TRAVEL: A LITTLE SOJOURN TO THE DESERT UTAH/NEVADA

The view of Zion National Park from Bonnie's house

Every summer Ted makes a trip to Salt Lake City for the Outdoor Retailer trade show to view the world's coolest outdoor gear and acquire some to sell in the Mountain Shop in Yosemite.  Last couple of years I've tagged along, but this year though my presence was required in Utah, my attention was directed to a loftier goal:  emptying the storage unit we'd been keeping in Utah since I'd moved away in the spring of 2010.  The best part of this plan was that we would be able to visit with our friend Bonnie in Springdale.  After some tricky logistics got me, Ted, and our cargo trailer to Utah via Las Vegas, we were able to spend a weekend with Bonnie and various members of the Suerig clan, including her dog Scooby Doo (a mixed breed rescue dog, Ted referred to Scooby's pedigree as "Desert Husky").

We stayed with Bonnie in her home just yards from the entrance to Zion National Park amidst her hollyhock garden and flocks of hummingbirds.  We ate pizza from the Flying Monkey (the excellent Pizza Lasagna involving fennel sausage - yum!), went tubing on the Virgin River and cooked up some Mexican food for Bonnie and her daughter Tiffany (seafood tostadas, grilled parmesan corn and watermelon salad).  Bonnie's granddaughter Ginger (Tiffany's daughter) had just turned nine years old, so I also attended Ginger's birthday party involving a giant water slide and many sugar-laden treats.  We took a spin through Rockville, trying to see our ex-landlords (and friends) Dan and Aleen, but we only caught a glimpse of our old pal Cactus the Burro who seemed to have a new friend in his reconfigured pasture.

Photo from www.foodzings.com

After all the weekend fun, we made our way to Hurricane and our storage unit (Parker Storage - a highly recommended great deal for my Utah friends) and not too many snafus later had loaded up our cargo trailer (mysteriously less full than when we unloaded initially in a bending-the-laws-of-physics kind of way).  Those snafus?  Ted didn't bring the padlock key, Michelle didn't bring the padlock key, bought bolt cutters to cut the lock, lock is the type that can't be cut by bolt cutters, needed a locksmith, called Beth in California to look up Hurricane locksmiths on the web, left messages for various locksmiths, found a locksmith that showed up in 20 minutes and cut the lock off with something high tech for $60 (NOT a snafu!), returned the bolt cutters unused.  Whew!  After uploading our stuff, we decided to drive to Vegas that evening to cut some time off the long trailer-towing trip ahead of us.  The only way our Springdale sojourn could have been better is if our friend Hans had been there.  Bonnie's husband, and our dear friend, had passed away earlier this year and we miss him.  We thanked Bonnie for her wonderful hospitality and headed into Nevada to stay at our old stand-by: the Las Vegas Super 8 at Ellis Island Casino.  We drank the tasty $1.75 micro-brewed beer and lost some money at blackjack.  The hotel is being remodeled and the casino is still the best casual hangout in town.  They were having a Hatch Chile Roast on August 20th that I was sorry to miss.

From the Ellis Island Casino facebook pageBright and early the next morning we headed for Yosemite.  Driving across Nevada is one of my very favorite things to do.  Why?  Because I am the Road Trip Queen and the Nevada highways are always empty, and because the scenery in Nevada is ever entertaining.  The road signs in Nevada never fail to get you thinking.

We stopped for lunch in the town of Beatty, a gateway town for Death Valley National Park where brothels abide that's geographically and perhaps uncomfortably close to where they used to test atomic bombs in the Nevada desert.  I wanted to check out the Happy Burro Chili & Beer since I had bypassed it so many times traveling through Beatty, and anything with beer is good for Ted.  The Happy Burro is the kind of place you hope to find on a road trip boasting an outdoor deck where the friendly locals hang out, an unfriendly dog and the most disgustingly delicious road food ever: chili dogs, chili burgers and PBR served in a Mason jar.  Road trip bliss.

