8/15/01

We headed for Mammoth Lakes today.  We took the scenic route along Route 4 since the Tioga Pass was closed due to rock slides.  We were going to Mammoth to complete our summer vacation and celebrate Caroline's Mom's 70^th Birthday.

We stopped at the top of Pacific Creek Pass (over 8000 feet) to take in the grandeur. 

We arrived at the cabin, had some dinner and then sacked out.

8/16/01

Roy is an inveterate geek, even in the otherwise rustic environment of the cabin.

We took a stroll around Horseshoe Lake.  Horseshoe Lake has an area near it's shore where all the trees are dead.  The cause is a CO₂ release from the ground.  The CO₂ comes from the earth where a reservoir exists below Mammoth Mountain.  There are lots of signs about the hazards of breathing the gas, which we promptly ignored while hiking around this very picturesque spot.

Later in the afternoon, with the unusually warm weather, we sat on the deck and enjoyed the view and each other.

For dinner we had BBQ'd Salmon and Halibut from Alaska, thanks to Eric.  And we had fresh BBQ'd Trout, thanks again to Eric.  We had fresh corn and Caroline's famous Chinese Chicken Salad with salmon substituted for the chicken.

And we finished off with a German Chocolate Cake to kick off Sarah's birthday celebrations.  The cake says "Sarah's 70^th, Hee Hee Hee Hee ☺".

After dinner there was a marathon French Braid session.  Caroline used to do this with her horse's tails, and it seemed to work here as well.

8/17/01

Today was a fishing day, as is everyday for Eric and whoever wants to go with him.

Janel and Jeff caught their limit today with Eric.  Trout wasn't on the menu tonight, but it's likely to get on the menu soon and there are plenty to go around. 

We hiked up to McCleod Lake today.  Then we walked around the lake and the girls played in the water and on the fallen trees at waters edge.

We got all the ladies on the hike except Caroline to pose for the camera.  Caroline is taking the picture.

Roy and I relaxed on a log for a while.  Jeff played in the water refloating the logs that had washed up on the shore.  It was a tough job since he was fighting the wind all the time.  But he's a tough little guy.

Someone made a really big pile of wood out of a fallen tree root ball.  And then the kids found it. 

Rich arrived today.  We had dinner pretty quickly after he showed up.  It was a family stew followed by the rest of the birthday cake.

8/18/01

Today we did a number of things, not least of which was kicking Sarah's birthday celebrations into high gear.

We started the day's activities with a group picture.  Now that everyone, except Barney and Dorian were here, we took an indoor and an outdoor picture to commemorate the occasion.

Caroline and I gave everyone t-shirts and various other goodies from our US/Canada Tour.  The girls were particularly tickled.  Jeff continued to hone his card playing skills so that he can pay for college...  ;-)

Almost everyone hiked to Skelton Lake this afternoon.  Laura and Janel relaxed at the lake on their log.

Everyone went out to The Restaurant at Convict Lake, a fancy joint nearby.  It was another chapter of the "event of the century", Sarah's 70^th birthday.   The restaurant came out with a little birthday yummy at the end of the meal.

Afterwards Roy remembered that the International Space Station was going to appear.  We stood around the parking lot looking like a lot of acid heads staring at the sky until it finally showed up.

We returned home from the restaurant to have some cake and presents at the cabin.  Sarah rose to the occasion of yet another set of candles to extinguish and another set of presents to open.

Some of the cards were quite humorous.  Click on this one to read the cover and then use your imagination.

Paco (the dog) was also very much into the gift giving spirit.  He seemed to know a side of Sarah the rest of us never knew existed.  And Sarah takes to these fashions in ways we never expected!

After all the present opening was complete, Caroline showed a slide presentation of pictures from many of the prominent points of Sarah's life.  Everyone was captivated by the quick trip through a lot of family history.

8/19/01

Today we hiked around Convict Lake and up a short distance into the canyon behind the lake.  Then we went back to the house and had another terrific dinner, etc., etc.

The hike was hot and dry.  The scenery was very different than a lot of the other hikes in the area.  This part of Mammoth had the oldest visible rocks, 400 millions years old, give or take a few. 

Caroline got to the highest part of the hike first and did her conqueror yell with it's associated chest pounding.  She gets like this every once in a while..

We did stop at the far end of the lake to rest and skip rocks.  Sarah got two skips on this particular throw.

After a terrific dinner Jeff and Barney did their WWF impersonation.  It was pretty convincing.

On the other side of the room the second night of a very heated game of Risk was in process.  Laura was taking over the world and was heading straight for global domination.

