{"id":6133,"date":"2011-12-03T00:26:19","date_gmt":"2011-12-03T08:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=6133"},"modified":"2011-12-03T00:26:19","modified_gmt":"2011-12-03T08:26:19","slug":"tuolumne-meadows-my-best-birthday-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/tuolumne-meadows-my-best-birthday-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"At Tuolumne — Celebrating Getting Born"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"mountains<\/a>
We spent one of our days at nearby Inyo National Forest. Photos by Barbara Newhall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall, with a little help from her friends<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Barbara
Birthday hike in the snow at 10,000 feet. Last year’s heavy snowfall still hadn’t melted. Photo by Al Aistrope.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On my last birthday, in September, I had three wonderful days at Tuolumne Meadows and Inyo National Forest in the Sierra Nevada with\u00a0two wonderful friends.<\/p>\n

It was probably my best birthday ever — though there’s maybe some forgotten birthday back in my school days when I dressed up in a tafetta dress, put on my Sunday-best patent leather shoes, played pin the tail on the donkey and accepted wonderful gifts\u00a0from my little girlfriends, also dressed up \u00a0in tafetta and patent leather. But I don’t think so.<\/p>\n

We were pretty little girls, surely. But Tuolumne — Tuolumne<\/a> is spectacular. Even my friend Al, who spends lotsa time in the Himalayas, swears that Yosemite and its high country is the most beautiful spot in the world.<\/p>\n

\"tuolemne<\/a>
Lupine — it was spring in September<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I had my camera and took hundreds of pictures. I mean it, hundreds.<\/p>\n

At every turn in the\u00a0trail something new and unforgettable cried out to be noticed and recorded. Big things like rocks and mountains. Small things like the pinecones and duff under my grateful feet.<\/p>\n

All that beauty, just sitting there, outdoing itself, whether anybody\u00a0happened by that day or not — what to do about it?<\/p>\n

If you’re my two friends, you quietly take it in. If you’re me, you\u00a0snap yet another\u00a0picture. And another. And another.<\/p>\n

And you post another collection of them on your blog. And another<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"tuolemne<\/a>
I even took pictures of the rocks and duff littering the trail.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Celebrating<\/a>
Celebrating my 70th birthday with friends Jean and Al at Tuolemne Meadows. Barbara Newhall photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Celebrating<\/a><\/p>\n

Turning 70 was way better than turning 8 — because I spent the day at Yosemite’s beautiful Tuolemne Meadows with friends. Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,13],"tags":[652,653,654,34,655,656,88,32],"class_list":["post-6133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-case-of-the-human-condition","category-my-rocky-spiritual-journey","tag-al","tag-arts-and-crafts","tag-birthday","tag-dont-miss","tag-friends","tag-jean","tag-nature","tag-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}