Mono Lake and South Tufas

Continuing our jam packed day, I left you with our time in Bodie but wait, there's more ! We passed Mono Lake on our way so that was the next stop. First, we grabbed lunch at Mono Cone, a little walk-up hamburger/hot dog joint with ice cream shakes/malts. It was a nice, satisfying and tasty lunch after Bodie.

But on the Mono Lake, we went back north a mile to the Mono Lake Intrepretive Center where there is a nice exhibit and great view of the lake with the 2 islands, Negit and Paoha islands in the middle of it. There are some nice trails that lead to the shore but I didn't do that although I think Tyler and Hector walked along some of it.

Now time to hop in the car and drive about 8-10 miles south to head for the South Tufas. Another short 1/2 mile walk to the shoreline to see the spectacular tufas. I didn't take as many pictures as I should have (it was a long day). I also have to remember to check my lens for dust since there are lots of dust specks on this batch of photos. They look okay but it's a tad distracting and I have to read up on Photoshop on how to remove them.

The kids seem to have the most fun chasing the alkali flies that rest on the ground near the shore and cause them to swarm away. :)

Anyway, here are some pics and enjoy!

Mono Lake Flickr set is here.

Brief food break

We had a busy weekend so I'm behind on our Sierra adventure but I had to show something else that I've been up to. A while back, my one of Hector's coworkers gave some homemade kim-chi which was pretty awesome. Fast forward to present where I remembered the kim-chi and googled it. I found this kim chi recipe. Luckily we have a Korean market (good sized) that I found the right ingredients.

The recipe is not difficult and one Nappa cabbage (about 2 lbs) yielded about 3 good sized pasta sauce jars full. By Sunday, I was ready to taste my kim chi. We actually tried it ever since I made it the last 2 days but Hector was waiting for the right amount of sourness so I sent Hector off to buy some kalbi ribs to go with our kim chi and rice. Ahhh, it was delightful. :)

The kids love kalbi and rice and we adults thoroughly enjoyed my kim chi and cucumbers. Yum.
Now that I know how to make kim chi, I can impress my friend and family with my prowess. Ha!

Bodie Adventure

On Sunday, my original plan of visiting Devils Postpile was scrapped because the recent 18+ inches of snow closed down the road. Argh! So we drove up north on Hwy 395 toward Mono Lake and Bodie.

The day was beautiful, sunny and no clouds at all. We followed the signs to Bodie where there is paved road until the last 3-4 miles and it's gravel/dirt road. Along the way, we saw sheep with their shepherd & sheep dogs, mules and beautiful scenery.

There was plenty of cars parked in the parking lot with lots of people but the town is actually bigger than I thought so we didn't have crowds of people clumped at any one place. The town of Bodie is a former mining town and you can read more about it here. 

It really is a fascinating place and a photographer's dream. Hector could have spent all day here while I went off with the kids. If you haven't visited Bodie, you should definitely put it on your list.

So here are photos but you can check out the full set on my Flickr site.

Weekend Trip: Autumn

The kids had a 3 day weekend so I though it would be nice to see Mammoth Lakes in the fall since the kids have only seen it covered in snow during winter/spring.

I had good intentions but the Tuesday to Thursday right before our trip brought 18 + inches of snow to Mammoth. Okay. We still drove up Saturday along Hwy 395 and we stopped at Fossil Falls for the first time. My friend Kerin told me about this before so  we made a brief stop here.





It's only about 1/2 mile off the highway and another 0.2 mile easy hike amongst the volcanic rocks to Fossil Falls. The word falls is misleading since there is no waterfall which dried up long time ago and the falls is crevice/ravine 40 feet below ground level. It is very cool to see and the dark volcanic rocks contrast nicely against the golden brush and mountains.

Fossil Falls set of photos.

Winding Way mitts

It's October and it hit me that I should start some of my Christmas knitting. Unfortunately, Tyler has 6 different teachers so I won't be able to knit for all of them but maybe I can make little ornaments instead just to keep my stress level down a bit.



I did finish a pair of Winding Way mitts that will go into the gift pile. I originally began these for Joshua's teacher but I found out her fave color is pink so maybe I can knit a pair for her in pink.

I used a very neutral colorway in Noro Silk Garden sock yarn with browns and grays that remind me of winter.




I really tried to photograph these with my remote trigger since I like to put my knitting into real life situations but it can get difficult. Kind of hard to get both mitts into the frame and look natural. :) This the best I came up with but maybe I can try again.

Thrills

Last week, Hector called asking if he should get tickets to Magic Mountain for Saturday night for a special private event. I said sure but wasn't exactly sure what the kids would be interested in since Magic Mountain specializes in roller coasters and my kids aren't the extreme enthusiasts (yet). But I thought it would be a great chance for them to see what was available and they could make their own decisions.

The park is closed at 6pm to the general public and only the wristbanded people can stay after that. From that point on, the park is practically empty. I don't think we had to wait more than a few minutes. Josh was not eager for a majority of the rides but he was especially pumped up for the Sky Tower (weird, because he is afraid of heights) and the funicular. Add the bumper cars and he was done for the night.

Tyler on the other hand was starting to get more adventurous. He tried the Gold Rusher (even I loved that as a kid) and the Revolution. I don't have pictures to show since it was night and most are blurry. Since we avoided the extreme rides at the park, we went through  the park in 2.5 hours. Yes, we are very efficient.

Friday Fun

Hector got a rare day off and it was nice to spend some time together. He got some personal errands done in the morning then we took off to have some target practice.






Even on a weekday, the range was half full so there was enough room to spread out a bit. I really like the 38 special which is fun to shoot and easier to load. My wrist get tired after a short time. We then had a nice lunch at Sushimon.

A while ago, our nephew Anthony gave us some coupons for bowling and pizza at one our local alleys. We used a coupon that let us have bowling for 1 hour for 5 people, shoes, one large pizza & 5 medium sodas free. Since we invited Matt too, we also used a buy one, get one free large pizza that really worked out since we demolished 2 pizzas before bowling and Matt took the extra one for Tammy.






The kids wanted bumpers on the lane but that meant we all had to use the bumper too. Tyler is extremely competitive so he started to pout when he was in last place. Ugh, so that meant Hector antics to liven things up. He ended up throwing his ball into the adjacent lane (twice) and both kids busted up laughing. Comedy relief. But we had to ask the desk to release the ball and after the second time, Hector noticed his bowling ball was broken. It has a nice puncture in it.

Well, it's time for photos now....