Thanksgiving in Mariposa, CA - November 2008

It's pretty much tradition to go up to visit Aunt Lena & Uncle Ole in Oakhurst, CA every year for Thanksgiving.    Oakhurst is right outside Yosemite National Park, so as you can imagine, it's beautiful there!

On the day after Thanksgiving, we went up to Yosemite to the Wawona school house.  It's a little one-room schoolhouse that still operates in the park.   On the Friday after Thanksgiving every year, they have an Arts & Crafts fair fundraiser to help raise money for the school.

Look who we ran in to!

She looks like she doesn't quite know what to think of us, doesn't she???

"Mrs. Claus" is really Anita, a friend of Ole & Lena's.    She makes and sells the most amazing Elderberry Jam and Tamales.  Yum Yum Yum!!!

After checking out the fair, we headed over to Mariposa, CA.   That's a pretty little mountain community with lots of nice shops and restaurants.   We walked around the main drag for awhile, checked out some favorite shops  ("Chocolate Soup" is the best!) and just enjoyed the atmosphere.

Behind the shops, there is a nice walking path that goes along a creek  (I'm sure the creek has a name, but I can't remember it - so if you know, post a comment and tell me!).    It was such a lovely day - cold but pretty out.    Being a city girl, I enjoy walking through the leaves and experiencing (a little) nature....

Isn't it pretty?

Christmas at Disneyland - November 22, 2008

One of the best times of year to go to Disneyland is between November & January.   They deck the whole park out with Christmas decorations and it's just magical!  Gnugent and I headed down to the park in late November to check it out.

Right as you get to Main Street, you'll see the GINORMOUS Christmas tree with bigger than life decorations.

Then as you look down Main Street, you see the garlands going all down the street:  

And the buildings on Main Street are all decked out too!

Over in the Big Thunder Ranch area (between Frontierland and Fantasyland), they have a cute little Santa's Village set up.   The decorations there are just lovely - there are lots of great picture spots!

Then, after dark, you absolutely MUST go over to It's A Small World.   Wait until the clock chimes.   They have a wonderful light show that I didn't know existed.     Here is some video of it (taken a couple of years ago - the first time I saw it).

Definitely take the time to ride on the "Storybook Land Canal Boats".   It's the cutest thing ever.   There are miniatures of houses from all sorts of Disney stories - and before the holidays, the fairies come out and decorate!   Almost all those little houses have adorable miniature Christmas decorations.   Sooooo fun!    Aladdin's house was the only one that wasn't decorated.   We figured they must be celebrating Ramadan.....

There is also a Holiday tour.   One of Disneyland's knowledgeable tour guides takes you all over the park, pointing out special touches in the decorations that you may not have noticed (like that there's a Menorah in one of the windows on Main Street).   

One of my favorite areas is New Orleans Square.   The decorations are, of course, over-the-top, but beautiful.   And while we were there, we saw the most amazing sunset:

They take you on the 2 rides that have special "holiday editions" - The Haunted Mansion, which is all made over with a Nightmare before Christmas theme (personally, I much prefer the normal version of Haunted Mansion) and It's a Small World where they show how Christmas is celebrated all over the world.   

Then you get special seating for the Holiday parade, where they also give you a yummy gingerbread cookie and a toasty cup of hot chocolate!  :-)    

(By the way, if you are an annual passholder, or have an Auto Club membership, you can get a discount on the tour.  We thought it was well worth doing).

And of course, after the parade, make sure to get yourself a good seat for the holiday fireworks spectacular  (although I have to admit - fireworks choreographed to "Silent Night" is just odd...)

Oh!   And how can I forget about the Castle!!!!   It's my favorite part, naturally!!!    During the day, the castle is covered in snow and icicles. 

 But at night.... WOW!!!    The lights come on and the magic happens.   It's BEAUTIFUL!

Disneyland's holiday decorations are definitely a festive way to start off the Christmas season!   Early in November and early January (before Thanksgiving and after Christmas, but before they take the decorations down) are the best, least crowded times to go.   They do have special Thanksgiving Day and Christmas day meal opportunities if you plan to be there during the actual holidays.   I've never done that, but I'm guessing they'd do a great job.

Upstate NY - November 7-8, 2008

Mel and I headed up to Utica, NY in November for a visit with Michelle & Georgie.   It was sooo good to see my brother again, and I've never before seen where he lives.

(By the way, if you're going to be in Upstate NY and would like some insider information on great sights to see and places to eat, check out Michelle's blog)

They live in an adorable little craftsman style home in a nice neighborhood where you can walk all over the place.   I have to say though, I really don't understand it - it's COLD out there!   I had to wear my coat the whole time!    Georgie was laughing at me.   

Georgie & Michelle took us over to Cat Town where Michelle's great- grandfather had lived and showed us this cool barn that he had built himself!

I think old structures like this are even more interesting to me because you don't often see them in California.   Here, things like this are torn down to build condos.    It's pretty sad.

