Mt Whitney Zone Forums The Chat Room You all hold the fort down. Yosemte Bound

I heading out to Yosemite after work at 1:00 PM.Tenaya Lodge tonight and Fillet Mignon with Baked Lava Cake for dessert. Mist trail tomorrow. Ahwhanee Hotel tomorrow night."If this room is a rockin' don't be knockin"

Enjoy the trip, Rod! Looks like the possibility of rain by Sunday afternoon -- but you will probably be heading home by then.

    NOAA weather link

Saw that Steve.Thanks. Every year at this time we never know what the weather will be. Rain and snow the past 2 years.I am out.

I wish I was headed to Yosemite but I am headed out to Rockhouse Basin in Domeland Wilderness. All that matters is we are headed for the mountains!

I'm jealous, I wish I were headed for Yosemite...it's my favorite place in the whole wide world. Instead, I'm headed to Claim Jumper to meet with friends. Rod, since you're having the Baked Lava Cake, I think I'll have the Mother Lode cake at CJ and make believe it's baked lava cake at the Tenaya Lodge. I hope there's some water in the falls so you can get totally misted.

Claim Jumper? Might as well order off the kids menu if there is one lol.

That places goal is to make people fat!

You've got that right about Claim Jumper and their portion sizes which are ridiculously oversized....a family of four can eat off one of their servings for a week. The CJ at South Coast Plaza is close to work and easy to get to and the price is right because you can share with many and still feel satisfied, but I'd still rather eat only a morsel of food in Yosemite or at the Tenaya Lodge any day of the year, anything and everything no matter how much or how little tastes better when the surroundings are as perfect as in God's Country.

Just got back. The trip was great. Had a great hike up to the top of Vernal Falls.Feel pretty good for not working out for 10 months or hiking for a year.
Had a wonderful Cottage at the Ahwhanee. At the very end of the cottages facing the River and Bridge.Very quiet and isolated. The only place in the Valley that wasn't crowded.Yosemite was crazy crowded everywhere.The Ahwhanee itself was crowded. The most people I have ever seen in Yosemitee in October. Maybe the most crowded I have ever seen it.I will post pictures later. Good trip though. It started raining just as we were pulling out of the Ahwhanee parking lot and the rain continued until we got to Visalia where it started pouring. Saw lightning and then it became hard rain.I turned my wipers up to full throttle and all of a sudden the wipers started eratically working and stopped.Bad time for no wipers.So I put on the sunglasses and drove on. Thank goodness it finally stopped raining near Bakersfield as it started getting dark.

The CJ on 17th and Tustin Avenue in Santa Ana used to serve KSO (kitchen sink omelet) on Sundays. Before heading to the softball fields later that afternoon, it was traditional we all met at CJ with our own personal editions of the Orange County Register, sit down and chat while I gorged my KSO. I also always asked for an extra side of potatoes. My friends just looked in awe (and the bartender, too). They quit serving brunch in 1992, I believe.

My first meal at CJ was a meatloaf sandwich. I had been jobhunting all day and stopped by the same CJ to blow the froth off a couple. The manager comes out with this order and asks me if I would like to have it. They were taking pictures of the orders in the kitchen and soon as they were done photographing it they were giving the food away to patrons! Talk about being at the right place at the right time. It was delicious. Of course, anything that is free is delicious. I particularly liked the red cabbage slaw.

And at the same CJ, every November 10 (the Marine Corps) birthday, my friends and I (mililtary, former military, non-military) join forces to pay homage to the birth of the beloved Marine Corps.

My favorite meal? Tough call but I will have to go with the beef ribs!

Great memories at CJ on 17th in Santa Ana!

Now that I have relocated to the holy city of Coarsegold, my wife and I "rarely" go to CJ in Fresno. Now, it is the Sequoia Brewing Company get-togethers with Steve C, wagga, and other fellow WHZ members.

Have fun...burp...

How did my Yosemite trip become a discussion of Claim Jumpers?

> How did my Yosemite trip become a discussion of Claim Jumpers?

Blame Lynn-a-roo!

How much water was going over Vernal Fall, Rod?

The nature of the thread beast!

Judging from the clouds on Saturday night and all day Sunday, it looked like YNP got some rain!

Oh, Happy Anniversary, too! Belatedly...

Have fun.

No prob I have been known to hijack a thread or two.
The water in all the falls was better than normal for October. Vernal was nice but not reallly a mist trail. Nothing like last year when it rained 8 inches the day we got to Tenaya and the falls and rivers were running more water volume than I have ever seen.

Here is a link to Yosemite in 2009.Check out the water falls. I haven't had a chance to download this years pic yet. They are in the wifes camera.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/docrodneydog/sets/72157622481854681/

Mmmm I love those ribs also!

At the last minute my friend and I changed our plans and went to Death Valley instead. Went over Hunter Mountain and hit up Keeler, Ubehebe Talc & Lost Burro Mines, down Lippincott Road to the Saline Valley Hotsprings, out over Steele Pass and back.

We almost went through Yosemite on the way back but the rain made us think twice since we had no doors or top!

speaking of off topic, I'm wondering how many know of the Bracebridge Dinner at the Ahwhanee. Apparently a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Since it began in 1927, The Bracebridge Dinner at Yosemite has earned an unrivaled reputation for reconnecting each guest with the spirit and enchantment of the holidays. As a result, it is recognized as one of the most sought-after holiday events in the U.S. In 2006, The Wall Street Journal reported, "Bracebridge is, without much doubt, the country's, if not the world's, premier Christmas dinner."

There is much history there. It started in 1927, and the founder died two years later. A cast member of the first two seasons -- a part-time Valley resident who had played the part of The Lord of Misrule -- was asked by Tresidder to take on the task of reworking the event.

This cast member was Ansel Adams

http://www.bracebridgedinners.com/

  Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime treat. I wonder how far in advance I'd have to get tickets.

  From Ken's link above, here's their media page with several videos.

  Sure would be fun to experience.

I had a hard time convincing the Frog that we should fork over the $1700 for a snazzy good time at the Ahwhanee...!

"No but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express."
Seriously the Ahwhanee Dining Room is spectacular and Grand.I have some great pics and videos of it to downloaded soon.My cottage was amazing.The view was of the river and the bridge.Very isolated.You must like old architecture. Built in 1927 just like my house.

"I wonder how far in advance I'd have to get tickets."

It used to be years. They'd have one performance, and you'd go on a waiting list. About 5 years ago, they started adding performances, and now it's pretty easy.

Not cheap, though.

Rod, I'm so sorry about your Yosemite thread; however, I'm loving the posts after you mentioned it had gone awry, now I'm laughing so hard that I'm crying at all the posts since. If I'm ever deeply depressed I know what to do....just log on to the WZ because you guys will have me laughing in no time.

P.S. Find my first post and you'll discover how we got off course and traversed to the Claim Jumper side of life.

P.S.S. Fall in Yosemite is gorgeous, that's why it was so crowded.