Sequoia National Park

So yesterday Paulette, Janelle and I went up to see the sequoias. Those trees are huge. We also went to see the Crystal Caves in the national park.



This weekend was fee-free weekend. The national parks are going to have two more weekends this summer. For more info go to to http://www.nps.gov/ . So the trail to the Crystal Cave was about a 1/2 mile long. We were warned that the trail went down about 30 stories. So we knew what we were getting into...or so I thought. :-) It was actually fun.



This was the first time that I was able to go hiking and be the leader of the pack. I had been exercising...kind of getting ready for this weekend, and well kind of just trying to get back into shape. It felt good to be the leader of the pack and still ready to go on the next trail. That morning I had, had my run on my ellipitical so I had already gone about 2 1/2 miles before we headed to the park. At the park I went another 2 miles and was ready for more. However time was limited. We were able to see waterfalls, really tall trees, deer, a tunnel log (you can drive through it), wildflowers, and pretty mountainsides. I will have to post pictures when I get them downloaded onto something. My USB ports still aren't working.

Zebra Butts!

I don't know why, but I think Zebra Butts are funny to look at. Apparently zebras can be a bit mean, so you don't want to try to feed them cookies. They think that fingers are cookies too.

Giraffe Tongue!!! Yuck!!

So on Memorial Day Weekend, I went over to Phoenix to see my friends, Lynn and Jason and their two kids. It was a blast. I thought the drive over would be crazy since it was a holiday weekend. The LA traffic in and out on a holiday traffic is horrible. I have sworn off traveling by car on the holiday weekends because a normal 2 hour drive can turn into a five hour drive. However, this time it wasn't too bad. On the way back I hit traffic. It was stop and go for about 30 miles. I thought I would never make it home, but finally traffic lightened up when we got to the five lane freeway. It was funny, I drove from Phoenix to Indio, CA on a two lane and traffic was fine. In Indio, we picked up a third lane, traffic slowed slightly. Then in Palm Springs we picked up a fourth lane and traffic ground to a halt. It was stop and go for the next 30 miles until we picked up a fifth lane. I guess people just don't know how to drive on 4 lanes.

Anyway, when I was in Phoenix I went to an Out of Africa park. It was fun. There was a tiger splash (more pictures later), and we saw lions, tigers, and bears...oh my. Plus we saw zebra's, giraffes, one hippo, emu, ostrich, camel, and I am sure there were other things. One of the things we did was take a "safari." This was a school bus where the windows had been taken out and we were driven around in and enclosed area that had a giraffe, ostrich, zebras, and antelope. We were each given a giraffe cookie so we could feed the giraffe. The guide told us that if we wanted a giraffe kiss, we should hold the cookie in our mouth. If we wanted a picture, we would need to hold it between our teeth so the giraffe would have to work for it. Giraffe do not have top teeth, so they are not able to bite.

I thought about getting a giraffe kiss, but I wasn't sitting next to the window. Lynn told me that giraffes have really long tongues. I don't know if I believed her until I saw, and took pictures, for myself. Below are some of the giraffe pictures.


This is me trying to feed the giraffe my cookie. He had to come back a second time because I dropped it. I didn't want to get slimed by the giraffe tongue and so I accidentally dropped it the first time.

I don't know this kid. However, he was sitting in front of me. I could tell he was getting ready for a giraffe kiss, and so I thought it would be a funny picture. Hope his girlfriend doesn't see this.