I think some of the best vacations I've had have always included visiting with family for a while, and then going off into the mountains to just detox from the day to day activities.  Some people feel closer to themselves or their higher power when they are near the ocean, some when they are in the desert, and some when they are in the mountains.  I guess I'm one of the mountain people because when I see them in the distance I stir a little, and when I actually get myself up into the mountains I feel at peace.  Do you ever get that feeling, when you know that all is well in the world and life?  Drop me in the mountains and I feel centered immediately.

I have siblings that still live near the mountains (I went to elementary school in Lake Tahoe and my older siblings that graduated from high school there still live in the area) and going to visit them is so much fun.  Who knows, maybe some day I'll be able to move there again.  For now I'm enjoying my 1,500 mile buffer.  Oops, did I say that out loud?

Anywho, here I am in Reno:


And I got to hang out with the sibs and their families (some not pictured, I realized way too late that I didn't take enough pictures at this bbq).


A special shout out to the people that work at my sister's bank.  Their enthusiasm in having The Crochet Dude there was fantastic.  Maybe I should have a booksigning in their lobby?  Now that's thinking outside the box.  They did have free cookies....

I ran into my friends Maggie and Laurie in Lake Tahoe.  It's always fun to see friends in a setting that can only be described as "idyllic".  Right after this photo was taken we stopped at a brewery and had local brew and nibbly things, and one of the ladies in this photo had a beer called "Bad *ss"... I won't say which one but judging by the conversation that followed I would say that the name fit perfectly.  I was the designated driver so got to experience it all sober.  Sometimes that's more fun!


Next I visited a ghost town out in the middle of nowhere California called Bodie:


Then further out in the middle of nowhere (do you see a trend?) I visited the ancient Mono Lake:


Where I found this sign in the outhouse next to the parking lot:



Then after NOT putting trash in the "toilet" I ended up here:


No dear friends, that is not a post card of Yosemite.  I took that photo with a silly little point-n-shoot (that I got for under $200 two years ago), showing that if you are in paradise, it's hard to take a bad photo.  I really do love Houston y'all, but come on, can you imagine having this view from your front porch?

I took thousands of photos and won't clog up the Internet with them all, but here is another that proves without a doubt that i was indeed there:

Hairdo courtesy of the wind in Yosemite National Park.  Amazing how insignificant vanity becomes when you are in a place like this.

And as the cherry on the cake of my vacation I ended up in the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias at the south end of Yosemite. It's hard to take a photo of a complete tree because, well, they truly are giants.   I still say Ross & Rachel should have named their baby "Sequoia". 


I was going to do my annual "Where in the World is The Crochet Dude" game but alas, there was NO internet access most of the time I was away.  In fact, once I headed out of Tahoe I didn't even have cell phone service.  It's was very scary, it was like being thrown back into 1992 again.  Eeeeeee.....where is my time flux capacitor when I need it?