We're Not Laughing Any More

We're staying in Visalia, CA at a lovely 50'sesque hotel.  Most of what I have seen of the town has that 50's vibe to it.  We got her last night and quickly made ourselves at home.  There was a big wedding at the hotel and some of the guests decided to stay and unfortunately, I almost lost my ever-lovin'-mind.  Our neighbors weren't partying too hard, but the walls were thin and there were people coming and going all night.  After a polite conversation at 12:30am and a not so polite front desk call at 2:30am, the part finally died down.  Unfortunately, I wasn't died down, so somewhere around 3:30am, Nick and I finally passed out.  Needless to say, I didn't do much laughing last night!  And, needless to say, we got a bit of a late start today.  Also, as I write this... there are fireworks going off... who knows... might be a long night again.  :D

We hit Sequoia National Park and despite the 4 billion people that had descended on the park, it didn't disappoint.  I have always wanted to see the redwoods in Northern California.  While those are taller, the sequoias are still very tall and much wider.  Some of these trees are estimated to be 3,000 years old.  What was happening 3,000 years ago?  The Zhou Dynasty was in its first year of rule... there was no city of Rome... Babylon was in decline...  yes... I looked all those up.  Anyway... they're some old trees.

View from room

Shot of drive through the park

Looking up, baby!

Pictures from our Big Trees Trail hike in the park 

I don't want to brag, but I lifted this tree all by myself.  ;)

 

Panorama view.  The fallen tree to the left is over a path and has a hole cut in it that people can walk through.  The tree in the middle is ginormous. 

Fallen giant

A new resident for the tree!

Still a tree hugger... but these trees are harder to hug

Beautiful views of a reservoir area on the way to the park.

And another.

Adios Muchachos!