Jennie Lake Wilderness

A few months back, Jennifer and I were discussing a Summer vacation that we would take this year. We were discussing Italy, Costa Rica, or even Hawaii. All of our choices would have been amazing, yet expensive. This is when Jennifer said the words that I thought I would never hear come from her mouth. She said, "Mike! What if we spend our money buying camping gear instead of going to Italy"! Maybe that wasn't her exact words but that was the gist of it and what she was saying is that we should spend money on something that we can reuse again. I couldn't be happier. Months later we had everything and our weekend getaway was just last week.

We decided to go on a three day two night hike to Jennie Lakes which is in the Sequoia Nation Forrest. Think of Fresno and Lone Pine. We were somewhere in between. I took off work on Friday so we could hike on Friday through Sunday. We left early and got to the trail head sometime around 2:00 in the afternoon. As a side note, we took the most ridiculous way to get there. Our drive was probably an hour longer than it should have been. If you need to know how to get there let me know and I can point you in the right direction now.

Let me have Jennifer take over for a minute because I know she loves telling how this trip went.

Ok first of all my back pack was only supposed to be no more than 18 lbs. and it ended up being over 28 lbs.!!! Our first day of hiking was only 3.2 miles but was all uphill. It was really hard but I think it was because I was still adjusting to the altitude. We crossed all these beautiful creeks and the Forest and meadows were incredible. One of the highlights of this day was when we crossed this creek and saw 15-20 butterflies flying around this one spot.

Here is a picture of my hot husband figuring out where to go and how much longer we have to hike for this day. He always knew where we were on the map even though he didn't always explain it well to me.

I'm throwing in a few random pictures of that day of the trail, scenery, and us.

Finally we made it to our first destination, Weaver Lake! It was so beautiful and was like a crossing the finish line of a long race.

We immediately met some really nice people who told us of a camp site across the lake that was really "easy to get to". They pointed us in the direction to go and we were on our way. I think it is important to remind you that I was wearing a 28 lbs. pack and Mike was wearing 48 lbs.! After jumping over these huge boulders and trekking through marshlands, we made it to the campsite! It was beautiful. Ok, Mike's turn to write.

We set up camp, got firewood, and got dinner ready. Can I just say now that lighting a fire "Bear Grylls Style" is not easy. I tried that flint for probably a half hour before Jenny finally made me use the matches. Here are some pictures of Weaver Lake.

It was really cool having our tent only about 50 feet from the lake.

Our tent faced west so we got an amazing view of the sunset. I am in the lower left corner pumping the lake water through our water filter. You probably won't believe this but this is the tastiest water you would ever have if you get the chance. Screw Arrowhead!!! The next morning...

We had to hang our food so the bears couldn't get to it. We found out later that this was ineffective. Ohh well.

Jenny and I packed up and left that morning for an 8.7 mile hike to Jennie Lake. Here is Jenny flexing in a Lilly grove.This hike was pure punishment. I think we gained over 2,000 feet in this one day. We hiked down this huge valley and back up this huge mountain, crossed four creeks, drank all of our water (I was able to pump more at the creeks), and fought very painful feet. I was so impressed by Jenny. I couldn't believe how hard she was working. Don't get me wrong here, she definitely complained a few times but I thought it would have been much worse. We were both really drained. Here are a few pics of that hike.

Finally we made it to Jennie Lake. We set up camp again, had a fire again, had dinner again, and slept again. The next day we did some fishing and exploring before we took off to the car.

This picture is from where our tent was that night.

Unfortunately we had to leave. This day of hiking was about 7 miles and was probably one of our easiest days of hiking except our bodies were starting to feel the pain. Here is how we finished our hike.

This was a great site. Through the trees we finally saw my car which I don't think ever looked so amazing.Sequoia are some of the oldest and largest living things on planet earth. This one behind me was actually quite small considering some of the larger ones we saw driving out of the park. This one behind me is over two thousand years old.All in all we are definitely going on another hike soon. We will do it a little differently next time though. For instants we plan on going to one campsite so we can explore more and hike less. We are also going to pack fewer things. In the end Jennifer got 4 blisters and some sore feet. She feels it was well worth it though. Also as a side note, I really like my hat so suck it.

The End...

Stay Tuned

Here is a little teaser of our weekend.

Jennifer,

Happy Anniversary my little lady!

TWENTY...

...represents how many pounds I have lost since February. Thank you Jenny.

RIP In Dodger's Outfield

So as for some of Grandma Kings final wishes here is one that I think you might like to hear about. My Grandma was a big time Major League Baseball fan and wished for her ashes to be spread on as many MLB fields as possible. The Dodgers was the first.

I called up my brother Rhett and he of course agreed to come with me to be a part of that memorable night. He actually agreed to do the honors of laying her to rest there. Our friends Doug and Erin also agreed to be there as well.

The Game was on Tuesday night against the Oakland A's and here are some of the pictures.

Me, Rhett and Grandma King (Rhett is holding Grandma)
Me, Rhett, Doug, Erin and Grandma
Grandma enjoying the game...

Rhett & Grandma...
And, me and Grandma...
Now getting Grandma on the field was more difficult than it seems. All of the ailes that went up to the field were being watched by the ushers during the innings and the same ushers would all walk down to the bottom of the ailes in between innings. Our only opportunity was to wait for the inning to start and watch the ushers walk back to their post. At that time Rhett would have to run down to the field and throw Grandma out there. This is how it went down.






