Superbowl Weekend...But No Football for Us

Our weekend got off to a rough start. Our plans were to head up to Mammoth right after work, but we got a bit delayed.

So we get home on Friday and are packing the car to go. We realize our cat Haley is acting kinda crazy. She started throwing up and we knew this wasn't normal behavior. Then she started acting very lethargic. So we decided we needed to take her to the vet to see what was going on. She was immediately diagnosed as diabetic. Oh no! Her blood sugar levels were up over 500. She's doing a lot better now, but needs insulin twice a day. When I think about it, being diabetic explains a lot of her behavior. There's been times where we though she had arthritis because of the difficulties she has with our stairs. But then again, we thought she wasn't old enough for arthritis. I think she was pretty bad off on Friday. If we had left and not noticed, it is very possible she may not have made it through the weekend.

We already had our plans and a condo booked at mammoth. So we really had no choice but to leave her at the vets office for the weekend. So now we're left with other issues to resolve. And that is how to deal with a diabetic cat when you lead a pretty busy and on the go lifestyle, like we do. We leave in a couple of weeks to go to Vegas and Utah. We''ll be gone for about 8 days. And we really have no idea what we're going to do. We can obviously leave her with the vet we just took her to, but they charged us an arm and a leg to board her for those nights. Plus I'm sure she would rather be at home an not in a cage.

We ended up going up to mammoth on Friday night, but didn't get there until 11:30! The skiing this weekend was great. We had great weather. Blue skies the entire time. And the snow was great after the big dumping they got the previous week. Sunday was dead to…no lift lines due to super bowl! Our condo was right near one of the lifts and the condo itself was really nice. Pretty spacious for a one bedroom place. We had free lift tickets from our American express rewards points too. Of course with the $$$ involved with the vet visit that was pretty much a complete wash.

And - the result of the Adobe situation…I finally got to talk to someone who cares. I explained the whole thing and they agreed to approve it and send me my software. Yippee! Only took 4 months to resolve this! I guess I shouldn't be to happy until I actually have photoshop for mac in my hands.

Fall Splendor

Warning...long post...lots of photos. :)

Our trip to Mammoth was meant to enjoy fall, but we actually got to expereince some winter too. The lows were in the 20s and the weather was a bit odd. It just made us anxious to get back on our skis. I keep hoping they will get more snow and early season skinig will be decent this year.

So on Friday we traveled up to Mammoth Lakes to celebrate our anniversary. The condo was fantastic. A corner unit that was actually more of a townhouse. It had a flat screen TV with surround sound and amazingly conformable beds. We went to Whiskey Creek for dinner and went for the full thing...appetizer (artichoke dip), Entrees, and Desert (mud pie). Everything was delicious. Desert is always a nice treat for me, since I rarely ever eat it. The downfall with the condo complex was that the hot tubs were apparently closed until 1 Nov! How can you come to mammoth and not use the hot tub! But we figured out a way to enjoy hot tub time anyway!

On Saturday we got up enjoyed breakfast and some coffee and then headed out to the trail head for a bit of a hike. We were planing on doing a 10 mile hike up to Duck Pass and back, but once we got to Mammoth we didn't think we'd actually get all the way up there, because there was a good amount of snow on the mountains! But we decided to try and see how far we would get. Well as soon as we got on the trail it started to snow! Yup, you read that right! It was actually the weirdest weather day..we had snow, rain, hail, wind, and some blue skies. Dave for some reason decided he didn't need to bring a jacket to elevation in October...so once we got to the third lake we ate lunch and turned around. IT was windy and quite chilly up there. So the hike ended up only being about 6 miles.. but we decided to want to go back there and backpack.

A not so good photo of me...but you get the point!

Apparenlty Dave thought it was still summer!

After we got down we were both pretty cold so we decided to go have hot chocolate. Then we drove around June Lake to see the leaves changing. I just love the color of the leaves against the white trunks of the aspen trees.

That night we ate at Angel's, enjoyed the hot tub again, and watched a movie in the condo.

Sunday we got up early and drove to Convict Lake (the place on the nature valley commercial) for morning photos, but soon realized first thing in the am isn't the best time as the other mountains cast lots of shadows. So I took a few shots then we drove back to the condo.

While at the condo we drank coffee and watched skiing on the Mammoth Channel. Then we packed up and then went to some other spots, before going back to Convict Lake.

The next two are at Lake Mary

Then we had lunch at Erik Schat's and drove up Bishop Creek Canyon. Most of the leaves here dieed already due to the cold snap last week, but there were still some pretty spots. Our last stop of the days was Alabama Hills in Lone Pine. We had nver seen the famous arch, so we decided to seek that out. Pretty Sweet!



