Day 18 - 06/19/2008

I can’t say it enough: this eye mask is amazing. There was direct sunshine coming through my windshield, and I had no idea. I slept until 8 a.m. I decided that I didn’t want to go around Yosemite since it would take so much less time. I went into the Walmart and got directions to get back to the 49, and then to the 120.

After about an hour of driving, I arrived at the west entrance gate to Yosemite. There was a delightfully cheerful woman manning the gate. I bought an annual pass for $40, and she gave me some pamphlets along with directions to get through the park to June Lake.

Driving through the park, I couldn’t believe how big it was. It’s 55 miles across! All this time, I had no idea that it was so huge. I had wondered at Thanksgiving why it took so long to get to the spot Don and Barbara took me to. But it was such a beautiful drive that I hardly minded. It was hard to resist stopping to take pictures along the way because there was a plethora of picturesque spots.

But I pressed on because I wanted to get to June Lake. It was slow going through Yosemite at points because of some really slow cars in front of me. That was somewhat irksome when these cars wouldn’t use turnouts, because I make a point to use them if a car behind me wants to go faster than I want to. What really frustrated me was passing lanes that would only come up on an uphill stretch. Serena doesn’t like hills, and they really tire her out, so it gets harder to speed us and pass other cars when we only have the passing lane traveling uphill.

I finally made it through Yosemite and drove a few miles east on 120 until it dead-ended into highway 395. Following directions from Lydia, I turned south and then into the 158 June Lake Loop. I found the resort, and then what I thought was the guest house. I wasn’t quite sure, though, so I got out of my car to go knock on the front door. To my delight and relief, Carolyn and Lydia opened the door.

Carolyn and Lydia are sisters, and only two members of a huge family in my Orange County church that I’ve been adopted into. The family had invited me to join them at the guest house they had all rented out for the month here at June Lake’s Double Eagle Resort. The only people there when I arrived were Lydia and her husband Dan, Lydia and Carolyn’s mom Rose, Carolyn, and her six kids: Jordan, Justin, James, Jenna, Julia, and Jessica. Lydia and Carolyn have three other sisters, each with their own families, and more people were arriving today.

Lydia fixed me some breakfast since I hadn’t really eaten, and after a shower, I ran over to the resort’s spa to join Lydia, Carolyn, Jordan and Justin at the gym. I started on a treadmill in the cardio area with everyone else, but soon the guys and I moved down to weights. Once the girls finished the movie they were watching while working out, they joined us. We were almost the only ones in the place, so we were able to goof around with each other, and it wasn’t any problem to adjust the machines for the girls’ shorter height. Jordan, Justin and I were recruited as their mom and aunt’s personal trainers.

Going into the locker room, I saw how decked out the place was. They had razors and shaving cream set out by the sinks, and I decided it was beyond time to shave. I had only brought my electric razor with me, and after a few days, my facial hair was too long to maintain without it pulling. So I’ve just been letting it grow out. It was nice to get rid of it, but the razors weren’t very high quality, and I gave myself a pretty nice cut on my mustache line. When I got back to the guest house, I got a band-aid from Lydia, and with my Neosporin, it finally stopped bleeding.

Dan organized lunch for us all. Jenna and Julia were in charge of table setup (Jessica, being only a year old, was excused from kp), and Jordan, Justin and James would take care of kitchen clean-up. Their cousins would join in as they arrived, because according to Dan, the moms shouldn’t be doing any kitchen cleaning on vacation. For lunch we had a spaghetti-like dish that was delicious.

Afterward I was playing with the girls, picking them up, giving moon jumps, throwing them onto the beds, tickling them. Carolyn LOVED the throwing on the bed part. But the girls enjoyed it, and I was careful with them. It reminded me of when my uncle would do that with me and my sisters back when we were that young and small. I also had some time to do some knitting, and James was knitting also, so I had some company.

Carolyn had brought several craft projects with her, but wanted to get some preliminary needlepoint projects for Jenna and Julia. There’s a fabric store in the town of June Lake, so we decided to drive over there before they closed. Driving into town with everyone would require more than Carolyn’s car, so she asked me if I could drive one person. Jordan would ride with me.

As we prepared to leave, I realized I would need to move my car out her way (she obviously needed to lead the way. The guest house is directly down a rock-covered road off the highway, but the road continues off to the right to another guest house. So I backed up on the road leading to the next house, but when I realized Carolyn wanted to do the same thing in order to turn around, I continued backing up. I was backing up at an angle, and I accidentally drove the rear right wheel over the wood plank edge of the road into the surrounding field. I tried driving back out, but with no success. I knew this was going to be bad. Jordan asked if he should get out and push, but I figured there was no way that would work due to the field being on much lower ground, so I gave him a look of utter bewilderment. I honked to get Carolyn’s attention, and she, Lydia and Justin got out. They actually thought we could push Serena up and out, but I thought we’d need AAA. Thankfully I listened to them, because we had Carolyn get in to put the car in drive while the rest of us pushed, and Serena glided ride back onto the street.

Crisis averted, we headed into town. We arrived, and let Carolyn and Jenna off at the fabric store since they would need to maximize their time there. Lydia and I drove the rest of the crew down the street to a candy store. She got some candy for the younger kids, and drinks from the accompanying coffee shop for the rest of us. We hung out and looked around the gift shop while we waited for Carolyn. I gave Julia a ride on my shoulders for awhile, and she enjoyed being taller than everyone else for once.

While we waited, Lydia got the call that Mary (Lydia’s sister), Jeremy (Lydia’s nephew by her other sister Chris), Brian and Amanda (two of Mary’s three adult children) were getting very close. They drove past us while we were in town, and waved as they headed to the cabin. It’s a five-hour drive without traffic, so we forgave them for not stopping to see us.

Once the rest of us returned, we sat and relaxed for awhile before starting dinner. Dan fixed his renowned soup for us, boiling some pasta to pour into the soup as it was being served. I had two big bowls of it because it was so good.

After dinner we all sat down to enjoy our various activities. Carolyn started Jenna and Julia each on their own needlepoint project. This was Julia’s first attempt at it, and she was doing so well. Mary, James and I pulled out our knitting, and it was so nice to have some other people join me. After much debate, we decided on a movie to watch. We ended up watching the A&E version of Pride & Prejudice, and I was glad that I know the story so well and had seen it before. That’s because the house was so noisy with so many people, that we missed much of the dialogue. This is clearly not the way a movie is watched in my parents’ home.

Then the phone calls came, and because I knew the movie, I didn’t mind stepping out to answer. The first call was from Cindy, and the second from my friend Daniel Z. (different from Daniel W. who I visited in Idaho). I talked with each of them for awhile, and then went back inside. The movie had been abandoned, and now conversations were going every which way. We all talked for awhile more, and then slowly drifted off to our respective sleeping places. I would be in the upstairs living room with the boys on a fold-up bed. The guest house is set up slightly inverted from normal: the living room, dining room, and kitchen are all upstairs with a few bedrooms (one master). The bottom floor has one huge bedroom (six beds, four of which are in double bunks), the laundry room, a bathroom and the garage.

Johanna (the fifth sister) and her two youngest, Pat and Josh, were driving up, but weren’t due until 2:30 a.m., so we weren’t planning to wait up. They had a key.