We passed through Fish Lake Valley and the tiny hamlet of Dyer, NV before entering California.  The Esmeralda Market in Dyer holds a special place in my heart as it saved me from running out of gas in the true middle of nowhere on a previous road trip.  Curiously, we noticed an abundance of tomato juice drinks in the cooler at the market (at least 6 different kinds) and I surmised that they must like their Bloody Marys in Dyer.  The market is another road trip classic: well-stocked with drinks and food, two gas pumps out front and a snack bar.  You're lucky to find this place as you pass through the Nevada desert.

Junket Ratings:

The Flying Monkey Wood Fire Kitchen: Junk in the Trunk!

Las Vegas Super 8: Junk-O-Rama

Ellis Island Casino and Brewery: Junk in the Trunk!

Happy Burro Chili & Beer: Junk in the Trunk!

Esmeralda Market: Junk-O-Rama

HOME/TRAVEL: SUMMER IN THE SIERRA (AND MOM COMES TO VISIT) JUNE 2011

So here we are, chillin' in Yosemite Valley now that summer is here and the temps are finally hovering around the hot mark.  The incredible everlasting snowpack in the Sierra from last winter is still creating highwater everywhere - rivers, creeks, waterfalls, campgrounds, bridges - and the show is spectacular.  We had planned a June birthday visit for my mom, coming from Michigan, and we couldn't have picked a better summer vacation for her.  We spent some days in the Valley, tooling around on bikes, viewing the waterfalls and cooking up a Mexican birthday fiesta.  But mom and I also traveled to the East Side - the eastern high desert counterpart to the Sierra Nevada's western slopes that is home to Tule elk, petroglyphs, hot springs and a lake twice as salty as the sea.  After viewing the waterfalls up close in the Valley, we also traveled to Glacier Point for one of the best views on the planet.

Kathy at the cranking Merced River

Highwater Merced with North Dome

Lower Yosemite Falls booming with snowmelt

Kathy likes a good Mexican meal, so we thought to fix her up for her birthday with a Taquisa (taco party) and invite over a few friends.  Ted excels at guacamole, tomatillo salsa and pico de gallo, I make a swell fish taco, and we also offered carnitas tacos, coctel de camarones (shrimp cocktail), grilled knob onions, jicama salad and pineapple upside-down cake for dessert  (all the good stuff we learned from traveling in Mexico and Chef Rick Bayless).  Pacifico beers and tequila cocktails provided refreshment.

Beth, Barb, Kathy, Christy and Joe

We braved a weekend drive to Glacier Point the next day, despite the nearly out-of-control traffic congestion in the park this year (today at the El Cap turnaround, NPS was telling visitors to exit the park due to a two hour wait to get near anywhere near Yosemite Village - El Capitan is 5 miles from Yosemite Village).  We took a short hike out to Sentinel Dome.  We tried to hike the Taft Point trail, but it was covered with snow (!).  The way to Sentinel Dome was clear, though some snow remained on the dome itself.  Once you reach the terminus of the Glacier Point road, you are standing at 7000 feet above sea level, where winter snow can linger.  The day was brilliantly sunny and warm, but there was still plenty of snow melting slowly in the sun.  The views from Glacier Point of Yosemite Valley are top contenders for most picturesque view on Planet Earth.  The photo of the Valley at night was taken by my friend Kristal Leonard who is making quite a name for herself as a local photographer.  It's one of my fave Yosemite photos ever.  And no, it's not all campfires - there are several thousand people living in Yosemite Valley and we may be in the middle of nowhere but we do have electricity (not to mention all the stores, restaurants and hotels).

Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls from Sentinel Dome

Half Dome from Glacier Point

Nevada Fall and Vernal Fall from Glacier Point

Nevada Fall

Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point

 After several days in the park, we trucked on over to the East Side of the Sierra - one of my favorite places on earth.  It's still the mountains of California, but it's the rain shadow side so it's all glorious high desert.  We only have access to the East Side for about 4 months out of the year over the Tioga Pass, otherwise it's snowed in at 10,000 feet elevation.  We cruise through Yosemite's Tuolumne Meadows before exiting the park into Inyo National Forest and the tiny town of Lee Vining near Mono Lake.  At Lee Vining you catch the 395 and go north or south to experience Eastern Sierra delight.  This trip we went south to the Alabama Hills so Mom could see old western movie locations outside of Lone Pine, CA.  A trip through the high country also requires a stop at Olmstead Point where you can view Half Dome from the other side - directly opposite from where we were viewing Half Dome the day before at Glacier Point.

