Ann vs. Jason

By Jason

One of the many cool things about my job is working with folks from all over the world.  Periodically we’ll have people in town from Dublin, Beijing, Hyderabad, and other places.  When Robin (from Beijing) and Tilek (from Kyrgyzstan by way of Dublin) mentioned they wanted to see Yosemite before they left the U.S., I planned a weekend trip to see the national park.  Robin’s friend Lu Lu, also from Beijing, came along as well.

It turns out that it’s pretty hard to find a place to stay in or near the park on a few days’ notice at the height of tourist season.  I looked about 15-20 places and only found two with vacancies.  I decided to go with the Yosemite Lakes campground, just a few miles outside the park, which had a yurt open.  What’s a yurt?  You can see in the picture below.  It’s basically a big round tent, common in Central Asia (including Kyrgyzstan).  The yurts at this campground were pretty nice, with bathrooms, showers, kitchenettes, and even satellite TV.  So we weren’t really roughing it.  It was so convenient that I’m thinking this might be a good place for our baby’s first camping experience some time next year.

We drove in to Yosemite in the morning.  This photo is from the Valley Portal, a scenic spot at the side of the road before you get into Yosemite Valley.  That’s the Merced River below and from this point you can see a couple of waterfalls in the distance.  As always, click on the photos if you want to see larger versions.

We stopped at Bridal Veil Falls and had something to eat at the village in the valley before starting our hike.  We didn’t really get an early enough start to do the famous hike up Half Dome so we decided to hike up the Yosemite Falls trail instead.  The first stop was the bottom of the lower falls.

Here I’m retrieving my hat after it the wind blew it off.  Lucky it landed on rocks and not in the creek.  The hat is from the DVD release of the movie WarGames – Google had a panel discussion with the movie’s writers and it was one of the giveaways.

This is about as close as I got to the bottom of the Lower Yosemite Falls.  There were some people climbing the rocks closer but it was already pretty wet at this point – I don’t think my camera would have survived any more of a soaking.

Next we started the long climb up.  The trail goes back and forth with a series of switchbacks.  It seems like you’re going back and forth for hours.

The trail winds in and out of tree cover.  Every few hundred feet you get another incredible view.  The trail is very well-maintained and we passed people climbing down on a pretty regular basis.  Still, it was a lot less crowded than the trails along the valley floor.

This bright blue bird is, as far as I can tell, a steller’s jay.  They’re related to our common blue jay’s in Ohio and always show up when I’m hiking in all the beautiful parks in the area.  They stay in the shade and don’t like to sit still so this is about the best picture I’ve been able to get.

Here’s a photo from Columbia Rock.  Behind the guard rail is a drop straight down to the valley floor, maybe a thousand feet or so.

Soon after we were able to see the Upper Yosmeite Falls, the tallest waterfall in North America.

The trail took us pretty close to the falls but we decided to so some easy boulder hopping to get a better view.  You can get an idea how far the water is falling in this picture:

This is the spot where we sat for abit to watch the water.  you can see Half Dome in the distance.  We noticed someone climbing the boulders down the slope, much closer to the spot where the waterfall lands, so we decided to make our way down.  It wasn’t too difficult of a climb, just lots of boulders.

We stopped when the rocks started to get wet a slippery.  You can see our reward- a great view of the falls, a rainbow, and Half Dome and the other peaks in the distance.

Here I am above the rainbow.  You can make out the double rainbow in the photo.

And here’s the upper Yosemite Falls from below.

The wind can blow the water around a considerable distance, which we found out the hard way.  Right as we started to head back, the waterfall blew sideways a bit and landed around us, really soaking Tilek.

Our way back up to the trail was a bit more difficult than we planned.  In the tumble of rocks and random tufts of tree cover, we couldn’t spot the exact route we had taken to get down.  We weren’t really lost, since if we went to high on the hill we would hit the granite mountainside, and if we went to low, we would stop at the cliff.  But we needed to get back to the exact same spot because that’s where we had left Lu Lu – he was too tired to make the climb.  We spent about 45 minutes climbing up a bit, getting stuck, then climbing down a bit, then going back up, yelling for him to let us know where he was.  Finally we saw the precariously perched rock from the photo above and turned a corner – only to find Lu Lu listening to his headphones.  He didn’t have a clue we were shouting for him.

We walked back down the trail and had dinner at the food court near the lodge.  We were all pretty exhausted, but when we got back to camp I introduced everyone to the great American delicacy of smores.

You can see a lot more photos, including more landscapes and pictures of the waterfall, at Flickr.

Next up: another day at Yosemite and a visit to Mono Lake.

