White Christmas

Since we don't have family living close by, we decided to spend Christmas in Yosemite with some friends. We stayed in the beautiful victorian Wawona hotel in the park, and went snowshoeing. The weather was in our favor, as it had been snowing for days and it was still snowing when we got there. This made for few visitors and a sense of solitude in the otherwise overcrowded Yosemite Valley. We set off in chilly and windy conditions, looking for the powder. This is Ross, Roxanne, Sabine and Ed waiting to head out.


We snowshoed along the bike path and on the road that was no longer used in winter, and got to the Merced River. The scenery was magnificent, if ever there was a reason to call something a Winter Wonderland, this was it.





The snow was ideal for playing around, with snowball fights, random falls, etc.



It started clearing, so we could see the surrounding mountains, which made it even more impressive. The meadow was perfectly white, the powder up to knee-deep, which made for strenuous snowshoeing, but the beauty of the valley made up for the effort. Sabine deserved the grand price for keeping up with everybody despite being almost 6 months pregnant.





We had a late lunch and drove to our hotel, where we had an awesome Christmas dinner. I walked around the meadow around the hotel the next morning in the brisk cold, but the sky was clear and the sun came out, and I couldn't stop taking pictures of the creek and the trees.



Because of the sunny weather we decided to drive back to the valley. We stopped at the famous Tunnel View parking lot, and I have never seen it this beautiful:

We started our snowshoe trip on the meadow between Yosemite and Curry Village, where we found an untouched patch of powder. The forest was amazing, with every branch covered in snow. Yesterday we thought it wouldn't get better, but we were wrong:






Awesome views of North Dome and Half Dome made for a perfect scene; we passed by the Ahwahnee Hotel and finally made it back to our car after more than 2 hours. Again, Sabine kept up with all of us, and deserved the hot chocolate in the Ahwahnee.





I am not sure if we will ever see Yosemite again with this much snow, it was too beautiful for words. We drove back home with a big grin our face. Merry Christmas :-)

Maui

We spent all of last week in beautiful Maui, courtesy of Dan who graciously offered us a week in his condo (with ocean views.....). The weather was great, although I always struggle with the heat. In fact, it drains a lot of my energy, and makes me understand why Hawai'ians behave the way they do. It also makes sense that surfing and "hanging out" are favorite "activities", and I vowed to NEVER do a triathlon or run on the islands. But you have to take it for what it is, a beautiful spot in the middle of the ocean, with perfect beaches, great warm nights, and happy people. We still did some activities, like a hike to a blowhole, where water vents out of a hole in the lava. Quite a sight, especially with the lava looking like it was just exposed to severe chemical weapon testing:




We drove around the west coast and stopped at a few more nice sites, everything is so lush and green, it is amazing. The lava rock coast is also very fascinating, this picture is of the "dragon teeth" that were shaped by rapid cooling.


The next day we hiked to a remote beach, for which we had to cross the most recent lava flow, from about 1790. It was fairly hot and very interesting to walk on this "fresh" rock; the beach was nice, but the snorkeling was not great.



We also spent some time on the beach (I know, I couldn't believe it either :-), here are some typical pictures:




We then drove the famous "Road to Hana", on the northeast side of the island with some of the wettest spots on the planet. Of course, lots of rainforest, waterfalls, etc. A very time consuming drive, with lots of other people, but it was definitely worth it to see a whole other side of the island. Here are some impressions:





A beach with black sand and some great waterfalls with swimming ponds concluded the drive. On our way back, we saw this beautiful sunset right before we stopped in Paia to see Obama being elected. It is hard to describe the relief that caused, people were celebrating, it was amazing.





We went and looked for a geocache the next day and came across this little lava beach, where about 20 sea turtles were grazing the algae off the cliffs, it was unbelievable!



During most of the days we went snorkeling, which was really great on Maui.. The amount of fish is amazing, and we saw sea turtles every time we snorkeled. We bought a one-way underwater camera, and the pictures of the turtle and the ray are my favotires:

On our last day, we drove up to Haleakala, the volcano at 10,000 feet on the east side of the island. It was amazing how cold it was, and being over the clouds and being able to see the Big Island about 100 miles was unbelievable. All in all, it was a great experience, we will definitely go back.