Olmstead Point

Tenaya LakeTuolumne Meadows

Tioga Lake Inyon National Forest - still frozen!Lee Vining CanyonMono Lake photo from www.pashnit.com

It's desert hot on the East Side, so excursions have to be planned around the midday sun.  The Eastern Sierra is geologically active and littered with hot springs in the valleys and foothills of the mountains.  We were booked into a deluxe tent cabin at Keough Hot Springs, a developed hot springs site south of Bishop.  We arrived in the afternoon after a stop at Mono Lake, a drive around the June Lake loop, and sandwiches to go at Erick Schat's Bakery in Bishop.  We checked out Mom's timeshare at June Lake, the Heidelberg Inn, with it's ski chalet charm and the most impressive stone fireplace I've ever seen.  In Bishop at the bakery the sandwiches are delightful, using their own "sheepherder" bread (and many other kinds) with great fixings.  My favorite bread at the bakery is the Ham and Cheeze Bread which actually contains a light slather of tomato sauce baked inside so it's like eating pizza.  Yum.  We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening soaking in the hot springs pools.

June Lake photo from Wikipedia

Photo from http://littlekenny.com

Photo from TripAdvisor UK

Keough's Hot Springs is a (very) rustic resort where you can pitch a tent, park an RV, stay in a tent cabin or rent a trailer to stay and spend as much time as you want in the hot springs pools during operating hours.  if you're thinking "Ugh!  Hot springs in the summer?", forget it.  The large springs pool is kept cooler with occasional sprays of cold water so the water is soothing and very relaxing without overheating.  The staff all appeared to be under the age of 19, but they were friendly and the pools and facilities were very clean.  Our tent cabin was ungodly hot during the afternoon, but cooled down nicely at night due to the circulating fan in the corner and the 4000 feet elevation.  Our beds were comfy with flannel sheets and quilts and the refrigerator kept our sandwiches cool until we were ready to eat them.  A tent cabin is $75 overnight which includes hot springs entrance for the occupants and access to showers and bathrooms.  A day swim at the springs will cost you $8.00.  My mom enjoyed her sojourn at the springs very much and I was happy to share one of the Eastern Sierra's many natural attractions.  We slept comfortably and rose early to beat the heat and tour the Alabama Hills just outside of Lone Pine to the south.

The Alabama Hills were the filming location for many, many movie westerns from the 30s and 40s, but with it's proximity to Los Angeles, still provides the backdrop for current movies like "Gladiator" and "Ironman".  Mom is a western buff and we toured the area with the movie location map in hand to see places where John Wayne and the Lone Ranger rode.  We also hiked out to the Mobius Arch with Mount Whitney (the tallest mountain in the lower 48) looming in the background.  First we had breakfast at the Alabama Hills Bakery and Cafe where the special was a decadent BLT breakfast sandwich on croissant.

Before we left Lone Pine we stopped by the Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center to make sure we hadn't missed anything.  Some of those agencies include Inyo National Forest, NPS, BLM and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.  This is a first rate facility with interesting exhibits and the excellent Discovery Bookstore operated by the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association that deserves your support (proceeeds go to public lands).  I am fascinated with the story of water in California, and the center has a piece of the Los Angeles aqueduct on display.  The juiciest part of that story is the hijacking of Owens Lake by Los Angeles to water their ever growing hordes in the early twentieth century.  The Los Angeles aqueduct carried water from Owens Lake until it ran dry, creating a conundrum for local agriculture (for the scoop read Marc Reisner's "Cadillac Desert: The American West and It's Disappearing Water" or see the movie "Chinatown").  However, on this day, the best part of the story is my mom's reaction upon seeing the salvaged section of aqueduct:

"Oh, is that the Stargate?"

I almost peed myself laughing, because it really does look like the Stargate!  Here is the Atlantis Stargate for comparison (sci fi geek alert!!):

And then she points to the case nearby displaying various ominous looking mechanisms from military bases in the region and says, "And there's the part they're always missing or trying to repair."

