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Published: June 13th 2017
Geo: 37.8772, -119.727
DAY FOUR: In-SPIRE-ing!
We awoke to snow! I was delighted. Not a lot, mind you, but enough to make everything white and wonderful. If only briefly.
I ate a quick breakfast and headed out back … from the hotel to the Merced River. Beautiful river. Quaint stone bridge. And monoliths of all sorts and sizes. A John Muir experience.
We boarded our Tauck bus for the Curry Center. There we had a presentation by Michael Adams, son of photographer Ansel Adams and retired physician. He basically described his father's lifelong love affair with Yosemite. As a child, he would embark on adventures with his father, and his own camera. He had story after story about his parents, and many, many magnificent Ansel Adams photos (of the 40,000+ photos taken in his lifetime).
His father was a very talented pianist who felt that was his calling. It wasn't until he married and began to raise a family that he realized he could make a better living selling photographic services, so piano and photography exchanged places. One a vocation; the other an avocation.
Despite most peoples' impression that Adams mostly stuck to Yosemite and California as his subject matter, he photographed Hawaii, Canada and the
Southwest. He also spent time in the Japanese internment camp at Manzanar. Although he was over-age for the WWII draft, he wanted to participate in the war effort. Adams was invited to document the internees and life at camp. He was active in his opposition to the exclusion order against the Japanese Americans.
Adams also received the Medal of Freedom from President Jimmy Carter, who lauded him for being "at one with the American landscape." He WAS a national institution. He died in 1984; and in 1985, they dedicated Mount Ansel Adams in Yosemite in his honor.
Next we boarded a NPS bus and had a two-hour tour of the Valley with a naturalist. OMG. This place is incredible. I've never had a favorite park but I can't imagine another contender. (BTW, the most visited National Park is the Great Smoky Mountains, probably because of its proximity to so many populated areas.)
We made several stops along the way, allowing me (personally) to shoot these famous sites on an absolutely radiant day. Freshly fallen snow. Bright blue skies. And a sun that made everything sparkle. How lucky we are to see Yosemite in all its glory. El Capitan and its vertical walls.
Half Dome, wearing a snow cap. Bridalveil Falls and Yosemite Falls … not as powerful as in spring, but running wildly with all the recent rains. Tunnel view – where most of Yosemite's most beloved treasures can be seen together. What an incredible day.
Following the tour, Patrick and I wandered around. We had soup at Degnan's Deli. We stopped at the Ansel Adams Gallery and the Visitor's Center and we walked back to the Ahwahnee, taking in the sights along the way. We relaxed a while then began to prepare for our big evening.
Some folks on the trip signed up for the event simply because it included the Bracebridge dinner, which Patrick and I had never even heard of. It's an event that Ansel Adams was very involved in for many years (since 1927) – a black tie dinner involving a multi-course meal over a 4-hour period of singing and dancing by “British” gentry and performers. Bracebridge, it seems, was an English manor that celebrated Christmas in an elaborate style. The Ahwahnee dining room is transformed into an 18th-century English manor – inspired by a yuletide ceremony described by Washington Irving.
For many years, the Bracebridge was only held on
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was such a coveted event that there was a lottery for the tickets. Our friend Merilyn Preston, who took us out on Sunday afternoon in San Francisco, was among the lucky folks who won the lottery.
The singers/actors in the show were the same performers from last night's Christmas concert. The conductor was actually the Jester in this evening's event. I was told the performers are a troupe from San Francisco that stays at The Ahwahnee for 12 days as they perform for visitors.
The story goes that Ansel Adams wanted this event to be so special that he forbade cameras in the room. That tradition continues – they asked for no electronic devices and no cameras. I took a cell phone and a camera in my purse but was nervous about using them. Not taking pictures was killing me.
There was a cocktail party at 5 pm in the hotel's Great Room, with two piano players leading a sing-along caroling event. Everyone looked dandy in their duds. At 6 pm, trumpets heralded us to Bracebridge Hall, the transformed Ahwahnee dining room.
We were paraded to our seats – we lucked out and had the table closest
to the stage. I knew at that moment there was no chance I wouldn't be taking photos.
Before/after each of the many courses, there was entertainment. Singing. Dancing. Storytelling. Jestering. With a light story line tying it all together. Courses included: relish appetizer, bread, trout tureen, Sonoma duck confit, salad with cranberries and walnuts, beef tenderloin with vegetables, wassail, plum pudding.
Each course was accompanied by a parade of performers, who brought in the main dish elaborately displayed on platforms not dissimilar to how Cleopatra entered a room – on the shoulders of several big burly guys.
It was a delightful evening. Food was good. Entertainment was quite good. We laughed a lot and enjoyed the many ways the performers involved the audience.
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Jan
non-member comment
Beautiful photographs remind me of camping in Yosemite when I was 21 years old. It has not changed, thank goodness.