By: Ann

I know I haven’t written anything in quite a while.  It’s been a combination of being busy and being lazy.  All is well on the Morrison camp here on the west coast.  I pretty much love my job.  I dislike waking up early in the morning and not having days off during the week, but I am truly enjoying my job.  I basically run a small private clinic all day from 8-4 seeing kids ages 0-18 years of age.  I see cases anywhere from routine child checks to STD testing and treatment.  The organization that I work for has branched out from just the school system and has opened itself up to any low-income child under the age of 18 in order to get more business.  My Spanish skills are slowly, but surely, improving daily.  In my free time, one can catch me studying my AP Spanish IV folder.  Sister Gonda would be so proud…

As for baby stuff, things are going well.  I don’t feel as bad as the first trimester.  By 8pm, I’m usually  down for the night…on the couch, only to be woken up by Jason around midnight or so to actually get ready for bed.  There is definitely a bump visible, so much so that I think I have officially lost my waistline.  Some of you have asked for pictures, so here’s the most current one taken this week.  This week is week 19.

Some  of you have also been wondering if we have registered anywhere.  You can find us on Babies R Us.  Gifts are welcome, but not mandatory.  We’re still figuring out how much room we’ll have for this baby.  If you’re worried about shipping things to our condo, don’t.  All the packages ship via UPS and they need to have a signature in order to be delivered. The UPS guy comes really late in the evening, too.  I’m usually home when he comes.  We’ve already started having fun with some of the baby gifts that we have received, such as the hooded baby towel.  Thank you, Liza.

And now, brought to you by our own “L.L. Cool J,” your moment of Zen:

By Jason

I just go back from a weekend trip to Yosemite, but I haven’t uploaded the photos yet so that story will have to wait.  In the mean time, I wanted to report on two short trips – our trip across the bridge to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and a hike around the hills south of Mountain View.

The Marin Headlands just north of San Francisco have great views of the city and the bridge.  You can get an idea how high the mountains are from this picture:

Here’s a black sand beach in one of the coves along the Pacific coast here.  The sand was pretty coarse-grained, but the wind was still strong enough to whip it around.

You can see the city across the Golden Gate.

Here’s a view of the bridge from the vista point.

Ann smiles for the camera despite the strong wind.

This wall has bronze plaques that point to various cities and landmarks in the distance.

This photo is from higher up, on the other side of US 101.  We were originally thinking about waiting for the sunset but we got too hungry and the wind got too cold.  I have even more photos in the Flickr set, with more views of the bridge.

This next set of pictures is from a hike I took in the hills just south of Mountain View.  I was actually hiking the trail that leads to the top of Black Mountain – the one mentioned in the city’s name.  I saw this young buck when I came to a fork in the path – luckily he was on the trail down the valley, while I was headed up to the mountains.

Little lizards like this one scurried here and there across the path as I walked.  I managed to get some photos of this particular lizard by moving very slowly and making full use of my camera’s zoom.

At this point I’m pretty sure he’s posing for the camera.

Here’s a view from a high point on the ridge.  The big buildings in the distance are on Moffet Airfield and NASA Ames, including Hangar one, a huge dirigible hangar.  You can see a few small towers in downtown Mountain View in the midground.

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Here’s a photo of Black Mountain from the other side of the valley.

The landscape in the hills and mountains is really amazing, and the light is really good in the evening.

I have more photos in Flickr, including more photos of that camera hog lizard.  Next I’ll write about Yosemite.

By Jason

We are ridiculously behind in posting what’s going on in our lives in NorCal (this is what the kids call it).  We have been fairly busy, though, what with all the gestation going on.

Last month my parents came for a visit and we gave them our comprehensive tour of the Bay Area.  They flew in around noon and Ann brought them directly from the airport to Google for lunch.  I gave them the grand tour (which, despite all the practice, I have yet to master) and we ate at the No Name Cafe.  Within 10 minutes my Mom managed to get the all cooks singing Canta y no Llores.  It was one of those great moments that is both endearing and a little embarrassing.  Dad was impressed by all the different languages spoken and how people seemed so social and engaged in discussion.  It really isn’t like any other workplace.

The next stop on the tour for which I have pictures available was San Francisco – hopefully we’ll post an addendum later to fill in narrative gaps like this.  We parked near the financial district so that we could take the cable cars up California Street and then down to the Hyde Street Pier and Fisherman’s Wharf.   I think my dad could have ridden the cable cars up and down the hills all day.  Mom kept wondering whose idea it was to build a city up and down so many steep hills in the first place.  I think it was a conspiracy between cable car union and the post card industry.

To get an idea how steep the ride is, here’s Mom and Ann with Hyde Street in the background:

As always, you can click on the photos to see larger versions.  Next is a picture that should be pretty familiar to anyone who’s traveled with my Dad – reading all the informational signs:

Next we took a cruise around the bay, out to the Golden Gate and around Alcatraz Island.  Here’s a photo on the boat with the bridge in the background.