Now if only we could have found this in the Stargate exhibit, my day would've been complete:

Colonel John SheppardBut alas, the good colonel was nowhere to be found, so we moved on.  Heading north on the 395 to the town of Big Pine (are you seeing a pattern here?) we stopped at Manzanar, a National Historic Site that interprets the history of the land - from Owens Valley apple farming community to a World War II Relocation Center for Japanese Americans in 1942.  Three original buildings remain and the vistor center is located in the former community hall for war camp interns.

Not exactly heartwarming, the story of illegally detained American citizens, but a vital part of our history that I'm not sure most Americans are even aware of.  After viewing the museum, we left the somber mood behind and with several hours of travel ahead of us, stopped for BBQ lunch in Big Pine at Dick's Smokewagon.  Yep.

A truly exceptional BBQ meal, the pork sandwich and highly original coleslaw from Dick's was a great treat.  The sauce is made fresh daily and the meat swamps the bun (why even bother with a bun?) requiring a fork to consume in order not to wear it.  There isn't any seating at Dick's, but we found a local park with picnic tables and plenty of shade just around the corner.  After lunch we retraced our route going north to return to Yosemite, from the desert heat to the high country snow and back down to a warm and sunny Yosemite Valley.  Ted and I are off again next week to the Eastern Sierra in search of petroglyphs and ghost towns with some stops for hot spring soaks and another BBQ lunch.  Eastern California is home to the highest (Mt. Whitney) and the lowest (Death Valley) points in the continental U.S. and many more contrasting features - cultural, climatic and countryside - that we are always ready to explore.

Happy Independence Day!

Junket Ratings:

Erick Schat's Bakkery: Junk in the Trunk!

Keough's Hot Springs: Junk-O-Rama

Alabama Hills Bakery and Cafe: Junk-O-Rama

Dick's Smokewagon: Junk in the Trunk!!

TRAVEL: LOS ANGELES AGAIN (JUST IN TIME FOR JUNE! GLOOM!) JUNE 2011

We spent a week in LA making a round of family events just in time for this spectacular weather:

Photo from http://sanpedrodaily.blogspot.com

This pleasant meteorlogical phenomenon is known as June Gloom in Southern California, where chilly coastal fog is determined to ruin your day at the beach.  For five days we suffered the gloom while we visited with family in Palos Verdes and Long Beach.  We celebrated with our nephew Bjorn as he graduated from high school and our other nieces and nephews - Ingrid, Julia, Grant and Lily - also made the gloom bearable with their smiling faces.  We were treated to excellent family dinners and a swank cocktail party with friends but we really wanted some sunshine too.  The spring in Yosemite had been more like Winter Part 2, and we were looking forward to the beach.  Lucky for us, the sun made an appearance on the last two days of our stay AND we discovered a great beach on the Palos Verdes Peninsula coast!

Ted and Bjorn the Graduate

Bjorn sets an excellent Sea King example for sister Ingrid

Julia, Lily and Grant put up with their aunt's photo sessionBeing a peninsula and all, Rancho Palos Verdes is surrounded by Pacific coastline and has many great beaches.  Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed and since we were traveling with stately old Grampa Fleabag, we give it a solid thumbs down.  However, if you belong to the South Bay Archery Club, then you know about a small beach past the archery range where there is absolutely no parking available but your four-legged friends can enjoy a swim after a day of target practice.

Fleabag doesn't do much in his senior years except sleep, but it was great to have him along.  The exceptional aspect of this beach is that the tidepools are seldom visited and teeming with sea stars!  Ted snorkeled with Garibaldi fish and dolphins showed up in the cove to feed in the kelp.  This beach is around the point from Abalone Cove with a hidden sea cave and the sea stars are piled up along with mussels, urchins, anenomes and crabs.  We spent two afternoons combing through the pools in the sun.  Thank you, Mother Nature.

After family time on the coast, Ted departed for Yosemite and I moved on to the swank part of the city to meet up with my friend Beth in Beverly Hills.  Beth is the new California Director for the National Wildlife Federation and was there to host the 75th anniversary fundraising gala at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, "Voices for Wildlife".  Beth invited her family and I got to tag along too.