One neat thing about this barn is that it's built right along a creek, and I don't know if it was built this way, or just fixed up, but the creek actually flows a little under the barn, and a corner of the barn is propped up on stones to keep up from falling into the creek!

This area was really quite pretty.   Michelle & Georgie then took us up a little country road where we saw nice meadows and hay fields.   It's funny, I saw big rolls of hay in the field for the first time - I think the only times I've seen that before has been in artwork and movies!

And we saw some snow!    Georgie and I got out of the car and played in it  :-)

After a nice drive through the country, we ended up at Fly Creek Cider Mill.

I loved the Cider Mill. It has a cute little store and, of course, apple cider, but so much more than that. There were all sorts of apple food products - salsa, bbq sauce, salad dressings, wine... I bought a bunch of stuff and had it shipped home to make gift baskets for Christmas. There was an area where you could see how cider is made (it wasn't operating while we were there though) and outside the mill there were lots of things to see and do.

You could ride a tractor, for example:

And there was also an area where you could feed ducks and chickens.  This was pretty funny - you'd get food out of the dispenser and boy would they come running!     A few of them were eye-ing Georgie & me a little too hungrily for my comfort.

There were 2 ducks though that really cracked us up.   They had such a distinct "look"!    One had this top-knot that looked like an unruly thatch of hair - we named him Elvis.   And the other had these curly poofy feathers - they looked like one of those formal dresses we wore to dances in high school back in the 80's.   We named her the Prom Queen:

Elvis and the Prom Queen

On my last day in Upstate NY, Georgie took us over to Cooperstown, the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.    I'm a big baseball fan, and so is my grandma who lives in Las Vegas, so I was excited to go there!    

Almost the first thing we saw was Doubleday Field!    This used to be the home of every year's Hall of Fame baseball game.   It was so neat!    It was also in the movie, "A League of their Own", which of course, I loved...

This is the Baseball Hall of Fame!   We got to go inside, but I didn't actually get to do the museum tour - we were just out of time.   I'd really like to go back and do that though.   I think it would be interesting!    But, we did manage to find time to check out the museum gift shop and I found lots of great Christmas presents there (for my baseball loving family!)

As we were leaving Cooperstown, we turned down a little side street and came upon the most spectacular sight.   This is Lake Otsego.    Enjoy.....

Queen Mary - October 11, 2008

Mel's cousin Karen came out to run the Long Beach Half Marathon in October, and she invited Mel to ride the Bike Tour at the same time.   Now Karen is the reason Mel started biking.   Karen started running earlier this year, and Mel was thinking, "Hey, if she can run, I can ride!"   And that's when the dusty old bike came down from the rafters and got fixed up.   So it was really fun that they could do this event together.   The City of Long Beach really goes all out - they have a full marathon, a half marathon, a 5k run/walk and a bike tour (which goes the full marathon route).   

Karen, Mel, & I stayed on the Queen Mary.   It's the real cruise ship that used to cross the Atlantic Ocean, served in WWII, and now is docked in Long Beach and is a floating hotel.   What a NEAT experience to get to stay on the ship!

Our room had 2 twin size beds, a nice closet and a decent sized bathroom.   It wasn't a huge luxurious hotel bedroom, but on the other hand, cruise ship rooms are not usually huge (unless you pay lots of extra money).   The walls were gorgeous wood (teak, I think, but I'm not sure about that) and there were all sorts of things in the room that were original - like an original ships fan and the faucets in the shower that gave you choices of hot salt water, hot fresh water, cold salt water, and cold fresh water  (those don't work anymore.   You have just plain boring hot & cold fresh water now).    The whole boat is done in Art Deco style, which is very beautiful.

The night before the race, the Queen Mary hosted a "Carb Load" dinner for the participants.   We had all sorts of pasta and garlic bread and could eat to our heart's content.    Actually, the only bad thing I have to say about staying on the Queen Mary was the food - none of the restaurants we tried had good food and the service was terrible.    But other than that, we really enjoyed our stay!

Both the bike tour and the half marathon routes took us right past the Queen Mary.    The bike tour started before dawn, so as we went past the ship, the sun was just rising - making for a beautiful scene:

The next day, after the races, we took an audio tour of the ship.   I highly recommend doing this.   It's self guided - you get an audio system and it tells you where to go next.    We learned a LOT about the ship's history and even how it functions today.   Did you know the radio room is still in use?   They allow a local amateur radio club to operate the radios and they talk to people all over the world from the ship!    I thought that was kind of cool.  (Incidentally, if you want to take the tour, I highly recommend doing it BEFORE you run a marathon, as there are a lot of steps for sore legs to handle!)

Some other things we saw....

A beautiful inlaid wood picture of the Queen Mary:

And the life boats  (they were totally rotted - good thing there's no chance of the ship sinking now!)

It was a great opportunity to get to re-live a little history and enjoy the nostalgia of staying on the Queen Mary.    There are flaws, like some repair work that desperately needs to be done, but all in all, we were very glad we stayed there.