Dreams do come true. If you turn them into goals.
I had a photo of General Sherman pinned to my desk at work for over 2 years..
It stuck there watching over me in the corporate cubicle that I learned not to hate – because hey, it’s all just a means to an end and you do need money to travel.
When I moved jobs, I took the General with me, and put it up on the wall of the converted apartment – now office – of my 2nd job.
My dreams became goals then almost reality when, one year later, the Europe team was invited there for the US annual sales kickoff meeting in L.A.
In L- freaking -A.
Plenty of things we did that week: hot dogs and movies of Valentine’s Day, San Diego by train..
But that’s a story for another time.
I couldn’t care less about the city, except that it was basically a spit away (ok, an American spit away) from the Sequoia Natural Park.
Soooo, I obviously took a week off for myself and hit the road with my friends. Road trip! to Yosemite and Sequoia National Park.
Meeting the General
Doing this trip in February gave us the opportunity to explore the parks in relative solitude, not too many tourists were visiting at that time.
Though you have to be careful and avoid the weekend before the third Monday of February which is President’s Day in the US.
General Sherman seemed very much like a pipe dream when I printed that photo. And here I was now, hugging the hell out of it!
Redwood bark is soft and velvety and made my want to not let go.. Apparently, the bark can grow really thick in old trees – as thick as 60 centimeters, protecting the tree from fire damage.
In this picture, the tree’s bark gets veeery friendly with moss and lichen.
The snow was thick as well.
While I am sure the forest looks amazing in summertime, I loved the sound of our muffled steps on the soft snow and it was the perfect set for my encounter with the General.
Hats off to El Capitan
Yosemite was of course built into our little road-trip to the Sequoia national Park.
Because! who’d miss on the opportunity to see the Captain, really?
Yosemite is one of the most impressing national parks I’ve seen so far, truly a sanctuary of nature, with El Capitan towering over the scenery in a magical landscape.
This 100 million year old, 900 meter rock overlooking the Yosemite valley is an increasingly popular place for base jumpers, even though the park has made its stand very firm on banning such activities.
I’ve taken the liberty to use one of my friend’s pictures, for a simple reason: they’re great photographers ! Check them out at Ax2D Photography.
Dreams do come true. Space tourism will be a reality during our lifetime. Hell, they’re looking at doing a trip to the moon as early as next year!
So definitely don’t be afraid to dream big.
After all, what’s there to lose?
Crazy dreaming and happy wandering!