Travel Tuesday: Yosemite

I have already managed to miss last week's Travel Tuesday but what can I say? I was preparing for a complete Thanksgiving feast at my house for a party of 25. Yes, you heard that right: 25. That mad final hour dash to whip the potatoes, toast the buns, cut the turkey {and the ham!} and at the same time making sure everyone's wine glass {or beer bottle} was full.

Here's my table all ready to go.

Gift bags for each family.

It was also my mother-in-law's 82nd birthday. Happy birthday Nilta!

OK, so back to Travel Tuesday.

With all of this super cold weather and Sierra snow I couldn't help but think back to last year's day trip to Yosemite. Yes. I'll say it again: day trip. It's a 4-hour drive each way and I would never attempt such a feat but being a passenger rather than the driver? Totally do-able!

We left at the crack of dawn and got up to Yosemite before noon. The backdrop in the snowy meadow we were playing in was unbelievable.  There was a thick layer of mist sitting on top of the snow so it made us all feel as if we were living in a dream.

Yosemite is definitely a beautiful place in the summer but the winter scenery is just as incredible. 

Photographs can never do any justice to what the human eye sees. You don't have to be religious to believe that Yosemite is truly God's Country. 

If you are lucky enough to visit and don't want to pay top dollar to stay at the Ahwahee Hotel and you don't want to go too rustic at the Lodge then by all means I highly recommend staying at Tenaya Lodge in Fish Camp, which is about an hour outside of the park. It has cozy beautifully appointed rooms, a heated pool and jacuzzi, a gym, restaurants, a great room with a fireplace and board games and puzzles you can check out for free and even an ice skating rink. 

Even if you don't stay at the Ahwahnee Hotel you must go to their Sunday Brunch in the main dining room. The food is incredible and the views through the floor-to-ceiling windows are spectacular. 

If you have been to Yosemite, what part of the park is a must-see or must-do for you?

Are you ready?

For Thanksgiving, that is?

Luckily, hubby does most of the grocery shopping and is responsible for the well-being of the bird when it goes into the oven on Thursday morning.

I am responsible for readying the house and making the mashed potatoes and veggies at that last mad hour before the meal is served.

I am seriously dreaming about my mom's homemade pumpkin pie. 

Her apple pie is just as divine.

I'm off to boot camp in a few hours to try to work some sort of calorie deficit for the week so that I can eat all of that holiday goodness on Thursday.

I hope I am not alone on that thought? 

So I meant to post a few pictures from our 4-day trip to North Lake Tahoe a few weeks ago. It was such a relaxing weekend! You can't go wrong with watching movies, working on a 750-piece puzzle and playing lots of card games. 

We drove to Virginia City, Nevada on Veteran's Day to watch the parade. It was freezing but we enjoyed the gold mine tour and the cute little shops. 

I found a few quaint antique shops {yay!} and found a few goodies to take home. 

Darren and Grandpa

Darren was thrilled to take a picture of a real cowboy.

If anyone has any favorite side dishes they like to serve at Thanksgiving I'm open for suggestions and ideas!

Thanksgiving ideas

Thanksgiving is next week!

8 days to be exact.

It's going to be at my house and we'll be having over 20 family members over.

I am sort of at a loss for how to decorate the tables. I've seen quite a few ideas while blog hopping but nothing quite caught my eye until I saw this posted on Twig & Thistle:

This fits into my 2 most important criteria:

1. free or very inexpensive {LOL}

2. quick and easy to make

You can print out the PDF for free {!} at Silverbox here.

Please share any links to any cute Thanksgiving decor or other ideas if you have them!

Travel Tuesday: Cadeques, Spain

Did Tuesday arrive again this quickly? 

Today I am reaching way back into the photo archives for this one.

Date: September 1996

Setting: 5-week long backpacking trip to Europe covering 5 countries with my sister and 2 friends

This is a stop in the coastal town of Cadeques, Spain in the Spanish Riviera.

Memorable moment: drinking sangrias before noon in the famous Bar l'Hostal where Mick Jagger and Salvador Dali used to hang out.

This place was memorable in our trip because it's a lazy town with not a lot of crowds and is peaceful and quiet. This was the only time we were able to kick our aching feet up, hang out by the pool and reflect on our trip.

This is a photo of my sister. The white home behind her in the background is where Salvador Dali lived and painted. Cool, huh?

Travel Tuesdays!

Yes. 

I love to travel.

I wish I could do it more often but life gets in the way.

So in honor of my love of traveling I am going to do my best with posting a travel experience {or dream} every Tuesday.

I'm going to start today with the obvious. 

The Napali Coast on Kauai's North Shore.

Here's a photo I took last year on the Kalalau trail that follows along the coastline. I swear it is the most beautiful hiking trail I've ever been on.

The strenuous 2-mile hike leads you to Hanakapiai Beach which is a gorgeous secluded beach with a fresh water stream running to it. The stream is the perfect place to cool off and gather your bearings for the hike back to town. 

My husband and I decided our son was old enough to hike it. Here he is enjoying Hanakapiai Beach.

Here's a look at the trail hiking in.

Where is the most beautiful trail you've ever hiked?

Randomness...and a start of something new!

I'm slowly making my way back into the gym. I'm trying to take it nice and slow because I:

(1) Haven't worked out on a regular basis in over 2 months! Yikes!

(2) Don't want to reinjure myself working out too hard because I am forty-*cough* years old

(3) Because I want to run in the Run Wild for a Child 5K/10K at the end of this month...and you know how I've been cursed of late. Everytime I sign up for a race or an event I get hurt! So I am simply going to show up and register the day of the event. How's that for smart thinking?

Here are a few digital pages I created over the past few days.

I've been wanting to start a weekly something on my blog and I think I've come up with one I'm excited about. 

BUT, you'll have to come back and visit me on Tuesday because that will be my first weekly post of my something new!

Any guesses on what it could be? 

Here's a hint:

It's related to something I love to do and it's not scrapbook-related or camping-related.

Congratulations to the World Series Champs SF Giants!

I would've loved to have gone to today's parade celebrating the SF Giants World Series win but  it was still exciting watching it all on TV today.

Although I've been an Oakland A's fan for over 20 years I'm still a baseball fan and totally got caught up in the frenzy of the magic happening within this team.
I feared the beard.
I  experienced torture baseball.
But these guys beat the odds and became World Champions.

What a great day for San Francisco and Bay Area baseball fans.

Way to go, Giants!

November? Really?

No, I did not fall off the face of the planet.

I haven't had a chance to blog because I was horribly sick for over a week and all of a sudden Halloween was upon me. 

Here are a few pictures from Halloween. Darren was a Jedi warrior sans the light saber.

The cast of characters Halloween night: Bobafette, Pimp Daddy {LOL}, Peter Pan and the Jedi Warrior.

Darren also started his first season of basketball. After only 4 practices they had their first game this past weekend. Oh boy, these boys have a lot to learn!

Proud Dad:

I managed to make this banner last week while in the recuperating stage of being sick. 

It's my Thanksgiving banner and it's hanging happily over my fireplace mantle.

Only 24 more days until Thanksgiving! Yikes!