Mammoth Lakes Day Five

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The cost of our stay included a 'continental breakfast', which i was looking forward to. I was sad to see that their version of a continental breakfast is a pastry and a carton of juice. (Despite this, I recommend the hotel highly). Their friendly Lab Snowy made us feel really welcome.

We bought lunch supplies from the local supermarket and medicine for Zoe (who is really poorly) and set off for Mammoth Lakes, which was a 2.5 hour drive from Tahoe.

We drove along Highway 395, through Eastern SierraBNevada, which was beautiful. It was a contrast of snow capped mountain peaks and flat, barren plains and then past stunning Topaz Lake and Mono Lake.

We reached Motel 6 in Mammoth Lakes at about 3pm. The temperature has dropped about 20 degrees from San Fran and there is ice and snow about.

The altitude here is 7,800 feet, which surprised me. We were a little breathless when climbing stairs, but I thought we were all just very unfit.

There were warning signs all over the motel saying that bears had come out of hibernation 10 weeks early, due to the mild winter and had been seen on the hotel site, looking for food. We had to make sure all our food was locked away in 'bear proof' containersin our rooms and that we locked our doors and windows at night. I would loe to see a bear and was tempted to leave some treats outside our room in the hope of an encounter, but I have seen Grizzly Man....

Our intention was to see the Devil's Postpile (a geological wonder of the world) and Rainbow Falls, which are two miles downstream of Devil's Postpile. Unfortunatrly, the road to get to these sights was closed, (as were the hot springs we wanted to see). Instead, we did what girls do best - shopping, (although we didnt actually buy anything). We then spent a couple of hours reading, before dining at Angels - a steak restaurant near our motel.

We have a long drive ahead of us tomorrow to get to Vegas...

Mum has been constantly referring to Ben & Jerry's as Tom & Jerry's and Baby Ruth as Dr Ruth (the elderly American sex advisor).

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