Do you know what the Hetch is going on?? Tuesday, May 26 2009

Now if you like the outdoors and you’re around California you’re probably stoked to head up to Yosemite, right? But what if you thought about bipassing Yosemite and going to a hidden gem?

View from the road on the way into the Valley

Hetch Hetchy is in the northern part of Yosemite National Park and provides a non-tourist invaded look at a glacier carved valley and numerous sights to be seen. We drove to the O’Shaughnessy Dam that you see in the picture above and from there we hiked to the waterfall you see in the picture as well. All in all it was a 5 mile hike. There were amazing rock faces to look at, flowers and poison oak to see and a few critters as well!

Here’s some pics:

Parking lot at O’Shaughnessy Dam

 

The dam was really flowing with all the snow melt!

View from the trail from the other side of the dam

A very calm Western Rattlesnake that was about 500 yards into the hike. He was about 3 feet and the rattles say he’s about 11 years old.

About half way to the waterfall. You could hear the roaring water echo off the opposite wall of the valley.

Rainbow off the mist from the waterfall.

Standing to the left of the waterfall.

Standing to the right of the waterfall.

We got saoked from the waterfall so we sat on a rock and ate some lunch and this is the view.

Saying goodbye to Yosemite from the back window of the Mountain-Bot.

It was a great day. The hike took us about 2.5 hours to complete and the day could not have been better. So, for all you adventurers out there, try hetch Hetchy the next time you’re up in the Yosemite National Park, huh??

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Da Count: Memorial Day Weekend! Friday, May 22 2009

This weekend brings Memorial Day and a holiday is always worth celebrating. Things are getting started tonight with a MAY Birthday Party at the Grill, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAY!!!

Saturday should be ok but it’s Sunday that’s really going to be a blast! BBQ and possibly hiking up in the mountains and friends in town visiting. Good eats, lots of celebrating and good times are to be had! Oh and sleeping in! Yay!

Happy Friday and may your Memorial Day be wonderful!

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New Friends and New Blogs Thursday, May 14 2009

It’s always so amazing to reach out and read about new people, their lives they decide to share and their experiences.

A new friend (who honored me with a Post of the Day Award) is David over at Authorblog. It’s very interesting and so mind blowing to think that someone from across the globe can interact with someone like me in Cali. Wonderful and awesomeness!!!

It’s Thursday, Taste of the Tower is going on tonight, are you going to be there?? The jury is still out for me… Taste of the Tower or Star Trek at the Imax… hmmm…

This weekend is jam packed with work, waitressing Friday night, opening bartender Saturday and CIRCA Sunday (oh and psst, DJ COOKEE is comin!!!)

What do you have planned this weekend???

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Weekend Wrap-Up Monday, May 4 2009

EDIT & UPDATE: To see pics check out the photog’s MySpace page

Whew! It’s been one heck of a weekend!

Lilly is an awesome puppy, she’s so sweet and loving it’s wonderful and adorable! We had a great time taking care of her and the 2 kitties!

Work Friday and Saturday was good, busy, but good. It’s really becoming a routine with the working 13 days and off 1 day… sure brutal, but workable.

Circa’s 80’s Prom was awesome last night. Exhausted this morning, but the crowd was pumpin last nighth! So many people dressed up (and subsequentially kept me pouring drinks, so sorry no pics, I’ll post a link to the photog that was there once I get it), the music was all 80’s and the atmosphere was rad! It really was a great event and we’re trying to talk the organizers into doing this at least twice of not more times a year. It was great!

What did you do this weekend??

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Da Count: Da Prom! Friday, May 1 2009

I am Da Counting this because I’m really super stoked about the event and I love that I’ll be working somewhere that is so much fun! I love the DJ’s, the love the regulars and I can’t wait to see everyone that comes out for PROM!!! Yay!

Sunday May 3rd @ Starline, Doors @ 10 pm, $7

http://myspace.com/circafresno

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Puppy-Sitting!!! Thursday, Apr 30 2009

This weekend we’re puppy-sitting this adorable little doggy who is the new addition to Da Bartender and Mr. Da Bartender’s family. Her name is Lilly and she’s all spunk and love. It should be a lot of fun to actually take care of this rambunctious puppy, taking her on walks and just being around to give her attention that’s so definitely necessary! it’s the first time her parents are leaving her at home so we’ll see how she handles it.

Work work work all the time! It’s really good to know you’re headed into a weekend full of work that’s going to pay off in the end.

That’s pretty much it for now, not too much to say really… but again, sometimes it’s best to just stay quiet.

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If you drive about 2 hours… Monday, Apr 27 2009

…on the 180 headed East you’ll run into the Sequoia and Kings National Parks. Two parks that are butted up next to one another and absolutely stunning! This weekend Halo and I took a trip to the mountains for a hike. Our final destination was Zumwalt Trail which is a 1.5 hike around the Zumwalt Meadow. There’s an amazing waterfall along the trail that was going to be roaring with the recent snow melt. We were also wanting to scope out a campsite for Da Mommy when she comes in town and we go camping.

