Sequoia National Forest! We finally made it to the tour. It was back in August that we booked a tour with Sequoia Tours, but Jeremiah decided to get sick; so, the trip was postponed. We thought it best to take my mom on the long awaited tour of the forest and would not have picked another day. Although the tour gets busy in the summer, it was only the four of us on this tour, which meant we can stop as many times as we wanted. We really tested our tour guide, named Paul. A really great man and he is the only one that gives guided tours for the forest. He was really fun! The first stop was called Hospital Rock, which is called that because a shaman used to live under a rock formation healing people (and forgot the name of the tribe who used to reside there). On the rocks, were painted pictures from the Indian tribes. Ironically, at Hospital Rock, many people have died there over the summer due to raging rapids. The picture you are looking at is a gorgeous couple who were admiring the scenic view of the marsh surrounded by sequoia trees. Not only was this a great picture, but Jeremiah found a walking stick who became his best friend along the trails. After walking the loop, Jeremiah had to leave the walking stick behind because he wanted someone else to use the walking stick. Hopefully one day that will meet again.
After climbing Mt. Whitney in only a couple of hours, Jeremiah decided to take a picture (and look I didn't know trees grew in this life zone). How did he climb Mt. Whitney? Well, that is because Jeremiah didn't climbed the mountain, but he climbed up the stairs on
Moro Rock, not in
Morro Bay, to take this picture along with the Cindi, Charlene, and Melissa. Can you guess how many steps to the top? Well, I think Charlene counted everyone of them as the stairs kept going and going. We are all very proud of her making it to the top. As we climbed, we even meet another lizard friend (we see them almost all the time now...it is good luck for the
Podczaszy's). I mean
look at this view, who needs a television except on
Football Sundays, Friday Nights with Monk and White Collar, and Monday nights with House. Come on, who really needs one. Now, at the top of this rock you can see for miles around and even see the peaks of mountains. It takes some climbing though. Well worth the hike.
Look at those beautiful people. As you can see it was a gorgeous day with the rays of sunshine atop their heads. You can see
Charlene's smile as she made it to the top of the rock, what a trooper. As we walked up the stairs made out of the rock, Mom was constantly encouraging Charlene to keep going. I think Mothers are great
encourager's to their family with their loving words of encouragement.
After ramming a tree in the middle of the road a few dozen times, the van made a perfect hole for cars to go through without any problems. Once the hole was made, Jeremiah decided he would claim this tree for the
Podczaszy's, but the national forest had already claimed the tree. Oh well! Paul showed us a few spots around the forest. One in particular brought back memories for mom, which is a tree that was used as a bridge (or ramp) made out of a fallen tree that cars would put their car atop it, which sat on a ridge. Then, someone would go down and take a picture at the bottom, which was a park highlight. However, since so many cars drove on the log it started damaging the roads leading to the tree, the tree is no longer
drivable on. Paul says, "years ago...national parks used to be like amusement parks", but now the government is more conservative in order to preserve it for the future. Remember only you can prevent forest fires! So, don't start any forest fires you might burn down this tree with a hole in it (Jeremiah is still trying to obtain rights to the tree).
My wife and I had a wonderful weekend for our anniversary. First, on Friday night, we had a wonderful dinner from a local burger joint with a large soda, some fries and fried zucchini, a bacon burger, and a grilled cheese with tomatoes for the wife all while watching "Titanic". I have forgotten it won all those Oscars! Do you remember how many? Well, since it has gotten cooler out here (on average of being 50 degrees or cooler) we needed some warm sweaters. So, we made sure to go to the outlet stores out here and purchase some sweaters and of course Melissa got a few sweaters (you should ask her how many?). To finish the great weekend we had taco night on Saturday, and delicious lobster bisque from Costco and a wonderful spread from Trader Joe's. We look forward to our real anniversary getaway in December.
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