California- April 2014

I know it has been a long time since I have posted on my blog and I am sorry.  This is an update on what is going on this Spring for our vacation.  We left Massena on Friday the 11th and headed toward Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  We had now schedule other than to get there to our hotel sometime that evening.  We arrived around 6:30 pm, about an hour later than it should have taken us, but rush hour around Harrisburg made it take us about an hour to go 16 miles. We got checked in to our room and then went and had supper.  Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:15 in the morning, so we left for the airport between 4:30 and 4:45.  Got all checked in and through security and waited at the gate for our flight.  We flew from Harrisburg to Detroit, MI, Detroit to Minneapolis, MN, and Minneapolis to Sacramento, CA.  We arrived in Sacramento around 1 pm.  Justin and Stacy were there to greet us and we arrived at their house and just relaxed for the evening.  Got up Sunday morning and went to church for Sunday School and Worship services.  Met many of Justin and Stacy's friends.  We are glad that they have so many wonderful friends.  We came home from church and had Easter dinner on Palm Sunday.  Relaxed for the afternoon, Rachel napped, Stacy napped, not sure what Justin did, and I sat on their balcony and read for the afternoon.  After supper, we took a walk to a park a couple of blocks away from their house. 

Monday we got up early and set off for Northern California.  We drove up route 20 to route 101, past the town of Willits on our way to the Avenue of the Giants.  It is near Myers Flats.  We first stopped in the Leggett area at the Chandelier Tree.  Drove through the tree and spent some time there and in the gift shop.  Continued north and left the main highway near Phillipsville and drove the 13 mile stretch which is part of the Avenue of the Giants and stopped several times to walk in the forest and take pictures of the giant sequoia trees.  On our return home we stopped at a place along the road called the Peg House and got our supper there.  We got home about midnight.

Tuesday we didn't have to get up too early.  Rachel, Stacy and I walked down the street to Krispy Kreme and got donuts a little further to Starbucks for coffee for our breakfast.  We took them back to the apartment.  During this time Justin went on his morning run for practice for him upcoming test.  After we ate, we headed east this time to the town of Grasse Valley.  It was settled by Cornish people brought in to mine gold back in the 1800's. We had lunch at a little restaurant.  We had English Pasties for lunch.  We then strolled around town checking out all of the little shops.  We saw many interesting things that day.  Especially the sets of eyebrows that you will see in some of the pictures.  We did buy a few things that day. We headed back to Yuba City toward evening and went and had some ice cream at a local shop named Brock's. 

Wednesday Justin had to go back to work, but we had another excursion to a wildlife refuge on the other side of the Sutter Buttes.  We spent about three hours walking around the area taking a lot of pictures and seeing a lot more.  We saw lizards, frogs, coots, pelicans, herons, mallards, a squirrel, buzzards, a deer, assorted birds, and a couple of quails. It is sad that the area there has had such a little bit of rain this year and the water is mostly dried up.  It was an enjoyable time. We also drove around the Sutter Buttes which are the world's smallest mountain range.  Got home just about the same time as Justin. We made wontons for supper and then for a first for us, we ate with chopsticks!   Stacy went to her Bible study that evening and we spent the time with Justin. 

Thursday during the day, was shopping time.  We had to get Rachel her Kohl's fix and we also went to Marshall's and to a Goodwill store. Bought an extra suitcase to bring all of our extras home in.  After  Justin got home, we got our stuff together and we headed to Sacramento.  We ate supper at a Japanese restaurant that specializes in ramen noodles. We also ate with chopsticks here which was very interesting.  Attached is the link for the picasa web album.  I will get the pictures labeled as soon as I can but there are many to label. Hope you enjoy them!

https://picasaweb.google.com/111472392053516289027/2014AprilCaliforniaTrip#

Final segment of California August 2013

After we got back from Yosemite on Saturday evening, we just sort of relaxed and hung out.  Went to Church Sunday morning with Justin and Stacy.  The Pastor even remembered us from only being there two other times and they were quite far apart.  Had a wonderful Sunday dinner and then relaxed for the rest of the day, inside and outside.  We got up Monday morning and were on the road early to head toward the mountains again, but this time toward Lake Tahoe.  You will see from my pictures some of the scenery along the way.  We traveled on Interstate 80 which goes from coast to coast. I have traveled the majority of this highway I think I have only missed the stretch that goes from Toledo, Ohio through Indiana, Illinois, and in to Davenport, Iowa.  Someday I may get that section too.  We went through the Donner Pass area and got off near Truckee, CA and first went to Squaw Valley.  This was sight of the 1960 Olympics.  I hope you enjoy the pictures from there.  I thought for sure I was having the "big one" there, but came to realize it was just the effects of the high altitude and the thinner air.  After spending time there, we drove along the Truckee River on the 10th Mountain Division Highway, which is route 89 in California to Tahoe City.  We spent some time at Commons Beach. I didn't take my shoes off and wade in, the water was much cooler there and I didn't want any cramps in my feet. After spending some time there we drove south along the lake and Justin and Stacy showed us the ski are that they normally go to when they go to Tahoe.  We then had supper at a little place called Spoon.  The food was very good and the portion of baked ziti that I got was very large.  After a long day, we headed back to I80 and they took us to Sacramento to our motel where we were spending a very short night.  Our flight was leaving at 6:06 am so we had to be to the airport by 5 am so we got the 4:30 shuttle to the airport.  We arrived back in Rochester, NY about 9:30pm and drove home getting in around 2:30 am Wednesday morning.  Fortunately, I didn't have to work on Wednesday, but there was a certain little man that came in about 9:30 am and told me that Nanny told him to get me up. (she didn't but it was ok)  Here is the link to the last set of pictures of our trip, hope you enjoyed them!

