Photo Journal/ Travel Theme: Mystical

I am very excited to join Ailsa’s Travel Theme this week as it is evocative of magic, beauty, and enchantment: Mystical. I can not possibly resist it. And so in keeping with the fact that ‘Winter is Coming,’ I thought of posting these enchanting photographs from our trip to Yosemite Park and Lake Tahoe.

Mystical Snowy Trees: Yosemite and Tahoe

Beautiful trees on the way to Tahoe … little things like this make me happy – reminds me of The Night Before Christmas with a Tim Burton feel to it

“The mystical is not how the world is, but that it is.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
― Roald Dahl

“No, I would not want to live in a world without dragons, as I would not want to live in a world without magic, for that is a world without mystery, and that is a world without faith.”
― R.A. Salvatore, Streams of Silver

I love how the stillness of the snow-covered rocks balance the seeming-movement from the river

“Someone needs to tell those tales. When the battles are fought and won and lost, when the pirates find their treasures and the dragons eat their foes for breakfast with a nice cup of Lapsang souchong, someone needs to tell their bits of overlapping narrative. There’s magic in that. It’s in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict. From the mundane to the profound. You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone’s soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift. Your sister may be able to see the future, but you yourself can shape it, boy. Do not forget that… there are many kinds of magic, after all.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

I could stay here all day just staring at the quiet river and the snow-covered rocks

“Magical places are always beautiful and deserve to be contemplated … Always stay on the bridge between the invisible and the visible. ”
― Paulo Coelho

162767_1703306855401_1019871741_1917238_8171286_n — Trees behind a waterfall – Yosemite.

“If magic was present, it moved under the skin of the world, beneath the ability of human eyes to catch sight of it.”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

The Narnia and Tim-Burton feel of Yosemite.

“And this, really, is the story-within-the-story, because if you do not believe that hearts can bloom suddenly bigger, and that love can open like a flower out of even the hardest places, then I am afraid that for you the world will be long and brown and barren, and you will have trouble finding the light.

But if you do believe, then you already know all about magic.”
― Lauren Oliver, Liesl and Po

“As I look out at all of you gathered here, I want to say that I don’t see a room full of Parisians in top hats and diamonds and silk dresses. I don’t see bankers and housewives and store clerks. No. I address you all tonight as you truly are: wizards, mermaids, travelers, adventurers, and magicians. You are the true dreamers.”
― Brian Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret