Hot Creek, Devil's Postpile and the Village

The time has come for me to start showing you some of the scenery we lived amidst for the week.  So, without further explanation, enjoy these pictures of God's mighty mountains...

Ahhhhh.  Okay, ready to hear about our first day's adventures?  We started the morning at the Hot Creek Fish Hatchery.  Here they raise rainbow trout for release into streams and lakes all over CA.  We read that "this is one of the main hatcheries in California's fish restocking program."  They had several of these long troughs full of fish, each one containing trout in a different size/stage.  We loved tossing them some food and watching the wild, splashy feeding frenzy!
 

Then we checked out the geologic site at Hot Creek.  Since Mammoth is a dormant volcano, there is still some geothermal activity in the area.  These bubbling pools were many things: a beautiful blue color, stinky, scary for the kids who read the above sign, and an interesting thing to see.

In the afternoon we caught the shuttle bus from the Ski Adventure Center that took us down to another National Park.  Before hopping on the bus, we had to pose with the iconic woolly mammoth.

The park we visited was Devil's Postpile.  A short hike afforded us view of another fascinating geologic wonder.  Long ago lava erupted and filled the valley.  As the lava cooled, it began to shrink and cracks formed on the surface.  Those cracks deepened to form the long fence-like columns.  Then a glacier moved through the area exposing and polishing the tops of the columns. When you look at the rock fragments, you can that they are shaped into pentagons, hexagons, septagons, and octagons.  (That's a heavy lesson in geology.  Feel free to take a break, scroll back up to the first few pics and enjoy the scenery without the lecture!)

We concluded this day's outings with a trip into the ski village, where we sat on the ski lift bench, ate Ben & Jerry's, and tried out a few of the games scattered around for people's enjoyment.

Home for the Week

It seems each time we rent a home for a vacation with Grandpa and Grandma, there is some distinguishing characteristic that makes it special and memorable.  This big condo in Mammoth was no exception!  We had to drive up 3 super-steep winding switchbacks just to get to it-- it was perched high on one of the slopes. In the winter you could even ski right off one of the trails and to the front door! The side of the home that looked over the mountain was covered with windows, offering great views.

I will refer to this house as "The Tree House" because we were so high up in it, what we looked out at were the tops of trees.  We ate meals and played games while watching squirrels frolicking!  In the picture below, we are playing our new favorite game-- Ticket to Ride Netherlands (affectionately referred to as "Dutch Trains"). This game takes all the excitement of regular trains and adds a money component, where you have to pay people to share double tracks with them.  Then you are rewarded with points in the end for how much money you've made. We played every night and are fluent in Netherlands geography now as a result! :)

Another unique thing about this home was its bedrooms.  It was a triple-decker loft!  Mom and Dad took the master, Dave and I slept in the second floor loft, and the girls were ecstatic to stay on the top level.  They played up in this cozy space all week and read each night until "the lights went out", that is, darkness fell.

Ella and Delia will tell you that one of their favorite parts of this vacation was swimming every day.  Our condo complex had this great indoor/outdoor pool and giant hot tub.  We had the pool and its rad mountain backdrop to ourselves every afternoon!

We actually saw a good amount of rain this week too, but it never ruined any of our outdoor plans.  We've been praying for rain at home, so when one downpour started, the girls raced out to our balcony to catch fat drops in their hands and yell, "Thank you, God!!"

Through Yosemite

For years Dad has been talking about a "Mountain Vacation", so we decided this was the year to make it happen.  Our destination was Mammoth, a huge ski resort high in the Sierra Nevada's.  We like to visit this gorgeous area in the summer when it's the off season and everything is cheap and uncrowded.  Even though our destination was pretty awesome this was one of those "Life is about the journey..." kind of experiences as we got to Mammoth by driving through Yosemite from end to end.

We could actually never visit Mammoth in the winter as every road from us to it shuts down under snow.  Summer is the only time you can travel through the "backside" of Yosemite.  We're always up for getting a different view of Half Dome, or the chance to get to know our favorite National Park a little better.  These pictures were taken at Olmstead Point and Tuolomne Meadows.

