California Trip 2008

To all those parents reading this blog - you should be pleased with the way all the group have go involved in the cooking and cleaning.  They all assure me they do it all at home anyway, so make sure they show you how good they can be on our return.  Eilidh has been a great little chopper, and Laura is the fastest cheese grater in the West… and as for the boys and their washing up, Luke and Jack, what more can I say?!?!

We all sit down to meals together, in a room which acts as our dinning room, bedroom and lounge.

I thought some of you might want to see where we’re at. 

It may not look glamorous to you… but it’s much more comfortable than we’ll be getting tomorrow night.

Last night, some of the members of our group went for a night walk to Lower Yosemite Falls. 

Although the weather here has been great, it is clearly windy on the Plato above the falls, as there was a strong breeze to say the least!!

We managed to take a few pictures in the fading light, and found ourselves walking home in the pitch black - no-one bothered to put street lights here!!!!

It was noisy, windy and wet….. but exhilarating all the same.

On a walk around Mirror Lake today, we saw a bear!!

Perhaps it was notable that we were nice and quiet on approach….. now where were Megan and Lily?!?!?

In fact, we were very quiet, as it was just the staff who saw it.  The challenge has now been set to get a better piture than the one here.

Colin- forget the Elks, it’s bears you want!!

Today, we all went as a group on a walk to Mirror Lake.

It was beautiful sunshine, and the worst of the smoke seems to be away - fingers crossed anyway!

As you can see from the picture, some of us crazy fools swam in the water that only 30 mins earlier had been snow!!  As you can imagine, it was freezing (almost!!), but very clear, and especially refreshing in the heat.

Some others decided to take a chance for some quiet time, and did some sun bathing. 

Today was  a great day to mess about, and we call had a lot of time laughing at (or hopefully with) Michaela’s pathetic calls for help when she drank the water by mistake.  You’ll be glad to know that we risk assessed all activities carefully, and were reasured that there were 2 lifesavers in our group.  It’s not often we give Luke & Charlie responsibility, but they rose to the challenge, and proceeded to soak us all!!  Baywatch here we come!!!!!

We are here in Yosemite, and it is just as magical as I remember.  Although the smoke from the fires around California are limiting some of the views, there was still an audible “wow” as we drove through Wawona Tunnel and first saw the Valley itself.

Half dome is as big as ever, and Yosemite falls which are just behind the school where we are staying are still flowing quite rapidly.  The sunset this evening was beautiful… our gang were playing Donkey in the school fields just as the last tip of Needle Point obscured the sun for the night.

We are all excited about our stay here, and were glad to arrive after a rather abrupt end to our Double Decker Amtrak experience….. but Bob our bus driver saw we were ok, and got us here hours earlier than we were expecting. And, we all got a chance to look at Lily’s photos from her last visit here when she was 7 years old and a little cuter (she still had fun shoes on even then!!)

In our extra time today, most of the group went swimming…. Jordan realised that Factor 4 sun cream wasn’t enough, and Molly has learnt the language in Peru!! 

We’ve set up our camp in the school, and Ceci and Brett kindly treated us all to pizza.  I’m looking forward to seeing some of his pictures from his trip to Scotland last week over a burger on Wednesday after our expedition.

Thanks again to all the hosts in Martinez who got us to the station early, and gave us such a wonderful time.  Every person  in our group has happy memories of last week, and some new friends.

Our last night with our hosts ended with a group ‘family’ BBQ at the Lemon’s house.  Thanks very much to Rob and Diane for having us all at their house - including in their pool and hot tub.  It was a great evening, and made especially memorable by the joint ceilidh dancing between the Scots and the Americans, and being serenaded by Andy on his bagpipes.

It has been really fun staying with all the different families in Martinez, and we do really appreciate the hospitality that we have all been shown. Hopefully some of the families will have us again in 2010?!?

This afternoon, we all visited John Muir National Historic Site.

We first watched a movie about John Muir’s life, and his journey from Dunbar to Martinez, via Wisconsin and Yosemite.

Muir and his wife moved into this house in 1890, when he managed his in-law’s family ranch. He did many of his writings in the office pictured above, and it is the impact that he had with these which lead to him being described as “The father of the National Park Services”.

JM: “I hold dearly cherished memories about it (the house) and fine garden grounds full of trees and bushes, and flowers that my wife and father-in-law and I planted - fine things from every land.”

The pictures around the house, and the movie at the start of the afternoon were an inspiration, and have made tomorrow’s long journey to Yosemite even more exciting. It was also cool to see a picture of Dunbar High Street, which included the John Muir Birth Place and my favorite….. ‘Smith’s the Bakers’

For more information, see www.wnpa.org

This morning, some of the group visited Berkeley University campus.  We went for a walk up Campanile Tower, the 3rd largest bell-and-clock tower in the world….. luckily there was a lift most of the way up the 307 feet.

We also went shopping on Telegraph Avenue, and bought lots of University gear for all you guys back home (and us too!!)

Sorry we are not there for the end of term knees up.

Have a great time, and make sure someone remembers the gossip…. Danny enjoy the last train home with Judith - Make sure you get to the station on time!!!!!

To all those leaving, have a great summer and good luck in the future.  Perhaps we should try and meet up during the holidays for another end of term bash.

Happy holidays, Love Alice, Gillian, Liz and Iain xxxx