Still in California

We are still in California. After leaving Merced on Monday afternoon, Marlene and I plus Josh and Leah and Nick traveled east, passing through Yosemite National Park for a three-day stay at Mammoth Lakes, a renowned ski area in the winter and a biking, hiking, mountain climbing, skateboarding vacation spot during the summer. I wasn’t quite prepared for the change in altitude. Because Mammoth Lakes is 7000 feet above sea level, the air is considerably thinner. Marlene and I both felt lousy for about 24 hours. Yesterday we both were much better, though not as strong as the younger ones in our group. Josh and Leah and Nick hiked along a mountain trail for about two hours. Later we all rode a gondola to the summit of Mammoth Mountain, elevation 11,083 feet, which offered us a vast panorama of the majestic Sierra Nevadas. This morning we drove from Mammoth Lakes back through Yosemite (where we saw two bear cubs playing in a tree) to San Jose and from there down to Salinas where we discovered that nearly all the hotel rooms are sold out because of Spirit West Coast, a huge Christian music festival that starts today in Monterey. Tomorrow we travel down the Pacific Coast Highway to Los Angeles. On Saturday Nick and Marlene and I will fly back to Birmingham, which is where our trip began a week ago today. Josh and Leah will meet the rest of the their China team on Tuesday, and they leave for China a week from Monday.

We’re all pretty tired from a full day spent in the car so we’re going to go next door to the In N Out Burger for supper. It’s hard to believe that Mark and Vanessa’s wedding was only five days ago.