Last weekend, Drew and I headed up to Bass Lake, California, which is about an hour northeast of Fresno. We went up for a family reunion, an occasion that occurs every three years. It was my mom's side of the family, and it included my great aunts and uncles, aunts and uncles, and many, many cousins. My maternal grandma has 7 brothers and sisters, and my mom has 45 first cousins. As you can imagine, family reunions are a pretty big ordeal. My grandma has two sisters who defected to California, one in Fresno and the other in LA. Apparently, those two were escaping the cold Minnesota winters, but the rest of them decided to tough it out.
My mom's side of the family is huge, and I don't know everyone. The nice thing about being in grad school at UCI is that I've gotten to know my family down in Oceanside, and I spend many holidays with them. This time, I got to meet many of my family members up in Fresno, and I got to see everyone from Minnesota. I had a lot of fun seeing everyone and catching up.
Family reunions can get particularly funny because the adults all start reminiscing and telling funny stories from the good ol' days. At one point, I asked my cousin Michael if this is what we'll be doing in 20 or 30 years, and I asked him what stories we'd tell. He mentioned the time that someone hid one of our cousins, Jerrod, in the dryer during a mad game of hide-and-seek (we were avid players back in the day). Michael thinks that I was the mastermind behind that operation, but of course I denied it and instead blamed it on Jerrod's brothers. Of course, hiding someone in the dryer does sound like something I'd think of, so I guess it could have been me.
It was really nice to get out of Irvine, and Bass Lake was really pretty. Saturday was the day of the reunion, and on Sunday, we went to Yosemite with my parents, aunts, uncles, and a few of my first cousins. We started off with a short hike, and this fallen tree greeted us near the trailhead:
My mom's side of the family is huge, and I don't know everyone. The nice thing about being in grad school at UCI is that I've gotten to know my family down in Oceanside, and I spend many holidays with them. This time, I got to meet many of my family members up in Fresno, and I got to see everyone from Minnesota. I had a lot of fun seeing everyone and catching up.
Family reunions can get particularly funny because the adults all start reminiscing and telling funny stories from the good ol' days. At one point, I asked my cousin Michael if this is what we'll be doing in 20 or 30 years, and I asked him what stories we'd tell. He mentioned the time that someone hid one of our cousins, Jerrod, in the dryer during a mad game of hide-and-seek (we were avid players back in the day). Michael thinks that I was the mastermind behind that operation, but of course I denied it and instead blamed it on Jerrod's brothers. Of course, hiding someone in the dryer does sound like something I'd think of, so I guess it could have been me.
It was really nice to get out of Irvine, and Bass Lake was really pretty. Saturday was the day of the reunion, and on Sunday, we went to Yosemite with my parents, aunts, uncles, and a few of my first cousins. We started off with a short hike, and this fallen tree greeted us near the trailhead:
Our destination was the tunnel tree, which is appropriately named:
Next, we headed to Inspiration Point, which had a splendid view of El Capitan, Half Dome, and the Bridalveil Falls:
I loved the trees, and the sunlight peeking through them!
There were waterfalls everywhere!
More trees!
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