Day 5 - We left Patty and Fred this morning for our next adventure. It's a short hour and a half drive from their house to the east entrance of Yosemite via Tioga Pass. Being that's it's high tourist season and Saturday, I felt the only chance of getting a campsite would be an early start. Reservations at Yosemite campsites have to made a year in advance but there are several first come first served campgrounds in the upper meadows away from the highly popular va...

We are staying with Patty and Fred just outside of Mammoth Lakes, CA. In 2001, I started working as an educational assistant in Patty's preschool special needs classroom at Mammoth Elementary. By 2003, I had gotten my teaching credential and started teaching K, 1, 2 special education at Mammoth Elementary. We took a little trip down memory lane as we drove through Mammoth today. I took the kids to the elementary school where I taught and showed Bodie my former cl...

After a leisurely breakfast of fruit loops, we went down into Bishop. Bishop sits in a huge valley surrounded by the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the west and the White Mountains on the east. There is a ton of climbing and hiking here! We went up the west side of the valley into an area called the Buttermilks (probably named for the old dairy farms). It is a desert landscape of sage brush and white gravelly sand. In the end of July, it's also very hot. The landscap...

Day 2 - We left Lakeview, OR about 6:15 am and continued south. We were in Reno by 10:00. Just south of Reno is Carson City. Carson thought it was great a city was named after him and got a kick out of seeing all the signs with his name on them. I explained that we would be passing an old ghost town called Bodie as well. The next question that came from the back seat was "Where is Momma city at?" "You need a sign too mom!" When we got to Bodie, CA, of course we h...

Day 1 - These two boys are incredible road trippers! We traveled 9.5 hours in the car and there was very few issues. The boys read books, drew pictures, slept, and looked out the windows. I'd be just taking in the view when a question of 'what is that?' would come from the back seat? Answers included: a crop duster, a falcon, a dry lake bed, a deep canyon... And so many more. Driving all the way through eastern Oregon on highway 395 is beautiful! It has a unique ...