0049--Scenic Route to San Francisco

Headed out early this morning for San Francisco, taking a scenic byway that wound through acres of pear and nut orchards, vineyards, and small towns.
Gary and Andy, whose wedding we are her for in the first place, were kind enough to loan us their GPS unit, which was actually pretty cool--even for a confirmed, old-school fan of big paper maps. Navigating the quick turns--and the expressways, once we got into urban territories--was amazingly easy.

0048--Angels Camp, CA

We drove through Angels Camp, CA, on our way to Big Tree and thought it looked so cool we should stop for a visit on our way back through. Our first stop was a great Italian-style bistro, where we had lunch. Then, it was on to the music store a few doors down. Spent quite a while chatting with the owner there--really nice lady. Then we checked out a world-market shop that had an ice cream parlor in the back. Again, the people were really friendly. The woman at the counter offered total self-awareness for a quarter, but we opted for waffle cones. Angels Camp has a big frog-jumping contest every year, and the street is marked with "walk of fame" inlays, commemorating the winners back to the 1930s. It's a old mining town with great covered sidewalks and tons of odd little shops. Nice stop.

0047--A Bird

0046--Ravenous Cone Eaters

These tiny squirrels--about the size of chipmunks--were all over the redwoods, eating and burying the pinecones.

0045--Calaveras Big Tree State Park

Calaveras Big Tree State Park is about 4000 feet above sea level (lots of ear-popping on the drive) and home to some amazing, enormous trees. They can be up to 3000 years old and 300 feet tall. The largest one in this grove survives only as a stump (it was felled in 1832)--but what a stump: over 30 feet in diameter! Some of the names carved into it from early visitors are dated in the mid-1800s. Really incredible.

0044--Unique Opportunities

Unique spiritual and home-defense opportunities abound in sunny California.

0043--Driving in Northern California

Arrived in California last night after a long but uneventful flight. The balmy 70-degree weather at midnight was a nice incentive to keep moving from airport, to rental car, to hotel--even though it was about 3:00am our time. Tracking down something--anything--to eat made it about 4:30am (again, our time) before we finally made it to bed.
Had a great night's sleep, though, and decided to head out toward Calaveras Big Tree State Park, about two hours away.
The drive took us through some wonderful countryside. Lots of goats, llamas, vineyards, and vast acres of open land. (Oh--and nuclear reactors.)