Day Two - Still on the 395

We've been on the road for a week and a half (now in Washington) and I'm just now working on day two of our journey up Hwy 395 in CA on this blog.  It's just so hard to load pics and take the time to write, but here goes...


After staying our first night at the Redwood Motel in Bridgeport, CA, we decided to work our way back down where we came from and pick up a few places we missed.
The first place we headed for was Mammoth, a popular ski area here.  Our plan to walk around, eat and shop was thwarted by SNOW - on June 29th!  They were still skiing here and it was cold!
So we did the next best thing - we found a brewery and tasted beer!


Going back toward Bridgeport, we made the bumpy, 13 mile ride to a real ghost town, Brodie.  Brodie was a mining town in the late 1800's that was later abandoned and became a state park in 1967.  It sits in a state of "arrested decay."  In other words, nothing is being done to restore it.  You walk around, looking in the windows at what was literally left behind after everyone left.  At one time 40,000 people lived here and the buildings left are only 1/5th of what was.  
Very interesting, but look at us!  So COLD and SNOWING again!  
Thank goodness for Don's golf rain gear!


Going back to Bridgeport for our second (and last) night, we passed the "Latte Da" coffee shop.  A twist on our last name and what I always wanted to call a coffee shop if I ever owned one. Cute. So are my boys...

Finally, look at the price of gas in Bridgeport!!  $4.99/gal!  We decided to fill up at our next location - Reno!!

Day one is over - finally! Bridgeport, CA

We finally got to our reserved hotel room in Bridgeport, CA. The Redwood Motel.  Not much, but cheap and clean.  It is the end of our first vacation day - seeing the best parts of the 395.  Tomorrow we're going back down the 395 to spend time at Mammoth Mountain and visit a true ghost town near here called Bodie...

Still on Hwy 395 - Still day one - Yosemite, sort of...

We kept traveling north up the 395 and made our way to the "back" entrance of Yosemite National Park. Unfortunately we arrived at 3:30 in the afternoon - waaay to late to enjoy the park.  We'll come another time and devote several days to explore this beautiful area.  The pictures show magnificent waterfalls (lots of snow this year). We have one of the park parking lot showing the snow pack...this is June 28th! Finally, a semi-frozen lake - amazing! Oh, the pictures aren't very good due to overcast weather - or rain - depending on where we were.

Still on Hwy 395 - Still our first day

Still day one, still traveling up CA Hwy 395. After seeing Mt. Whitley, we visited the Mono Lakes region and saw several lakes; June Lake, Grant Lake and Silver Lake.  We visited Mono Lake, a crater lake and geological wonder.  Very interesting!  Back in the car - on our way to Yosemite next...

First Day continuted - Mt. Whitney

After lunch, we stopped at the Visitor's Information Station for Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the  continental U.S. - 14,505 ft.  The picture is distorted, so look at the center of the picture, the pointed mountains - the high one near the back is Mt. Whitney.

Our first day

Today we left home and our first stop was in Bishop, CA. for lunch.  A famous bakery, Schat, (really!) is there so we indulged!