Fall in the Sierra's

A few weeks ago, we were on our way to Bend, Oregon when we got sidetracked and instead spent a few days in the Mammoth Lakes area. Never having been there at this time of year, we were so thrilled to see fall color on the trees in the surrounding hillsides and lakes. Before we even got to our condo to unpack and relax, we had taken several detours, finding gorgeous pockets of color along the way.

Astounding as it sounds, we came very, very close to several herds of deer quietly munching away at one of the local resorts and on a nearby baseball field. I say herds because we counted over 25 at the baseball field alone. And they were not the least bit frightened of us. We are guessing that because of the severe drought conditions in California, the wildlife is being forced to come nearer to civilization just to find food. Sad.

We had seen a gentleman petting a deer a littler earlier, and my husband turned to me and said, "I want to pet that deer." I was surprised, but he went over and... can you see in this next photo that my husband is petting that deer?

And this... this was absolutely hilarious! After quietly watching my husband pet the deer from across the yard, this guy started taking photos of it as it moved towards him. My husband yelled over to him to "take a selfie!" And, he did! OMG, it was so funny! And, then when his buddy walked up to him from behind his car, he told him, "I got a selfie!" I would have loved to see that selfie. You just can't make this stuff up.

 
What a fun little trip it was. I have a few more photos to share...

Take care,

Wanna see what I did?

I was offered a free 8 x 8 Shutterfly photo book by Hilton Honors recently and I couldn't say no. I had fun putting it together and it was easy and very straightforward to do. I had been wanting to do a Shutterfly book ever since my sis did one a couple of years ago. Hers turned out really well so I hoped mine would too.

Now that I've received my hardcopy I see that there are a few things I would do differently next time. For one thing, I would make the text smaller and some of the photos larger. For the cover, I used the embellishment "stickers" and although I thought I had them spaced correctly and lined up, I see now that I could have done better. It's all a learning experience though, and I'm certainly very happy with my book!

If you would like to see my entire book, here's an opportunity. Maybe it will inspire you to create your own Shutterfly photo book. I hope so.

Click here to view this photo book larger

The new way to make a photo album: photo books by Shutterfly.

 Don't forget about my knitted socks giveaway. Go to this post to leave me a comment to have a chance at winning!



Take care,

Love this idea: ikat bag: Hamper

So Relaxed.........

Our trip to Mammoth was wonderful....wish you could have been there with us! We stayed in a great condo at Mountainback and made short day trips from there. We visited Lake Mary (one of the Mammoths lakes)



and we drove to Twin Lakes, just northwest of Bridgeport, for a day!



Then we scouted out the June Lake areas four lakes (June, Gull, Silver & Grant)....June Lake below



and Silver Lake, where we rented a fishing boat and spent the day on the lake. It was so relaxing and funny. We had a "pet duck" who followed us in our boat all the way around the lake, several times!! Of course, we were feeding him, but that little duck was the fastest swimmer I've seen in a long time. On shore, fishermen were catching trout up to a foot long.



One discovery we made brought back great childhood memories. We used to go camping/fishing quite a bit when I was a kid but I could never remember where we went. Well, we discovered Rock Creek Lake and the many campgrounds on the road there and it just snapped into place for me....that's where we used to go! Great memories!! I wonder if my sis would remember it too?

This is one of the streams on the road to Rock Creek Lake...



and this is Rock Creek Lake...



Well, it was a GREAT trip....only WAY TOO SHORT! :))