Several opportunities to attend Yosemite National Park’s famous Bracebridge Dinner have become available.  Bracebridge is a national cultural treasure, a three-hour-long holiday banquet and concert, conceived by renowned Yosemite photographer Ansel Adams, that occurs in the world-famous Ahwahnee hotel Dining Room.  Approximately 30 seats each night for this highly sought-after event have been packaged with lodging at the luxurious Yosemite View Lodge for the nights of December 18, 19, 21 and 26.  Each dinner seat is $376 per person, including the seven-course gourmet feast and musical pageant.  Rooms at the Yosemite View Lodge vary from $142 to $210 per night, a 20% savings offered specially for Bracebridge guests.  To reserve your Bracebridge Dinner tickets and hotel room package, call 1-800-321-5261.  Hurry, as these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to attend Bracebridge will be gone before you can say, “Jack Frost.”

Visiting a national park with a pet is not exactly pet friendly. In order to protect the natural balance, national parks, such as Yosemite, Lassen Volcanic, Redwoods and Kings Canyon/Sequoia limit where pets can be taken and some, like Channel Islands, do not allow pets at all. Similarly, few in-park accommodations allow pets to stay in rooms or in cars.

However, there is one hotel in the Yosemite area that does a doggone good job at welcoming pets. The Yosemite View Lodge, a deluxe accommodation located at the national park’s west entrance (SR 140) allows pets to stay overnight with their owners in rooms, and the hotel offers a pet package that includes accommodations, a comfy loaner pet bed, a gourmet dog treat, a colorful bandanna and a tongue-in-jowl bedtime story to read to your dog that describes Yosemite pet dos and don’ts. The rooms at The View, as it is known locally, are among the nicest in the Yosemite area and feature fenced balconies or patios, kitchenettes, fireplaces, double showers and many come with large in-room whirlpool tubs.