We have watched many of our friends disappear, regularly, on a monthly basis into .... well, wherever.
Just taking mini-vacations to recharge and to get away from the busy BA, work, school, homework, the daily routines and the same neighbors waving "hello" on the way to or from school (or like the grandpa visiting down the street says "hallo YOU!" ... I think he is from Russia or some slavic country and I love his kind "hallo you!" ... makes me smile every day! One day I'll say "Hallo you" too :)
So we took note and decided we should start the same kind of routine or ritual and escape too!
From now until the month of August we have booked, each month, at least one weekend away (a few more days here and there in the summer, when the Ls are out of school) and I am sure we'll add Tahoe in September again to watch the Salmon and October ... well, I have my plans (dreams) for that month too, November is busy with Thanksgiving and all and then December we'll do our big escape to Sorensen's again.
I needed to label these "run-away" days somehow and thought "out of town" (like a message on your outlook calendar would be fitting enough).
So here we are, Monday evening just back from our first "out of town" escape and I am here to post about the first impressions and day 1) ... oh and I am LOVING being back LIVE ... just to mention that :)
Day 1 (arrival) & 2
L thought we needed to leave a little note on the door, in case people were wondering why it's so quiet at the CZ residence (meaning no screaming or fighting girls can be heard).
I'd call this a room with a VIEW!!!
Destination for this staycataion was Yosemite.
Thank You Santa for the awesome Groupon to the Yosemite View Lodge. We enjoyed ourselves tremendously!!!
When you book a "River View" room you really get a river view room!!!
Could you imagine waking up to this view, going to bed with this view and listening to the steady sounds of the water all night? Who needs white noise when you have THIS??!!
View to the right
View to the left
The Ls LOVED it!!! ... and so did we.
If it would have been a bit warmer we would have sat outside all night, listening to the sounds of the river and the woods and watching the stars. But BRRRRR .... we chose the fire place instead :)
Day 1
Was simple, get up, get out and HIT the park!
The Lodge is directly outside of the West Entrance of Yosemite. 15 minutes and you are in Yosemite Valley.
Our first "wild" bear encounter!
L's mission was to kiss a Sequoia tree (she wasn't quite too eager to do so ... we told her to think it was Jay :)
Now Pat was all over the tree. One could think he is being neglected or something.
That (poor) tree saw some good canadian lovin :)
I am warning you right now, you'll get sick of seeing these rocks soon ... since I could not decide which picture was more beautiful, breathtaking and worth posting ... I pretty much took them all (well, I took 485 on these 3 days ... I am down to posting about 150 or so ... lucky you :)
It's been a little while since we had been at this wonderful location.
Never in the winter, definitely never in white and never with so few tourist surrounding us.
It was so nice to have the park (almost) to ourselves.
L striking her "red ninja" pose as she calls it??? She is definitely hanging out a LOT with boys :)
I LOVE how calm and beautiful the river was. Just like a mirror!
L making her first snow ball of the day.
Then we found these two lovely snow-people and the snowmen :)
Mr. Rock-Climber, with mustache and
6 pack!!!!
The most ripped snowman I have ever seen!!!
And his lovely lady-friend (Lulu pointed out that they were NOT wearing rings so they could not be married!). She is the pro! If anybody knows about marrying-people and such it's Lulu!
Loved her afro-style hair-do! VERY snow-stylish!
BUT something was definitely missing in this picture!!!
So we went to work.
More pictures of rocks and trees (warned'ya!)
... and worked ....
... and worked ...
... and worked some more ...
et voila ... une snow-bebe pour le snow-people (I don't speak french!!!)
SHE (clearly a she) had a cute little moss patch with bow, sweet acorn eyes and an acorn-shell button nose.
We added a BRIGHT smile and mittens (only for the pic ... those are highly treasured mittens with maple leaf, olympic rings and all!)
Isn't she a CUTIE-pie!!!!
After leaving our snow-bebe in the trustworthy hands of her rock-climbing parents (and knowing that she will be on many, many tourist pictures, viewed all over the world ... or not) we hit the outdoor ice rink for a little ice fun.
Lulu prepping mentally for her Yosemite ice debut ...
while L took to stronger (hotter and sweeter) measures.
I enjoyed the warmth of the fire and listening to the old ladies who had joined me, waiting for their kids and grandkids to return from the ice.
"The last time I skated was when Johnny was still a boy. That is more than 40 years ago!"
WOW!!!
Lulu and Papa dancing on the ice :)
While poor L was fighting with these dumb figure skates. She was NOT pleased with the fact that she couldn't skate as well with these "dumb things"!
So she joined me at the fire for more hot coco and some Mama - L - chit-chat time.
Meanwhile Papa and Lulu had a BLAST!!!
Afterwards we hit the Curry Village lodge for some food and to tank some heat.
Here you can see Lulu operating the iPhone ... YES, she prefers the middle finger to point out objects!!!
All the time!!! No further comment ...
Oh that fire was soooo nice and warm. We dried the gloves and snuggled up on the big sofa in front of it and sent our poor papa out into the freezing cold (it was about 38 F :) to fetch the car and pick us up.
Whenever Lulu ran out of steam we doped her up with lollipops ... works great for our super-sugar-sensetive child. Hyper makes you WALK!!! :)
Ja, more rocks ... I just couldn't get enough of it!
Where is Waldo? (actually there is a deer family running by in the back)
We stopped at the river bank to catch the last sun rays and play in the water.
Only in Cali can you play in the snow and then in the water in the sun at the same time. We are pretty darn lucky to live in such a perfect place (or at least near by.)
The Upper Yosemite Falls.
I love this pic ... just like a post card. Ansel Adams would have loved to shoot on that day, with this light on his favorite park (I only know this because my little brother is a photographer/artist and LOVES Ansel!!!).
And that was it for the first day in the park for us.
We headed back to the lodge and while Pat and the Ls went swimming in the SUPER hot indoor pool I chose to stay put at the fire place and flipped aimlessly through channels.
It's been more than a year that we don't have cable or satellite TV and while we love it and would not ever change it again we do ENJOY the treat of having all of these channels to flip through while we are on vacation. That remote saw quite some action :)
You should see us eating in a restaurant with a TV running ... we all stuff food into our faces, forget to chew and drool all over while staring at the TV screen and watching commercials and repeat shows :)
(... I am NOT kidding!)
And when the Ls returned, smelling like a bottle of chlorine, I summoned them to the jacuzzi-style tub we had :)
They had NEVER been in a tub with "motors" and I accidentally added some bubbles so they had a bubble-BLAST .... to say the least!
here you cans see L as foam-bride with foam veil :)
L with beard.
The bubble-maker
... and then all bubble-hell broke loose.
There were bubbles everywhere, everywhere.
There were bubbles everywhere, everywhere.
There were bubbles in their hair, there were bubbles in the air.
There were bubbles everywhere, everywhere!!!
Then we retired to some snuggle time with Papa, watching the Harry Potter Marathon on TV.
Little L crashed rather quickly, all you could hear were her rather LOUD SNORES!!!
While big L watched until 11:30PM "Harry" with Papa.
I measured them up ...
This kid is GROWING like a weed!!!
Something we had to pay for the next day ... good job Papa!!!! :)
I will call in my editor now to proof my first post (he is not quite in form anymore ... he got used to playing around on his phone instead of serving his bloggin wife and making sure I don't write holly instead of holy, death instead of deaf, prove instead of prove instead of proof ( ...) again.
I can try as had as I want to, I'll NEVER get the deaf and death thing down.
It'll be the deaf of me, I holly swear it and my blog is the prove of it :)
Back tomorrow with more Yosemite talk.
ta-ta
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