The Oregon Coast

B and I were lucky enough to both have a week off at Thanksgiving.  This is probably the only time this will ever happen in life so we thought we'd take advantage of it and visit the great state of Oregon.  We found a place on the coast for three nights and headed there first.  On the way to the coast, we drove through some mountains whose trees were totally frozen and B pulled over to grab a photo.

The lighthouse near where we stayed, beckoning to us

 Our first day we took a long hike and got to hike through the incredible pine trees.

 After the hike, we were chasing daylight to get to Cape Perpetua where we could watch a lot of incredible rocks and water hitting rocks.  My favorite was Thor's well, but we couldn't really get a picture of it because our camera doesn't take great photos in low light.  We stood and watched it for at least thirty minutes with a group of people who were there specifically to take photos of it.  Then we walked around some more and I realized that we were stepping on some kind of shellfish - scallops?  Anyway, they were everywhere and we got a few photos!

Day 2 we did what I wanted to do, which ended up being kind of a bust.  We went to the sea lion caves, which usually have a lot of sea lions in them, but it was still warm enough (freakishly warm in fact) that the sea lions hadn't migrated back in yet.  The caves were kind of cool anyway, but would have been much cooler full of sea lions.  The good news is, we did get this one great shot.

Imagine this covered in sea lions!

 Instead of being in the caves, the sea lions were sunning themselves on the rocks just down the road.

You can see the lighthouse that we visited next in the background.

B and  I decided to walk up to the lighthouse and get a tour.  While we waited on the tour, we got the magic shot for the Holiday card.

 The lighthouse was really cool inside!

 The parabolic lenses of the lantern focused the light and sent it really far away!  I told my students about how parabolas do that last year and it was cool to see it in action.

 Our bathroom had a lovely skylight!

 And a window seat for relaxing!

 We could walk down to the beach from our place and we saw this little guy on our way.

 The walk down to the beach was a bit steep!

 This is our place from the beach.

Look in the water for a good friend!  We had been stalking this guy for awhile and he was flirting with us.

 There's our little friend on the rock!

After our three magical days on the coast, we headed to Portland.  More to come from there!

Follow me down to the rose parade

After a whirlwind Christmas trip home to the land of Lincoln, we arrived back in SF on the night of the 30th and on the morning of the 31st headed out for LA so we could watch Stanford play Michigan State in the Rose Bowl.

The drive down was interesting, we went through Gilroy for the first time and I got to smell the garlic capital of the US firsthand. When we stopped for lunch it felt like we were participating in the great California migration as at least half the people at the gas station were in Stanford gear.  Once we got close to LA, we realized we were lucky to be driving on New Year's Eve because traffic wasn't terrible. I managed to snap this photo about a second too late.

For NYE we went to a restaurant in Venice and I enjoyed watching people get out of their cars in ridiculous outfits. What is it about New Years Eve that makes adults dress like idiots?  I think that it's probably exacerbated being LA -- we saw a lot of skin!  The restaurant was called Primitivo Wine Bistro and was really cute; I tried to capture the moment but the photo of Brett didn't turn out great because of the lighting.  Brett's grandma had given us some cash for Christmas so it was dinner on her!  Wish she could have been there; I think she would have enjoyed the fruity pomegranate martinis!

After that, we met up with Brett's friend who had picked up our tickets earlier that day.  Then we headed back to our Hotwire hotel, which turned out to be nice in only the places where they took pictures for hotwire and pretty crummy everywhere else, and NOT in the best neighborhood, but we survived.  We managed to stay up past Midwest New Year's but didn't make it to Colorado New Year's, let alone California, because we had to get up early for the rose parade.  It was totally worth it. It was fun to be part of the large crowd and to see the insane floats. We got the unfortunate answer to B's hopeful question-do they throw out candy at the rose parade? The answer is no. Here are some favorite floats -- we took a lot of photos that we thought our nephew would enjoy and sent them to him.

To get a better view, I put my feet in the really small window sill and B stood in front of me so I wouldn't fall forward.

Sooooo many people in the streets after the parade!

After the parade we kicked around Pasadena for a couple hours before heading to the stadium. It was really huge, the biggest stadium I've ever been in. Not to rub salt in an open wound or anything, but it was HOT in the sun. We had great seats by B's friends in the 6th row of the end zone. The game was really fun to watch but heartbreaking in the end. We found out that Michigan State has extremely nice fans, which made losing a little less bad.

We had great seats 6 or 7 rows back from the field

After the game we went out in Pasadena with B's friends for Mexican food while the crowd at the metro died down. I think we took the metro more than most people in LA have. B and I headed back to our hotel after that but then decided to pass up our hotel and stay on the train and head to Hollywood. I was overtaken once we arrived to quote the guy at the beginning of pretty woman who yells out "welcome to Hollywood! What's your dream?" But I resisted the urge. We walked the walk of Fame and then walked up to the main drag. The highlight for me was the Plaza outside the Chinese theater where a lot of stars have imprinted their hand and foot prints.

We got excited about the weirdest ones.  Roy Rogers and Chris Farley.

On the 2nd in the morning, we got up and met B's friend from undergrad who bought a house in LA with her husband for breakfast in Manhattan Beach. It was a gorgeous day, the kind that makes you understand why people put up with the traffic to live there. We took the scenic route home and drove through Malibu which was beautiful.

Quick stroll down to the beack

Manhattan Beach on a clear day!

All in all it was a great ending to our winter break and was energizing for me at least to get ready for the onslaught of January.  I've always wondered what LA was like and I really enjoyed it for our short time there.  

Yosemite - Little Yosemite Valley Camp, past thousands of tourists, to Yosemite Valley and the CAR (day 4)

They say all's well that ends well.  Sadly, day 4 of our trip was probably my least favorite because we had to walk really far down hill (about 2000 feet in elevation) amidst throngs of tourists.  And it was a Friday, not even a weekend.  However, we did get to see the most dramatic waterfalls that day, it makes sense that where we walked are the most popular spots!

There were deer in and out of our campground all night and morning.  I'm finally getting used to seeing the mule deer with the huge ears that live out West...my first sighting of them was in the Grand Canyon and they looked so weird to me then!

On the road again

The first of several lovely huge waterfalls that we saw.

The path was lovely

Several photos of the waterfall...I couldn't decide which one was best.  Neither could B, we had about 30 photos from this spot and one three steps further.

Now this waterfall does not mess around.  Please notice the people standing next to it!

Waterfall was still going when we got down to the bottom

I think we actually walked a little further than this because we didn't take the fastest route down, but it was right around 27.3 miles.

B and H's battle scars.  Guess which one is H's foot!  Sorry I don't have a foot in the photo, I am still yet to get a blister from my hiking boots!  I can't recommend Asolo boots enough!

That's all, folks!