A few more Yosemite pics

Yosemite: Ansel Adams Was Here

Ansel Adams photographed this view from southern Yosemite National Park, with El Capitan on the left, Bridal Veil Falls on the right, and Half Dome visible in the distance. I believe there is plenty of snow in the Adams picture. Actually, spring is a great time to visit Yosemite. First, the waterfalls are at their peak with run-off; second, there are hardly any visitors. One drawback is that the hiking trails become slippery with snow and ice as you ascend. But it's worth it, having the Park to yourselves.

Weird Pattern in the California Sky

Question: What is this oval pattern?

Napa Valley Wine Tour

After a day in San Francisco, we spent a day in Napa Valley touring various wineries. Among others, we visited Hess, Frog's Leap, Raymond, and Trefethyn.

Sequoia National Forest: April 2008

Behind Rachel is one of the largest groves of giant sequoias in the world. View from the northern entrance to the Park.


Giant sequoias beside the road. It was very cold (sequoias grow at high altitudes) with few visitors to the park, mostly Europeans.

Rachel's first visit to General Sherman (largest tree in the world according to mass); my first since 1963.

La Plata Canyon

Today Jim and I drove through part of La Plata Canyon in Hesperus. Beautiful and cool and very green--especially considering that nearby Mancos is as dry as a bone from lack of rain. The Canyon is a short drive from my house. I'm so lucky to live in Colorful Colorado!


This cascade is more impressive than it seems in the picture; the water rushes down that narrow passage with a deafening roar.

Mesa Verde: Inside Balcony House

I definitely should have taken more photographs of this fascinating, cozy place. It must have felt pretty safe to the ancient Puebloans. I loved the view from this ruin. Our guide showed us the watering place, where even now water seeps through the sandstone. There are T-shaped doorways like at Chaco, also key-hole shaped kivas like the one in the picture. Interestingly, Balcony House was divided into two parts when a doorway was filled in with adobe mud--one of many mysteries about this place.

Balcony House: Ladders

Note the people above Rachel: they are climbing on footholds carved into the rock and supported by rebar handrails, like the course (for the fearless) that goes over the top of El Capitan in Yosemite. Acrophobiacs beware!

Mesa Verde: Climbing into Balcony House

Balcony House at Mesa Verde seems pretty inaccessible viewed from a distance. A series of ladders lead into and out of the ancient Puebloan dwelling.

Cheap Auto Insurance

Jim and I saw this vehicle a number of times near the UNM campus, but I never had my camera with me. We were wandering around neighborhoods near the VA, looking at houses for sale, when we suddenly came upon the stuffed-animal-mobile.

Back Again!

Jim and I like to hike on the volcano trails west of Albuquerque, where this picture was taken. It's too hot to go there now; 99 degrees there today. Furthermore, there's the rattlesnake factor. Jim saw one last May when he was walking the trail by himself.

Queen Mary II

A few photos from our 6-day North Atlantic cruise on the biggest cruise ship in the world. You can see Jim on the upper deck in the first picture, taken at the harbor in Brooklyn. I took the picture from a stairway looking down on the stern and the wake.

We had great dining table company. Dinners are formal, sometimes very formal with tuxes and cocktail dresses. Needless to say, we were flaunting the dress code. Kevin (pictured with Jim)'s wife Min-Hi discovered the back door to the dining room, so we just sneaked in every night. Jim and Kevin didn't have jackets, and Rachel wore shorts and flip-flops on more than one occasion. John (sitting with Rachel) was always impeccably dressed, but he put up with the rest of us anyway. Table 225 was awesome; we had such a great time.

Behind Jim you can see our superb waiter, Joon. He was such a nice guy, didn't seem to care about the dress code thing. Joon and many of the other staff are from the Philippines. They spend months on the boat with little time off to see their families. Joon has a wife and three children back home.

Paris Postcards

Rachel took the photo of the Arc de triomphe from the middle of the street while cars were stopped for pedestrian traffic.


Jim snapped the Eiffel Tower picture during our nighttime walking tour of Paris. Really, these photos aren't too bad when you consider they were all taken with cheap disposable cameras.

Nadia and Rachel

Nadia and Rachel have been friends for years. Nadia spent a year as an exchange student at Marietta High School, where she was the star of the tennis team. She lives in a town outside of Darmstadt. Nadia treated us to a mini-tour of the area: the Waldspiral, Ludwig, Chaos Cafe, and Frankenstein Castle. What a sweet girl!