This picture is a little more newsworthy but also a bit sad.  Can you tell that the tug boat is pulling something?  That would be a dead whale, which had drifted under a pier and was stuck for a few days.  We just happened to be heading back as they towed it out to sea.  I wasn’t the only one taking pictures, it looked like the city’s entire fleet of news helicopters were circling above.

Next we wandered around Fisherman’s Wharf for a bit, taking a look at the Lefty’s leftorium, which is just like Ned Flander’s store in the Simpsons, and the other shops and galleries.  We walked down to the end of Pier 39, which you can see here:

Our next adventure was to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, which we also visited with Ryan and Jessi.  Next door is the Roaring Camp Railroad.  We couldn’t take the ride because this part of the year they do group events like weddings, but we got to watch as one of the old steam locomotives headed out.

Dad got to talk a bit with the engineer.  One thing you might notice in the picture is that the train doesn’t have the usual pistons and connecting rods on the sides of the driving wheels.  Think of the arm motions you would make if you were pretending to be a train in a game of charades.  Since these trains had to go up steep grades they actually had three big pistons up front with a central drive shaft down the middle.

Here we’re watching the train leaving the station.  Ann is eating old-fashioned horehound candy which does wonders for nausea.

The big attraction of the park is the giant redwood trees.  You can get an idea how big they are from the picture below.  We had a chance to crawl inside one tree that was completely hollow inside, maybe 15-20 feet up.

One thing I don’t have a picture of is a giant banana slug.  I have been hoping to encounter one every time we’ve taken a trip to the redwoods with no luck.  As we headed back down the trail we heard a bunch of commotion ahead of us.  On the ground was a (relatively) small, very stunned banana slug.  Apparently some kids had run ahead for their parents and found it on the tree.  They dared each other to kiss it, at which point on of the little girls freaked out and knocked the poor thing off.

Our next day was spent in sunny San Jose, where we visited the Winchester Mystery House.  There’s no real mystery, but it is a great story – Sarah Winchester, wife of the creator of the Winchester rifle, was left a widow with a ridiculous sum of money.  She worried that she would be haunted by the ghosts of all those killed by her husband’s rifles.  Supposedly a psychic told her she must never stop construction on her house (ghosts don’t like loud hammering), so she didn’t.  The end result is a sprawling complex with no central plan and lots of expensive details:

Here’s a picture from one of the upper floors but this doesn’t really give you a good idea of how big the place is.  It’s a lot of fun, though the tours are a bit pricey and our tour guide was less than knowledgeable.

It used to be on a big estate but now it’s right in the middle of San Jose, you can see office buildings behind us.

Mom liked the place because Mrs. Winchester had lots of mini-steps built in the staircases.  It was like the house was designed for her.

As always, there are more photos of the trip here.

Up next:  shirt trips to Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve.

By Jason

I promise I’ll write about my parents’ trip out to the Bay Area soon, but I thought I should finish up the last post before continuing. After our jaunt down to Santa Cruz, we spent a day touring sunny San Francisco.

Our first stop was Japantown. J-town has a very different vibe from Chinatown – for one thing, the heart of Japantown is a mall. It’s actually a rather cramped, older-style mall but it has some really great shops. Here’s Ryan in front of the Japanese Italian restaurant we ate at. Ryan and Jessi had fond memories of Japanese Italian food from their trip to Japan and I thought it was quite tasty.

Here Ann and Jessi sit in front of this cool model castle in the mall.

The Peace Pagoda is the most recognizable marker of Japantown. In was built after World War II by the Japanese-American community here. Unlike Chinatown, this area doesn’t seem to have a large incoming immigrant population anymore… it’s telling that right behind me as I took this picture there’s a Denny’s.

We walked around a bit looking for the cable car route down to Fisherman’s Wharf. We probably walked a bit too far – all the way up to Lafayette Park, in fact. It’s one of San Francisco’s many high points and a very popular city park. We also passed a building that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stayed at. When we did make it down to the coast, Jessi was attacked by these pirates.

Next we took a boat ride around the bay. It’s really worth doing if you come to visit here – the skyline of the city is really nice, and I can’t get enough of the Golden Gate Bridge.

We took the cable car back up to Chinatown for dinner. We had some really good food at the Utiopia Cafe, and the owner actually handed me a business card with “yelp.com” written on it. I don’t know if it was because I looked like a geeky sort of guy who might have a yelp account or if it was because we were some of the few non-Chinese in the restaurant and they are trying to branch out. Either way I have been too lazy to review them yet.

I’ll end with this photo of the sunset reflected on buildings just above Chinatown. You can see more photos on Flickr.