8/20/01

We didn't take very many pictures today.  Caroline and I did omelet's this morning for breakfast.  Caroline and I also did some bicycling and most of the rest of the crew went to Hot Creek.  Roy worked on the new sill for the front door of the cabin.

Rich made his fantastic Paella for dinner.  This is definitely a meal you don't want to miss if you ever get the chance. 

Caroline said, "Make a funny face", and this is what she got from Dorian and Janel.

Jeff was still playing cards with anyone that would go at it with him.  He's not going to fill up his college fund yet but he's getting the hang of it.

And our inveterate senior geek was looking for email since she sent a lot of people the link to this page. 

8/21/01

Today we hiked to Crystal Lake.  It was a really nice day for a hike except for the smoke that was blowing over from the fire in Yosemite National Park.

Caroline always carries her filter bottle for water.  I try and fill it up every so often.

Caroline is the most cheerful trail urchin you ever had the pleasure to hike with.

The smoke is thick all over the Mammoth Lakes region.  It made the vistas in The Great Smokies look clear as a bell.  And the smoke smell isn't so terrific either.

We had lunch and a rest stop at Crystal Lake.  David always had his camelback bag filled with lemonade.  And Rich seemed to be very happy and relaxed to be outside.

While we were having a bite and a rest Jeff played down at the waters edge.  Caroline decided that she would see how many funny faces she could get him to make. 

Out here in the wilds we rough it a lot.  That's why there is so much contention for the phone line every night.  There are three PCs here.  Rich does his geek routine and I caught him in the act.

Caroline and I decided that we couldn't have another night without a birthday cake.  So this is the "Happy 70^th Birthday Cont'd" cake.  It was enjoyed by all and really surprised the birthday girl.

8/22/01

Today was the day for a big hike and the setup for a backpack trip.  Caroline and I couldn't do the backpack part since we have to leave tomorrow, but we hiked up to the first night's stop to enjoy the scenery and supply moral support.

The start of the backpack at Mosquito Flat.  We had the obligatory setting off photos, shown here.

The first picture is the "everyone come over here so we can take your picture" scene.  The second picture is the actual setting off photo that will be published in The National Geographic, of course.  And the third photo just looked too good to leave out.  Barney and his son Dorian seemed comfortably determined to do this backpack right.

The scenery on the way up to Chickenfoot Lake was just terrific.  Even with the haze of the smoke from Yosemite it was just great.  David, Sarah, and I were really enjoying the view over one of the many lakes that we passed on the way up.  Caroline as always was a pleasure to walk with and share the moments.

Lunch.  Lunch, when traveling with a couple of small children takes on a new meaning.  They MUST be fed, there is no fooling around with concept.  Unfortunately, this effects the entire group, who now all MUST be fed.  It's an interesting phenomena that I haven't witnessed before.  So, the best way to deal with it is to lay back and enjoy the scenery (picture 2).

Roy seemed to understand this too.  It must be the fact that he's a grandpa and is much more experienced with this sort of thing.  He even got in some shuteye.  I'm very impressed and took notes.

Barney got to the lunch spot and still looked very pleased with the whole goings on.  And the setting of his contentment couldn't be passed up, so Caroline took this picture.

After reaching the camping spot the kid festivities started.  One of the activities was trying to fill up the lake with rocks.  Caroline was getting lessons in this new activity and really started to get the hang of it.

After the game of Filling The Lake With Rocks it was time for Janel to chase Dorian, who was pretending to be Captain Atmosphere.  Captain Atmosphere has a weakness, and it's being splashed with water.  Janel (WaterWoman) figured this out and duly exploited the Captain's weakness. 

Captain Atmosphere also has a weakness for Micro Meteorites (small pebbles tossed gently).  In either case, splashes or meteorites, the captain has to return to his secret base for recharging.  But he seems to come back pretty quickly and the game is repeated until someone goes home for dinner.

After all that, Janel took the plunge.  And this was a serious plunge.  The water was all of 43 degrees at the surface.  She didn't stay in long, but probably a lot longer than any of the rest of might.  She's a very tough girl..

After Roy, Sarah, Caroline and I got back home we had a nice dinner and a quiet evening.  It was a nice change for all of us.

8/23/01

Today we depart for The June & Dave Lake Tahoe Camping Weekend.  We have to attend a gathering of about 30 of our friends for a long weekend of eating, carousing, and whatever else we can figure out to do.

The principal activities today were laundry, cutting a bunch of CDs for Sarah, et. al., and making sure we get some trout for the BBQ this weekend.