The Mendozas: Wedding Crashers

The First day of Spring, 2010. How did we spend the first 40 minutes of it? We spent it watching New Moon, the second installment of the amazingly stoopid Twilight Series. Ugh.

The next eight hours of Spring, however, was spent in a car going all the way around Pinnacles National Monument.

Why?

Their Gift Shop closed last time! The Store is divided in two, one part run by the National Park Service, and the other part a private Concessionaire that sells food and climbing equipment.

So off we went again. A long time ago, we came up with the family motto: We go further for less. We were out to prove today.

With the recent rains, there are little ponds that have formed. Here is one right outside of San Juan Bautista.

So what was our first stop? We crashed a Wedding!

Immaculate Conception Church in Tres Pinos is a cute little church. There were a lot of cars outside, and some people wandering abouts. We took a look inside, and a wedding was going on!

Attention all Traditional Priests: It appears the High Altar is still in place in the back. Just need a Communion Rail!

Never mind the wedding, kids! Look! Skydivers!

Don't know what these cows were doing. Maybe one of their secret cow meetings.

Tree Hugger Monica kisses a tree. No Ego problem here. We finally made it to Pinnacles with an open Gift Shop!!!

Now we proceeded to go further south on Highway 25 from Pinnacles, going towards King City. Here is one tree on a hill in the vast emptiness of San Benito County.

Kids always wanted their picture on the County Line. No traffic here.

Tresspasser Monica.

Attention Law Enforcement and Loner Farmer with a Shotgun: She's only pretending to tresspass.

We them proceeded to have a snack in King City, and went on our way to Mission San Antonio.

The Sanctuary of Mission San Antonio. Notice the three altars just like in many of the Missions.

Fountain in the Courtyard.

Crosses and roof of the Mission.

Wild Flowers in Spring.

These are figure heads from ships that brought the Friars to California and docked in San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, or San Francisco. The trip would often begin in Acapulco. There is the story of one Friar who was supposed to go to California from Acapulco. He got on the wrong ship and ended up in the Phillipines. He just stayed in the Phillipines!

The Friars would put these Figure Heads around the front of the Church in gratitude for having made it safely to California.

Hey, First Catholic Wedding in California took place right here in Mission San Antonio.

Fort Hunter Liggett surrounds Mission San Antonio, and is an active training groun for troops. A convoy passed us on the way out.

The kids on top of a Sheridan Tank by the entrance to the Fort.

A very nice day except for one thing... Our Gift Shop curse continues!

We got to the Mission late, and the Gift Shop had closed. Now we have to go again!

Where will we go in the vast emptiness of San Benito County next? How about the New Idria Mines!

BEST. ADDRESS. EVER!!!

This has to be the best address ever. Our friend Ulyssess has moved on to the East Coast of the United States, and lives in a neighbourhood with many Catholic references, as can be seen by a nearby street sign.

Congratulations, Ulysses! You have at least made it to Purgatory!

Pinnacles National Monument, March 2010

On the Road again! This time we went around to the East Entrance of Pinnacles National Monument.

Here, someone decides to be dramatic. Do I smell ham? Why the Drama? We are sad that some friends are not with us on this hike! We were told not to have fun on this hike by some friends who could not be with us, so here is everybody trying their best to cope.

Clouds over the Pinnacles on the Moses Springs Trail.

The Bear Gulch Caves are fully open, and if one is brave enough, you can go all the way through the caves. Towards the end, you do have to go on stepping stones through a creek that runs right in the middle of the cave. Water cascades through the caves to form a Creek downstream. here is the first Waterfall.

Further up, the waterfall is captured with a flash.

We then came out of the Cave, and went around to the Resevoir. The kids help to keep the mountain standing up.

Splashing in the Reservoir.

Climbers on the rocks near the Reservoir.

Water level last June was low enough that we sat on this spot and ate chips.

Water from the Reservoir coming down into the Cave.

Another view of the water from the reservoir going down into the Cave.

Why Catholicism is cool...

Not just because it is the One True Church founded by Jesus Christ, nor because Pope Benedict is his Vicar on Earth, and because we have the Mass. It is because Catholic terms make awesome Band names!

Here is just a sampling...

Purgatory

Funeral Pall

Gift of Miracles

Filioque

Antipope

Day of Atonement

Holy Innocents

Ikonostasis

The Scourging

Mortification of the Flesh

The Five Wounds

Inquisition

Cononical Impediment

Relic

And now for three favourites...

Black Fast

In Partibus Infidelium

Disparity of Cult

Can you imagine some of these as Band Names? Perhaps some others would make good Punk Band names.

Schism FAIL!!!

FAIL!

You can read about it here!

Kramer Sighting! Yosemite Edition

So we get back to our van which we had parked by the Cemetery in Yosemite, and what should we see? Could it be?

KRAMER SIGHTING!

