Our First Family Trip

A few weeks ago, we went on our first mini family vacation.  We drove up to the mountains.  The drive was fine until the windy ascent into the mountains, but baby A. was a trooper who only got carsick once.  Still, as a first-time mother, I was nervous and kept the throw-up baggie in hand.  The entire trip!

We took baby on a leisurely paved walk to a waterfall in the area.  She slept in her carrier for most of the hike, but awoke toward the end of it to vibrant green trees and cloudless blue skies.  (One of her favorite pastimes is to watch leaves on trees blow in the wind.)  She loved it.  Above is a photo of the creek that leads to the waterfall, which was abundantly filled with snowmelt.  I'm glad that the years-long drought we've been experiencing was broken this year.  It made for beautiful hiking scenery and a healthy forest.

Overnight trips with a baby, even a short one like ours, are stressful.  Is she cold?  Hot?  Hungry?  Going to sleep through the night, or wake the neighbors?  And in my case: Is she going to throw up, and when?  But new situations force you to reexamine what you can handle and more importantly, what your baby can.  (And yes, she handled things much better than I thought she would.)  We slept little, ate when we could, stressed continuously, and got out into nature for a bit.  Our reward was baby A.'s awe-filled laughter and smiles.  It's the little joys that matter, always the little joys.  Parenthood is quite a trip.

Road Trip: Downieville, CA

Continuing from my last post, we also visited historic Downieville, CA, a vibrant, history-laden Gold Rush town in Sierra County this past week.  I took few photos worth publishing, but what is truly worth noting is the town's museum--it's small but well curated, and gives one a true sense of 19th century life in a rough miner's town.  Housed in a building initially occupied by a Gold Rush-era Chinese business, the museum contains various mining equipment, 19th century women's clothing, a stuffed mountain lion, a small-scale model of the town in its heyday, American Indian artifacts, a two-shelf Chinese exhibit, and numerous other artifacts of interest.  Its historic eclecticism amazed us both.

According to the museum docent--a middle-aged woman who grew up in Downieville, went to college elsewhere, and later returned--the mountains surrounding the town had a Chinese population estimated around 3,000 people.  The population was not only composed of miners, but also entrepreneurs, cooks, and hard laborers, the latter of which were integral in building many of the stone structures still visible in the town.  

Downieville (like most Gold Rush towns) is a destination whose very existence--one may argue--relies on its marketing as a colorful tourist spot, but it is a thriving community, as well.  On that note, I was secretly relieved that there were not any residents dressed in 19th century garb when we stopped by, but I can see why this theatrical, rough-and-ready nostalgia appeals to a particular demographic: it is the ultimate form of escapism for the city-drained population.  Visiting tourism-driven old towns is the closest we can get to the oftentimes romanticized past, literally, without having to directly experience it.  Beyond the tourism facade lies a so very American past that has immensely shaped its history. 

Week in Photos

We took a short trip to the mountains earlier this week.  Although it was a quick jaunt there and back--the entire trip lasting no more than three full days--its brevity was fully reconciled by its quality.  Here are some images that I took during a few of our hikes/walks in the High Sierras:

Eureka Lake
(located in Plumas-Eureka State Park)

Ladybug with unique eye spots
(edge of Eureka Lake)

View of Eureka Lake from trail to Eureka Peak
(Entire hike is close to 2,000 feet in elevation gain in under 2 miles;
hike loops around the peak; we did not know about the loop, so we didn't "finish" the hike.
Instead of following the trail around the peak, we retraced our steps back after reaching the summit.)

Gold Lake
(Lakes Basin area)

Eye-catching growth
(Jamison City area)

Cozy Treasuries

Nature in Silver and Gold

Curated by GreenLeavesBindery

Weekend at the Cabin

Curated by aromacandles

Rustic softness, texture, and inspiring nostalgia--so glad I took the time to learn how to enlarge the web browser page in order to take these photos.  On a Mac: Command()-shift-F.   

* * *

To greater heights, we must soar, gently peeking over the shoulders of giants...

Week in Photos

I'm quietly back.  This entry is an aperture, a reticent, visual peek (a gentle prying, really) into the week's comings and goings.  An evocation of optimism is present, an optimism that, for a lack of a better word, truly rocks.  I guess nature will do that to you--make you an eternal optimistic, that is.

Week in Images: Vacation

This is where we were this past week: exploring old working and ghost towns, hiking before the summer crowds, and visiting a state park slated for closure in July.  The air was crisp and fresh; the rain, refreshing; and the bout of unseasonably cool, late-spring weather was absolute perfection.  We could have gotten lost in those folklore-ish woods (see 5th image), but all I could think about were the settlements that were once abundant in the area during the pre-and-post-Gold Rush times...in addition to the vast array of towering trees.  Felt so small, but also never felt so alive; cliche, but true.


When it's just you and nature (the rocky paths and steep elevation gain, alike) one becomes acutely aware of herself or himself in relation to the oftentimes unforgiving elements.  It's a multi-sensory experience, for each inhaled breath feels new; each tentative step holds a combined subtle richness of the aural, visual, and textual sort.  During this trip, I've truly learned to enjoy hiking.