Now we're home and wishing the weekend was not over!

Another Weekend in the Sierras

Can you tell we love the sierras! This weekend we camped near Rock Creek Lake. What a beautiful location. I knew that most of the campgrounds were first come first served, so we left as early as we could to get up there. When we arrived we couldn't get a site at Rock Creek Lake so we headed down to the next campground and managed to snag the last spot there. Whew Hooh! Especially since we really liked the campground. It was small, only 10 sites but lots of trees and right on the river. Even though it was August, it was still chilly. The lows must have been in the 30s-40s, so I slept in several layers. Being that we live in a desert climate, I just love that we can get in the car during the summer and go to much cooler weather.

After setting up camp we went up to rock creek lake to hang out for a bit.

The lake was cold enough to refrigerate my beer!

Then in the evening we enjoyed this
and this by the campfire.
On Saturday, we woke up had breakfast and got on our way. What a gorgeous hike!


We went up over Morgan Pass (~11,150 ft) and hiked down to Lower Morgan Lake. This lake was wonderful! It was surrounded by a mountain on one side and trees and greenery on the rest. We reached here around noon, so we decided it was a great location for lunch. After lunch to headed back. I didn't have my garmin this time so I don't know the exact distance, but were thinking it was 9-10 miles. Once we got back to the campground we went to soak our feet in the river. This is something we love to do after a big hike. Then it was time for dinner and campfire!

On Sunday we decided to not do a second hike. So instead we drove up the road to Bodie Ghost Town. That was quite interesting. It was friends of Bodie day...so there were all these people dressed in 1800s attire and even some covered wagons! Here is some of what I shot at Bodie.

A Weekend in San Diego

Since I have been so crazy busy lately with photography stuff, I decided that Dave and I should take Sat and Sun and do something fun together. Besides we LOVE to go places! So we got in the car sat morning and drove to the San Diego area. Dave really wanted to go to Del Mar for horse racing, but August is looking pretty full, so we didn't know how we would be able to make it down. So that is what we decide to do on Saturday. It was so crazy down there....tons of people. I knew that Del Mar was kind of a hard place to photograph the horses, so I rented a 100-400mm lens from Calumet. And I think I was able to get some pretty good shots from the second level. The 6th race was the "big race" o the day. Dave really liked this horse...Surf Cat (check out his tongue).

But unfortunately Surf Cat came in second and this horse won the race.
The last race we watched as a turf race so we went to the infield, where there were a lot less people.


After the races were over, we ate dinner in Del Mar overlooking the ocean at sunset. I'm not into the whole beachy thing, but I would say Del Mar and La Jolla are my top coastal southern cali locations. So beautiful! I wanted to take sunset photos, but my battery died after the last race and apparently my other battery didn't charge in the car like I thought it did.

We spent the night and took our time getting up/ready to go on Sunday. Then it was off to Temecula for a day of wine tasting. We ate lunch at Carol's restaurant at Baily's and it was a pretty good lunch! I had a pork loin sandwich with Cabernet barbecue sauce and Dave had a Reuben. We ended the day with a short visit to Pechanga Casino where Dave got to play some Let It Ride, but didn't come out as a big winner.

More From Mammoth

Sorry ,I ran out of time last night, so here are a few more photos from the weekend. While we watched the fireworks from Crowley Lake the sky was doing some pretty neat colors and there was this little tiny crescent moon. I have some photos with orange in them, that are really cool, but we were in a not so great photo location. There were telephone poles in the way. Not that it makes the photo awful. I think the worst thing was the headlights heading down the road. So I'll see if I can clean it up a bit and post it later.
So the fireworks were much better than I expected. I figured being out in the middle of the mountains it wouldn't be all that great. Plus I usually have high expectations since I'm from Maryland (I used to watch fireworks in cities like Baltimore, DC, NYC, and Philly).


A few more lake footage photos from around Mammoth. For the first time I realized why the town is called "Mammoth Lakes". There are lot of lakes around there. I never knew since they are usually covered in snow!
We made one last stop before heading home...see if you recgonize it.
No clue....here let me give you a hint.

Does that help? Ok if not, think of a specific Nature Valley Granola Bar Commercial....

Yup you got it... Convict Lake.

Unfortunately the lighting was just horrendous while we were there. And I knew it would be, but I love that place and wanted to stop quickly. I think we're going to go back up in the fall for my birthday so maybe I can get some better photos then.