Weekly Photo Challenge: Unusual…shrouded

What?  Wednesday again?  I’m two and a half weeks into Tour de France watching and exhausted having just watched today’s mountain stage. What will I do with my morning’s after Sunday’s last stage?  Ahh, well, on to today’s challenge, the Weekly Photo Challenge.  Finding an apt photo can be as challenging as winning a Tour stage (well, maybe not) and today I’m searching for one that meets the challenge of “Unusual” posed to us by an excellent photographer, Lignum Draco.

I was blessed to be able to spend just a very, very short time in Yosemite in March.  During that stay, I had this unusual view of the park.  I also had an unusually hard time trying to get this photo ready to upload.  🙂

Weekly Photo Challenge: Wanderlust…Yosemite with a helping of clouds

Welcome to Wednesday AKA Over-the-hump Day.  I hope your week’s off to a great start.  We’ve had lovely weather, but that’s due to change today, with rain and much cooler temperatures in the forecast.  However, it was a lovely weekend and I got a walk in this morning, so I’m not complaining.  😉

This week’s Photo Challenge Theme is “Wanderlust.”  I know it because I have it.  🙂  When the tea shop where I was working went entirely online, I decided that I wouldn’t start a new job until September and in the interim (February-August), I’d do as much traveling as possible. Unfortunately, my husband can’t come because of lack of vacation days, but fortunately he doesn’t mind me going.  What a guy!

My most recent trip was to Southern California with a side helping of Yosemite.  I’ve shared many of the Yosemite photos on my blog since then.  The morning we left, the clouds created a most magical show, creating dazzling looks at scenery already stunning.  Here’s one of the last shots I took on the way out. To see what it looked like without the fog, just click here.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Earth..Yosemite with clouds

Happy Wednesday!  Spring has arrived in northern Illinois, bringing me much joy (and a fair bit of rain as well.)  Flowers, both wild and domestic, are blooming, trees are budding, birds are Tweeting…or maybe tweeting.

The Weekly Photo Challenge theme this week is “Earth“, in celebration of Earth Day. My recent trip to Yosemite National Park with our older daughter showed us some unbelievable views of one glorious section of earth. I shared this photo on my blog during my posts about Yosemite, but it’s the perfect vehicle to convey the stunning beauty of one tiny area of earth, so I hope those of you who have already seen it will enjoy it again.

It may be easy to think that we need to preserve areas such as these, but in truth, every bit of earth has the potential to be beautiful, whether through scenery, use, or both.  Let us each find the corners we can preserve and improve and work towards those ends.

Saying good-bye to Yosemite

Our plan was to take a last-morning, long hike.  But with about 12+ hours of pouring rain, the conditions, although sunny, were less than stellar.  On the trail, any non-mucky surface would be slick rock and every tree or bush a dosing of water waiting to happy.  oI’ve been horseback riding in those conditions and a heavy-duty slicker is a must if you don’t want to send up soaked and shivering.  We didn’t have slickers, so after a leisurely early morning, we packed up and started to leave.

I say “started” because the beauty we saw that morning made me say/yell “Pull over whenever you can” at almost every turnout.  The clouds were hanging low, new snow dusted peaks, and the air was crisp.  What a farewell to a most gorgeous place!

The Awahnee is Majestic!

Our lodging in Yosemite was rather pricey, but it looked like a bargain compared to the price of the majestic Awahneee.  To be completely correct, the majestic Majestic. The magnificent hotel, constructed from steel, stone, concrete, wood and glass, opened in 1927 as the Awahnee.  According to Wikipedia:

The Ahwahnee was renamed the Majestic Yosemite Hotel on March 1, 2016, due to a legal dispute between the US Government, which owns the property, and the outgoing concessionaire, Delaware North, which claims rights to the trademarked name.

No matter the name you like, in the downpour, we weren’t able to get any outside shots, but to see the beauty of not only the hotel, but its surroundings, click here for images taken in better weather.  It’s well worth a minute or two and a click on the highlighted “Awahnee” above will let you read the fascinating history of the hotel.

For us, it was a shelter during the deluge that followed our morning of hiking and trip to the Ansel Adams gallery.  We walked through the hotel’s first, public floor, then went into the bar for a drink and some munchies, a lovely way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Mirror Lake

The sun shone on our first afternoon in Yosemite, but the rainy writing was on the afternoon wall.  Our hope was to get in a hike during the morning without getting soaked.  A trip to the food court netted me tea and my daughter coffee and a croissant.  Back at our room, we filled up on yogurt and homemade granola, put on our various layers, and headed out.  I had my non-backpack lined with a heavy plastic bag to protect my camera and telephoto lens in case the rain showed up early.

The hike to Mirror Lake isn’t difficult and if you really want to take it easy, you can walk on the edge of the paved road.  We took the path less traveled and…dare I say?…that made all the difference.

Notice my Chicago Blackhawks jacket?  🙂  Layers were definitely the thing as it wasn’t warm.  But of course, as we hiked, we warmed up.  Jacket zippers down, then up, then…  I was also constantly changing lenses or bringing out my phone for a shot.  My favorite pants have a pocket along the leg just the right size for my phone, which is most convenient.

It was easy being green.

Back from La-La Land, back from sunshine and (at the end, at least, warmth) to rain, gloom, and a high of 42F (although it’s supposed to be in the 50’s in the coming days.) It’s good to travel and good to come home…and even better to have a home I like to come home to!

Each time I visit our daughter, we have a brave, daring adventure.  Last visit it was a whirlwind trip up “The 1” to Napa’s wine country.  “The 1” has nothing to do with Neo and “The Matrix” and everything to do with the fact that for some unknown reason, highways in California and Arizona (and possibly elsewhere in the west) are called The Whatever Number.  At least you know the number.  In the Chicago area, they nickname the highways:  The Dan Ryan, The Kennedy, The Eisenhower, and so on.  If you’re new to the area or don’t use the highways much, you have NO idea what highway the traffic reports are referencing!

This year’s brave, daring adventure was a quick trip to Yosemite National Park, a place I haven’t seen since I was too young to remember what I saw and all photos were black and white without editing.  During tourist season, we wouldn’t have been able to spontaneously do this, as reservations have to be made many months (or more) in advance. My understanding is that even trails have to be reserved for hiking during the high season, a far cry from the days when my mom and her family camped in the park for several weeks, an inexpensive vacation for a Lutheran teacher’s family!