More About Dancing Bears

Re-posted with Title.

RetroMag asked if the bear in the video below is real. Here is a video news story about the project that captured the video. It comes from this on-line news story.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Interested in more about the project? Here is their website.

Pole Dancing Bear

Swine Flu Info

National Poetry Month and Santa Barbara Weather

(Nodding to P-doobie and Flicker)

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

--Carl Sandburg


photo by Erin

California Poppies and Dancing Embers Sage

She's on a boat!

Erin got to go to a Sweet Sixteen party on the Condor Express tonight!

What fun!

Here she is with her friend, ready to go.

She's on a boat!

WARNING: Parental Advisory.
Do not click this video if you are offended by the "F" word. But do click it if you want to laugh, for the "F" word's offense, like any word, lies in its intent and not its particular combination of sounds.



Gotta love Andy Samberg

Another Spring Bloom!

My Rock Rose bloomed this morning!




As the delicate, papery petals suggest, it is an ephemeral bloom, and by this afternoon, the petals had dropped off.



There are more buds, though! I will enjoy them for a little while!

EDITED TO ADD: Five more blooms were on the little bush this morning! Lots more buds waiting, too! I love these!

100 year old neurosurgeon

World's Oldest Neurosurgeon Turns 100

Beach fun!

Cocoa and Kibble and I had a nice beach walk/run (I walked, they ran) yesterday before the winds picked up.

We saw hangliders...


...and surfers...


....and Kibble wanted to go sailing....


They like to chase birds.


And they like to explore rocks, too!






It was a fine time!

Surprise Cake

I baked a chocolate cake last night!






I served it to the family today. Here are some comments:

Kevin: "This cake is awesome!"
Mikey: "It's okay. It's good."
Erin: "It's good. A little too dry."

Indeed, it was a little dry, but the taste was good!

It had a surprise ingredient. From our organic produce delivery box. I never know what do do with them, cuz no one likes them. So I found a recipe that uses.......















BOILED BEETS!


Yum.

Here is the recipe.

Spring Break Vacation: Yosemite 3

Part Two-C: Yosemite Valley Day 3

We started our final day with an easy hike to Mirror Lake. It isn't truly a lake, but rather a very wide spot in the river. When the water recedes, it becomes a meadow. It was a nice, short, flat hike.




Erin loved the squirrels. Photos by Erin.










We didn't get any pictures of Mirror Lake itself! Darn!

We also visited the Museum.

Three Conservationist Explorers

Kevin and I had planned to participate in the Ranger Stroll of the day, a geology walk. When we gathered, we found the Ranger to be unexcited by his subject. "I studied Geology in college and it wasn't very fun." And he was a poor speaker besides. When it started to snow, we decided it definitely wasn't worth sticking around for, so we discreetly ditched the group and re-joined Mike and Erin, who were enjoying a cuppa in the food court.

We soon decided to make our way out of the park, stopping briefly at a couple more sights.

Here is a good views of Cathedral Rocks.

And El Capitan.

We stopped at Bridalveil Falls on the way out. It was COLD, so we didn't linger.

The Tunnel View is gorgeous, but we couldn't see as far as if we could've had it been clear.






And that was the end of Spring Break Vacation 2009!

Spring Break Vacation: Yosemite 2

Part Two-B: Yosemite Valley Day 2

The nice thing about staying in a lodge room is that there are curtains and you can sleep in on your vacation. When camping, you must wake up with the sun!

After breakfast at the Food Court, we left Erin in the room while the rest of us went to hike Vernal Falls. Great hike!

We made it to a gate that said, "Trail Closed for Winter" and a sign pointing to an alternate (longer) route. As we sat debating what to do, here came a Ranger! She unlocked the gate. Trail Open for Spring! Yay! What luck!

Here are the guys on the trail. You can see Yosemite Falls in the background.

Much of the last half is made up of about 635 (I counted) granite stair-steps built into the trail. It was a work-out! Mike was hurtin' on the way down, having hurt his knee the day before.

Who is that at the top of this section of stairs?

It's Kevin!

The waterfall was beautiful!

Here is a photo and a video from the top:

Spring Break Vacation: Yosemite 1

Part Two-A: Yosemite Valley Day 1

We piled in the car on Tuesday and headed for Yosemite! We stayed in the Valley. Since it was chance-y to be good weather for camping, and because this old broad thinks camping is a lot of work, we stayed at Yosemite Lodge at the Falls. Nice!

We got there at night after travelling through beautiful California all day. We went through five geologic provinces: Basin and Range, Mojave, Transverse Ranges, Central Valley, and Sierra Nevada! California is great!

The first day, we took the short walk to the base of the Lower Yosemite Falls. Spectacular falls! Last time I was in Yosemite, I was disappointed that the falls weren't running. They were at full force on this beautiful Spring day!

My camera didn't do so well on some of the photos, overexposing the white waterfalls and underexposing the shadowy areas. But here they are:

Handsome guy waiting for the shuttle.

We saw a few deer. Here's one.

We also saw a bear as we came back from the Lower Falls trail. He was resting under a tree. I didn't take a picture cuz it would've looked like just a piece of granite. But believe me, he was there!

After our little warm-up hike to view the Lower Falls, we found the trailhead to hike up to the Upper Falls. This trail is a bear! Just a mile to the Colombia Rock overlook, it felt like 5 miles. Maybe it was the 1000 foot elevation we gained in that short mile. Erin and I had to take numerous breath-catching breaks, and the men-folk, much more athletic and in-shape, continued the hike all the way up to the top of Upper Yosemite Falls!

Folks, this is the highest waterfall in North America! They gained an elevation of 2,600 feet trekking up to the top!

Unfortunately, they didn't have a camera, so I can only share Erin's and my views of the section we completed.

Some views of the Valley:

Half Dome

Little tiny ferns and moss (photo by Erin)

We spent a lot of time enjoying the sunshine and views at Colombia Rock.

Going a little farther from Colombia Rock, you can see the Upper Falls. I went on. Erin stayed and napped at the overlook.

Upper Yosemite Falls

Rainbow from the Falls mist.

There was a little snow along the trail. Erin had wanted to play in the snow, so I brought some back for her!

Erin and her snow.

Erin and I got down in good time, and enjoyed a Coca-Cola at the Food Court near our room. Mike and Kevin showed up shortly thereafter. Mike had fallen and hurt his knee, and he was tired from the epic hike. He and Kevin were really happy they made the trek, though!

It was a great first day!