These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

Last weekend the Hubsand and I got a surprise weekend away in Tahoe without the tot! Auntie Rena and Grampa teamed up to give us a weekend out of town. So we hotfooted it over to Lake Tahoe to revisit our youth. And by that I mean we went mountain biking. Together. Whee! We hit up Stanford Rocks and my former back yard ride Hole in the Ground. The biking was awesome, the camping was lovely, and we ran into tons of great folks from the old days. (Especially nice when I broke my chain and realized I'd forgotten the chain tool!) As a matter of fact, the whole thing was so great, I spent the next week wondering why the heck I'm not still living there. But then again, Yosemite is pretty dang awesome too...

So the point of this story is that while Mom and Pop were out of town Tank Boy got to go to Merced with his Auntie and see "Despicable Me" in 3D. He really loved the glasses, and they're flattering on him, no?


And speaking of awesome Yosemite, the YosGirlz did Cathedral Peak this last Friday. My camera these days is a bit bulky, so it did not come out at any awkward times during the climb (almost all of it) but I did get in a few snappies. There is a ginormous ledge before the last pitch of the climb, so Publina graciously got a shot of Vicki and I getting the gear organized.


We were a group of five total, but split into two groups for the actual climbing. From the top you could see three alpine lakes, Bud, Cathedral and one more. Here's two of our party chillin' (literally, it was chilly!) partway down the hike off the back side, with Bud Lake in the background.


From the same spot looking the other way you could see Eichorn and Cathedral Lake as well.


I have no pics of the actual climbing, but it was so lovely. There are innumerable ways to go, most of them fairly mellow. I got to pick what looked fun and then head off! The classic chimney pitch in the middle was a highlight of the day, a tiny bit exciting, but ultimately doable and very well protected. So. Much. Fun.

That evening we had a campsite reserved in Tuolomne Meadows and the Hubsand and Tank Tot got to join us. Being high elevation, its pretty cold at night and in the morning. But there's no need to freeze when you can wear what amounts to a sleeping bag around camp.


We rounded out this weekend with Saturday at Tenaya Lake, reading books and dipping gingerly into the water. (Oddly enough the water was warmer than the air, but the breeze was so brisk that swimming was kept to a bare minimum!) It was achingly beautiful, and the perfect family time counter point to the previous day's Girlz activities. And you'll never guess what we did on Sunday... actually got the towel racks up in the guest bathroom! Photos soon!