...and here is one more from a different vantage point.


Thanks to Doug and Erin for being a part of that special night and many thanks to our brave soldier Rhett for his hard work getting Grandma out there.

A Trip to Remember Grandma King

Well a bit of sad news hit our family last week. My grandma King passed away. It was one of those expected things since she has been struggling with cancer for a while now. She was an amazing woman and was incredibly kind. Even to the very end she was always concerned for others before she was concerned for herself. I love her very much and am glad that she is finally with her sweet husband after 14 months of separation. Theirs was a marriage to pattern after. My grandmother wouldn't want my wife and I to have this melancholy weekend in her behalf so we decided to have a little fun as we traveled to Northern California for her funeral/memorial. Here is a full account of our trip.

Jennifer and I were supposed to leave on Friday morning at around 5:30 am so we could make it to our first destination for breakfast. We ended up leaving around 7:30 and had a brunch instead. After about 4 hours of driving we finally made it to Solvang,CA. This place was awesome. I wish we took more pictures of it though. Solvang is a Danish community north of Santa Barbra. As we were driving in we could see a ton of farms, an ostrich ranch, and tons of old Danish style buildings. I have been hearing about Solvang for years now and I was so excited to finally go. Jennifer and I ate at the Danish restaurant called Solvang Restaurant.
For the first time in my life I tried an Aebleskiver which is if you can imagine some kind of spherical pancake about the size of a tennis ball and doused with raspberry jam.
It was so good.

We also learned about Danish Days which is in the third weekend of September. This is a huge festival in Solvang where people make tons of Danish food and pass out free Aebleskivers on the streets. Jennifer and I want to go back this September. By the way thanks to Joey for suggesting the Aebleskiver.

After Solvang Jennifer and I drove to San Simeon to see Hearst Castle. This place was amazing. I was totally thunderstruck by every ornate detail at this place and I certainly gained a new found respect for W.R. Hearst and his family. I always focused on the negative things about this man, which are many, but failed to realize the great things he did for people and for the preservation of Art and history. He loved animals and had the worlds largest privately owned zoo. He also treated his employees who worked at the Castle well. By the way, Hearst never called it Hearst Castle. I was so upset that I forgot my camera and I apologize for no pictures of this place. I'll go back though because it is huge and I didn't come close to seeing the whole thing.

Next Jen and I traveled a little north and met these guys. These my friends are elephant seals He got mad I took his picture
It was so funny watching these guys fight. They could only fight for probably 10 to maybe 15 seconds if they had a lot of energy. Then they would rest for a few minutes and start up again.
At this stop there were a bunch of Squirrels that were so trusting of humans. I took this picture only about 6 inches from his face.

Nothing would prepare us for the next 70 or so miles of PCH. This was the most tranquil and beautiful drive my wife and I have ever taken. We have seen this drive in movies and commercials, but being there in person was a totally amazing experience. Here are some pics.

We highly recommend taking this ride. It is much longer but well worth the drive to see all of this amazing coast line.

Now this is where things got interesting. Jennifer and I decided to stay in San Francisco for our first night up north. Rebekah didn't want to hang because she was already hanging out with Sarah. So Jennifer and I went straight to our hotel. We looked on Travel Zoo for some cheep hotels and found a hotel in Japantown which was really well priced. It was called Hotel Tomo.
Hotel Tomo is an Anime themed hotel smack dab in the middle of Japantown. Jennifer and I really are not fans of Anime but we thought it would be funny to stay here for one night.

Here are some pictures of the lobby.


...And this is our room. The room had this Anime wallpaper and some creepy framed eyes that would stair at you.


Here is our bed
Jennifer and I really liked the deer.

...and we even got a bean bag!
All in all, Hotel Tomo was a lot of fun but I will probably never stay there again. It's a once in a life time thing you should experience though.

The Next day we went to Livermore where the funeral was going on. It was just held at my cousins house and only family and a couple of friends attended. Grandma King was cremated so after we reminisced, we went to the cemetery where my Grandfather was buried over one year ago to spread some of her ashes over his grave. I thought that was kind of strange and was praying the wind would not pick up but it ended up being much cooler than I thought it would be. Here is a picture of Grandpa King's grave.
The sandy specs on his headstone are some of the ashes of Grandma King.
Here are the pictures of that day. This first one is everyone who was there minus me.
Rhett & RIK
Momma
Grandma & Grandpa's surviving children
Me & Jen
It was a really wonderful day and we finished it off with games and Chinese.

The next day Jen and I went home. We stopped off in Gilroy, CA at a fruit stand and bought some fresh cherries and strawberries. These were some of the most amazing strawberries and cherries I have ever tasted. As a side note those days of chips and jerky on road trips are long gone.
A few hours later Jen said that she really wanted to go to a Mission on the way home. About ten minutes later we found this.



The San Miguel Arcangel Mission had to of been the least taken care of mission of the 21 California Missions. It was interesting and I learned some cool things but I think that Jen and I will be stoping by a better one soon.

Well that was our trip. We are going to miss Grandma King very much but we are glad she is with her husband again. Hopefully next time we go to Northern California it is for a happier occasion. All in all though we had a stellar time in Nor. Cal.