Another Maine Visit - Part Four

On our last full day in Maine, Matt and I explored while his parents were at work. We found a nice forest walk (I hesitate to call it a "hike") just a few minutes from their house!








Even if it wasn't the most strenuous or longest of trails, it was nice to be out in the woods! Everything smelled wonderful and it was pretty quiet - not a single other person was on the trail (and we know, because we did the loop two times!). Eventually, we had to head back because the mosquitoes got a little overwhelming. One thing I definitely associate with summer in Maine - mosquitoes! We don't really have them in Brooklyn, but I definitely had the battle scars when we got back.

All in all, it was a great trip! Hopefully we can get back up there soon.

Another Maine Visit - Part Three

After we went kayaking, we decided we hadn't had enough physical activity, so we did a hike! This was up near Freeport, Maine (the home of L.L. Bean!). We'd done a hike there back when we visited in December and everything was cold and slightly snowy. It was slightly different this time around!








We started off with a pretty walk through the forest, with lots of ferns and mushrooms. There weren't very many other people out, even though it was a beautiful day! Matt & I are gradually learning that the Pacific northwest isn't the only place in the world with ferns or tall trees (even though there might have been more ferns or taller trees!).



After walking through the forest for a while, we got to a rocky beach with a view of the bay and of a nearby island where there's an osprey nest (very tiny osprey seen above!). We even saw one of the osprey dive into the bay and catch a fish!

Cross-Country Ski Lessons

We're officially trying to embrace the colder months of the year!

A quick backstory - for Christmas 2013, we bought my mom the perfect present - a guided snowshoe tour on Mt. Hood! She was due to visit in February, it was going to be so pretty up on the mountain in the winter, we'd never been snowshoeing but always wanted to, there was a historic lodge up there, etc. However, when she arrived in Portland, a big snowstorm came with her...and our snowshoeing trip was cancelled. Because of too much snow. (Portland doesn't have salt or many plows...) So for this past Christmas, we thought we'd try again. There are lots of places around Cleveland that have snowshoeing hikes. We found one for January 3rd and thought - perfect! But, of course, there wasn't any snow on January 3rd. But Cleveland's winter didn't disappoint and soon enough there was (is) tons of snow. So we took cross-country skiing lessons together!

We learned how to fall down - and get back up, how to go up and down hills (the hill above was our practice hill!) and then we skied around a short track through the forest. By the end of it, we all felt like we were really starting to catch on! We're hoping to go back again soon, this time just to rent skis, and practice more. You might see the strands of lights above - the trails are open until 9pm! 

We passed snowshoeing trails (definitely going back for that) and there was even a nice fire waiting for us back at the lodge when we were done! Maybe winter isn't so bad after all...

Camping at Trillium Lake!

When my mom visited last summer, we went to a nearly perfect mountain lake up by Mt. Hood - Trillium Lake. It's a lot like lots of other lakes around Mt. Hood that we've been to (Lost Lake, Mirror Lake), except you can easily drive right up to it instead of having to hike or take winding back roads to get there. When we visited the first time, we did a hike around the lake and saw campsites and thought - we need to camp here!

So back in May, we booked a campsite - we weren't sure how full the campground would be when we got there, because when we booked it, it was mostly empty (except the perfect spots near the lake!). But it was completely full when we arrived, and the campground host told us that people reserve "their spots" as early as 6 months in advance. It was pretty easy to understand why - it was a perfect campground! Our campsite was huge, full of trees, had lots of spots to stick a tent (we moved ours from its first spot above) - we felt like we were totally alone in the woods, since we couldn't see any of our neighbors. 

Of course, being a five minute walk from this view wasn't too bad either:

There was a full moon, so we didn't even need lights to walk around the campground at night. We had an amazing campfire (rare!), slept pretty well for sleeping on the ground, and woke up bright and early...so we went down to the lake again. It was completely empty, with only a few people fishing quietly. Super different from the day before, when it was full of swimmers and kids and lots of noise. Basically, it was perfect.

