Vacation. Yay! Yosemite. Yay!

September 21st, Thursday-I actually drove out of Los Angeles and straight on through to Fresno. I couldn't believe I did that. Daryl was quite happy I did the drive because he was dead tired. By the time we got to Fresno, four hours later, he was fresh enough to tackle the rest of the trip to Yosemite. Oh, and driving for four hours? I felt like I was going to go crazy in the last hour, plus, by then I really had to pee and Daryl kept on telling me to go the later exits. When we got to Fresno, we stopped for food and got binoculars. I had read on the website www.yosemitefun.com that binocs are very, very useful for looking at all of the vistas and for watching the rock climbers. And boy was it ever. That was one of the best buys that we've ever shelled out money for. The clarity on that thing was fantastic. Anyway, the rest of the roads up to Yosemite were windy and annoying so I was glad Daryl was in charge because I would have crawled along those roads at a snail's pace---with a long line of angry motorists behind me. We got to the outskirts of Yosemite and stopped by the Mariposa Grove which had all of the sequoias. We walked up a short trail to see the one called the "Grizzly Giant." Note the fact that there are people at the bottom. Very, very tiny people.

It was like the Muir Woods except bigger and a whole lot drier. But they did have some really huge roots, which if you need a reference, Daryl is nearly 6 feet tall. And I couldn't get the top of the roots in the picture.

Then we hopped back into the car and drove to the tunnel entrance to the valley. Once you get past the tunnel, it's such a lovely vista that almost everyone stops to take a picture, including us. From our vantage point we could see El Capitan (left)and Half-Dome (rightish center and way back).

Then we drove past Bridalveil falls (Just a small trickle now that it was fall.) onto Curry Village to our cabin. Our cabin had two queen beds and a private bathroom and shower stall. I was relieved just to find someplace where I knew we'd be able to relax in relative comfort, since I am most definitely not an outdoor person. (The idea of sleeping in an outdoor tent cabin really starts to sound less romantic when you know the bathrooms and showers are communal and a goodly distance away. Plus, there's the threat of bears and there are sign all over the place reminding people to lock up their food and remove all food from their cars. (Way to scare the city girl, folks. I was scared of bears tearing down the cabin all night long. But I completely forgot the fact that mice were more likely to get into our food supply. Which we had in the not-so-secure paper bag from Whole Foods.) We went to get dinner at Curry Village, which I had called earlier to ask if they had any gluten-free items and they all looked at me like a freak when I asked. (Sigh.) I ate really expensive mediocre food, but at least I had pudding, which, believe me, made all the difference. I then suggested to Daryl that we go up to Glacier Point and see the stars at night. It sounded like a good idea, but what I didn't count on, was that it entailed a very long, twisty ride out of the valley and onto Glacier Point Road. It took a good hour to get there. But once we got up there it was well worth it. There are almost no outdoor lights so it's a good idea to bring flashlights with you, btw. We lighted our path up to Glacier Point with our flashlights and while we were working our way up, we saw two deer grazing by the path. So freaking cool! It was like time stopped as we looked at them looking at us. We finally reached the top and sat down to relax and look up at the stars and boy, howdy were they beautiful. I've never seen such a clear sky. We could see the cloudy edge of the Milky Way from our vantage point. There were so many stars I didn't know which ones they were. And if we looked down, we could see the valley lit up with campfires and lights. It was beyond gorgeous. And I have to say it was the highlight of the trip for me. Unfortunately, we couldn't take a picture, but I recommend going there to anyone who's thinking of visiting Yosemite. And, hardly anyone else was up there, so if you want solitude in Yosemite, that was one place for it. And then we had to go back to the road to drive back to the valley, which was another long, twisty trip--in the dark. We went to bed pretty early for us, although Daryl didn't sleep all that much because we were awoked to crinkly-paper noise and discovered mice had found our stash of food and had gotten stuck on our bag. Daryl let them go and then spread out the food on the floor to see what they picked up and they chose a lollipop, which was probably going to be the hardest thing for them to eat. Daryl did take pictures of this, which I thought was hilarious.

September 22nd, Friday-Both of us were not in the mood for an early morning hike, so we ate a very nice breakfast at the cafeteria near the Yosemite Lodge. Daryl had booked a room for us and they wouldn't let us register until after noon, so I made Daryl drive us up back to Glacier Point so that we could go on a 4 mile hike. We parked the car and began our hike to Sentinel Dome and it was a pretty nice hike. We saw some more deer on the way! Daryl got staggeringly close.

And here we are on Sentinel Dome. I believe that is El Capitan in the background.

And here is Daryl with his friend, Half Dome, to the right.

Then we took a roundabout path to get to the trail to Taft Point, which was south and west of us. It took a while but I think it was worth it. Here's Taft Point. There's a rail near the top of the picture on the left.

All in all it was a good trip and we got a nice room at the Yosemite Lodge where we showered up, (Because by the end of our hike, we were covered in dirt. All over. There was even dirt on my feet and I had socks and shoes on! Seriously, the trails were very dusty.) We had a nice dinner at the Mountain Room, the restaurant for the Lodge, where I had a steak and chocolate creme brulee. After which, we took it easy, since we were exhausted from hike. It makes me glad that I had been walking for exercise because it turns out it gave me a lot of stamina to do these hikes and I was afraid I'd be holding Daryl back. (Of course, it would have been great if I had also lost weight, too...)