New Camera = Trip to Yosemite

I got a new camera for an early birthday present so decided to head to Yosemite for a photo shoot to try it out. Mind you that was nearly three weeks ago and I'm just now putting the pictures on my blog for all to see. Why? Because I had to finish the Utah Road Trip posts first, of course.

The waterfalls were amazing. Snowfall late in the year makes for late snow melt, lucky us. The water was roaring over the cliffs, even over some of the trails. We got soaked, and it was AWESOME!




Have to share this picture of DD. Isn't it great? She's sitting on top of the bridge at the bottom of Bridalveil Falls.



Got several shots of some beautiful flowers. Too bad I don't know what kind they are.


Hey, DSis! Look! We made it to Mirror Lake this time!



But, it was WAY too cold and the water was moving WAY too fast so we didn't go swimming on this trip.

Next, we drove to Glacier Point.

It was a crowded place on this fine June day.

From here, you can look straight across to the top of Half Dome.



And, it is BIG!



After seeing it from this angle, DD has decided that she doesn't want to climb it afterall.




Here's the view of Yosemite Falls from this point:




And, here's what the Valley floor looks like from up there:



It is a L-O-N-G W-A-Y D-O-W-N!

I could not watch anybody else get close to the edge. I kept having visions of them going over the side, my grabbing their legs to rescue them and both of us tumbling down - down - down.

That's it from this trip to Yosemite. But, now we have a pass so I'm sure there will be many more during the next year.

Utah Road Trip (Part 2 - Finally!)

Yes, I finally have a life again so I can finish posting the Utah Road Trip pictures. Or maybe I did have a life and that's what kept me from posting and now I have no life so I have time to post. Either way....Here we go....

I had left you at this picture of my poor car.....

Funny, it still looks that way even though I've washed it many times since then. Not really! Now it's covered with bird poop because the silly birds like to sit on the side mirrors to look at themselves. I've resorted to putting plastic bags over the mirrors every time I park.

Now....back to the road trip...

Beautiful Ogden, Utah....It's situated right at the base of these mountains. This is the view from one of the schools.


Another view from another corner.....


And another.......


And another.....


A look at old downtown Ogden....



They have a dinosaur park there.....

but we only got to see it from the car because it was closed being Easter Sunday and all (imagine that).

There's also a train museum......


but it was closed too. We did get to explore all of the trains outside though...




I even got to drive one......



While we were in Utah, we bought a house......


With lots of room....

Overlooking a lake....


Wanna come visit? Too bad. Escrow fell through...Haha.
It's actually The Man's aunt and uncle's house.
And, guess what?
They weren't home so it was closed too. Are you sensing the theme of the day here? Don't try to sightsee on Easter Sunday in Utah.

Next day....On the road again...going back home


Yes, that is a squash buggy (or slug bug).

If you look really close in this next picture, you can see the Great Salt Lake. I can't believe we went all the way to Utah and this is all I got to see of it.



We did get to see the Salt Flats though....




And a lot more of this....


Well, that was it.....The Great Utah Road Trip from April 2010.

Stay tuned for more adventures....

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

That's how I feel after the past five days!

Papers, Papers

Guess what I've been doing today?

Trying to clean up this:



I'm doing the paper-shredding chacha. Wow! What a lot of paperwork accumulates in one school year. And, I'm one of the organized ones. I'd hate to see what it would look like if I wasn't.

School's Out For Summer!

Tomorrow's actually the "official" last day of work, but all the report cards are signed, sealed and off in the mail. All the student's new courses are ordered for next year. The only thing left to do is mail the time card (and clean out files - lots of files).

DD had a great first year of high school. She did well in all of her courses and even ended up with some extra credits to her name. Afraid that she would get bored over the summer, she decided to do 2 Summer classes (Music Theory and Spanish 2) and dive into some of her English coursework for next year already too.

With some time off, I hope to be on here more regular-like and update with more stories of our adventures.

Awesome Road Trip - Utah Style

Well, I actually don't know what "Utah" style is, but it was a road trip TO Utah.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Carol adventure unless there was some type of mishap. And, it was only a few hours into the trip.......

Snow.....

LOTS of snow......

The online weather DID NOT forecast snow.

We needed chains.

We didn't have chains.

We bought chains. But.....

we had Sam put the chains on the car.



Conversation in the car on Donner Summit:
Me: "It is VERY lonely out here. Now you can see why those people in the Donner party died and the survivors had to eat each other."
The Man: "Where was CHP?"

Oh My! (Of course if you don't know about the Donner party or CHP it won't be funny. For those who do, enjoy the laugh. I sure did!)


Forty miles later.....We took the chains off. (Sorry no pictures of that. It was just plain TOO COLD to be taking pictures OUTSIDE of the car.)



We arrived in Reno....late....much later than expected due to the whole snow-thing.



Stayed the night there at Circus, Circus and we were on the road again EARLY the next morning. (This is us LEAVING town, rather than coming into town.)



And, we're off.......

Rollin', rollin', rollin'

What the $*(%?

Did we make a wrong turn?

This "Beverly Hills" must be REALLY exclusive because NOBODY lives here.


Rollin', rollin', rollin'

Rollin', rollin, rollin'


WOW! That is one LONG road with absolutely nothing on it. Dang good thing we had snacks!

Honestly, we did stop at a truck stop to get some gas and play a slot machine.

Several thousand miles later....actually it's only about 850 miles I believe....We arrived in Ogden.



My poor car.....just look at it.


One of the first things we did was wash that puppy to get rid of all the salt and muck and get her sparklin' again.

to be continued...........(Why? Because the State of California says that in order to keep a teaching credential all teacher's must take 4 MORE college courses before a certain date......so I have to do HOMEWORK on Spring Break....Imagine that?)

Wordless Wednesday