Roaming about California

Ah, the benefits of short-term unemployment. A weekend trip can easily turn into a week and a half of venturing throughout the state. 

I spent MLK weekend at a cabin in Tahoe with several of my friends, and we had a great time catching up and hanging out. Originally, this would have been the extend of my trip, but after some rearranging of schedules, Brian and I planned on meeting in Tahoe after the weekend so that we could see each other and visit one of our friends for the week. 

They were able to get in a day of skiing together while I went for a run and explored an area nearby with what little snow there was. A last minute change in plans meant that our friend was going to be heading out mid-week, and since snow conditions have been less than ideal in Tahoe, Brian and I made like birds and went south. 

We dropped into the Bishop area for the hot springs and better climbing opportunities.It was lovely to take advantage of the warmer, sunny weather and spend time together, especially since we hadn't seen each other since I flew out from Utah right before Christmas. Unfortunately, it didn't last as long as we would have liked because he had to start making his way back up to Washington for work.

I intended to head home as well, but instead set my route towards Yosemite, where one of my close friends now works. I spent a couple of days at her house hanging out with her and helping her move in while she finished up her work week, but on her first day off, we hit the road towards Monterey. We spent the night at a wonderful hotel in downtown Monterey and enjoyed the awesome farmers market the next day.

After we finished our shopping, we drove out to Pinnacles National Park, which is where we met working as park rangers. We were able to catch up with several of our friends who still work there, and meet many of the new rangers working there now.

The next day we went for a hike on the North Wilderness Trail, which neither of us had done when we were living there. We didn't have time to do the whole 11 mile hike before leaving back to Yosemite, but we did enough of the trail to get re-acquainted with some of our favorite areas of the park, explore beautiful areas and vantage points that were new to us, and break a sweat on a few steep hills. 

Our time was well-spent, but we had to get going since she had work the next day. The next morning I took the scenic drive out through Yosemite Valley and made one more stop at Mariposa Grove to go for a short two mile run in the company of Giant Sequoias.

I bid my farewell to the magnificent trees and finally made the familiar drive to get back home, thankful for the spontaneous adventures and the opportunity to reconnect with so many of the people that I love.