September 27, 2000- Wednesday. Robert came up to join us mid morning, so we headed into Oakhurst for a nice lunch. Were we surprised when the "Three Sisters" restaurant turned out to be a superb dinning establishment with every dish a work of art. There were no meat and potato plates here.
We then drove to Bass Lake to case the joint for future playtime. There were many homes of nice size and shape (as opposed to the mansions by Lake Tahoe or the entry level structures at Huntington Lake). It looked like many of the homes with private docks had no water by the end of the dock. Apparently the lake level was about 15 lower then the "full" level, but this was normal for this time of the year.
Afterwards we walked around the motor home park, the golf course and the housing development. Many of the homes being constructed were of good size. This Ahwahnee valley is a lovely, quiet, undeveloped area. Very peaceful with a temperate temperature all year. After a nice dinner Rob drove back to Fresno, about 45 minutes.
September 28, 2000, Thursday- Rob and Deb came up early this morning and we headed up to Yosemite National Park. The entry was about 20 miles from here, and the Ahwahenee Lodge was another 30 miles over the hill and around the curves. I was pushing to keep up with a 35 MPH speed limit. We passed by El Capitan, the famous climbing face, and spotted several people on ropes a few thousand feet above the valley floor. Definitely not for the faint of heart! At lunch, in this wonderful facility, we were joined by Rob and Deb's friends Krista, and Brian, also an ER docs in the Fresno program. Ahwahenee Lodge is definitely old style elegance. Started in the 1870's the facility is now on the historic register. The grand dinning room had 35 foot high ceilings, floor to ceiling windows, and turn of the century elegance.
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After lunch the six of us hiked up the Mist Falls and Vernal Falls trail. As you can see from the photos, it's an unbelievable area. Pristine, massive, and mother nature at her best. I think that it was one of the steeper hikes that we've done with an average of 1000 feet of vertical for each mile of hiking. Five miles in three hours, round trip. It was definitely worth the effort.
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Tonight Susan and I got killed by Rob and Deb losing 3 straight games of Euchre. We couldn't get a hand to bet with, but it was great to see their smiles.
September 29, 2000, Friday- We've been downloading the e-mail by cell phone all week. Last night we had 14 inbound, and the first 7 loaded in 30 seconds, but the status bar wasn't moving. Number 8 was loading and loading and loading. After 4 minutes it had moved about 2% of the way across. This wouldn't work. So off this morning I headed to the manager's office. Two options were available- either be the nice guy or the hard liner, demanding my rights from this membership organization. I chose the former and the manager warmed up to lukewarm from ice cold. There were two phone jacks to try, but each was dead. No, you can't borrow the fax or the swipe machine lines. I convinced her to let me use the line over in the RV section office and got online. A three meg file was sent by e-fax - their new monthly newsletter. Yuk! I couldn't find an unsubscribe button without canceling the free service.
However, the good news was that after searching the internet for Intuit, the maker of the Quick Books accounting software, and a few phone discussions, I found the version of software that I needed to run the accounting data that is stored on this computer. After an hour's download (at a 115K speed) we were back in business. Thank goodness the pieces came together, because it held personal as well as business information that may have been unretrievable.
While I was doing this stuff, Susan was making chicken soup, knaidels and chopped liver for the holidays. Quite the achievement for a tiny kitchen. We shall feast tonight.
Everyone was stiff from yesterday's hike. We finally read the guidebooks and found it was rated difficult and strenuous. No disagreement from us!
September 30, 2000, Saturday- Rosh Hashanah. And in the Book of Life it is written who shall live and who shall die. With Rob and Deb we decided on a special day for our own introspection. With a 7:30 AM departure, we headed to and through Yosemite National Park, for our destination of Mono Lake. This nature preserve is like a sacred place. During the ice age the lake level was 700 feet higher then current levels. In the 1950's the Los Angles Water Board started redirecting 4 of the 6 streams that feed the lake. Water levels dropped 45 feet, and in the late 70's a land bridge developed to the center island that permitted wolves and coyotes to prey on the bird sanctuary. Natures ecological balance was being disturbed. Some 90% of the California Gulls summer here, and over three hundred different species of migrant fowl use Mono Lake as a transcontinental water station. The south end of the lake is covered with "Tufas". These are calcium bicarbonate growths the come up out of the lake as the underground spring water mixes with the subsurface minerals.
Through hard work and education, the water powers are being forced to raise the water levels to a respectable level to preserve the "island" and to keep the salinity of the lake from getting out of balance.
While having lunch outside of the lake area, our cell phone rang with the great news of Jacob Mathew Cohen coming into the world. Rachael and Brad are now the proud parents of a 7 pound 3 ounce healthy baby boy. It was written in the book! The phones were kept hot and heavy, and we will change our plans, head toward Las Vegas by the end of next week, and fly next weekend to the bris. What a wonderful period in their young lives!
Our round trip was 300 miles with parts at 8% grades covering several thousand feet of vertical climb and descents. It would have been difficult in the coach.
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