VIDEO: The Grand Entrance

You enter the park through a tunnel which opens into a spectacular panaroma of mountains. As you drive further along you catch fleeting glimpses of El Capitan through the trees. Then you break into an open area and the famous mountain is right there in front of you.

It is breathtaking.

VIDEO: Mary Finds Gold

Roaring Camp Mining Company
http://www.roaringcampgold.com/

We panned for gold at Roaring Camp which sits at the base of the Mokelumne River Canyon.

Yes, we did find a few flakes of the stuff in our dirt. However, the only true value was in the fun of doing it.

Here's a little insight--the real profit is in selling the little vials to keep your booty in. A dollar a vial and the seller cleans up.

Gold Digger

I don't remember if his name was Rocky, Jasper, Charlie, or Gus but any of those names would surely fit the tour guide who took us deep into the Sutter Creek Gold Mine. It's a working gold mine that has been fairly profitable. He is a third generation gold miner who told us plenty of stories about life in a mine. I'm pretty sure some of the stories were true!

Lost Luggage Sculpture at Sacramento Airport

Here's a cool way to use all of the lost luggage at an airport--build a floor to ceiling sculpture with it.

A New Adventure

Mythologist Joseph Campbell said something that I've carried with me through most of my adult life, " The adventure you get is the adventure you are ready for...".

Mary and I believe that marriage is an adventure with two people being in a place that neither of them have ever been before. That's why I choose our vacation--Yosemite specifically--to be the place where we would be engaged.

What Mary Saw

Inside the tree was a small box with a diamond ring. After nearly three years of dating Mary and I got engaged there in Yosemite.
Yosemite is the most beautiful place in the world so it was only fitting that the most beautiful person (in my humble opinion) should get the ring here.