Old Sacramento

Like many cities, Sacramento's Old Town has been revitalized into a district of restaurants, shops, and museums.  It was a good place to take a walk on Sunday afternoon.

One of the highlights of Old Sacramento is the California State Railroad Museum.  I didn't go inside since we had visited it in the past.  If you like trains, this is place for you!  That's I-5 in the background.  Old Sacramento is located on the Sacramento River, just west of I-5 in downtown Sacramento.

Located just to the west of the railroad museum is the Sacramento History Museum.  I didn't visit this one either, but you could tour it for $5. 

A view down 2nd Street shows off some of the architecture of the late 1800s.

You can rent a loft in Old Sacramento if you want to pay a lot of money.

Maybe you would like to take an old-fashioned carriage ride?

Or go see a performance?

Or take a trip on the Wells Fargo Wagon?

Maybe you would like to buy some candy?  Candy Heaven gives free samples! 

I liked looking at the old buildings.     

It's always fun to visit one-room schoolhouses.  That's Tower Bridge in the background. 

From Old Sacramento, a foggy view of the state capitol building.

As I drove back to the I-5, I saw these downtown buildings, which were a contrast to the old buildings in Old Sacramento.

Thanks for joining me on my walking tour of Old Sacramento!

Yosemite in Winter, part 2

After a rain shower, the sun came out in Yosemite Valley in the afternoon.  We visited the visitor's center and watched the excellent movie about Yosemite.

Mr. John Muir at the visitor's center

Our afternoon destination was a walk to Yosemite Falls.  We had seen Upper Falls when we visited the Yosemite Valley Community Church.

Upper Yosemite Falls

The community church

Part of the 1 mile round-trip  to Lower Yosemite Falls

Lower Yosemite Falls

Sentinel Rock

Glacier Point

Half-Dome

Half-Dome at sunset

As sunset descended upon Yosemite Valley, we said goodbye to our favorite national park and headed back to the Mariposa Fairgrounds.  What a wonderful visit to the park we had!

Yosemite in Winter

Dave and I are spending the next few days at Cal Expo RV Park in Sacramento.  We have wifi, 50 amp, and all the bells and whistles.  We thoroughly enjoyed our day in Yosemite and decided that we didn't need to go back for one more day--not this trip anyway.  We'll be back there in the future!

I have so many pictures to share that I will break this up into two blogs.

West Entrance

We drove to Yosemite via Highway 140, which goes from Merced through Mariposa and then El Portal.

Deer along the road near the view of Cascade Waterfall  

Yes, there was snow in Yosemite Valley!

One of our first stops was Bridalveil Falls.  The path to the falls was icy, so we only walked part of the way up.

The path to Bridalveil before it got steep.

We walked across Swinging Bridge (which didn't swing)and got a good view of the meadows covered with snow.

Below is the famous Yosemite Valley view near the tunnel on Highway 41.  On the left is El Capitan, at the back is a glimpse of Half-Dome, on the right is Sentinel Rock, and below the rock is Bridalveil Falls.  The sun wasn't shining, but it was still a spectacular view!

And that's all for now.  I'll post the rest of my pictures tomorrow!

Mariposa and Yosemite

Our cell signal here at the Mariposa Fairgrounds is good for phone calls (1G network), but not good for tethering our computers to the internet, so I will publish this blog with no pictures.  There's no wifi in the area we are camped in, which is the full-hookup area.

Tomorrow and possibly Friday we plan to visit Yosemite National Park.  My pictures of the park will have to wait to be published when I have a better signal.

Dave and I left Corning at 8:45 am and got delayed a bit when we stopped at the WalMart in Willows.  We sailed through the Sacramento traffic and turned onto Highway 99 south.  Near the town of Ripon, we ran into some highway road work and it took us almost an hour to go six miles.  By that time we finally passed by the roadwork we were hungry so we pulled into a shopping area in Modesto to eat our lunch.

We were back on the road shortly after that and got to Mariposa around 4 pm.  We found the fairgrounds and the RV self-registration area but had a little trouble finding out which of the five RV areas contained the 15 full-hookup sites (area 5).  As we were pulling into a site in area 5, the very friendly campground host (named Indian) directed us to park parallel rather than backing into the site.  This was in order to be more level in the site.  It looks like we are taking up three sites instead of one, but it was his suggestion, so it should be fine. 

The RV sites here cost $25 per night.  There's 30 amp at this park instead of 50 amp, but other than that, we are all set.  It's a fairly private area and only three RVs are here, so it should be fairly quiet and dark (yay!).  The draw of this park is it's location near Yosemite--only 50 miles to Yosemite Valley.  That sounds like far away, but there aren't very many full hookup parks close to Yosemite and none in the park. 

The weather today was spectacular and I wish I could post my pictures which (finally) showed a blue sky.  The outside temperature, which we monitor while we are driving, got up to 75 degrees.  It will probably be in the 40s tonight and it's supposed to rain tomorrow. 

I probably won't be able to read or comment on the blogs of others, but I'll catch up once we get better access.  I can still get email, so I will be able to get and publish the comments that my blog receives.

Stay tuned!

Crossing the Siskiyou Mountains

Dave and I left Seven Feathers just before 9 am this morning.  The roads were dry and no snow or rain was falling. 

As we neared Mt. Ashland, the winter scenery was awe-inspiring, especially since the roads were still clear.

We drove over the mountain summit with no problems.

After a few more miles, we said goodbye to Oregon and entered California.

The Hornbrook Inspection Station greets travelers who enter the state from Oregon.

The inspection is for produce so that unwanted bugs don't enter the California environment. 

The inspection line was short today, with most cars being waived through.  We, however, were inspected more closely when an attendant came inside to look at our produce.  We passed the test and got a certificate stating that our fruit was "clean".

Shortly after leaving our lunch rest stop at the Weed Airport, it started snowing. 

Dave drove well  and about an hour later we drove out of the snow.  Our passage through the mountains went well! 

We got sticker shock when we stopped for gas in Corning, though.  Gas prices have gone up a dime since we were at this station on December 17.

We stopped for the night at Rolling Hills Casino in Corning and after going for a walk to check out the golf course, we stopped by the casino to use up our free $10 each.  I ended up winning $20, which paid for our 2 for 1 buffet meals. 

For anyone who is wondering, Dave's hose insulation worked well last night.  Our RV park neighbors, though, woke up to a frozen water pipe.  Tonight it's 42 degrees and raining.  Tomorrow, we head for the Mariposa Fairgrounds RV Park. 

From Home to Seven Feathers RV Park, Canyonville, OR

Today was the first day of our six-week trip to California.  We left home at 11 am after our garbage and recycling were picked up.  We had a leisurely 220 mile drive on I-5 south from Vancouver, WA to Canyonville, OR.  The weather was partly cloudy, then foggy, then sunny.  It's going to be cold tonight and the temperature is already down to 32 degrees at 7 pm.  Dave insulated our water pipe, so we'll find out in the morning if that keeps it from freezing.

The entry road to the RV Park shows off a dusting of snow on the hills.

We went for a walk after we arrived and then walked down to the casino so that we could lose five dollars in a penny slot machine.  Afterwards we rode the casino shuttle back up the hill to the RV park.  Dave is watching the Oregon Ducks play Auburn.  Go Ducks!

We checked into the park behind these folks from Canada. We were assigned to site #31, which is the same site we had the last time we were here, less than a month ago, on December 17, 2010.  It feels like home!

Tomorrow's the day we tackle the drive up and down the Siskiyou Mountains.  Snow is predicted, but we're hoping to make it through.  Tomorrow's desired destination is Rolling Hills Casino in Corning, CA.