THE SONGS OF A NIGHTINGAIL

My husband posing beside a ski plane model in Alaska Now he’s posing by the plane that took him and our eldest daughter up over Denali (Mount McKinley) to see its glaciers . A field of glaciers on Mt. McKinley (Denali) as seen from the plane.  They were supposed to be able to fly over the top of the mountain, but unfortunately, by the time they got up in the air, the top had clouded over.  Too bad.  But they still saw some beautiful mountain glaciers. My youngest sister’s husband built this Sonex airplane and is seen here flying it over the Sacramento Delta . A granddaughter is a passenger in an airplane ride on the boardwalk at Santa Cruz, Calif. Thanks to a spotter plane's direction, the pilot of this air tanker knew right where to drop its load of fire retardant on the “ Rim Fire ” in Tuolumne County in 2013 – an official photo.  Likewise the pilot of this helicopter on a different fire, having just loaded up with a bucketful of water from Pine Mountain Lake in...

  I was really ready for this one! J   All photos, one way and another, are related to my Great Grandfather, J.K. Smedley’s trip to Yosemite in 1874. J.K lived in Sacramento at the time of his trip to Yo-Semite – I’m guessing on a quieter street, however. From Sacramento he took the train to Milton where he and three others hired a coach & four with a driver for the rest of the trip.  Several folks he knew opted to take the stage – seen here – instead. Before heading for Yosemite they took a little side trip up to Calaveras Big Trees to see the giant Sequoias there and stayed at the Sperry & Perry Hotel in Murphys. They had lunch at the Mammoth Grove Hotel owned by Sperry & Perry at Calaveras Big Trees. Leaving Murphys, they took the Pendola Ferry across the Stanislaus River The road from the ferry brought them to Sonora where I live now, but this is the way they would have seen it back then. They stopped and had some libation at the Sonora City Hotel before...

  My Grandma Louise is sitting on the running board of her car waiting to throw a snowball at someone! A bride is about to be driven to her wedding in the family car. The groom is helping the bride into his car which will take them off on their honeymoon. A few weeks later that same car is slipping the bride & groom’s new boat into the Klamath River for an afternoon of fishing. A new family car carts a Christmas tree home for the holidays. Another new car is packed to the gills with camping equipment and daughters squeeze in for the ride home after two weeks in the mountains. Yet another new car AND a new boat!  Hello!  Are we gonna have fun or what?!! J Sometime later Mom takes the new car through the drive-through tree in the Tuolumne Grove of Big Trees in Yosemite National Park.  Seeing as how the 1990 A-Rock forest fire thankfully skirted this area, Dad helps load unneeded fire fighting equipment into his Forest Service truck in Yosemite’s Merced Grove o...