Highlights - holiday in Northern California 2014

The soundtrack to the holiday was most emphatically OneRepublic - Counting Stars, with Aviicii - Wake Me Up second. Both were playing regularly on the radio, and in shops, with the former also reminding us of looking at the Milky Way as a big arc in the dark skies of Sequoia & Lassen Volcanic Parks. We encountered a NASA dark skies weekend at the latter, seeing the open rings of Saturn through a telescope.

Our closest encounter with a bear at Kings Canyon National Park

On top of Half Dome in Yosemite NP

Dusk overlooking Sequoia NP

Giant Sequoia in Yosemite NP - Grizzly Giant

Summit of Sentinel Dome, Yosemite NP

White water rafting

Bodie - abandoned gold mining town

l

Mono Lake tufa formations

Travertine hot springs near Bridgeport

The Donner Pass and the grim story of the Donner party

The hike to Cascade Falls, Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe shoreline

Lassen Peak in layered smoke & mist from Brokeoff Mountain summit

Ah yes - the dips in  lakes during very hot weather

The wildfire that gave us a two hour diversion

Giant redwoods

Big River kayaking

California coastline

Ballet practice by the Golden Gate bridge

At the diner for breakfast