Sequoia National Park

September 12-14, 2011.  Giant Sequoia trees in numerous groves are the big show at Sequoia.  We started at the entrance at 400' above sea level and reached our site at Lodgepole Campground at 6700'.  The Dodge diesel pulled us up easily.  At the campground there is a bear proof food storage box for every campsite.  Bears here roam the park at night and if they smell food, a candy wrapper, or anything with odor, like a cleaning wipe, they are apt to tear the door off your car or smash a window to get in.  So, you have to keep any food, not in the refridgerater, in the bear box.

We saw the Grizzly Giant, 230' tall and 38' across, the largest tree by volume in the world.  Some branches are 6' in diameter.  We also walked 3/4 of a mile down, then back up, to the General Sherman Tree, the tallest of the Sequoias at 240'.

The Grizzly Giant

Big tree, small SUV

Our Campsite

Big tree & Me

Bear Box

Deb driving thru the Tunnel Tree

A little drizzle can't dampen our visit

Yosemite National Park

September 7-11, 2011.  All we can say is "Wow" what a beautiful national park to visit.  We stayed at the KOA in Mariposa, 36 winding miles east of Yosemite.  Each day we went to the park to be awed again.  We took a nine hour bus and tram tour on the second day.  It took us up to the trail to Glacier Point and we hiked to the top.  What a view.  We also went to the Mariposa Grove, where many of the largest Sequoia trees on earth grace the mountains. Although the Sequoias have been through many forest fires, they still stand, even if they are burned 3/4 of the way through. Many on the large trees have bark that is a foot thick.  Some of the limbs were 6' in diameter and the base of the tree was 36' across. On our visit we also saw El Capitan, Half Dome, the Merced River, Bridal Veil Fall, the upper and lower Yosemite Falls, a sandy beach at Swinging Bridge and the Cathedral Spires.  We got to see deer, chickoree (what we call squirrels) chipmunks, various birds, and even a weasel. This was a bear area, but we did not get to see any.  We took a side trip on our last day to O'Shaunessy Dam at Hetch Hetchy, we walked across the dam and gazed at beautiful Hetch Hetchy reservoir. We visited the Yosemite Lodge ($219. per night and the Awanhee Lodge($500. a night).  We couldn't even afford to eat there.  Finally, we visited the Yosemite Chapel where 300 weddings a year are held.

                     

Bridal Veil Fall

El Capitan

                 

Beautiful Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Falls from Glacier Point

                                                                                

Deb at the back of our tour bus, day 2 of 5

Deb at Glacier Point with Half Dome

Clothes Pin Tree (Sequoia(

Deb found an 18" cone

230' high, 36' in diameter

So burned we could walk through this Sequoia

Deb at Yosemite Lodge

After lunch at Wowona Hotel

Tree Hugger with twin Jeffery pines

Wowona Hotel

The water was too cold to swim

a Stellar's Jay

Narrow road

                                         

Awhanee Lodge

                                

Inside Yosemite Chapel

Hetch Hetchy Lake at O'Shaunessy Dam

A Chickoree

Three tours on our last day in Lodi

We decided to take a few tours on our last day in Lodi.  The first stop was in Oakdale at Oakdale Cheese.  They make a wide variety of gouda cheeses from regular gouda to jalapeno, basil garlic, and many more. We got to peek in the factory windows to see the shelves of aging gouda.
Stop number two was at Blue Diamond almonds.  The plant in Modesto processes 500 million pounds of  almonds annually.  We saw a 20 minute movie, but could not enter the plant.  We tasted several flavors and purchased some chocolate covered almonds and some cinnamon covered almonds.  They were pretty cheap in the gift store.  Throughout this central valley we have seen many thousands of almond trees.
The third stop was Hilmar Cheese factory in Turlock.  We saw a movie and a demonstration area on making cheese.  They also have a huge gift shop.  We filled up on the samples, Yum! You can only purchase the Hilmar brand at the gift shop because all of their cheese goes out to other companies who rebrand it.  Supermarkets put their name on the labels and rebrand it.  We saw cubes on cheese that ship out to others in cubes of up to 640 pounds.  Hilmar cheese ends up braned Publix, Safeway, Shoprite, etc.
After a month in Lodi, we are now on the wat to Yosemite and Sequioa National Parks.

Oakdale Cheese

Making Gouda



Gouda resting



Blue Diamond Almonds

  

Almond trees

                                                


Hilmar Gift shop

                             

Deb at Hilmar's employee break area



       
                                                

Cheese production

                                                                              
                                                                                                  

                                                                    

                                                                        

                                                                                                                                                      

Gold Rush Days in Old Sacramento

We made our third trip to Sacramento, this time to enjoy Gold Rush Days.  Most of the streets in Old Sacramento were covered with dirt, so you can't see the asphalt.  All of the parking meters were covered with burlap bags and the town took on a western feeling.  There were several stages throughout town with country, bluegrass, or civil war or music from the 1800's.  Throughout town were parades, gunfights, demonstrations, and cannon firings.  There was a Union encampment, stagecoach rides, buckboard and Conestoga wagon rides.  All 5 museums were open for free, the train was running, taking folks on rides around town. All of the stores were open and numerous craft tents were set up like back in the days of the Gold Rush era.  Lots of food vendors were on hand too.  Many participants were in full western dress.  We had a great day and were pooped by mid afternoon.  We got home just in time to watch our favorite football team, the U.S.F. Bulls beat Notre Dame and then soak in the hot spa.

after the gunfight

Suffragettes

Professional Ladies

Want to go for a ride?

Town folk ready for the gunfight

Lady with a gun

Buffalo Soldiers

The fire department

                                                                                          
                                                                                          

Some Entertainment

Debbie and a Mexican Bandito

            



                                                      
                         

U.S. Marshall

Union Chaplan

Nice Ladies

My Lady

                                                                                      

                                          Indians Dancing (turn up the volume and play)                 

Still in Lodi, California

We are just hanging around Lodi until we leave for Yosemite National Park on Wednesday, September 7th.  We do plan on going to Sacramento again this weekend for Gold Rush Days.  Monday night we went to the Stockton Ports Baseball game.  They are a minor league ball club for the Oakland A's.  They lost 1-0 to the Inland Empire 66ers, who are a minor league affiliate for the San Francisco Giants.  It was $2.00 night, so tickets, hot dogs and sodas were only $2.00.  Earlier that day we went to the Michael David winery for a wine tasting but didn't buy anything, as none of the wines tempted our tastebuds. Today we went to the VA in Stockton for my (Vince's) six month doctor's visit and everything was fine.  We stopped for a late lunch at Angelina's Italian restaurant in Stockton. Deb's tortelini was great but my lasagna was awful.
Flag City RV Resort is the first place in several months that has a hot spa, so we have been going almost every night.  We used to have a spa on our pool deck in Tampa.  Deb just loves a good hot soak.  The pool is a bit chilly, so we haven't gone in to often.  During the day it is in the 90's and gets into the 50's at night, so the pool stays in the 70's.