I have been fairly occupied with life for the past two weeks. It started with my sister-in-law ¹ getting married. It was a beautiful Catholic ceremony, mass included. We spent almost the entire long weekend with the husband’s family. The bride and groom decided to go with a break in their first dance to bust out “I Like Big Butts”. It was quite funny, but thanks to the Internet, nothing I hadn’t seen before.

It was also the husband’s 24th birthday and we celebrated the day after with a long over-due patronage of Porn Star Karaoke and guess who makes an appearance? Jennifer Love Hewitt. Husband is smitten, of course. He managed to get a picture with her and she performed one of her own songs ² karaoke-style with three of her friends.

Starting the Friday after the wedding, I joined my parents up on the annual family trip to the Eastern Sierra Nevadas. Specifically to Silver Lake Resort in the June Lake Loop. You may have heard me talk about this at various points, maybe even exactly once a year or so since this has been an occurrence way before I was brought into this world.

The weekend around 4th of July is one of the resort’s annual horseshoe tournaments that benefit a memorial scholarship fund that was set up after the death of the owner’s wife many years ago. All the winners of the tournament donated their prize money right back to the fund. I thought that was great! My parents won a bunch of raffle prizes, included the pretty coveted bears. I won one item. One of those bears… I only participated in two of the three raffles since I don’t have any need for most of the fishing gear they pad the regular raffle with. The other two raffles are for adorable bear statues and the 50/50. None of us won the 50/50, but a member of the extended family did. Just over $300! I definitely could have used that cash.

My intention for this year was to explore the surrounding points of interest. Unfortunately, I feel back into just lazying around my parents’ new RV for the most part. I did get my parents on board to go up to Bridgeport for Independence Day fireworks. I had hoped to get up early enough to explore the booths they set up, but we ended up having dinner at one of their restaurants. Unfortunately, we ended up with the one place that seemed to short-staff the place for the night. Getting our dinner took so damn long. One waitress seemed to be busting her ass, serving, busing tables, taking orders and two other young girls who looked like they were supposed to be waitressing too, but they were just flitting around, doing not even half of work. While I was fed up with the wait almost as much as my parents were, I was less upset with our particular waitress and more so with the whole perceived situation. The comments my parents kept making didn’t improve the mood either. While I’ve only worked fast food, I definitely understand part of the hustle and bustle and shit you get in those kinds of jobs. The fireworks were very nice and it was fun watching kids light up the firecrackers they bought earlier that day, especially right in front of sheriff officers. Nothing happened, but growing up with fireworks and such being illegal, it’s all quite amusing.

One of the things that’s always looked forward to is seeing wildlife around. The RV park was being stalked by a couple of bears late at night. I never got a chance to see it, but he apparently had a fondness for beer, as it kept trying to get into ice chests and coolers that contained my dad’s back-up stash of the stuff. Our neighbors were awake and somehow shooed the bear away. I want to know how does one shoo a bear? On the heels of that man who was attacked and killed by a mother bear in Yellowstone³, I don’t know why my parents joked about setting out food for it. However, we definitely have no qualms with tossing peanuts around for the various ground squirrels, chipmunks and birds. They had become quite familiar with my uncle, so the rodents had no qualms with coming up and taking the legumes straight out of our fingers, especially the larger fellas. The teeny chipmunks and blue jays always stayed a little weary and cautious, though.

One of my favorite sights in the Eastern Sierras is Bodie Ghost Town. It’s in a state of arrested decay and so it’s left just as it was when it was abandoned for good back in the early 1900s. Admittedly, it’s the only ghost town I’ve visited, but I don’t know how it could be beat. This year, I took the Stamp Mill tour and took pictures along the way. I wanted to attempt photographing most of the buildings and sites on the walking tour, but it’s quite a daunting task. I didn’t have the stamina and ended up with a good burn on the tops of my shoulders from being out in the sun as long as I was. I apparently didn’t get every exposed part of me with sunscreen, as proof of the ring around my chest and back of redness that fades into whiteness above. It’s one of the weirdest looking burns, really. I’m currently peeling! No fun.

The 7th was what would have been my grandpa’s 84th birthday. My parents and I celebrated with dinner at his favorite restaurant for the occasion, Carson Peak Inn. We ceremoniously had a glass of white Zinfandel poured in honor of his memory, ice cubes included. The dinner was delicious and we even partook in dessert. The waiter would pitch it to every table with the saying “There are no calories over 4,000 feet!” One slice of cheesecake between three people can’t be all that bad anyway, can it?

Friday was my day to make the 6+ hour drive back to my parents’ house in L.A. I bid adieu to the extended family, family friends and my parents. However, not before we had an early lunch at the divine Whoa Nellie Deli just outside of Lee Vining and just before you get to the Tioga Pass which leads into the eastern portion of Yosemite. My cousin, Hilary, joined us, as she got in late Thursday night and it would’ve been the only time I could spend with her. That was followed up with a classic of half-and-half cones from the Mono Cone, which also has bomb ass food including deep fried pickle spears! I had those earlier in the week, on my way back from Bodie.

Ultimately, it was a great vacation, though always too short. I do hate that the mosquitoes were so thick this year and they seemed to love me. I came home with at least a dozen bites. A dozen! Ugh. I’m quite proud that I avoided getting burned except for the one day at Bodie. I’m definitely not about carrying on with a diagnosis of any sort of skin cancer in my family.