Farewell Manzanar, Hello Yosemite

We left our motel in Ridgecrest around 8:30 a.m. and headed north on the 395 to Lone Pine. Our plan was to stop at the Lone Pine Film History Museum. We arrived earlier than we expected, so we passed the time at the local Mickey D’s until the museum opened. There was a group of marines ordering food at the counter when we walked in. I asked them where they were from and they told me they had completed some training in the mountains and were headed back to warmer Camp Pendleton.

The film museum was interesting. The surrounding area called the Alabama Hills has been used over the years for on location filming. It was less expensive and closer to Hollywood to film here than in the actual places. Many “B” Westerns were filmed in the hills as well as more recent sci fi movies. The museum was filled with movie posters and props from the numerous movies including items used by John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and larger items like stage coaches, and 1920s cars. We even saw a “bloodied” suit worn by Robert Downy Jr. in Iron Man.

Ten miles up the road was Manzanar National Historical Site. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, the U.S. made the decision to relocate all people of Japanese decent living on the west coast. The majority of these people were Japanese Americans who were born here. They and their parents (immigrants from Japan) lost everything. It is a sad time in our country’s history, but I wanted to see this barren place where 10,000 people were kept for 2-3 years. The visitor center had some great exhibits, and the National Park Service has rebuilt a few barracks and a mess hall. These new buildings are not complete, but should be finished in 2015. We finished listening to the book Farewell to Manzanar and were able to find different areas and identify the things mentioned in the book as we looked around.

After a few hours, we were back on the road toward our final destination of the day, Curry Village in Yosemite National Park. We arrived and checked into our tent cabin around 6:00 p.m. It’s crazy how large Yosemite is. We drove for 40 miles after we drove through the gate into the park before we arrived in the main area. It was a gorgeous drive through meadows and up steep curvy roads. The granite rock towered over us with green pines trees scattered about for color.

Dinner was pizza at one of the restaurants in Curry Village. We walked around and bought a pack of cards in the little grocery store. It’s almost 10:00, quiet hour in Camp Curry. Our bear locker is full of our food and toiletries. We each have a metal frame bed with linens and two wool blankets. I told the boys that our tent cabin is very similar to the barracks of Manzanar. They pointed out two significant differences between our experience and the author of the book. First, we paid for our accommodations (imagine Jim Gaffigan's sarcastic tone of voice asking why would we pay for this?). Second, we can leave anytime we want. Even so, as we settle in for the next two nights, I will remember what they endured physically, mentally, and emotionally because of a fearful nation.

Tomorrow we’ll do some hiking and explore the beauty of this austere national park.