Over the river and through the woods...

Today, we woke up in Fresno, and headed east, up into the Sierra Nevada mountains, to drive through Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks, before heading down to L.A. 

It was a long day...not as long as yesterday's 14 hours in the car...but still, we left the hotel at 9ish, and got to LA at 7.  Now...part of that time was spent walking, and admitting nature...and many miles were spent on some hair pin turns at 10MPH. 

All of it was spent with my amazing family.

We'll see how we see about each other next week. 

It was a breathtaking experience.  The trees...there is no real way to describe how honking HUGE they are.  It doesn't come across in pictures at all.  Even in person, your mind almost can comprehend what's it's seeing.  It's tough to fully 'get' it without there being something else to give it scale.  This one we are sitting next to isn't even big enough to have a name...it's kind of 'average'.  Except for us sitting next to it.

What impressed me is how much damage these trees can take, and still keep on ticking.  Here a fire ate away and split off 40% of the base of this tree...but it is still thriving.

 

Now, I'm for bed.  Everyone else is asleep, and I am tired of dealing with 'Free' hotel Wi-Fi....it's got me feeling homicidal...and I don't want to get THAT worked up on our vacation...a 'first world' problem if there ever was one.