Our Visit With Sean (CA)

We are so very blessed to have been able to visit Sean in California, after leaving Oklahoma and Christian's sweet family. We only had a couple of days with Sean, but we made the most of them. Sean was able to take the time off work, and had a plan, but was also very sensitive to us.
We spent the entire time together which is what we all wanted. (We even went shopping with him for steaks - nothing but the best, for a barbecue he planned around the pool so we can meet his friends on Sunday). What a blessing!!!!
We left straight from the airport and headed for the Sierra Nevada Mountains, about half an hour from where he lives in Visalia. What an awesome time we had! These pictures were taken in the following days. We first visited Kings Canyon National Park, and we thought we had gone to heaven. Sean kept saying the best is yet to come, and I could not imagine anything more beautiful. Even the drive up to the mountains was exquisitely beautiful since it was probably the best time of year to be there. The wildflowers were out in full bloom (yellows, pinks and purples), as well as the American Red bud trees all over the slopes.
What a feast for the senses!!! Very difficult to describe =) And it got more and more beautiful. We then went to Sequoia National Park, after driving through thousands of acres of National Forest. The temperature was in the 70's down in the valley, but dropped to a very comfortable coolness as we climbed to 7 & 8000 feet. It was a spectacular day, with very little haze so high up, since there's little or no pollution. I wanted to stay and paint almost everything I saw.
The following day we went to Yosemite National Park which was absolutely amazing. (I will label the pictures so you'll know what you are looking at).
You may click on any of the pictures to make them larger so you can get a better feel for the grandeur of it all.

Our first stop in the mountains. Sean held the camera out and took this. I love it!

We were so excited to be there with him!

There was still snow in the parks, but it was rapidly melting in places. They can get hundreds of feet of snow each winter.

This is Al down there, just to give you a feel for the vastness (and perspective). It took him a while to climb down.

You may click on these pics to make it easier to read. (Really amazing!)

Here it is : The General Sherman, the biggest tree on earth - hard to get the right perspective from pictures.

This was taken maybe 35-40 feet away from it's base and it still looks big. It's nearly 40ft in diameter. How amazing is that!

This was a fallen Sequoia tree, certainly not one of the largest, but you can see how large the diameter is compared to Al (His outstretched arms are approx 6 ft.)

Just a small limb that fell off the top of the General Sherman =)

This was a granite dome that we climbed (over 300 steps, at approx. 8000 ft. above sea level)

We actually were standing there, and it was more dangerous even than it looks. I felt really queasy!

I definitely felt a whole lot safer behind the rail. (I took this into the sun, but it was worth it)

What a view, mountain range after range after range after range...............

What an amazing God who created it all for our enjoyment! I wanted to stay there until the sun set. We actually drove down there afterwards, and we had never seen such hairpin turns before.

On the way back down from the dome (The dividing range is in the distance)

I can't believe where Sean got me to stand for this picture. (Even swimming with sharks in Belize, and holding a 7 ft. one in the Atlantic was not as scary =)

This was really steep, but you can't tell in the picture. (Giving our stomachs a break from the hairpin turns down the mountains) You can't see, but there were beautiful big purple wildflowers all over - you can see a little behind Al on the left. Gorgeous scenery!

There is a beautiful river in the valley, and you can see the purple Red bud trees on the slopes, although the sun was going down here, and you can only imagine how much more beautiful it actually was.

VISALIA, where Sean lives. This was taken from the car as we were driving. Sean lives in the valley where this lake is fed by melting snow off the mountains. This raises the level 50 more feet by the summer.

The following pictures were taken the next day in YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK:

(When we arrived, Sean said this reminded him of the worship song "How Great Is Our God", and we all sang it together and worshipped the great Creator of such magnificence.)

Yosemite Upper & Lower Falls (Nearly 2,500 ft high -from this valley floor -over 7000 ft above sea level I believe)
Sean and Al.

We all took a three mile hike to Vernal Falls in the Yosemite Valley, but Sean, who is in great shape, didn't tell us it was uphill all the way - I wasn't thinking I guess =)

Sean took this of Al and me with Vernal Falls in the background. Hard to see with all the spray. It also started to sleet when we got there , and then abruptly stopped. AWESOME!
It was drizzling when we were in the car, and before going on the hike we prayed that God would hold back the rain until we got back from the hike, and He sure did!

As soon as we got back in the car, it poured! (Very unusual for there, and apparently got lots of snow overnight in some places) We had an awesome day together - THANKS LORD!!!

Vernal Falls - I painted this scene (will post pics soon of painting)
Heading back home to Visalia.

It's hard to get the right perspective here! Al put the camera on the ground facing up to get this shot, because the cliffs in the back went straight up for hundreds of feet - incredible!

We miss you Sean, but like you said, if you could have picked where you could live, you could not have done better than what God provided for you. (We know it still is a big adjustment though).

Thanks for an awesome time of blessing. It was so good to be with you. You're in our thoughts and prayers each day. We love you and hope to visit again soon - be great to have the whole family visit together. =)