Chen ELEVEN Fall 2017

Fall of Junior year!  And we've added a new student, now 11 strong!  Good luck Chen Eleven.

Yalie is a Published Poet

One of my favorite students of all time, Yalie, is now a published poet.  She's now getting an MFA in poetry from Indiana University and last night, had a reading.  I had to go.

I make fun of poetry.....but I'll read and listen to Yalie's anytime, anywhere!

It was great to run into other former students as well.....and their spouses.

There she is....mother of the poet.  Rule number 1, if she's praying, don't sit in front of her, because you are NOT GOD! 

Piano on the Hill

Newlyweds No Longer

The last day of camping was our second anniversary.   The drive back went back through Yosemite, so we took a short hike up to Dog Lake from Tuolumne Meadows.

I always take time to take a dip.

And then on our final leg home, we stopped by to eat at Red Lobster, which has become our anniversary dinner spot.

Crabfest.  Onions has a hard time understanding why many of my friends make fun of eating at Red Lobster.  I can't put it into words, but I embrace the joy of Red Lobster, and not ironically.

Happy Anniversary, babes!

Manzanar

Our second day of camping took us up near Mammoth Mountain where looked over at the Minarets and down into Reds Meadow.  The plan was to go an see Devil's Postpile, but it required us to get on a tour bus, which at this point, I'm not into, so we punted and moved onto our next planned stop.

A cool fault.  EARTHQUAKE!

Onions and I on two sides of the fault!

The second stop was 100 miles south of our camp at June Lake.  Manzanar.  It was in this square mile that some 10,000 Americans citizens and residents of Japanese descent were put into a "concentration camp."  The terminology of what to call these 10 forced re-settlements is a a huge debate.

The Japanese Americans were brought here under the auspices of the American government protecting them FROM attack by other Americans in response to the attacks at Pearl Harbor.  But when they got here, these guard towers faced INWARD, keeping the forced residents in, not keeping the supposed potential attackers out.

This original social gathering hall has been restored and turned into the official museum of Manzanar.

It's fascinating and sad how we could simply change the race/creed of the group in this day and age and our political climate would pretty much be the same.

The layout of the Manzanar "camp".  36 Blocks each with 16 barracks, latrines and a mess hall.

Once the residents/citizens got to a camp, how they answered this question determined their future.

The entrance to Manzanar.  It's a BEAUTIFUL location in the Owens Valley hard against the eastern Sierra.

It's COLD in the winter, hot in the summer and there's a constant wind.  It's a desert!

There were farms, play areas for kids and to suit the tastes of the residents, a place to process soy into tofu.

Oh, the endless conflict between immigrant parents and their first generation kids!

The Manzanar Cemetery and memorial to all the incarcerated.

After Manzanar, we went hunting for other hot springs.  We found this one off Whitmore Tubs road.  I'm not sure of the unofficial name, but I think it's "hot tub"

We were now on the hunt for others.  We explored a bunch of pull outs off of Whitmore Tubs.  Found another, but some let us to nothing.

We hit a fork in the road and apparently didn't follow a pretty obvious road to another hot spring, but instead we just drove back enjoying the scenery and sunset.  Here's a view of the Minarets again.