The Pratt family and Chevy ChasePhoto from www.elegantresorts.co.ukOne of the gala guests was a familiar face from Florida, Jack Hanna.  Jack is a former Columbus Zoo Director known for the TV shows "Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures" and "Jack Hanna's Into the Wild".  Jack is also affiliated with the Busch Gardens zoo and theme park in Tampa where I worked from 1995 through 2003 and ran into him occasionally.  A tireless advocate for wildlife, Jack is also a very nice man and likes to share his experiences with humor and modesty.  He was honored by the NWF as a "Wildlife Hero" for education and conservation.  Jack is holding the alligator below (of course):

Photo from www.zimbio.com

Thanks to Beth, I enjoyed some Beverly Hills high life at the Wilshire where the room with a view is swathed in upscale bedding and the hotel restaurants were too pricey for me.  So I persuaded Beth's family to join me for breakfast the day after the gala at Jack & Jill's of Beverly Hills while Beth attended meetings (sorry, Beth).  Jack & Jill's is mere blocks from the Wilshire where you can get a hearty, healthful and affordable breakfast surrounded by shops like Jimmy Choo and Prada.  The House Scramble consisted of eggs with goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, avocado and basil with sides for just $10.95.  Did I mention it was tasty?

After breakfast we had to road trip back into the land of the middle class, but the hotel porter handed us bottles of Evian as the valet brought our car around for departure.  Leaving June Gloom in the rearview mirror, we headed back to Yosemite where summer had finally arrived.

Junket Ratings:

Beverly Wilshire Hotel: Junk (and money) in the Trunk!

Jack & Jill's Bakery Cafe: Junk-O-Rama

  

HOME/FOOD: CHEFS' HOLIDAYS AT THE AHWAHNEE IN YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK JANUARY 2011

Just like the Vintner's Holidays at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite every fall, the chefs get their chance to shine during Chef's Holidays in the middle of the Sierra Nevada winter.  Every January and February, executive chefs from famous restaurants (mostly from the Bay Area) converge on the park to cozy up at the Ahwahnee and dazzle hotel guests and park visitors with their culinary magic.  Similar in structure to Vintner's Holidays, the Chef's Holidays consist of two days of chef demonstration sessions, a chef and cocktail reception and a culminating five course dinner in the Ahwahnee Dining Room with wine pairings.  Though crashing the chef demonstrations may not be as ultimately rewarding as crashing the Vintner's wine tastings, it's a great opportunity to sample food trends and listen to successful chefs share their passion for cooking and cuisine - all just a short snowy walk from home.  And thanks to my friend Joe, I even made it to dinner.

The chef demonstration sessions take place twice a day in the Ahwahnee great room where the seating arrangement and use of a special mirrored kitchen station allows a large audience to view the chef slaving over a hot stove.  The session includes printed recipes and - the best part - samples at the end of the demonstration.  Chefs Holidays Session 4 started with Traci Des Jardins, executive chef owner of three restaurants in San Francisco, who made a batch of Handmade Potato Gnocchi with Wild Mushroom Ragout and a cured salmon canape.  Though she also trained in France and New York, Chef Traci hails from the Central Valley of California, so her recipes are often described as "French inspired California Cuisine".  After the demonstrating chef walks you through the recipes and actual preparation of two dishes, you may meet and greet the chef and then step into the Ahwahnee's solarium to sample one of the dishes.  We were treated to the tasty Cured Salmon with Fennel, Citrus and Herb Salad:

Cured Salmon Salad Recipe Page 1

Cured Salmon Salad Recipe Page 2

Handmade Gnocchi with Wild Mushroom Ragout

During Chefs Holidays Session 2, I attended the Gala Dinner with my friends Joe and Christy.  We were seated in the dining room at a table with another lovely couple from Kentucky on thier first visit to Yosemite.  The dinner was orchestrated by another San Francisco restaurant's executive chef owner, Michael Tusk.  Chef Michael's restaurant, Quince, reflects his early training in France and Italy.  An American from New Jersey, Chef Michael treated us to an Italian five course dinner, beginning with a pumpkin soup and ending with a panna cotta.

 Chefs Holidays 2011 Session 2 Menu

Everything was delicious, but the star of the evening was the second course of Raviolo di Ricotta that was essentially a large raviolo (singular ravioli) with a cooked egg on top.  I don't mean there was egg incorporated into the pasta, I mean a bright beautiful egg yolk visible on the raviloi that was delightful.  My immediate thought after tasting was, "Why didn't I think of this?!".  It was a reinvention of your favorite cheese omelet.  Everyone at the table provided extensive commentary on this dish, and everyone gobbled it up.  My personal second favorite of the meal was the panna cotta, which was quite the best I've ever had.  I have a weakness for rice and tapioca puddings that doesn't necessarily translate to other cream-based desserts, but panna cotta is just my style.