Yeah, they had said they had moved, but maybe this was them.

Believability Rating: 60%. It was white and giant, and probably responsible for about one third of the Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere. It did have Arizona plates, but that is pretty close to Florida, right? It was parked right next to us, and we had seen this van in Yosemite before. We were going to take a picture of the interior, because it looked like it was well used, BUT THERE WAS SOMEBODY ASLEEP INSIDE!!! So we did not take pictures of the inside. Besides, the person looked Filipino, and so far as we know, none of the Kramers are Filipino.

Not even remotely. Except possible one of the middle children.

Tune in again next time for another edition of KRAMER SIGHTING!

Yosemite: Winter 2010

So, as we noted in an earlier posting, we decided to make a one day trip to Yosemite Valley, just to walk around the cheap showiness of nature, take some pictures, and buy some postcards. We managed to do all three.

Forgot how far away Yosemite is, but we were glad we could make it.

We told all the kids that we needed to get up REALLY early, like around 5 AM. These are the kids who have a hard enough time getting up for school. But tell them that we will be going to a National Park, and that there might be the possiblity of souvenirs, and they actually get up before the adults, and are dressed and ready to go right when we need to go!

Let's get to the Park.

Before even getting to the park, just after Mariposa, there appears to have been a rockslide, and the entire road is blocked. They have built two one lane bridges that go around the slide. You have to wait about 15 minutes according the sign at the stoplight, but we did not have to wait that long.

To all of our friends who like Yosemite and Hansen's Soda, this picture is for you!

Kids love playing in snow! Just like the Grand Canyon last year, we could have just taken them to play in snow, and they could have done it all day. "Hey kids, Yosemite Falls is right behind you!" "Good! Hey, more snow!"

Sun peeking out through the trees.

Snowball aimed at a sibling.

If only our world was as beautiful as Pandora!
As a good friend of our said, "People, get out of your basement, and go walk around!"

Tree reflected in Merced River.

Greetings from the Valley floor.

Some Sun peeking through again.

Half Dome reflected in a puddle near Sentinel Bridge.

Yosemite Falls.

Half Dome again from Sentinal Bridge.

Yosemite Falls from the trail leading up to it.

At Lower Yosemite Falls. Getting wet from the Falls and from the sky.

Lower Yosemite Falls.

Yosemite Falls Bridge.

Kids wanted to take in a talk by a Park Ranger to get their Junior Ranger Badges. More on that later. The talk for today was about Bears, and the Ranger took us out to the middle of the Valley from Shuttle stop #6, so that we could get hailed on for an hour and a half! Thankfully, it was only small hail.

Anyways, Park Ranger Ben shows us what happens when a bear finds the Whipped Cream bottle, and then bites into it. the can blew apart, and killed the bear.

Bear Skull.

Bear Pelt.

So the girls finished their Jr. Park Ranger Books first, and so they got to be sworn in first. There were a couple of Rangers there, and there was a Lady who said that she loved to swear in Jr. Rangers, and that she even like to announce it to people. I thought she was kidding.

So the girls got sworn in.

Then the lady who liked to swear in kids swore the third kid in.

And then the lady did announce to everyone in the Visitors Centre, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have just sworn three new Junior Rangers; please give them a hand!" And people did!

A wider view. The kids were really happy.

Some Internet Terminals at the Deli. They cost 25 cents a minute, and we know some people who used them last year.

We hope to go again to Yosemite, and get some pictures form each season, and maybe visit some areas we have never been to, like the Hetch Hetchy area. maybe we can visit some other parks as well, like Death Valley or Sequioa National Parks.

Hope you like the photos! We enjoyed taking them!

Planning Fail

Husband: "Hey, I got an idea."

Wife: "Oh yeah, what is it?"

H: "It's not supposed to rain this Saturday, or at least not until the evening. Wanna go make a one day trip to Yosemite? We could go visit the Valley and take a couple of short hikes."

W: "Sure. Let's go."

How We Missed Calls From Our Navy Friends: or Why You should Call a Place In Advance To See if they Are Open

We had nothing to do today, so we decided to go to New Almaden, an abandoned Quicksilver Mine just south of San Jose. Well, one should check to see if the museum is opened, because we did not. It turns out that the museum is being renovated, and not open until the summer. There is a large County Park where the mines for the quicksilver are (were?) located, and there is even a tunnel to go through. We did not bring water, however, so we just walked around for a bit, and took some pictures.

French Monica (Monique).

The little creek that ran beside the Park.

There was a sizable population here around the turn of the 20th century. This church was built by a woman whose son went off to fight in the Spanish-American War. She promised to have this Church built if her son came back alive from the war. The Church seems to be still used, although it does not belong to the Diocese.

Casual Elizabeth. Might make a good picture according to Mom if she had worn a better shirt. Again, failure to plan.

Overall, we would like to go again and go hiking in the park, and take some more pictures!