Tuesday October 24^th:

Discovered that the places that do the wine tastings take the first part of the week off after apparently vigorous weekends, so we switched the Thursday planned Yosemite trip with the Tuesday wine tastings. The exchange decision was enhanced by the weather predictions of snow in the higher areas in the next couple days. Our entrance point to Yosemite is generally closed after snow events and we were going on our own since Viator cancelled my plans for them to drive us through the park.

We both were up early, Marilou had some issues after her breakfast of pepper, onion, and mushroom tacos that I thought were very tasty. We left around 9 and arrived at 10:30 with some quick overlook vistas stops along the way. The high elevations/overlooks didn't sit too well with Marilou's aversions and the windy up and down road didn't help much so I'm not sure she enjoyed the day as much as she expected.

I drove through the Yosemite Valley with short stops at the pullover points. On our way out we ended up at the wrong exit so I had to go back in and find the exit frpm which I knew how to get back home. Fortunately, my National Parks senior pass got me in both times for free. We stopped for a late lunch at a small cafe about a half hour from the park. The sandwiches were expensive, but big. We both had leftovers for dinner.

Back at Worldmark we sat on the balcony sipping wine and watching the woodpeckers flitting amongst the trees. Later we walked to the hot tub and pool. We altered between hot tub and cold pool several times.

Wednesday October 25^th:

Today we had a better plan on how to find the Natural Bridges trail. It is supposed to be 3.7 miles on Parrots Ferry Rd to the right hand turn on Airola Rd so I slowed down at 3.0 miles and near 3.7 saw what looked like an open cattle gate. I needed to maneuver around a huge pot-hole in the center of the path. A hundred feet down this path I saw poorly marked parking lines in the asphalt, but no signs near them a little further down the road it dead ended, so I turned around and parked between the lines. After a little searching found a parking meter that said temporarily free and the entrance to the trail.

The trail was a little rocky. The views were nice, but we needed to peer through the trees to see them which made photography difficult. There were some unusual trees along the path. We stayed for a while near the bridge before heading back the steep path to the car.

We then headed back to the Angels Camp Museum. The attendant explained how that there is over 30,000 square feet of displays which is a lot to see in the hour and a half to closing time. With so much to see there but, she said she would issue a comeback wristlet if we didn't complete everything and wanted to return tomorrow. It was an extensive museum spread out over several acres. We first entered the gold mining museum building where they have displays of the evolution of the gold mining process from panning to more intensive ways.

Thursday October 26^th:

This morning I again woke up to seeing some mule deer wandering around the campus. This time there appeared to be a couple of herds of mule deer passing through the property. I got bolder this time and opened the balcony sliding door to get better pictures of the deer. My prior photos through the windows didn't work with the cameras I brought with me.

Leaving Murphy's parking lot, we headed away from main street down a country road for a couple of miles to Ironstone Vineyards for our wine tasting. For my listening to an hour of sales pitch from Holiday Inn Resorts, who took over management of the Ridge Tahoe, we received a certificate for a complimentary wine tasting at Ironstone Vineyards that included two complimentary wine glasses and two bottles of wine.

The walkway to the tasting room was lined with potted flowers and inside there were displays of mining equipment, miner's lamps, dinosaur bones, etc. Inside a vaulted room was a display that includes a very large piece of gold mined in the area.

Friday October 27^th:
We spent the morning packing up and loading the car before checking out and starting our drive to Lake Tahoe. We arrived in Lake Tahoe in the early afternoon so I went to Rally grocery store to buy supplies, but it was closed. After thinking about other choices, we went to the Save More near Zephyr Cove. We were still a little early for checking in to the room, but didn't have any problem since our room was ready.

We checked in ok and chose our rooms and unpacked.

Later we decided to try the hot tub upstairs. The inside hot tub was only luke warm and not much bubbles. It was already dark and we couldn't find a switch for the outside lights but we ventured into the water anyhow. The water was a little hotter and there were a few more bubbles, but the wind was strong and cold so we only stayed a little while.

Saturday October 28^th:
We picked up James Budday at the Golden Nugget hotel, which apparently is becoming Hard Rock Hotel, around noon. We decided to do the nearby Lam Watah Historic Trail hike. It took us through some pines to Lake Tahoe. Signs at the beach said no dogs past this point, but there seemed to be a convention of dog owners on the beach that day. We got confused on the way back and ended up at the beach again. James used his trailways app to get us back to the car. We went to the Ridge for lunch and for James to unpack.

