We had a nice-ish Father's Day. Twins slept late-ish, and when they got up I showed them the card we were giving Daddy (see photo above). I actually bought it last year, but lost it before Father's Day. I found it several months later and vowed not to lose it again this year. Such vows are of course meaningless, but by some miracle I didn't lose the card (the miracle being that I put it in my card drawer). Anyway, the card has a lot of tools on it (hammer, saw, etc.) saying "you're a great dad" in various ways, and the twins were quite taken with it. I signed their names to it, and then I wrote "To Daddy" on the envelope. "No," said Baby A, "draw Daddy."
"You mean, write it like this?" I asked, crossing out "Daddy" and writing "DADDY." They usually prefer it if I write things in all caps.
"No! DRAW Daddy!" Baby A insisted. So me with my complete lack of artistic talent had to draw a picture of Daddy on the envelope. Then we inserted the card and gave the whole thing to Daddy, who was very pleased.
We took a nice walk to the grocery store and bought the LA Times and some other things and walked home again before it got too hot (it was about 90). We had planned to go to the Ranch House Cafe in Olancha for lunch, so we got packed up and headed north on 395 for 55 miles. It was not really much cooler in Olancha, but it makes a change.
After lunch we continued driving north to Lone Pine (another 22 miles) in order to go to the Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center there, which has a good bookstore, so that Rocket Boy could get a map. Yes, the same map was probably available in Ridgecrest, but what the heck, we like the Owens Valley. Also, we hoped that the twins would fall asleep, it being after lunch, but they didn't, just fought over who got to hold Daddy's card and move it in and out of its beautiful envelope.
After getting the map, we drove south back to Olancha and turned west on Sage Flat Road, which leads to the Olancha Pass trail. According to the Inyo National Forest website, the trailhead elevation is 5,790 feet "and winds steeply up the Eastern Sierra escarpment to Olancha Pass, elevation 9,220 feet." It doesn't mention that the trail is VERY dusty. I'm not totally convinced we were even ON the trail the whole time, it was so narrow and un-trail-like. More like a deer trail. Also, it was 90 degrees at the trailhead and it got windier and windier as we climbed. Let's just say I did not do well. We gave up after half an hour or so of climbing and were nowhere near Olancha Pass. I think this would be a nice trail to do in April. Of course, it might still have snow in April. Early May, perhaps? The views were impressive though (this photo shows Owens Lake in the distance):
After we gave up on the trail, we drove back down to 395 and south to Pearsonville, where we spent an hour at the weird park there. Mostly just sitting on the picnic bench or lying on the astroturf (Rocket Boy and me, anyway -- the twins played on the equipment some). My car said it was 103 when we arrived at the park and the wind was blowing something awful. The blow dryer effect.
Finally around 6 pm we left the park and drove on home. It was still about 100 degrees in Ridgecrest. I made us strawberry milkshakes for dinner and that was all we had -- everyone was just too hot. I wish I could get away with that every night.
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