...and the public demands information, I'll have to write about our adventures from last week. She will have to comment or correct my faulty memory. Or better yet, POST AGAIN!

We stuck mostly to the schedule I planned, though some things proved to be a little too ambitious. They arrived on time on Saturday, the 7th, and we come back here and had naps and/or played until we had an early dinner of tacos and margaritas. 

Sunday, we slept in a little, then went to Dry Town Water Park, a local, municipally-owned water park.  I covered that already.

Monday, we got a late start because I signed up for insect pest control, so as not to have any problems with ants or termites and had to vacate the premises for a few hours in the morning.

We went up through Tehachapi and Mojave and saw all the windmills.



That's what getting off of evil foreign oil looks like. I think it's beautiful.

Then we went up to a town near Sequoia called Visala in the San Joaquin Valley, the huge valley that spans the length of the state 50 or so miles inland from Southern California to north of San Francisco. It's the agricultural heart of the state. It's also among the last places on Earth that I'd want to live. I'm sure that many people there would never live in the high desert, but it suits me better.

The next morning, we got up and went into the mountains to the east and into Sequoia National Park. As soon as you get some elevation and get off the San Joaquin valley, it gets pretty... quick.





This little town of Richfield was like a time capsule to the 1950s, except that everything was closed, but it was closed, preserved, and not yet torn down.



Then we found a pay-on-your-honor fruit stand, proving that we were definitely not in LA County any more.



Jesse picked an orange for the first time ever.



Tthe oranges were nice and tart and fresh and juicy and awesome.



On the way up, I saw my first running stream in almost a year.



It was AWESOME to see. It's something I will never take water for granted, not that I ever really did, because I've always loved streams, but I have a renewed appreciation now. 

Then there were the trees.



And the mountains.



Jesse cracks me up. He is really a great kid and he has the best sense of humor.

There was even more running water.



This lake in the meadow was easily the most beautiful place I've ever seen.