Winter Travels

I did a bit of a U.S. tour over Christmas/New Year's. We started out with a week in San Diego to visit Nick's family and ensure we'd be as unprepared as possible for the bitter cold in the midwest. I went on some good walks, had a delicious steak dinner with old family friends, and benefited from the annual cookie baking marathon. Nick's mom gave me the amazing gift of one of her spinning wheels. It is a Ashford Traditional and I think it has been to New Zealand. I can't wait to get it spinning. Sadly, I had to leave before actual Christmas to head to Chicago.

Wiggly cactus - one of many cool plants I saw on our walks. Most were hard
to photograph without creepily taking pictures of other people's houses.

I'm not sure if it's possible to hike directly to that little peak in the distance,
but I plan to find out the hard way someday. Maps schmaps.

My newwwww spinning wheel! Eeeee.

When I got to Chicago, it was a very reasonable 40°F. The weather proceeded to get colder 10°F/day for the next four days. We still had a really great time. I got to know Jack's friend Nicola a bit better and Brian had opportunities to be a photo bug. For our arrival meal, Dad found a local joint with great thin crust pizza that you could eat in the adjoining bar. On Christmas Eve Eve we had our traditional meal of lasagne with hot beef sandwiches with my mom's side of the family. I got a lot of fun presents and was able to deliver several craft projects I'd been working on this fall. We even snuck in a game of Tripoley. 

On actual Christmas Eve we went to see Wicked in downtown Chicago. The show was great, fun songs, cool costumes, and a good emotional arc. I've listened to the soundtrack a few times since. 5 stars, would see again. I would also like to know how long it takes to scrub the green off Elphaba afterward, or if they even bother. 

Snowy bean and skyline.

I love this ceiling in the Chicago Macy's.

Brian and I test drove this couch for quite some time while the other folks shopped the fur vault.

After our days in the big city, we headed north to my folks place in Wisconsin. I had fun showing Nick around my hometown, visiting Wilmar's Chocolates, playing board games, and watching movies with my dad. We compared notes on how we passed the time summers, and whose childhood library has the better indoor garden (mine, there are tiger cages). We also went to see Coco and play skiball at the movie theater. I thought the film was really fun, it got me more excited for Incredibles II this spring. Becky and David stopped by for a couple hours one day. We had fun catching up and meeting their new baby. He's a cutie.

Rick and Nikki and the boys came up for a day over the weekend. We introduced Isaac to the ancient art of Yahtzee. Rick forever skewed his understanding of probability by getting three yahtzees in one game. We went for a hike in the meadow with Simon and played in the snow on the sled. The average high while we were there was about -4°F. The bitter cold kept us pretty much indoors, but we did do a few short trips out to visit the horse down the road and to stomp around in the meadow. By the end of the week I basically had cabin fever though. 

My mom's tree looked magnificent.

She featured several ornaments handmade by my friend Jessica the craft genius.

Becky's baby rocking the hat I made him!

Nick takes being a good house-guest very seriously.

Sequoia POCer Party Part II

Sunday we decided to rehab our swimming muscles with an 8 mile hike at 7,000 feet elevation. Everyone else had to fly or drive home so Brian and I headed up to the Wolverton Trailhead and did the hike to Heather Lake. On the way up we took the Watchtower trail. I assumed the name referred to a fire watch tower we would be able to check out, but really it refers to a big outcropping of rock overlooking the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River. It was very impressive but also steep and loose so we didn't walk very far out onto it. The valley was beautiful, the river cascades down a granite dish at one end and makes a series of pools in the side of the cliff. I'd like to do the hike from Lodgepole campground to Tokopah falls sometime. I'd also like to do some backpacking from there so we can get deeper into the alpine country. Above the Watchtower the trail turned into a ledge blasted from the side of the cliff. It was wide enough for comfort but still pretty exposed, very fun.

View from just past the Watchtower into the valley.

Nell being pensive on the ledge section.

Ledge section on the Watchtower trail, Sequoia.

 On the way up we saw three marmots hanging out on a rock and a hairy woodpecker tapping on trees. The lake was very nice, Anna claimed it was pretty warm for an alpine lake but I didn't test it out. We spent about half an hour basking on a rock then hobbled back down to the trailhead via the Hump trail. I think the Hump bit refers to the fact that you have to go over the ridge into the next little creek drainage over before you start descending. In the future I think I'll do the Watchtower trail out and back, it had better views and more uniform elevation change. 

The Watchtower trail turning inland toward Heather Lake.

Heather Lake, Sequoia.

Brian taking the previous image.

Yet more pondering of the Sierras.

We had dinner at the Lodgepole Grill. Protip: if the you ask the cashier "Are the chicken tenders are strips of chicken or pressed minced chicken?" and she says "Yeah they're really good, like big chicken nuggets." that is not the answer you're looking for. Luckily Brian is not obnoxiously fussy like I am. He gave me most of his cheeseburger and ate my chicken tenders.

Sequoia POCer Party Part I

This past weekend Brian and I went to Sequoia to celebrate Derick and Anna's impending baby with a bunch of Purdue Outing Club peeps. We hadn't seen any POCers since our Red Rocks trip last fall so it was fun to catch up with people and celebrate. I haven't been to the Sierras for several years, I'd forgotten how beautiful they are with all the trees and granite. I really like the scrubby desert too. 

I made a hat for the baby based on the Windschief pattern, but I forgot to take a picture of it. It turned out pretty cute. I think I'll do that pattern again. I may alter the decreases though because I wasn't wild about how they went. We also bought a board book of The Runaway Bunny, the prettiest baby book ever written. I hope they enjoy reading it together. 

Saturday we went low-key canyoneering with Brendan and Stephanie on the East Fork of the Kaweah River. I'd never really been canyoneering before so I was very excited. It was not a camera friendly outing so we don't have any pictures, but the river was beautiful. We started about 3.5 miles up Mineral King Road and bushwacked down some cow paths to the river. From there it was about 2 miles along the river back to 198, where we had a cocktail at the Gateway Lodge while Brendan hitched a ride back to the campsite to pick up a car.

We had a great time sliding down rock ramps, floating through deep pools and bumping over rapids. Everyone but Brian jumped off a 15 ft. rock. Brian scouted the depth of the pool for us, despite being very disinclined to stick his feet down into the dark water. Shortly after lunch Steph rolled her ankle scouting a ramp so we had to take the last bit of the trip a bit slow and careful. It clearly hurt pretty badly at the time but luckily the next day it didn't seem to be getting worse, hopefully just a minor sprain. Although I managed not to damage myself the next day I was sore everywhere, I guess I should have stretched after all that swimming. Hopefully next year we can do a more technical canyon with some rappels and waterfalls and things.