we could even double up and make it all the way down. | |
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| One of the days, a group of us visited the Indian village museum at the visitor center. We happened to arrive in time for a tour by Kimberly, a Mi-Wuk museum interpreter. Kimberly is a fantastic storyteller for whom there is no such thing as a short answer. She showed us around the recreated village, explained life in a Mi-Wuk society, taught us some games and showed us artifacts from that life, such as the Indian tackle box made of folded sedge leaves. She also taught us useful tricks like how to whistle like a peregrine falcon using an acorn cap. | ||
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| One of the games involved whirling a paddle on a string so that it vibrated and made a whirring noise. Another game--Indian football--had complex and rather funny rules. It was played guys against girls, with slightly different rules for each side. The guys played a game similar to soccer. The girls could pick up the ball and pass and run with it. However, the guys could also pick up a girl who was carrying the ball and carry her and the ball to their goal! Wayne's holding the ball for that game. Then there was the staves game, where two teams take turns tossing six staves on the ground. If half of the staves land marked side up and the other half land marked side down, the team gets a point. If all staves are either marked side up or down, the team gets two points. After all the point marker sticks have been awarded, each team can steal from the other. The game ends when one team has all the marker sticks. | ||
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We took a LOT of photos this year--over 200--mostly because we have a new toy: a Nikon Coolpix 990. Now, we don't have to fight over the camera any more (we just have to fight over the new camera). There's a lot to learn still on how to get the best out of this new camera, as it can be used in full- and semi-manual modes just like a 35mm camera. I can't wait to try the macro lens and to adjust focal lengths to get just what I want in focus. On the way home, it started to snow as we headed up out of the valley. By the time we reached Crane Flat, the road looked like the photo below--not enough snow to warrant chains (or rather, Spikes Spiders in our case), but enough to cover the asphalt. Or so we thought. A little bit past Crane Flat, Wayne took a curve a mite bit fast, and we wiggled left, wiggled right, slid into the righthand snowbank, bounced off, and spun left 180 degrees or so, coming to a rest with the back end stuck in the snowbank. Ack. We weren't hurt, just a little bit shaken up (there's a tiny bit of damage to the car, but not enough to worry about). Someone stopped to help us out, and they helped me push the car out once we'd installed the Spiders (those things are cooooool and way easier to put on than chains!). I think we went another mile or so before the snow petered out and we took them back off. Hopefully Wayne will be ready to put on the Spiders a little earlier next time. | |
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| Cheryl | |
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