Yosemite Day Two

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Yosemite, is the cathedral of national parks. At night it’s granite walls turn dark, but the night’s sky lights up the valley floor. Us poor humans are blessed by the magnificence of nature on display here. You just can’t take Yosemite for granite. ;-)

After three nights in LA and now three nights in the mountains, I am beginning to feel washed of my cares from work. To my photo friends, everyone is an expert Photographer in Yosemite. Even an iPhone takes great photos. Our first day was spent walking around, getting our bearings. The second day, we bicycled around the valley floor. Maybe we got 10 miles. We basically just used the bikes to get to the next destination. Today we hiked up the mountainside to the halfway point between the upper and lower Yosemite falls. It was a 1000 foot climb in 1.5 miles. Tough! As I write this post we are speeding across the San Joaquin Valley, with Dan at the wheel. Tonight we stay in Monterey.

Sequoia

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Sunday, we left LA’s megalopolis for the mountains. We drove across the San Joaquin Valley to Sequoia National Park. Driving through the park was a bear. There were too many hairpin turns and a temporary road closure to boot. It took over two hours to go fifty miles. We all enjoyed seeing the giant sequoias though. We toured General Sherman the largest living tree, by volume. He is not particularly tall, as sequoias go, but he is massive. While we were touring Sherman, the partial solar eclipse was underway. If we weren’t in the sweet spot swath that cut across California, we were darn close. Plus, we were at altitude. The eclipse cast a strange light, bluer than normal. I think that it was this strange cast of light that frightened primitive peoples more than the unexpected darkness. Anne was able to make crescent shaped shadows by crisscrossing her fingers. The sequoias could do it too, with their pine needles. It was rather magical. Sunday night was spent in Grant’s Grove, part of King’s Canyon National Park. We rented a cabin. Because we are sleeping within wooden wall, we can safely bring our food inside. Monday night, we’ll be in a tent. Then we’ll have to use special bear boxes to store the food. Never can we store the food in the car. The bears have learned how to pry open car doors with their claws. Monday night we will be in Yosemite.

Conjunctions

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Pearl and Lou

It was a dark and stormy night. No, I’m waking up in LA. It was another bright and sunny morning. Dave had emailed us in the middle of the night that he had missed his connection in Tokyo. He was returning to LAX from his conference in Hong Kong and his flight to Tokyo was delayed. He wouldn’t be arriving in the morning as planned, but at 5 PM. This threw into disarray our plans for the day. We had arranged to meet Lou and Pearl, Anne’s uncle and aunt and Harry’s older brother. Lou is a nonagenarian. We had planned to entrain the ‘Boyz of Noise’, descend upon their home and then go out to dinner. Lou and Pearl generously agreed to wait for us. This impromptu delay dovetailed nicely for Dan. He had stayed up until dawn and not partying. He told us this when we called him to explain the change of plans. He hung-up with a statement full of dark foreboding, he had a story to tell us.

With our day free until five, Anne and I went to the Getty. Suffice to say, the museum lived up to its hype. We loved it. It is a contemporary architectural masterpiece. Styled on the theme of an Italian village, I found the outside of the museum more impressive than anything on the inside. It is so befitting of tinsel town, where exterior form out ranks interior function. Don’t miss it though, if you have the chance to see it. There will be much more posted on the Getty in the future.

Anne with the LA Skyline Behind Her

Five o’clock rolled around. We picked up Dave and then took a circuitous route back north to Lou and Pearl’s. Google maps had redlined the 405. Some sort of LA car-mageddon was underway Saturday night, under the guise of normal Saturday traffic. Anyway, we made it. Lou is a consummate story-teller, with stories told in school that should be told out of school. Like the Getty, there is much more to be posted. Dan joined us shortly thereafter and our family was reunited for the first time since Christmas. Lou and Pearl treated us at their favorite steakhouse. At dinner Dan told us his story.

CalArts’ commencement celebrations can collect crashers. One of Dan’s classmates disrupted an attempted sexual assault. [IMHO] He got a busted lip for his trouble. The perp then fled. Confronted by campus police, he assaulted two officers, before biting a third. Dan spent the rest of the night at an urgent care center, after driving his wounded classmate there. That’s my boy!

Tomorrow, we four head into the mountains, where internet access is spotty, read non-existent. While postings have been falling like rain, here in the content capital of the world, in the mountains, words could be few and far between. Stay posted.

2012 CalArts Graduation

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Dan graduated from CalArts last night, with a Master of Fine Arts. Years ago, he had declined to attend his BFA commencement at Webster, so this was his first commencement. It was unlike any commencement that I’ve ever gone to. It was quite the party, quite the wild party. I’ve included some random crowd shots to give the feel of the ceremony. Amanda, Dan’s friend, also graduated last night. The rest of the people pictured, just think of supporting cast. The bad boys and girls of the School of Art lived up to their rep. Condemned to walk last, they suffered an interminable three-hour wait. What took so long, was that each graduate was alloted ten seconds of audio sound track as they walked the stage. Most of the grads had music playing and some tracks were embarrassingly popular. Best sounds went to a south Asian man whose audio recording was a well-timed correction of the pronunciation of his alphabet soup name, “No Dean so-and-so, my name is pronounced, …” Anyway, let’s get back to those bad art students. After the last of them had walked, it was announced that a beloved teacher was retiring. Spontaneously, the entire graduating art school rushed the stage and risked its collapse, much to the consternation of security. It all turned out well though and afterwards food and drink was served.