Raviolo Di Ricotta

Agnolotti Dal Plin

Sonoma Liberty Duck

Strauss Farm Panna Cotta - yum!Dining in style on delicious dishes with exceptional ingredients and carefully considered wine pairings makes a great night out anywhere.  What makes the Ahwahnee's Chefs Holidays Gala Dinner unique is access to information about the source of your food and the chef who created it.  Each session's guest chef partners with the Ahwahnee's Certified Executive Chef Percy Whatley to create the menu for the gala dinner.  Since 1989 Chef Percy has worked for the concession company that operates the hotels, stores and restaurants in Yosemite, DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite, gathering awards and accolades along the way.  Other special touches include service VIP style (the dining room is staffed to the gills during the gala dinners and any number of wait staff is whisking away empty plates, pouring your wine or presenting your course at any given moment) and dining on the Ahwahnee china.  Just like other national park lodges, the Ahwahnee has an historic china pattern exclusive to the hotel (also for sale in the gift shop and online) dating back to 1929, made by Buffalo Pottery Company in their Ye Olde Ivory line.  The final special touch is live piano music accompaniment to your dining experience.  On this evening we were treated to the musical stylings of Bill Carroll - piano player by night and Yosemite's Postmaster by day.

Chef Percy introduces Chef Michael

Piano Player and Postmaster Bill Carroll

Another special surprise for Joe that evening was the number of photographers at our table.  Being seated at a dining table with a blogger can be trying at times and this aspect of dining or traveling with me and Ted is not Joe's favorite.  Imagine his surprise when the other ladies at the table whipped out their cameras to record each course (and my gratitude at not being the only one!).  The internet phenomenon of recording culinary adventures with your gadget of choice has bled into the countryside.  After finishing this post on my travel and food blog, I could post photos on the Ahwahnee's facebook page or Flickr, review the dinner on Yelp or Chowhound, comment on another blogger's review, post the menu on Menu Pages, tweet about it, post about my professionally written blog post on LinkedIn, Digg it, StumbleUpon it, create a video for YouTube or Vimeo, and initially I could've checked in to let everybody know I was eating the gala dinner in real time at Foursquare.  The possibilities for communicating your foodie love are endless.

After being feted at the Ahwahnee, we've done a little culinary magic of our own at home.  First, a tribute to Ted, who even when serving the most mundane dishes makes the most out of presentation:

And next to homemade pizza with an excellent shortcut.  I made my own pizza sauce for our Hawaiian (ham and pineapple) Pizza, but I used puff pastry from Trader Joe's to make my life easier.  Just thaw and roll out to size and shape with a little flour and pizza crust appears almost instantaneously.  We refer to our large butter-colored cat, Whitezilla, as our very own puff pastry.

Last but not least, we often subscribe to Thomas Jefferson's sentiment, 'meat as a condiment' in our cooking, but we also pursue full-on vegetarian meals.  The dinner below consisted of rainbow swiss chard sauteed in olive oil, garlic and lemon juice, and canned cannelini beans cooked with olive oil, garlic, rosemary, chili pepper recipes from Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life, and pasta tossed with sauteed mushrooms and Sun Dried Tomato Chutney from Cottage Delight (a gift from sister-in-law Linda).  Just a little something to warm us up on a cold winter night in Yosemite.

Junket Ratings:

Chefs' Holidays at the Ahwahnee: Junk in the Trunk!

HOME/FOOD: HOLIDAY IN YOSEMITE DECEMBER 2010

If you can avoid rockfall on the road and drivers in the grip of Chain Control Panic, Yosemite is a great place to spend your winter holidays.  You can ski at Badger Pass, ice skate at Curry Village and snowshoe around the Valley before drinking hot toddies at the Ahwahnee bar or playing board games around the fireplace at the Mountain Room Lounge.  We invited some family to spend their holiday with us in Yosemite and successfully crammed 9 people for a Christmas Eve dinner into our tiny cabin where our Charlie Brown tree awaited the festivities.

