Turning out better

3rd morning in Lodi. Yesterday was actually pretty good, it's always interesting to see one's roots in person. The girls went shopping and my dad and I went to Escalon to check out the place where he grew up. He lived with his family basically on one road from early childhood through highschool. They lived in about 3 houses in succession, all within a block of each other. There are a lot of things in the area that have not changed at all (Rosetti's corner store, Mr. Deck's little house) and some that have changed signifigantly (Some houses are gone completely, one of his homes was totally remodeled). We talked with a current owner for a while about who was living where and what had changed. We made our way to Escalon HS to scope it out, and found it to be both open and friendly and - like many things so far - exactly the same. We found his old locker, the biology rooms, the metal shop where he made his first arc weld. (Apparantly he was the most natural welder they'd ever seen. When he showed the first bead he drew to the teacher, he asked if he could weld. "no... never done it before." "IT'S PERFECT!". hehe.) We found a teacher who graduated 3 years after my dad, and she told us all about who was still there and who was dead and what was still taught, and filled in the blanks about the facility.
Finally we made our way to my father's brother's house. David's one-of-a-kind, like all my father's other siblings. He's never moved out of the valley, but hates it there. He wouldn't be as much of a tragedy if he hadn't injured his foot in a horrible motorcycle accident a few years ago. He can't really hold ordinary jobs because of the murderous arthritis, so he's on permanent disability and just kind of... wastes time with his life. Kind of pathetic but you know, what do you do? He's family, for better or worse.

Today and tomorrow is Yosemite, we're going out today and staying in a hotel there, doing intensive joint-casing and driving back here to Lodi tomorrow. I'm ok with that. This trip is turning out a lot busier than I expected, but that's OK. I can watch movies and play games at home.

Who wants to rise above?

Finished Mulholland Dr. on the way up the twistiest, windiest road I've seen since driving up Haleakala on Maui. This was slightly better because a) I'm watching a decent movie and b) visibility is greater than on Haleakala, which is to say more than 10 feet. It's easier to manage the sickness when you can get a good idea of where you are.

Right now we're barreling through Yosemite on CA-HWY 120 trying to decide what gets done in the park which day. It comes down to a mountain drive and a valley hike. I'm not very privy to these decisions - by choice mind you - so I haven't the faintest idea where we're going. I'm so content. Either that or careless, I'm not sure which.

We tried to check in to the hotel so we could dump this load of stuff in our room, but checkin was half an hour away and nobody wanted to wait. Onward and upward, eh?

Tomorrow is more Yosemite, then I'm hearing rumors that we're going back to Lodi tomorrow night and taking the ol' Alcatraz tour/Frisco scene on Thursday. Last time I was here we did teh Exploratorium and fisherman's wharf. The former was just insanely great for a science geek like me - imagine the Science Center on steroids - while fisherman's wharf reminded me of a cleaner and better-organized Seattle waterfront. We ate at the Alcatraz restaurant though, which was pretty damn good. The fact that I remember it at all is pretty telling. No, the restaurant is not in Alcatraz, it's one of those "theme" places like Bubba Gump's. Speaking of food, we haven't eaten at any of the places I was promised yet: a local italian place that's supposed to be dreamy, an In-n-out burger, an authentic mexican restaurant, and a Krispy Kreme. I'll soon fix that, oh yes, I will. Muahaha.

The views out here are very nice, but apparantly there was mad forest fireage pretty recently, so instead of acres of trees in the valley, there's acres of deadwood. Infortunate, to be sure, but necessary so they say. Anyone who's been to Yellowstone recently probably knows all about how forest fires are actually good for the forest because some types of trees require regular application of heat to activate their reseeding process.
by golly, it's half dome! it's real! the stories are true or something. pullout time.
So anyway, this is a pretty interesting drive so off goes the laptop. Mom's getting carsick - I can't blame her - so now we get dad's commentary on the sights, ie "Look at all that granite", etc.