Sequoia National Park (part 1 of 3)

Guess what I did last month?? If you guessed saw the biggest tree in the world, almost ran into a bear (literally), went wild caving at night, had 1 mild panic attack while doing said wild caving, stayed up til 3am drinking Canadian beers and talking about life's mysteries with a long time friend while we laughed at my husband falling asleep at the table, went on some awesome hikes (including a 7 mile one), ate the most refreshing apple I've ever tasted, and then drove 5 hours home.....you'd be correct!!

What......a weekend.

Where were we to enjoy such fun adventures, you ask? Sequoia National Park. My buddy Billy lives and works there as a Cave Tour Guide at Crystal Cave.

I should preface this (long) story with the instructions we received from Billy about our upcoming adventure. There is no cell service in the park. Billy has to drive about 10 miles to get a good signal. Most of the time when I hear from him, it's by a quick text or email. Here are the communications we had to each other about coming to visit :

Email to Billy from me :
Hello lover! Chad and I are trying to figure out a weekend we can come visit. Thought I'd run our options by you.... (gave him dates)
Email from Billy :
hello back my love,
any of those weekends work for me. i do have to work obviously, but we'll plan a tour or even special tour for you guys. i'll point out some good spots to check out in the park and meet up around a campfire at my place when i get off work. cant wait to see you guys. just drop me a line when u figure stuff out. love ya
Email to Billy from me :
How about October 7-9?
Email from Billy :
That works good for me. Just so u know, my schedule is kind of up in the air. Nxt week we start our weather permitting schedule. This is the same for housing. We will be moving back down the mountain if/when the weather changes. I'll keep u posted though. Nights r getting cooler so be prepared for that. Also bring some clothes that can get muddy in case u guys want to do some caving. Talk to u soon!
(end of communication)

So we took the map Billy left us the last time he was visiting and headed out early Saturday morning. It took us about 4ish hours to get to the park and a little over an hour to drive in. Turning off our cell phones for the weekend was GREAT...I could use a little more time without that thing. When we got there we weren't sure of anything, including where to meet him and if he would have enough room for us to sleep in his place.

We got there around noon, picked up our 4pm cave tour tickets, and headed to the first spot we could find to get out of the car and into the beautiful mountain air for a hike. That spot just happened to be where the biggest tree in the world was. Now before you get all technical on me...let me just say there are taller trees and wider trees in the world...but this is the biggest tree in overall size. His name is General Sherman.

There he is...

Bam! That's a big tree. Pictures just don't do this tree (or any of the others) justice!

The General

I like this one of Mr. Sherman...pretty.

The General is the middle tree of those giant sequoias. 

Sadly...I did not get a good picture of Chad in front of the General so you're stuck with me.

There are ginormous trees all around the General as well as everywhere around the park. It's so awesome and SO beautiful. The "hike" to Mr. Sherman was a paved path with quite a few people on it. There were a couple of trails you could take off the path so having some extra time to kill, Chad and I went off on one. We weren't about 20 yards off the main path when we came to an older European couple standing in the trail. We thought they were taking a rest so we said hello and passed them. We went a couple more steps and the woman said quietly "We stopped because we saw a bear over the hill." Excuse me? Were you planning to wait for us to be attacked by the wild animal before you told us? So we backed up and the 4 of us went to higher ground a few feet away to see if we could see the bear over the hill. Well turns out the bear had moved since the couple had stopped and it was in fact behind a tree next to the trail. The very tree that we were about to wrap around when they told us there was a bear. We would have literally been within 2 feet of the bear before we saw it...and more importantly we would have been that close before the bear saw us. Billy sees bears all the time in the park and they're often hanging out just outside his doorstep at his place. They're super mellow and used to seeing people and they don't really have any interest in the visitors. I wasn't scared of seeing a bear during our time there, in fact I was hoping we would, but I was not interested in surprising a bear AND being within a paw's reach of the thing. So the other couple left, and while holding our bear spray in one hand, Chad took a few photos with the other hand. (Yes, we have bear spray...we lived in Colorado and hiked a lot and we don't leave home without it! It's basically a REAL strong pepper spray. Like strong enough to hurt a 400 pound bear and make it run away. At home, we keep it in a drawer on my side of the bed. Just in case you were thinking it would be funny to scare me at night while I'm asleep.)

Bear butt.

Hi buddy.

"Ughh...humans are so annoying, get out of my park."

We didn't get great pictures of the bear but decided it was time to leave after a twig snapped under Chad's foot and we made eye contact with the "little" fellow.

After hiking around some more and taking a little meditation break on a rock in the sun....

Ommmmmmmm

....we drove to our next stop...Crystal Cave. Little did we know, we were about to do something that was by far the craziest thing we have ever done. And as Chad describes the experience "life changing."

I'll leave you hanging with that...stay tuned for Part 2!

More pictures below from our afternoon hike.....

Probably my favorite picture we took all weekend...

We got super lucky with the weather...it didn't snow and was sunny all weekend! 