After we got too hungry to sit by the lake anymore, we went back to the campground and had some breakfast and a (not as amazing) morning campfire.

After our not-so-amazing fire didn't stay lit for very long, we decided to head out for the day on a hike up on Mt. Hood - which I'll post separately, since (as usual) I took way too many photos!

Yosemite : Mariposa Grove

Our last day in Yosemite started out with a visit to the Mariposa Grove - one of three stands of ancient Giant Sequoias in the park. Near the southern entrance, the grove was only about 20 minutes away from where we stayed. Matt and I were excited to see the trees but thought - "We see big trees all the time in the PNW! Sequoias can't be that much bigger, right?" Well...they were much bigger. Huge! And so old - up to 3,000 years. They almost didn't look real. It felt very otherworldly to walk amongst them, like we were in some other time or place.









We ended up doing quite a hike, with around 1,000 feet in elevation gain - more than the most we've ever done in the gorge! The hike started off amongst big crowds of people, taking pictures by the famous trees. After we passed through the tree above (inside a tree!) and made our way to the museum at the top of a ridge, the crowds really thinned out. We passed through trees that were blackened from forest fires - we learned that Giant Sequoias not only survive forest fires, but need them to reproduce. Their bark resists flames and the heat opens up their seed pods and clears the forest floor for Sequoia seedlings to grow.









The trees at the top of the ridge were just as big as those by the entrance, but without all the crowds. In the museum, we learned that while these trees live up to 3,000 years old, they don't die because of disease or old age, but because of wind. They have shallow root systems and eventually just fall over. We felt really lucky to see these amazing trees, that don't live anywhere else in the world!

After our Sequoia adventure, we had a quick lunch and headed back down to Yosemite Valley for an open air tram tour of all the sights. It was informative and interesting, and we saw parts of the park we hadn't seen before, including one of the spots Ansel Adams photographed from (first one below - how does mine live up?).









When our tour was over, it was sunset and time for one last thing to do in Yosemite - go star gazing! Led by a park ranger, we paid $5 each to lie in a big field with a group of people and learn about the stars. It was pretty incredible. We were lucky to have a new moon during our visit, so the stars were all super visible. The ranger pointed out constellations to us using a laser pointer and we learned about the history of constellations and basic facts about the solar system and galaxy beyond. We could even see the milky way because the skies are so free of light pollution! To cap off the night, we saw three shooting stars - at first, they looked fake, they were so perfectly visible. It was a really special experience that I know I'll remember forever.

The next day, we drove back to Tahoe for one last night of vacation and headed home the following morning. It was a great vacation, with beautiful sights and fun experiences with family - and we're so glad we got to really see Yosemite and Lake Tahoe. A+ !

Now, back to work!

Lake Tahoe : Lakeside + Emerald Bay

The shores of Lake Tahoe are covered in pine trees and beaches - and we saw both! Near our hotel was this pretty beach, full of vacationers sunning themselves. There were all kinds of boats out - kayaks and canoes, stand up paddle boards, paddle boats, and even lake cruises in an old-fashioned boat!

After we'd walked along the beach near our hotel, we decided to drive to a state park on the California side of the lake. I read about it as being amazing, and it didn't disappoint! It's called Emerald Bay State Park and it's a little blue bay surrounded by green forest. We stopped at an overlook, saw a bald eagle flying over the bay and lots kayakers down below - then we continued to the main part of the park, down on the shore.

We parked up at the top and did a short hike down to the lake's shore. Vikingsholm is the name of a house built on the shore by a wealthy woman back in the 1920s. It's full of Scandinavian architectural details and pretty woodwork. Sadly, the interior tours were done for the day, but we peeked through the windows and walked around the outside. Being down by the lake was so peaceful - the perfect end to a day!

Next post - Yosemite!