Thanksgiving Road Trip Part II & III

Day Two: Turkey Day
Back in car and we headed north again on the 395. We stopped off in Mammoth to check out the winter resort town. We took a scenic loop drive and pulled off to do a short hike. The snow was even deeper up in Mammoth and Miles was lovin' it. He ran and frolicked like a young pup...arthritis...what arthritis :)
It really looked like a winter wonderland with the snow on the tree branches. We drove up to the slopes and watched the skiers and snowboarders for a bit and decided we should stick with the sports we know best and that don't require mucho $$ and opted to go for a hike.

We stopped at Convict lake and did about a 2 mile hike around the border of the lake. Classic gorgeous Sierra scenery and the lake was reminiscent of lake Sabrina, where we got engaged last year.

Convict Lake

We worked up quite an appetite hiking and had our turkey day dinner at Whiskey Creek on the main drag in downtown Bishop.

Day Three:
Now we couldn't drive all the way to Bishop and not go climbing!?! Friday we drove out to the Owen's River Gorge/Sherwin Plateau. It was a good 30 minute drive on dirt roads, which John loved b/c he got to use 4 wd again. The directions in the guide book were a little hairy and after several turnarounds and scouting looks we finally found the climbing spot.

Not long after we started climbing another group came up. We got to talking to them and they were also from San Diego (not too much of a surprise) and after talking some more, one of the girls recognized Miles and said I think you're my neighbors. Sure enough....we drive 6 hours away from San Diego and we run into the girl that just moved in across the street from us. Small world! Another great sunset followed by a stop at the cured meat store for some meat/cheese made for a good end to day three.

Sunset looking North towards Lake Crowley which feeds the Owen River Gorge

Thanksgiving Road Trip Part I

John and I spent our Thanksgiving holiday road tripping back up to the Eastern Sierra Nevada's. We stayed in Bishop, same place as last year, and did short day trips from there. We were lucky in that the higher elevations got lots of snow so we actually got to play in falling snow, something we haven't done in years! Ah, it's the little things in life. :)

Day One: North on the 395 past Crowley Lake, Mammoth Lake all the way up to Lee Vining. We were within 13 miles of Yosemite Park, but the Tioga Pass (the road that would take us over the Sierra's into the park) was closed for the season. We decided to check out Bodie, a western ghost town instead.

Turning off the highway it was a slow, windy 12 mile drive out into the middle of nowhere. It was a little eerie being so far out, but John's Tacoma was so clutch and we kicked into 4wd and were all good.

We walked around in the snow and took some pictures and were really glad that we didn't live out in Bodie, now or 100 years ago. I red that they have -20 degree winters and over 100 degree summers; only gold could possess people to want to live out there.

On the drive back to Bishop, we stopped off at Mono Lake. This was probably one of, if not the highlight of the trip for me. I thought the lake was just a lake but it's actually a sister lake to Salt Lake in UT and is nearly 3 times as salty as the ocean! No fish can survive in the water, but brine shrimp and algae thrive. On the south shore tufa towers jute out of the water.

A break in the clouds brought us a rainbow...you can kind of make it out in the distance.

Tufa towers

These are limestone towers that form when underwater springs are exposed when the water level in the lake drops. It's pretty bizarre and very cool...who knew I was going to learn so much!!!

California is soooo cool.

Silver Strand Half

Last weekend I ran in the Silver Strand Half Marathon with two of my running pals Sarah and Lauren. We had a great time training over the past few weeks, but the race itself....not so much fun. It's unfortunate that the two halfs I picked to race this year have been on unseasonably warm days. La Jolla Half back in April it was in the 90's and last Sunday was likely in the mid 80's. The dang Santa Ana's winds bring in the dry hot weather from the desert and make for cruel and unusual conditions weather your running a half or not.
Anyways, the race is done and over with and all things considered it did go well...at least until the last 2 miles when my body started shutting down. Sarah, Lauren and I all had bouts of nausea and upset tummies post race. I struggled to keep my head up during brunch and didn't feel normal again until mid afternoon. Well....i think I've got my sights set on the Carlsbad Half which is in January. My hopes are that it won't be 80 or 30 degrees...we'll just have to wait and see.

Sunrise driving North on the 75 from Imperial Beach to the Silver Strand State Beach were we had to park and take the shuttle to the start. Did I mention that I had to get up at 4:45am for this race.

Pre race before we got on the shuttle. Lauren, Me and Sarah V.

Post race....I'm blaming the dorky side visor picture on the heat!

Steph & J = Hitched

October 25th Steph and Jason tied the knot at Grassy Creek Vineyard in Elkin, NC. On top of all the wedding festivities, John and I were stoked to get to head back East to visit with family and friends. We thoroughly enjoyed the rainy weather and got some good naps in, but of course we were relieved for the bride & groom that it cleared up in time for the beautiful outdoor ceremony. The leaves were gorgeous and I forgot how amazing it looks in the Fall in the mountains. What a great wedding and it was sooo neat to see the people from Steph & J's different phases in life: growing up / college / San Diego and now Boston. Enjoy the pics, as you can tell it was a rockin' party :)

Beaut-amus ceremony and Beaut-amus Bride and Groom

couple shot

Where's Jim?!?!

All the Ladies in the house!

The lovely Bride, Stephanie Lynn

Friends!

One of my fav pics of the weekend....I can't take credit for it, thanks Mags!

Has it been 2 months....really!?!?!

I knew in the back of my head that I had not updated the blog in awhile but I could not believe it has been over 2 months. Time is flying! So what's been up in the world of John, Karen and Miles? Let me see if I can remember. Camping near Lake Cuyamaca, Traveling back to the NC for Steph and Jason's wedding, John going to NYC for the Asics/NYC marathon....and speaking of running I'm fixin' to run a 1/2 tomorrow. Whew!

Looks like I'll have to recap all the above in segments....
Early October we headed East for a weekend of camping with some of John's friends from work. We stayed in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park just a little over an hour from the house. We hiked, endured crazy winds, rain, and beautiful sunshine all in the course of 2 nights. Here are some highlights.

We hiked the Garnet Peak Trail in the Cleavland National Forrest. The winds were INSANE...gusting into the 40mph. I thought we were going to get blown off the side of the mountain. There were tons of crazy cloud formations that day; I call this UFO.

More cool clouds, I'd never seen such dense clouds in formations like this before. I call this catch the wave.

Gnarly tree branches, typical harsh landscape on the cusp of the desert

Yay, we survived the night of rain and wind! John's mad skilz came in handy as we rigged up the tarp to keep us dry so we could continue hanging out and drinking beer into the night.

The gang: John, Karen, Terri, Amanda and David

and of course....Mileserific!

The VitroRobertson gang

On our way back to town we stopped at some cool waterfalls and went hopscotchin'

Lucky for us the rain we had the night before helped make for some great waterfalls