:)

What do you do with a fallen sequoia on the walking path? Leave it there and make a hole in it!

General Sherman specs....(that's for you, Dad)

xo

Why I'm not making fast friends at work.

I know what you're thinking....."Whaaaaaat?? Brooke not making friendssss?? Who wouldn't want to be friends with this......"

Let me start by giving you some background about the company I work for. Without going into too much detail......I work at a small sales office in Northern California for a product that is manufactured in two different locations. One of those locations is in Southern California and the other is in Israel. The headquarters in Israel is very big and we communicate with them on a daily basis. We also receive all of their company wide emails. Which are in Hebrew. We have two people who work in our office that are originally from there, who speak Hebrew as their first language. They are both fluent in English as well as most of the employees at the Israeli headquarters. There are definitely cultural differences (especially in the work place...that could probably be a whole different post) but there isn't too much of a language barrier.

Like I said, these company wide emails (in Hebrew) come in all the time and they usually say say things like "Wireless access down from 6:00-7:00pm today" or something about holiday hours when they're closed down. But sometimes the company will be having a fundraiser for a charity or send out fun emails like "Ice cream social today in the lobby from 1:00-3:00pm." Regardless, these emails have nothing to do with happenings in our office or they would also be translated in English. I've NEVER once asked one of my coworkers what these emails say......until that fateful day February 9th, 2011 when curiosity got the best of me. It's safe to say I've never asked since.

*coworker and company name changed to protect their privacy :)

From: General Information
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 4:56 AM
Subject: חלוקה והחלפת ערכות מגן

בתאריכים 21-22/02/2011

בין השעות 09:00-17:00

תתבצע חלוקת ערכות מגן חינם

לעובדי טאואר ובני-משפחתם בחדר הכושר

                       

·        חובה להצטייד בתעודת זהות/רישיון נהיגה

·        ניתן לקבל ערכות מגן לכל בני המשפחה המופיעים בת.ז ומעודכנים במסופים של פיקוד העורף

·        ערכות חדשות יינתנו רק למי שהחזיר את הערכות הישנות. מי שלא החזיר יכול להביאם איתו.

(מומלץ להביא אתכם את אישור פיקוד העורף על החזרת הערכות הישנות) .

שאלות ובירורים יש להפנות בימי החלוקה לנציגי פיקוד העורף.

---------------------------

Looks like they might be having a party right?

Attempting to be friendly and playful....I forward the email to an Israeli coworker and ask her what it says.....

---------------------------

From: Brooke 
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 8:37 AM
Subject: FW: חלוקה והחלפת ערכות מגן

Hi Cindy.

This looks like something fun…am I wrong?  Just polishing up on my Hebrew!  J

Brooke

---------------------------

From: Cindy
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 8:51 AM
Subject: FW: חלוקה והחלפת ערכות מגן

Hi Brooke,

It’s actually gas masks that Company is handing out for free for their employees and their families.

Every resident of Israel must have it as Israel could be a subject to biological and/or chemical warfare by their ‘friendly’ neighboring countries.

Fun stuff...

Cindy


Why must I always say the wrong thing at the wrong time?  *sigh*

Fishies.

Chad and I added to our family a couple of weeks ago with the addition of these three 'beauts.

This is Slippy-Slappy, Swimmin' Swanson, and Samsonite. (Did you guess that my favorite movie is Dumb and Dumber?) Sorry I couldn't get my children to sit still long enough for a good picture....you know how kids are...

I'm happy to report that we've been able to keep them alive for a whole 2 weeks now. And we were even gone for 3 days this weekend! Chad and I affectionately call them our "babies." Slippy-Slappy is a huge bully to his brothers and Chad had to threaten to take away a privilege (his favorite tank rock) last week to get him to straighten up. He will chase and bite the other 2 if they try to swim near the top of the tank...that's his spot. Samsonite is the "different" looking fish of the group and definitely gets picked on the most. Sometimes they don't let him near the top during feeding time and he has to wait for the sinkers to float down. :( Poor guy. I think I should get another one that looks like him and maybe they'll stop being so mean to him.

Fish are the only things Chad and I have parented together, although if it were only up to Chad.....we might have 5 kids, 7 dogs, a parakeet, and 2 hamsters by now. We haven't actually lived in a place together that the lease allows a cat or dog. And I've managed to hold him off on the kid thing by telling him they aren't allowed on the lease either. Just kidding...if you know Chad you know that of course he reads EVERYTHING before he signs his name to a document. Even the small print. I'm exhausted just thinking about reading all that.

But these fishies aren't our first together. When we lived in Colorado we had 3 fish.....Ku-Ku, Ka-Choo, and Sparta. I loved introducing these fish to people because someone would ask their names and I would say "That one is is Ku-Ku, and this one is Ka-Choo." After a pause, they'd ask..."What about the other one? What's his name?" Then I would scream "THIS.....IS SPAAAARRRRRTTTTAA!!!!" in an overly dramatic fashion. I guess it's kind of appropriate since they ended up dying in what I can only assume was a horrible fiery death. The light in their tank malfunctioned and they basically roasted in there. Sometimes when I'm in a dark room I feel like I can hear their little fins flapping and their pain-ridden fish screams. I still feel awful about that. Please don't share that story with our current fish babies.