Lake Tahoe and Squaw Valley

Another segment of our Yosemite trip

These pictures were taken on our second day at Yosemite National Park.  We traveled some long twisty roads to get here.  Route 49 from Angel Camp to Mariposa was a narrow twisty road that made me so nervous.  At one point I asked Justin if he thought the level part above us was an old railroad bed and then I hit the hairpin turn and found out that that was the road above us and not an old railroad.  There are no guard rails along this road either.  I wish I had gotten a picture of some of it.
Here is the link to the pictures of the giant Sequoia trees in the Mariposa Grove at Yosemite National Park.
https://picasaweb.google.com/111472392053516289027/MariposaGroveYosemiteNationalPark2013?authkey=Gv1sRgCPrQ8tXIgZTP4QE#

Yosemite National Park, August 2013

The last week of August we flew out to California to visit with Justin and Stacy for a couple of days.  They had just moved into their apartment the week before, and Justin had just come home from a deployment, so, we wanted to see them before school started so we left New York on Wednesday and arrived in California Wednesday night. Had one delay because of bad weather in Denver, CO.  Thursday was just a lazy day, didn't do a whole lot of anything.  Friday we left and drove south to go to Yosemite National Park.  We had to go further out of our way because of a quickly growing forest fire that has now turned into the an historic fire.  We spent the day Friday in Yosemite Valley seeing the sights.  We drove many hours and miles Friday night to the town of Angel Camp to stay in a motel so we didn't have too far to drive Saturday to the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite to see the giant Sequoia trees.  Here is the first of several links to pictures that I took at Yosemite.

https://picasaweb.google.com/111472392053516289027/YosemiteNationalPark2013?authkey=Gv1sRgCICwhdXdyKOSAQ#

Finished Product

This morning we woke to pouring rain.  We still had a few things to do, but about noon it started to clear and we were able to get started with the final few things that needed to be done.  I got a birthday present last night, it was an electric circular saw.  The  battery ones were just not quite powerful enough to get through the heavy wet pressure treated wood.  Anyway, we got the rail on the set of stairs on this side of the deck.  That was the final thing to do.  If you look closely, you can see Jeffrey and Chris sitting on the deck.  Chris is waving and so happy that we are all done. 

 Not sure what Jeffrey is up to in this picture, but I think he is admiring the great work that Chris and I did this week!

 This is the set of stairs that we built this morning.  Last night we laid out the 2 x 10s and drew the lines for cutting the risers, so as soon as the rain quit and the sun shone, we got busy with the new saw and got them cut and they fit perfectly.  So that was my sister's and my vacation.

Friday's Progress

 The deck is completed.  Today we put the rail all around the deck except at the pool side.  It was a real task cutting all of the posts.  Once they were done, everything else went rather rapidly.  This is the view from the  back door.

 This is the view from the back of the house toward the pool and the driveway side of the deck.

 

 This is the view from the ground looking up the stairs showing the rail a little closer.

 This is the end view showing the whole depth of the deck

 Looking from the other side of the deck.  The stairs on this side is the only thing left to do along with railing for both sets of stairs.

Chris posing on the deck.  We are so proud of this major accomplishment.

Thursday's Work

We were very concerned this morning about the weather, but the rain only came down for about 2 minutes and it wasn't very bad.  The sun came out about 3 o'clock.

 

 We had a good day of working today.  We got the section toward the pool all framed in on the pool side and then got extra support all in place.  While Chris was working on the tough cuts, I got all of the screws in on the 8 x 12 section we decked yesterday.

This is to show you the edge along the side of the pool. If you are really wondering we are raising a special breed of "black mollies" in the pool. 

 This is looking back the other way.

 By supper time, we had all of the deck boards cut and in place and screwed down. Looking pretty awesome.

 Jordan came home not feeling the best, so he wasn't out with us while we were working.  He came out as we were finishing up cleaning up.