Wordless Wednesday: Virginia Creeper after a recent rain.

Wordless Wednesday: "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."

How I learned to love the ocean... part 1

We just returned from a trip to Maui in the Hawaiian Islands. We took our family (sons, daughter in law and the Beans).  Our oldest son flew from Oakland, CA. and we flew from Sacramento. We flew to Kahului airport, met each other and rented a car. As we walked out of the terminal ,the humid breezes took my breath away. The humidity takes a bit of getting use to. Then we drove to the Papakea resort, above Lahaina on the west coast of Maui. Our other son and his family would arrive the next day.
The drive from Maalaea up the coast was one beautiful beach after another. We settled into our beautiful condo, on the forth floor, with a postcard view of the ocean and the sound of surf and strange bird calls that I had never heard before. The sliding door to the balcony never shut until the day we left.

 The condo was beautiful... with a second story bedroom and bath overlooking the living room.

And lots of room for everyone.

I could definitely do this  for a week. The ocean was out there and I've told you this before... I'm afraid of it... but up here, on the forth floor, looking down... It didn't look so menacing. Just beautiful.

We decided which bedrooms we wanted and unpacked. We also went to the Safeway store in Lahaina for supplies. The condo had to be stocked with food. A box of chocolate covered Macadamia nuts weren't going to cover the needs of our family for a week.
Later we walked across the main road to a fresh fish restrurant for dinner... ( That's right... momma was fixing NO DINNERS while she was on vacation.).

I decided that I would have to met this vast amount of salty water on my own terms... foot to surf. I would walk down, remove my shoes and put my newly painted toes into the water.

I can't begin to tell you how nice it was. No big waves. The water was warm and it lapped up onto my feet as if to say "Aloha, my friend. I hope we become acquainted while you're here. I'm the ocean that will not frighten you. Tomorrow you will swim in me and I will show you things you have never seen before."
Well, OK then... that was easy. This is a friendly ocean. I can do this.

I walked around the small beach, as the sun was going down in the distance.

The tide was coming in and the beach was disappearing, so I back up onto the sea wall and found a recliner to sit on.

The sea appeared to have two or three rows of flat,volcanic reefs out in the water that were keeping the waves down. The sea seems to settle into a calmness.

The sun set into the distant ocean. I could see a big island across the channel. The map said it was Molokai.

Molokai is an dark refuge that gives one the feeling, with its constant cloud cover, that its history has made a mark on this island. There's a sadness about it.

This photo of Molokai was taken the next morning at sunrise but it shows the bleakness... as if the something sad is (maybe tears)  running into the ocean. It's very hard to photograph.)

I sat on the lawn recliner and watched the sun set.

I watched the lights go on, up the coast.

I was thankful for being here and seeing this sunset.  I thought, in a kind of prayer... thank you for all of this... The plane didn't crash... my other son and daughter in law and THE BEANS would be here tomorrow... the ocean seems friendly and accepting (we'll see.)... I didn't forget anything important... someone we trust is taking care of the dogs, chickens, and the house... (please don't let her have to deal with rattlesnakes or fires while we're gone.)... Time to relax... have fun... go swimming in the ocean... maybe.

Oh, and my phone said 7:00 p.m. but it was 10:00 p.m. at home. It was bedtime. But wait... it took us over five hours to get here. Confusing? Yes... I thought that I would sleep on it before I tried to figure it all out... or maybe I just wouldn't bother. After all... "tomorrow is another day"...and I'm in Hawaii.

Lili and Lulu at odds...

It all started out rather benignly...

"J's" new babies, Lili and Lulu, finished doing their special tricks for us and were hungry for some food. 

So "J" got them some Grass Hay and they both ate it like it was their last meal.
 Now, please note Lulu's front right foot (Lulu is on the left in the photo.) She is starting to move in.

Within a few minutes she had all fours in  the pan and never... never stopped eating.

Lili was getting edged out.
She finally complained to Heather, who was standing nearby.

"Lulu is hogging all the hay, Heather. What is her problem. Why can't she share?" The look on Lili's face was priceless.
Lulu stepped back and removed her back feet from the pan, as if she heard Lili... but she never stopped eating.

Look at that face. Lili was pretty sure that Lulu was going to be the "alpha" goat from now on.

