Mini Ha Ha Lives On: 2008-09

Hi and thanks to all of you who sent enquiries as to out well being during Hurricane Ike which turned out to be Hurricane Macavity for us. We were deeply touched by your concern.

Down on the Galveston coast however the Weather Channel reporter did appear to prove to her colleague in Clute Texas that metaphorically her hurricane dad was much bigger than his dad. And it was extremely sad to see where he had wreaked his havoc since we have walked most of what many of you will have seen chewed up on the news.

And so to the Hippy, California beach bumming, park rangers of Yorkshire (think that covers it all).

Getting there

Roisin left her onions in the hotel room

It’s that bridge again

You may be getting a sense of déjà vous?

Yes it’s a dog in sunglasses and a hat

The skyline from the water

The Painted Ladies (again but with SF skyline too)

And so to

What can you say

To the top right hand corner if you look closely you can just see the road

I got carried away all the time

Then you get closer

Then you wonder what the Bridal Veil Falls are like in spring

House hunting again lead us to these, the green box is a bear locker. The tent had its own Colditz style single lightbulb and that was the single electrical item in there.

When we got up the following morning one had clearly tried to get into the hire car as there were paw marks and once again I missed the raccoon.

That same rock at sunset

The wildlife

And dad

Stage left Julie Andrews relocated to Yosemite valley

On our way to Vernal Falls

First stage done on the path

4087

Then at the bottom of the path

Somewhere over the

600 steps later that same “pasture”

And the view over the edge

The signs say under no circumstances should you swim in the Emerald Lake…because your feet will shrivel and your ruby slippers will fall off and then the rest of you will shrivel and then you will become a Munchkin and once your colour changes someone will have to write another trumped up musical about your mis-spent youth.

But then the good fairy will make you into this

So that when you slip on the steps and head for the gap in the 3 and half foot fence on the way back down the fall path you don’t think you’re gonna die, you will just fly into the rainbow spray; the slightly torn ligaments on your right ankle and the bunion on your left foot that you bashed on a rock, not to mention the lump in your throat and the heartbeat of 3000 revs per second will be figments of your over excited imagination.

Not content to scare myself witless at the top of one, we went to look across the top of them all....at sunset.

And you know where we stayed well it's down there somewhere:

And so to some tree hugging to restore the equilibrium – Mariposa Sequoia Grove, home of a few little trees. How to hug this though?

They regenerate themselves by spontaneously combusting..think this one went a bit far

Another clue to their scale?

I know I’m no giant

Apparently it was done so they could get a coach and horses through…did they not see it some time before they got to that bit of the road building exercise…was it covered in red Indian tape or something?

Heading for the coast – weird landscape

The sea …yahoo. Sorry but we miss it a lot in Texas

I wanted to stay here

Brr

The babes of Monterey

The evening

Monterey historic canning district and not a patty slapper in sight

The mist

The artistic seaweed

Makes a change after the usual word I associate with Bull……

The same point as the night before

The sea life

The surf

The Old Spice Man

Then down to that famous snowbound Japanese tea garden......Carmel California.

Weyo weyo wee waa waa waa ....how could he, his poncho, mayoral chain of office, jauntily tilted cowboy hat and Clyde not be there???? Still I was ready to ambush should he and his Colt 45 reveal themselves...

And did they dare go in

Don't believe the one in the middle flexing her muscles, she chickened out since the last time she went in the sea with waves that big and strong she had to have gravel tweezered out of her backside...

But you can't keep brave girls and boys down

Then down through Big Sur for which I have no pics yet as I had to rely on another camera as my batteries had gone flat. Good job really we would never have got to our next destination which was Morro beach. But Big Sur is just stunning, We had 2/3rds of the drive in fog though. During that time some aliens dropped a teepee style settlement near the whale viewing point, along with a camp leader who doubled in the coffee bar on the roadside.

- The sound of someone whistling "If I had a talking picture of you"
- Please can we have two coffees and a hot chocolate

The cap and glasses looks up and in the voice of jack Nicholson uttering "Here's Johnny"

- Yeah I think I can do that for ya ...hehehehehe (sniggers like Muttley). Starts to whistle "If I had a talking picture of you again" which then becomes a doobie doobie doobie version,

- I listen to that on Pappies 78's

Second Muttley snigger

- Wouldya be wanting cream for your coffee?

Mutley again

Then we see his hands for the first time...never seen a bar of soap..only axle grease from the first Ford car ever produced

- Er yes please.

- An I'll set to making the chocolate..

Queue Mutley

Opens up the powdered chocolate and holds it upside down...

- hehehehehe my my must be damp

...and reaches in with hand to loosen powder..Fortunately Roisin is not there to see that bit and we assume that boiling water will kill whatever off..

- Wouldya be wanting squirdy cream on that?

- Can we check what sort of cream first? (pretending she has an allergy so we can check the sell by date...it's ok)...

UTTERLY FUTILE as he wipes the spoon on the same towel used to remove an excess of axle grease.

- Well thanks for being patient an 'all. Come and see us again - double Muttley

And we were that fazed by it all Riona left the knapsack out of the car and P drove over it!

The MIST again