Posted by Karen on 10-May-2009
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The golf course at Wawona had been calling Vic’s name since our visit last year, so he went to play a round of golf this morning and we girls went and checked out the Yosemite Pioneer History Center. I’ve been to the history center before, but can visit it many more times. It’s a really lovely and peaceful setting next to the river and the buildings on display are all in really good condition.
After golf and lunch, we saw a truck drive over a road that cut through the golf course and we wondered where it went, so we went that way too. The road turned out to be the Chowchilla Mountain Road, a former stage coach route, now a rutted, dirt road that takes out out of the park. We followed the road over hill and over dale, next to the flowing river and finally made our way to the summit of Devil’s Peak. Only a couple of tough spots where there was still snow on the road, but we made it. We met a bicyclist at the summit and while we marveled at his strenght to peddle up here, he was surprised we made it in the SUV… LOL! There is a fire watchtower at the summit, but it was still closed and nobody was home. There is also supposed to be a geocache up there, but we all looked and couldn’t find it. 
Back to the valley and pizza at Curry Village (yumm).
Posted by Karen on 28-Mar-2009
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Lori and I headed up to the foothills to join the Sacramento Digital Photography Meetup group at McLaughlin’s Daffodil Hill Ranch. The ranch is privately owned and they open it to the public for several weeks each spring, to share the wonderful mass of daffodils that have been planted there over the years. The open area is about 6 acres and offers thousand of daffodils to enjoy. After the flowers, I tried to photograph some of the animals they have their in cages. Shooting through chicken wire is trick I haven’t totally mastered yet. But, they have a couple of peacocks, bunnies, doves and fluffy chickens there. This was my first trip to see Daffodil Hill and I’m sure I’ll go again one year.
Posted by Karen on 01-Aug-2008
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Today I toured The Hermitage – Home of President Andrew Jackson. “Old Hickory” was our seventh President from 1829-1837 and Nashville is where he made his home with wife Rachelle. As you walk around the grounds and buildings, you have a audio player that gives you a narrative for each of the numbered spots you encounter. The mansion is well preserved, and even though they don’t want you to take pictures inside the mansion, I snuck in a few… shhh! In back of the mansion is a large manicured field with a path circling it. Along the path you see the slave quarters, an old farm building, the springhouse and several cabins. The formal gardens are cared for once again and are lovely to walk through. In the back corner of the garden is Jackson’s Tomb and the family cemetery. Lastly I toured the museum and browsed the gift shop before heading back to the hotel. It’s wonderful to see that we have our country’s history preserved so well.
Posted by Karen on 21-Apr-2007
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Geocachers try to live by the “CITO” motto… Cache In, Trash Out and today the River City Geocaching and Dining Society (RCGDS) participated in the Folsom Creek Week cleanup efforts. Theresa and I joined them in their 3rd year efforts at cleaning up Gold Creek. We shimmied down the steep embankment to the creek below and started helping haul out junk and trash that people had thrown down there. I sort of figured we’d be with a trash bag picking up fast food wrappings and cigarette butts…. noooo, we helped haul up tires and a couch and a cloths dryer and a microwave and some other large things we couldn’t really identify. The large number of young teens that turned out to help was quite impressive and they worked hard! It was a fun, dirty, wet morning and we helped clean up a ton of trash! Afterwards Theresa and I headed over to the nearby park to try for some new geocaches that had been recently hidden. And then is was home for a long hot shower to clean off the mud from me!