We hit the beginning of the park and stopped to look at the South Fork of the Kings River. It was definitely full from the spring snow melt. The Sequoia and Kings National Parks is located at about 6,500 ft above sea level and it’s really accessible. Geological side note: Halo explained the creation of these two national parks happened when a glacier came barrelling through leaving moraines in its wake and creating a “U” shaped valley until the glacier melted thus allowing the Kings River to etch out the rest of the parks in what you see as a “V” shape. This picture is from a “V” shape valley, thus was carved from the river. We were about an hour into out trip and Halo was pointing out the different granite and marble rock faces. It’s pretty interesting to actually see millions of years in geological evidence just on the side of the road! Here’s some pictures of the rocks we encountered:

This is a pure marble rock face that’s just on the side of the road and a cause of many rock slides.

This is a granite rock face with a cool geological formation. The white speck is actually a clump of marble. Geological side note: water erodes granite slower than it erodes marble. Marble and water interact with a chemical reaction. The water bores out the marble creating caves. Therefore it is likely this speck of marble on this granite rock face contains a cave somewhere within its depths. 

The Giant Sentinel from a distance.

The Giant Sentinel from Muir Rock.

We travelled along the road and stopped to get out and take pictures. There was so much to see! We stopped by Grizzly Falls which was amazingly beautiful! The Park Ranger at the entrance told us to stop by there on our way to Zumwalt because of the snow melt. It’s just off to the left side of the road and really spectacular to look at!

After we visited the Falls we headed down to the Boyden Cavern. We didn’t go into the cave, but we will in the near future! It was awesome to stop by the entrance of the cave and see the Kings River flowing so hard it was white water all the way down! There were a bunch of signs warning visitors of the slippery rocks and that the river current was so strong you’d be fatally injured if you attempt to go in. It was highly recommended all stay on dry land! Boyden Cavern is one of four caves that are in the Parks, there’s only one other cave that is open to the public though, Chrystal Cavern (I believe). Here’s the Kings right outside Boyden Cavern:

After that we traveled along looking at the different campsites to scope them out. They are all closed until May 1st so we could only trek through them on foot. We have some ideas of good spots, but there aren’t any sites close to the river. We love car camping by the river so… we’ll see where we decide to take Da Mommy in June.

Back on the road took us to Roaring River Falls, the Zumwalt Trails and Road’s End. We were running short on time so instead of doing the Zumwalt hike we just stopped by all the spots and drove the rest of the way. At Road’s End we went out to Muir Rock and looked at the Kings, the river was a lot calmer here.

We past Zumwalt on the way back and drove to Roaring River Falls. It’s a little bit of a walk to get there, but on a nice day it’s really a great walk. I don’t say hike because the parks service has done a really good job paving the path and maintaining the area. And like Grizzly Falls, Roaring River Falls was absolutely full and beautiful!

After that we packed up and headed home. We were barbecuing some chicken that was marinating in a 10 clove garlic marinade and it was DELICIOUS!!

I’m going to have Halo give me more info on the geology of these two parks, the geological side notes were from what I remembered him telling me.

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Earth Day! Wednesday, Apr 22 2009

It’s Earth Day and as I’m not the most Eco-conscious person, I do value the planet I live on. It’s interesting because it’s been in my relationship with Halo that I’ve really found a love for things in nature. He shows me rocks I would have never looked at and explains how they formed, we spend a lot of time outside (this weekend we’re planning on hiking in Hetch Hetchy, or fondly called Hiccup Packapy), watching Planet Earth was an amazing eye opener to how diverse everything is on this planet, and the unfortunate disintegration of our natural environment.

We both were watching Discovery Channel’s How the Earth Was Madeand saw a preview for the new Disney and Planet Earth movie that follows 3 families of animals, it’s definitely a must see. And if you go opening weekend, Disney will plant a tree for every ticket sold. I think that’s a very cool thing. It makes me remember how as a child we used to collect and save our pennies for my Grandma, Grandpa died of cancer when I was young and in his honor Grandma was a part of the “Pennies for Pines”, a company that allowed you to collect pennies and would donate acreage to the memory of a lost loved one and save the pines planted and growing on that land. I haven’t thought about that in a while and I should check and see where Grandpa’s trees are.

So, what are your Earth Day plans? Are you thinking about what you can do to help out the environment?

Today is also Administrative Professionals Day, so thank your local Secretary Administrative Professional!

Dr. Dave sent me this yesterday and Marcel, it made me think of you:

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May 3rd… SAVE THE DATE!!!! Tuesday, Apr 21 2009

Wanna go to Prom?? That’s right, get out your Aquanet, the frills and side pony tails! It’s Circa’s 80’s Prom!!!!

Who’s gonna go??

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You should probably get your tickets! Monday, Apr 20 2009

Black Light Poetry is coming out in full force to promote this event:

Halo and I already have tickets! I can’t wait! It’s going to be a great night! I hope to see you out there!

This weekend was quite productive. I surpassed the amount I needed in order to pay bills through this month, YAY! And now I’m going to actually save some money and try not to be so screwed next month.

I was cranky this weekend, and I’m sorry.

Circa was a blast! It was good to see the newly weds! I had a great time chillin with Da Bartender and Mr. Da Bartender, back yard BBQ YUM!

Halo, Dr. Dave and I marinated chicken in a Creamy Garlic Italian homemade sauce with mashed potatoes and sweet corn… YUM. I love my allrecipies.com!

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