Heather tried to consoled her, but it just was not helping. Lili knew that she would have to wear a tougher goat skin if she was going to compete with her bossy sister. It was a learning moment for her. The realization that Lulu was like an older sister, even though they were twins, had finally sunk in. The party was over. The realities of life were evident.
She thought long and hard about it and then said to herself, "I'm going to have to kick Lulu's butt one of these days."

Quick Trip to the Moon

Driving up over Tioga Pass in California is beautiful and intimidating... especially when you drop down on the East side. This is when you ask yourself, "Why in the world would anyone even think to build a road up here?" After you drive through Tuolumne Meadows and climb up to the pass and then down past Tioga and Ellery Lake the landscape starts to change. You start down a very steep grade and into the Mono Basin. You finally reach highway 395.
We turned north and drove through the town of Lee Vining, to the Mono Basin Visitor Center.

It's a good overview of the lake but quite a distance from the shore. I remembered, on another trip years ago, that the Prospector and I had driven out on a long road to the south shore of the lake where you could walk among the Tufa.  So, inside the center, we asked someone behind a desk and he gave us directions to the South Tufa area. It's about 10 miles off the freeway and now has parking, a small information center and board walks out the the lake. Now, you also pay a $3.00 fee.
The lake level has dropped considerably in the years since I had been there.

The reason visitors see so much tufa around Mono Lake today is because the lake level fell dramatically after water diversions began in 1941.

Let me tell you a little about this Tufa. Geologists call this tufa (too'-fah... not Tofu). Tufa is common limestone.

 Underwater springs rich in calcium  mix with the lakewater that is rich with carbonates.

  As the calcium comes in contact with carbonates in the lake,a chemical reaction occurs resulting in calcium carbonate--limestone. The calcium carbonate settles out of  as a solid around the spring, and over the centuries, a tufa tower grows.

 Tufa towers grow exclusively underwater, and some grow to over 30 feet tall.

 Tufa is essentially common limestone. Dead plants, dead birds and anything that ends up in the lake will become fossilized with this calcium mix and basically turn to stone in this lake. Interesting stuff? Beer cans will be found millions of years from now and geologists will theorize about the origin of these small pumice boulders. But, by then, the lake will likely be gone. At the end of the last ice age it was five times bigger than it is today! So, I'm thinking that there won't be any lake left in 1.8 million years, if the planet lasts that long.

We had a great time crawling all over this place. "D" looked very professional in this shot...

She's bracing the camera against the wind. It was blowing from the south and never stopped.
I turned and took this shot toward the west and the Sierra Mountains from which we had come...

It truly was like being in another world... but interesting and not without its own beauty.

Nearly 2,000,000 waterbirds, including 35 species of shorebirds, use Mono Lake to rest and eat for at least part of the year.
One small Audubon's Warbler peered at us from the top of a tufa.

And a few squirrels were sunning themselves, and looking out at the mountains.

 

They did not seem bothered by the people coming and going on the trail. Again... the wildlife seems surprisingly at ease with humans.

We walked back to the car against a cold wind.

 The place took on a different feel. 

Probably because we were cold, tired and hungry.

We drove the 10 miles back to the highway and then into Lee Vining to eat an early dinner. We had not eaten since the cafe in Coulterville that morning... except for some crackers and a coke. Yeah... I know. It was time for some real food. We found a restaurant and got some hot tea and BIG Chinese Chicken salad. Salad never tasted so good. 

As we passed this motel, walking to the car,

  I kind of wished that I could just pay for an hour's worth of sleep. Just a short  nap... but it was 4:00 p.m. and we still had to drive back into the park, over the pass and into Yosemite Valley before dark. "D" drove. We said goodbye to Mono Basin and climbed up the grade toward the east entrance to the park.

We wanted some "good light" and we got it at Olmsted Point. This was the "Golden hour" in  photography terms. The sun was setting in the Valley and I was in the right place and the it was the right time. 

I got the "money " shot. 

It was magical. Being there was magical...

The light was perfect. This is what Yosemite is all about. This is Half Dome as the sun was setting. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. 

The wind had died down and the light was perfect. 

What more could I ask for?

Sometimes life gives you a moment that stays with you forever. This was one of them. 

Next time... The Valley of Yosemite.

Wordless Wednesday: A little Hummer and Clouds over Butte Mt. at Sunset

Wordless Wednesday (a day late) : Wildflower Walking