Trip to the West Coast 6

July 10th
This is a (very hot) day just to relax: pool, petting farm and gem hunt at the campground, shopping, campfire w/ marshmallows and s'mores (o.k. this is not the whole truth, of course there is laundry, cooking, cleaning...)

July 11th
Again Yosemite! This time we explore the giant sequoias of Tuolumne Grove. These giants are so majestic and its unbelievable that people carved one to drive through!! Nontheless we pose for a picture in it:

We leave Yosemite National Park through the north. This part of the park is at least as beautiful as the valley (and less crowded).

The weather is quite warm but not too hot so that we walk around a bit and enjoy this beautiful scenery. Then we drive east southwards. After a great scenic drive through the Sierra Nevada we arrive at Mammoth Lakes and stay at a big RV park.

   

Trip to the West Coast 5

After endless computer problems and a big mess with all our pictures I finally get to continue our blog :-))

July 9th
We are only an hour from Yosemite. On a quite hot morning we finally make it to our first "big" park! Yosemite Valley is spectacular with beautiful vistas and cascades ...

... but soooo crowded!

Why don't they have people leave their cars outside and organize a shuttle service like most of the other parks? It's not really amusing to thread a 30ft RV in these needle-eye parking lots...

We get a first refreshment at the Bridal Veil Falls that cover big part of the trail with their splashing water.

Then we hike to the "Lower Falls" which are together with their "Higher Falls" the highest water falls in the States.

After a hot day in the valley the kids cool off in the water

and on our way back we even catch sight of a (cinnamon brown) black bear next to the road !!!

Piano recital

Ina, Wiebke and Nils are continuing their piano lessons with Ina's former piano teacher (she had started in first grade) and also Katrin is taking lessons now. Two days ago, they had their first recital.

 

German kids doing crafts for Thanksgiving

Today, we had invited Katrin's preschool group. Unfortunately, it was raining the whole day but they still walked the 15 minutes to our house to have a snack, play in Katrin's room and then make a colorful turkey. They all had so much fun!

Thursday, 11-11-2010 Laterne-Parade

Much larger than last year's parade in Westchester Woods ;-), this year's parade in Laudenbach was led by a rider with a red cape (representing St. Martin, a roman soldier who gave half of his cape to a beggar), followed by a small marching band and then all the children of our village's only elementary school and the three preschools. In spite of some rain and cold temperatures we sang and walked through the village to our school where a big fire pit with colorful flames and sweet bread men waited for the children.

Halloween in Germany

Before continuing to write about our west coast adventure I need to tell about our German Halloween experience. Feeling American now after having lost our hearts in Cary we truly observed this holiday. The house was full of spiders, spiderwebs at our front door, skulls and lots of bats, and of course our ghost in a milk container decorated the whole house, plus ghosts and bats and witches behind the windows.

We carved some pumpkins,

I baked a ton of "fingers" and we had invited the whole neighborhood to a drink and pretzels in the morning (that was really nice although it was not a real Halloween party but more to tell everybody that the Arndts are back). In the evening I went trick or treating with the kids

and Dietrich, with his black curls (last year's wig) sat in front of our front door, drinking red blood (wine) and scaring the kids with moaning sounds from the computer. We had a nice time, the kids had their fun (Wiebke was even at a Halloween sleep over party) but what can I say.... it was not quite the same....

Trip to the West Coast 4

July 7th
Hike in the park to see the amazing Redwood Trees. Besides these impressive trees there are big marks of fire and many many sick oaks.

This is where we leave the coast and go north eastwards. We drive through hilly grasslands and plantations (fruits and nuts) and stay at a campground not far from Santa Nella in the middle of nowhere.

July 8th
After 6 loads of laundry (...) we continue our trip north eastwards to Turlock again through lots of fruit plantations (walnuts) and pass historic Jamestown with his beautiful old houses.

Then we climb up a very high pass with pretty vistas to arrive at an R.V. Park in Groveland with pool, petting zoo, and storyteller at the campfire where we stay for 2 days.