Our Charlie Brown tree suited the tiny cabin perfectly.  A live potted Golden Cypress purchased from the Yosemite Lions Club as a fundraiser for community projects, we hope to keep the tree alive in our climate.  We also hoped to prevent our regular raccoon visitor from making off with any Christmas treats.  Raccoons live under our home in the winter and come into the house through the dog door every night around 3 AM.  We only have a single visitor, and mostly he eats any leftover cat food and then leaves, but lately I noticed that he is also washing his food in the dog's water bowl.  Raccoons do wash their food in water, though this has more to do with identifying the food then any sense of cleanliness on their part.  We don't close the dog door at night just in case the old dog has to go outside, so we try to coexist peacefully with our raccoon neighbors.

Preparation for the family visit included smoking some Sierra trout for Tyler Florence's Creamy Smoked Trout with Apple, Celery and Crisp Brown Bread in Eat This Book: Cooking with Global Fresh Flavors.  Ted caught quite a bit of trout this year and we wanted to share this taste of Yosemite.  Christmas Eve dinner also included a classic Ahwahnee Hotel dessert, Pine Nut Pie, and we attended Christmas Day brunch at the hotel to round out the dining experience in Yosemite.

Xmas Eve Dinner Menu

In order to make room for 9 diners in our cabin, we moved the furniture onto the porch which then became the cocktail lounge.  Our friend Joe joined the Hansen/Karner/Whitaker holiday at his own peril which also caused us to have 3 dogs at our Christmas feast: Kaiser the Swiss mountain dog who belongs to the other Hansens, Cody the yellow lab who belongs to Joe and of course Fleabag.  Whitezilla the cat was traumatized by so many dogs and spent his holiday reclining on (and under) our bed with the bedroom door shut tight.

Cody and Kaiser on Crumb Patrol

Late on Christmas morning, Kathy, Wenche, Mort, Martina, Bjorn, Ingrid, Ted and I walked to the Ahwahnee for brunch in the dining room.  Brunch includes standard breakfast items but also prime rib, oysters, and sushi, along with pastries and chocolate confections.  Brunch on this day was $49 per person, though I can't say whether this was a special holiday brunch since we haven't dined here since before I left for Utah in 2008.  Ted particularly received his money's worth with 3 helpings, and the seafood I consumed was easily well worth the cost.  The Ahwahnee dining room is also a delightful place to share a meal with visitors - the architecture is spectacular and the atmosphere lends itself to dining in splendor.

Christmas night we received a brief but beautiful snow fall that glittered under the sun the next day.  A long winter walk was in order, so we left the Lodge to cross Swinging Bridge, past the Yosemite Chapel and across Cook's Meadow to Yosemite Village and back.  Wenche was inspired by the snowy landscape to make a snow angel that might impress family back in Norway with the sheer volume of California snow.  Later that evening, we noticed that the snow piled on top of the twinkle lights lining our fence was making a light show spectacle.

By Thursday before New Year's Eve all of our family had departed, just in time to avoid the road closure of CA SR 140 at the east entrance to the park due to rockfall.  I wasn't lucky enough to get back into the park via 140 after taking Mom to the Fresno airport before the rock fell, so had to do some extensive backtracking on CA SR 41, a road I like to refer to as the Worst Winter Road in America.  After successfully dodging all the lowlanders who stop in the middle of the snowy mountain road to adjust their tire chains all the way past Chiquapin, I had to turn the car into a snowbank to avoid plowing into the oncoming traffic that was blocking BOTH lanes.  After exhausting my complete supply of cuss words, I was grateful to receive assistance from many Good Samaritans in releasing my car from the snowbank (though they would be infinitely more Good if they would just not block both lanes).  Despite all the assistance, Park Ranger Heidi had to tow my car out, for which I am grateful and wish Heidi the happiest of new years.  The rest of the drive was uneventful.  On Friday, we spent a quiet evening at home toasting the New Year with prosecco and beer, watching hilarious 80s videos on YouTube and celebrating Fleabag's 14th birthday.

Happy New Year!  May 2011 bring you everything you need to live long and prosper.

Photo courtesy of NPS