After lunch James an I went to the Kingsbury North trail, which is a feed into the Tahoe Rim Trail. Several other trails cross it in various locations. It started a bit steep uphill, but then leveled off, or at least we thought it was level until we turned around and headed back. There were some views of the lake and we tried to time our return to get back there in time for the sunset, but we got there too early.

Sunday October 29^th:
Today we went to Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Lake Tahoe. We thought we were getting there early at 8:30, but the mass started at 8:00. I read my notes for All Saint's Day instead of Sunday Mass. We had a pickleball lesson at 1pm, and then watched football the rest of the day. We spent the first part of my $160 payment for listening to the sales presentation eating dinner at the resort.

Monday October 30^th:
James and I signed up for the 9am hike at the resort. It was quite cold this morning. I wore a sweater, scarf and coat as well as my leather gloves. The guide was wearing a heated vest. The trail was named the South Kingsbury Trail. The hike was one hour out then back. It had some nice views and the guide added some interesting perspective. Again, there was a bit of smoke on some of the views from the control burns going on.

After lunch we went to Fallen Lake looking for the trail after the Camp Richardson entrance road. We followed the road until we came to where the burners were gathering up rubble for a control burn. We parked along the road and followed a path to the lake. The lake views were nice but there was some smoke interferance from the distant burns. At one point we looked back and saw a lot of smoke rising from near where we parked the car, so we headed back.

Tuesday October 31^st:

Tried to get some pictures of a pretty sunrise, but the cameras I brought didn't do too good a job.

A news anchor has been doing various hiking trails in the area for his newscasts each day. Today's hike to the Carson River Park was based on one his shows. It showed plenty of trees in groups with full fall color. We never found the grove of trees he showed on the news cast but did see some pretty sites along the trail we were on. A sign near the start of the trail said it was 1 3/4 mile to the dam, so we did about a 3 1/2-mile trek. Near the end I took a picture of a growth we had seen several places on oak trees so I could research it later. I think it is a burl based on a site that looks just like the picture.

Afterward we went into Carson City looking for the Golden Nugget and their Prime Rib Special. The place was completely remodeled and the name changed to Carson Nugget. The restaurant is now the Capital City Grill. It just has a routine lunch menu now, not the family meal specials and senior discounts of the past.

Wednesday November 1^st:

This morning the views of the Carson Valley from our living room was pretty. Some streams of smoke that I guess were from some more control burns were evident. The window reflections interfered with the quality of my photos.

It being All Saints Day, we made our way to the 9am Mass at Our Lady of Lake Tahoe. This time we were on time. After the Mass we made our way to the beach access walk at the end of the road next to the church. James played catch with someone's black Labrador Retriever until the owner left for his home. He said he lives up the street and brings his dog there every day to find a sucker to play catch with him. We enjoyed being the sucker that morning.

Next, we decided to do the drive around the lake with stops at the overlooks. Our first stop was at the Cave Rock, the park was closed, but we were able to stop there and get some pictures. A loaner life jacket stand located at the launch area there is unusual.

We continued around the lake with occasioanal pull-overs. I could see the smoke arising from the control burn area we had visited a couple days ago. The color of the water at Emerald Bay was not as pronounced as it was the other day when the sun wasn't filtered through the smoke, but we could see some of the structures better in the lower light. We stopped on the side of the road where it crossed Taylor Creek so Marilou could see the school of salmon there.

Thursday November 2^nd:
I think the fires are yielding colorful sunrises. Today we were blessed again and I got a little better taking pictures through the window.

After a short steep start, the trail leveled out. The thing I didn't count on is that it was about 30 feet above the lake level and Marilou was experiencing height fear. The way she was walking off the top side of the trail was making me nervous, so we walked her back to the car, then James and I returned to the trail.

We proceeded to the end of the first lake before heading back to the car. There were some nice views along the lake. The distant views were impacted by all the control burn smoke. We also encountered some odd-looking tree forms growing out of the rocks.

Friday November 3^rd:
We packed most everything last night and loaded the car this morning before checking out and dropping James off at the Hard Rock where he caught his bus to Reno. We continued our 2.5 hour drive to Sacramento. We arrived back in Corpus Christi around 11:30pm.

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