Yosemite Holiday

How lovely this grand old hotel is, especially from the perspective of a retired Architect!  The rich colors suit the setting to perfection — and we find that the service is world class!

Our lodgings are in a corner of the third floor overlooking Yosemite Falls and what will become a very snowy woods.

The first day in the park is rather exciting, as the enormous rainfall has made the Merced River, creeks, and the waterfalls into super-powers of energy!  So much water — it roars all around us!  Truly, the waterfalls are unbelievable in intensity.

After an exploration of the hotel, it’s time to dress for dinner (really dress up!) and the evening’s Christmas concert.  People watching is an interim adventure, as we enjoy the lovely clothes and foreign accents of many visitors who have descended on the park for holiday festivities.  Keep reading … there’s more!

It snowed all night!  The park is a winter wonderland!  And fat flakes continue to come down, mounding up on tree limbs, weeds, and rocks.  Everything looks so puffy and soft!

A cemetery !

Now who woulda thought that the park would have their very own cemetery!?  But they do (hear that, Hugh Albert?) — and as we trekked out into the snow to explore the park’s wonders, the cemetery was our first stop!

Indians … and cowboys??

Next was a visit to the Mewok village (and resident friendly deer) and the museum of Indian artifacts.  The most exciting “artifact” was a lovely Mewok woman who was sitting in a historic tableau weaving a basket.  Engaging her in conversation about materials and styles of native basketry was a Gold Star on the day’s horizon.  How kind and patient she was with my questions.  How soft her voice was.  Her hair was jaggedly shorn on the sides, and I assumed that she was in mourning.

Meeting new critters

More exploring took us to the Visitor Center with marvelous photographic murals detailing the park’s recent history — and more tableaux of animals, birds and other park critters.   Here we met the pika, which must be the prairie dog of the mountains —  an adorable ring tailed cat, and the sleek marmot.  A drive later in the trip unfolds real drama on the park roads!  Two charming coyotes (Charlie’s cousins) who were patiently sitting at roadside waiting to claim any road kill (or so the Park stRanger told us!).

Art in the woods

Back out into the snow.
Next stop is the Ansel Adams Gallery — which is full of artwork and photography all of a nature theme (duh)!  He lived here, you know — in fact, in his own words, “his life was colored and modulated by the great earth gesture of the Yosemite Sierra.”  It was hard to leave the gallery, but a meal was calling us — was it the Monte Cristo sandwiches in the main dining hall of the Ahwahnee?  I think so.

Lunch is served!

Those Monte Cristo sandwiches deserve a paragraph of their own.  Stuffed with turkey, ham and cheese, they were dipped in fluffy batter and flash fried.  The batter took a fanciful shape after the frying pan, and they were a sight to behold (right after the cheese and ale soup with killer croutons on top).  As promised, the sandwiches were served with a ramekin (see definition) of boysenberry sauce and a purple cabbage slaw that was quite decorative.  We take sandwich halves back to the room where they are still on the window ledge!  Plans to iron them for breakfast went awry!

After lunch, the tired Prince enjoys his first therapeutic massage — for a bad pain in the neck.  (T’was not me who caused it, honest!  Not this time!)  And then it was time to get dressed in our finery for the sumptuous evening of the Bracebridge Dinner!

Trumpets sound!  March to the next post!