Bay Area to Sequoia

Fun day today. We left the Bay Area around 7 AM, and it was an easy five-hour drive to King's Canyon/Sequoia National Parks.

Lena is able to do complicated sock knitting without getting car sick (good news for the sock recipients).


Al's talent is peanut popping:


We passed a bunch of these things. Anyone know what's inside?

Ominous storm clouds gathered as we approached the foothills, but we've only had a few sprinkles so far.


And here's our wonderful campsite in the Azalea campground of the King's Canyon National Park:

And I want you all to see how much trouble I go through to get these pictures uploaded and posted for you!


Lena allowed me to choose this campsite only after I assured her that it wouldn't be colder to be right next to the snow.

We're about 6,500 feet above sea level. The air bed inflated without problems and we have three sleeping bags for the two of us. Should be warm and cozy.


The pine cones here are much larger than those of the redwoods at home.

We had a nice BLT and soup lunch at the visitor's center.

Actually, I have to confess that we are doing our picture uploading and blog posting in the POSH John Muir lodge here at King's Canyon National Park (also we didn't really go to a rave). We hiked over from the campsite carrying our laptop cases like a couple of business persons. Both the campground and lodge are quite deserted.

Let me take a moment to tell you how much I like Gunilla, our GPS device. She's a little quirky sometimes, but she gets the job done.

I considered going for a bike ride, but there are no showers around, and the shoulders of the roads are narrow.

After the lodge we headed back and cooked up a healthful meal of macaroni and cheese with hot dogs.

Because the meal is so unhealthful, we supplemented it with ElderTang (i.e. oange-flavored Metamucil).

Then we sat in front of the fire inhaling smoke and reading. This actually was one of the worst fires I've seen in terms of the smoke moving towards you each time you move the chairs.

The light you see below is a good solution to the reading in the tent problem. I've tried headlamps and flashlights, but these “Mighty bright Xtraflex 2” book lamps work very well. Bright LED light that fills a page.

Also, they can be clipped to the ceiling of the tent for general illumination.