Bodie, CA

Wheel near a mine tunnel, Sierra Nevada Mountains

Malakoff Diggins State Park
A detailed entry on a visit to the park, via a great blog, State Park Closures Trip: http://stateparkclosurestrip.blogspot.com/2011/07/malakoff-2.html

Snow in mine ruins, Sierra Nevada Mountains

Site of an old mining town (same area as previous image), Sierra Nevada Mountains

Fog and View, Sierra Nevada Mountains

Virginia City, NV

Virginia City, NV

In the Name of Relaxation

Hi everyone (okay, the five people who read my blog), it's been awhile, hasn't it?  I've up and left no Internet trail for roughly ten days.  And I tell you, it was well worth it.  Not that I abhor the Internet, it's just that it's an utterly freeing experience to not have to worry about emails, the shop, the cellphone, and deadlines for longer than a few days.  For a little while, the daily stresses of life are delayed.

All in the name of relaxation...

I used to feel intensely guilty about all the above, even about not having to worry.  But now I realize that vacations are not only for mental clarity--it is also healthy for the body to not have to readily anticipate stress.  Learning how to relax is truly an art form: much like listening to a late spring snow falling from the ancient trees onto a leaf-strewn path.  Will talk to you all soon; I'm still a bit vacation-lagged.

Early Autumn Vacation: Bodie, Yosemite, Mono Lake

Here is a little synopsis of our mini-vacation through Yosemite, a ghost town, and a lake.

Bodie, CA

We took a little vacation to Bodie, CA--a historical, notorious ghost town bordering the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, close to the Nevada border. In its gold-mining heyday, Bodie had over 10,000 residents (this was in 1879)--complete with prostitutes, a Chinatown, and numerous saloons. Bodie became a ghost town in the 1910s, and was registered as a state historic park in 1962. Since 1962, the town has been left in a state of "arrested decay," with minimal repairs made as a form of upkeep. 

When we drove up to Bodie, the town seemed so small.  However, as we actually walked through the town, we began to feel its enormity.  The weather in Bodie was only 80 degrees Fahrenheit at most, but the altitude (over 8,000 feet) left us quite sluggish and tired--which seemed to add to the town's looming presence.  After four hours (yes, leave it to us to spend four hours in a ghost town), we were done for the day.  Yet, we still didn't explore each house or establishment, for the main part of town was so crowded with people: many, interestingly enough, had Southern accents.  We want to head back to Bodie sometime soon to see the main part of town because on this visit, we stuck to the town's peripheries.  People-avoidance, indeed!  This visit was two years in the making.

Did you know that Bodie, CA was slated for closure in both 2009 and 2010?  Glad it is still open.

                                   Top left: Jail

                                   Top right: Saloon; Hotel

                                   Bottom left: Bodie and snow-capped mountains in the background

                                   Bottom right: Schoolhouse globe

                                    Top left: View of Bodie

                                    Top right: Paper ads (newspaper or magazine) on floor of a home

                                    Bottom left: Intact wallpaper in a home

                                    Bottom right: Church

Mono Lake

We stopped by Mono Lake--the scenery seemed to glow with tranquility, riveting stillness, and glorious silence.  Beautiful.  The lake is a refuge for birds, and the tufa growths (lower right hand photo in the collage) were interesting to observe.  I wish we'd stayed a bit longer just to revel in the pristine nature; I really could have stayed here all day.

Due to California's budget deficit, Mono Lake is slated for closure, beginning next summer.  Darned sad because we may not make it back before next summer.  Click HERE for a list of California State Parks that are slated for closure, beginning next summer (included on the list is Jack London's home).  I honestly think that there must be a better way to close the budget gap.  No tax cuts for the wealthy, perhaps? 

Hetch Hetchy

The Hetch Hetchy is a reservoir in Yosemite National Park, which serves the San Francisco Bay Area.  It seemed like it took hours to finally get down to the reservoir, on a very narrow road, but it was well worth the wait.   

Earlier this afternoon, I read that elevations over 8,000 feet received 5-10 inches of snow today (i.e.: the vacation chronicled in this post!).  We made our visit just in time ( a week ago!), prior to the onset of early winter weather.



P.S.  Irrelevant to this post, but my shop received its first Facebook "Like" the other day.  Pretty neat news to me.

The Mountains

My husband and I decided to take a mini vacation, so we packed up our car and drove up to the mountains for a few days.  We arrived prior to the start of the summer season, so most roads were still partially snowed in and closed off--but that was where the beauty was...the stillness.  The silence seemed to stretch for miles, apart from the occasional tractor-trailer and car.  Imagine 50-something degree, sunny weather with scattered areas of snow and few people on the road besides yourself! 

At night, it rained consistently, and the air smelled so fresh and clean.  The darkness filled up the expanse of space as far as the eye could see.  The crisp, clear sound of snow falling from tree branches was magical...

Here are some daytime photographs from our mini trip: