Fun day at Mono Lake!!

Today we had a fun day at Mono lake. It was sunny and hot this morning, and for the first time since we arrived here, NOT windy. The wind here is incredible, it blows strong 90% of the time. Today was a rare windless day. We went to the South Tufa area to look at the amazing spires that rise out of the salty water here. The Tufa area hike was about a mile walk and I ended up in my tank top because it was so warm. The history here is amazing, and the politics run thick. The LA water diversion controversy is everywhere. It's quite an "us versus the evil to the south" feeling around town. At least the lake is still slowly rising back to it's former self.

After we left we hopped back into the truck to head back to camp so Madison could take a nap. By the time we reached camp, it was snowing!! That's right the weather had changed in only a few minutes. The micro-climates here are so small that it can (and does) change hourly. As I sit here at the local visitor center computer kiosk, I'm looking out at our dusty truck getting rained, hailed, and snowed on. Good thing we came over early, because Tioga pass has been closed for a couple days now.

Yesterday we went to Bodie, the local ghost town. That was a lot of fun but the wind blew *hard* all day long. We made it about 80% of the way through the walking tour before the wind got the best of us and we headed back to camp.

We stayed up late last night celebrating Madison's birthday and litening to the Sharks season opener on XM Radio. They won a nail biter in overtime, it was a great game. It's so nice to finally have hockey again!!

Tomorrow we leave Lee Vining and head South to Mammoth Lakes. Hopefully I can find some internet access down there. Our great adventure continues . . .