Our bags of food and shampoo bottles were ready to pop when we arrived in Mammoth because this road took us up almost 10,000 feet in just a few hours!

At the end of the week we took the same way home.  We ate our picnic lunch in a meadow we shared with a herd of grazing deer!

Then, we headed down into the valley to see some of the familiar sights.  Unfortunately, things were not looking the way we are used to seeing them in mid-summer.  All the creeks were dried up and the waterfalls were just barely a trickle-- a sobering visual of the drought we've been enduring in CA this year.

We also roamed around the visitor center, watching the movie and turning John Muir into a Cubs fan.  The days of travel were full of their own breath-taking sights, but just wait till you see some of the other beauty that surrounded us this week...

A Week with Grandma and Grandpa!

We are just returning from our traditional, biennial vacation with Dave's parents.  Before I jump into posts about mountains, though, I wanted to record the memories we made on the day Grandma and Grandpa arrived, which happened to be the Fourth of July.  We picked them up at the airport and then spent the afternoon at the zoo.

Ella and Delia went for a glide on the skyride with Grandma and Grandpa, soaring over the camel, lion and buffalo fields.

Some of the interesting animals we saw included: giraffes munching; elephants giving themselves hay and dirt baths; and baboon families playing, grooming and nursing.

The barn animals in the children's zoo, of course, got some love.

It was a great outing to kick off our week with Mom and Dad, especially since they are the ones who gifted us with the zoo membership!

Then after a late Father's Day dinner, we headed to the park for some fireworks.  While we waited, Ella tossed cheese balls into open mouths and practiced her handstands.

Can't have a 4th without fireworks and flag cake, even if you are getting ready to depart on a family vacation!

The next day Grandma and Grandpa made Delia's dreams come true when they took her on a birthday shopping trip to the mall.  She could pick out one thing from each of her favorite stores.  She got the Dutch Small World doll from the Disney Store and a new Little Pony to snuggle from Built-A-Bear.  This was some serious spoiling, er, loving, from Grandma and Grandpa!
 

Mom and Dad got to hear Dave preach on Sunday and then we were off for our adventures in Mammoth's majestic mountains!

Dave's Day Off

Though we are into July and have had a number of fun things already come and go for us this summer, we realized that Dave has yet to take an official day off!  He was technically working during weeks like Rehoboth and HiCamp and things at church have been busy.  So, when Great America sent him a "Special Events Coordinator" pass that gave us more than 50% off our admissions to the amusement park, we decided to celebrate surviving our week of hard work at VBS with a Family Fun Day! 

 The Great America here in CA, though smaller, is set up exactly like the one we grew up going to in the Chicagoland area.  The day was very nostalgic for Dave and I as we strolled through Orleans Plaza and shared stories of the first time we rode The Demon and other roller coasters.  I know a day of rides is not everyone's thing, but this is something that we all enjoy a lot, so the day was a super fun one for all 4 of us.

We're not yet ready for the big thrills, but the parks always have plenty of roller coasters in the size small and medium range that are just perfect for our girls.  Can you see the delight on their faces?  Our favorite roller coaster was one I don't have a picture of.  It was called Psycho Mouse and it was somewhere between kiddie sized and "Thrill Level 5".

What was fun about this amusement park was that half of it was a water park!  Since we had our bathing suits on under our clothes (and a change of dry ones in the car), we loved also going on all the water rides we typically avoid.  We certainly did get soaked on the Roaring Rapids and Loggers Run rides, but it was no big deal!  Ella said the Rapids ride was her favorite of the day.

We spent four afternoon hours screaming down water slides, lazing in the river, and bobbing around the wave pool.  The day's debate became "Roller coasters or water slides?  Which is more fun?"

After a change into warm, dry clothes, we used the evening to revisit some favorites.  When we walked past this "Playlist" concert featuring performances of upbeat pop songs, the girls had to stop and dance for a while.  This, and one last ride on the double-decker carousel, seemed a good way to end a great day.

From Kiddie Kingdom to Cedar Point, I was remembering that a trip to some amusement park was a regular part of my summers growing up.  As we dated, Dave and I regularly did this, as well.  Maybe we'll start the same tradition for our kids.  We certainly had a blast and made some fun memories!