In college my roommate (soul sister/bff/life partner/etc) Rachel and I kept a fish alive for like a whole 2 years. (Yeah, in a dorm room and everything...we barely kept ourselves alive in there, this is quite a feat.) His name was Master. He was a Beta fish. I'll give you a minute while you catch up with the rest of us on his name........ (Can't take credit for the naming of that one...that was all Rachel. Which further explains why I love her.)

Our friend Dooley (yes she has a real name, but no one knows it) also had a fish in the adjoining dorm room and Rachel and I came home one day to find it floating at the top of the bowl. We didn't want to see Dooley sad (and also because she likes to punch people when she's sad) so we decided we should go get her another one and she'd "never even notice the difference." Only problem with that plan was the fish we bought was completely different. We knew she had probably noticed when she came into our room and said "What did you f*%&# do with my fish?" I don't know why she looked in our closet (and I really don't know why we kept it in there) but she found her floating dead fish. Then it looked more like a homicide cover-up then it did a couple of girls trying to cheer up a friend after her fish had passed on its own without the assistance of anyone but Mother Nature. Dooley probably punched us at the time...but after all that's how you knew she appreciated you. :)

Here's to hoping we can keep these fish alive long enough to talk about them in another post. Because I know all of you are dying to read more about my fish.......  :)

Who is the Biggest Loser...?

Is it okay that my favorite way to watch Biggest Loser on my DVR is with snacks and a beer on the couch? Oh, and I cry at least once.

Evidence:

Where is Friendship Lane?

I really wish I could tell you. Ideally....Friendship Lane is the street I live on with all my favorite people. My friends from college and I have always talked about this magical place that we would some day live. We would live on that magical Lane and grow our families there. We would have backyard BBQs, drink sweet tea in our rocking chairs on the front porch while watching storms blow in, talk out our life problems while drinking too much wine, debate over who is the better wizard - Dumbledore or Snape, join an all women's slow pitch league and win national titles, go streaking every now and then just to prove we still can, tell the same stories over and over again and make new ones, and watch our kids grow up and marry each other so we're officially family forever. Perhaps our toilets would be made of gold too.

You can see why this is a very hard place to find.

You see Friendship Lane is really just a state of mind. Although we may never actually live on that extremely unrealistic blissfull lane, we will always be friends. And if it's one thing I've learned about friends in the last 5 years...it's that you don't need to talk to them or see them every day or even once a month to have a connection with them. The good friendships...and I'm talking about the really really good ones here...will pick up exactly where you left off when you want/need them to. I have no idea how I got lucky enough to have so many more good friendships than I ever had bad.....but holy balls did this girl luck out.

So to all of my fellow Friendship Laners out there, old and new.......thank you so much for "living" with me and Chad on our Friendship Lane.

:)

Soo uhhh...here I am.

Hi. My name is Brooke, and I'm a blog stalker.
All together now....."Hi Brooke!"

I will read anything and everything someone puts on a blog. Friends, strangers, mommies, teenagers, recipes, stay at home dads, comedians, fashion and hair ideas, do it yourself projects......if you have anything that ends in 'blogspot.com' there is a good chance I've come across it and stalked you for a bit. I just love getting a look in someone else's life, thoughts, funny or touching stories, at home projects, clothes, pictures, yummy food...

My usual MO when coming across a new blog....I  read a few of the blog's recent posts and if I like what I'm reading I immediately go to the history and find their very first post ever. I figure you can tell everything you need to know about the blog (and the blogger) when reading that first one. Well holy hell I haven't been on this side of the blog stalking...that puts just a little pressure on the first post!! I think I started writing this thing 15 different times only to start and restart again.

I know what you're thinking. "Why is she starting a blog?" (But just in case it was "What color is her underwear right now?" Answer: It's a nice burgundy color of low rise from American Eagle. But if you were thinking "What color are her panties?" Please leave this blog immediately...you're a creep and it's not THAT kind of blog. I hate the word "panties." Ew.) What was I saying? Oh yes, top 3 reasons I'm writing this blog:

1)  I don't live near a lot of my family and friends and this seems like a fun way to keep them all up to date on our activities. Man oh man do I miss them.

2)  Although I've always wanted to, I've never kept a regular diary. I think it will be fun to look back through these to take me back to another place and time in my life.

C)  Maybe I'll make some new friends along the way.

Okay, I admit.....C may be a stretch. Rephrasing that to..."Hope I don't lose any current friends once they get a candid look inside this mind of mine." Much more appropriate.

I'm pretty sure I just made the first blog post my bitch.
xo,
Brooke

ps. Sorry I said 'bitch' on the internets, Momma...I'll try to clean it up since I know you may or may not be the only one that reads my blog.  :)