talkingsoup | Holy Shit, I'm Finally Home

So Mono Lake was awesome. It's pretty much this lake that's up past Yosemite (we had to drive through Yosemite to get there, through parts I'd never been before). I didn't expect it to be a salt lake, though. It's quite awesome, a lot saltier than the ocean, and I think saltier than the Great Salt Lake. There are these weird, huge formations of salt and calcium carbonate at the edges of the lake, too. They have the best name--tufa. "Tufa" to describe massive salt and calcium carbonate deposits! Anyway, we went there the first day, and then to Bodie, which was a few miles north of the lake, and is a ghost town. Very, very awesome. I spent the whole weekend with my mom, which was nice, though being with my dad would have been nice too. The reason he was there though was for this photography class led by a professional, so he was gone for most of the time.

After Bodie we checked out the teeny town we were staying in, which is called Lee Vining. Lots of trading posts and an excellent cafe that sold real chai. Woot.

Day after that (today) we went on a bird walk on the other side of the lake. Saw lots of birds, most of which I'd seen before, but it was still very awesome. After that we packed up and left and went to a nearby volcanic crater (the whole place is a volcanic basin) called Punam Crater and hiked through that. After getting suitably dusty we drove back through Yosemite, stopping at Tuolommane...Tuloumanne...oh god, I don't know, the meadows there. They were very cool, and there was this place called the Soda Springs which is a naturally carbonated spring (it was bubbling! Bubbling! Like soda! XOMG!!)

Then we got home.

Eyurgh, it's good to be home, much as Chicago and Mono Lake were awesome. I got back from Chicago at about eight at night on Thursday and had that night to hang around. I was exhausted, so I got about no packing done. And the morning after we left for Mono Lake, so I kind of haven't been home at all.

Good to be home.

I have a lot to catch up on, and that's pretty much what tomorrow is about. I'm taking tomorrow to unpack, find Liz, catch up on various anime, and do some spring cleaning and go on a bike ride (I gained waaaay too much weight this winter). Then this entire week is devoted to finding a job and, alternately, writing the next chapter of my fanfic. I've promised readers that I'd have the next one up before this weekend, when I go off to Lisa's wedding, back in New York. That'll be awesome, though Kate's the only other one who can make it. Ah well.

Not much else to report, really.