Part of the route to the park, through the Sierra National Forest, includes a traffic light timed to allow only one flow of traffic on a one-lane segment of road. We've concluded this to be due to a fence blocking what must be the original road, now caved in by a hillside slide!
You are required to carry and sometimes install chains while you drive through Yosemite during winter, such as this particular day. We purchased a set that morning in anticipation of it, but it took a moment to figure them out. It's funny how in MI chains are illegal, but required in CA! :)
That's a sheet of ice under Patrick's feet! The chains rumbled something fierce on the roadway when the layer of precipitation was too thin, Patrick bloodied up his finger getting cut, and both he & my father dirtied their coats. What a pain! But it was probably for the best to have them on, since we did get held up later by someone being towed out of a snowbank on the edge of a ravine.
While the men equipped the car, I acted as photographer, snapping a few shots of the pretty scenes surrounding us.
And a close-up, below:
Posing in front of El Capitan. I didn't expect so many people at the park that day, but it was beautiful out. Children and their parents occupied the field on the opposite side of the road, engaged with sleds and snowball fights.
So majestic! It even looks like it's wearing a halo.
Unfortunately you have to snowshoe several miles if you want to see Mariposa Grove at this time of year. At least Dad was able to see part of a redwood! We'll save the Grove for a future trip.
Nearing the end of the day, when the fog sets in!
I also included a close-up from my cam that shows off the indigo coloring from the setting sun.
Planning on just the 3 of us, I didn't want to buy a whole bird. I searched the grocery store for a roast-sized lump of breast meat, thinking that would be about perfect. I finally thought I found what I was looking for when I visited the freezer department (no "bone-in" label on the package) and chose the smallest one I could find, at about 3.8lbs.
....however, when I opened the package, the thing had wings, skin and a chest cavity. They chopped off the legs and tore out the guts, and decided "turkey breast" was accurate enough a description. No big deal, except I wondered with the weight including bones and other non-edible parts, whether we'd have enough meat! Especially because we invited a 4th person for dinner. (Patrick's coworker spent the day alone at school, and we couldn't send him home without a proper Thanksgiving supper!)
We managed to have just enough meat for dinner, and leftovers for sandwiches the next day. Everything else turned out well, and by the way my dad & Patrick scarfed down both pies in 36 hours, I think they would have considered dinner a success even if the house had burned down, as long as the pies turned out.
Cranberry muffins and potato-chive pancakes made a tasty Thanksgiving-leftovers-breakfast the next morning to fuel us for a day at Yosemite (pictures to be posted later). We surprised Dad with a literal taste of home. :) I was excited to use those cookie cutters for the first time too!
A day later we were on our way out of town to a Christmas tree lot, but Dad spotted one here in time. We almost chose a 4-footer since that size was much cheaper, but decided for our first tree we'd go aces and get a 6-8 ft. The vendor was really cool and gave us our tree at 50% off for being the first customer of the day! So we spent just a little more than we would've for the small one anyway!
It was a drizzly day so the tree needed to spend some time in our garage drying before we could decorate it. Instead, we headed over to the campus to show Dad where Patrick works.
We got out of there once we realized there may be cause to worry Dad would destroy the place, (or at least our reputations). :P
Sunday we took Dad to lunch at a popular and delicious burger joint. On the way, we pulled over so Dad could get a closer look at some pencil trees. Now you can have a closer look too.
The afternoon was devoted to decorating! The small tree we've used the last few years adds some Christmas cheer to our kitchen & dining room.
I put the lights on thick. One of the strands didn't work so Dad returned it for us and bought some extra boxes. The tree ended up with 6 strands, and it looks great!
The monkeys from our wedding cupcakes and a custom ornament really make this OUR first tree!
Lovely!
We didn't have a topper for our tree, so we used ornaments Patrick made as a child and a decorative window gem I received from my sister a long time ago, to create a herald of angels. After my dad left, I ran across a Patrick the Starfish key-chain he gave me a few years ago, that I just HAD to add. :)
The photo that sparked my desire for a random post. Our first week in town while we were still in the Holiday Inn, we saw this beauty on the road. I'm pretty sure Patrick committed the sin, "Do not covet." :) Click on the picture to get a better look at the license plate, Transformer fans.
We carried our potted plants indoors once the temperature dropped too much for their health. I knew we'd probably bring in some spiders with them, but a few other species hitched a ride too. The following morning I saw this guy half-way up the wall! (See below for height reference- it's the black spot in the upper center of the photo, near the corner of the wall.)
Rainy day on the UC-Merced campus last week produced 2 rainbows! (The second one is a little harder to see, but it's between the 2 trees on the right.)
I'd never seen a persimmon before, but they're in season at the Farmers' Market. We decided to be exotic and try one. You bite into it like an apple. Despite looking like an orange tomato, the texture is completely different. It's a bit like a waxy/gummy pear, and the flavor is sort of sugary. Not my favorite fruit by any means, but it's not too bad either.
The bathrooms on Patrick's floor at the university are covered in checkered tile. I couldn't decide if I felt smothered or if I liked it. Maybe I'm a masochist in the making.
A lot of places in the area cover piles of loose materials like gravel with tarps weighted down by tires. But the first time I saw one (and I still think so), it looked like a tarp with a contemporary polk-a-dot pattern. I thought maybe it was a farmer with style. :)
Another Farmer's Market find. A yam purchased for Thanksgiving dinner. But I realized when it was time to peel it how very much it looked like a piggy! Even one of the black holes near the "snout" looks like a beady eye. :)
Gorgeous sunset from the view of the road we take out of the college when I pick Patrick up from work.