Yosemite National Park

We took a short vacation to Yosemite the week before school started.  It was the first time we've been there.  After living in CA for 9 years, it was about time that we saw Yosemite.  We didn't originally plan on a vacation the week before school, but that happened to be when we had free accommodations (using a timeshare that my parents have).  We were able to stay at a Wyndham Resort in Angels Camp for 4 nights.  It was really nice, but we didn't realize that it was still about 2 hours from Yosemite.  We spent 3 days in the park and 1 day swimming, playing tennis, and hanging out at the resort.  

We spent Monday packing, running errands, boarding the dog at a Petsmart along the way, and getting to our resort. 

On our first day in the park (Tuesday), it took a while to get there, find parking, and walk to the shuttles.  We stopped in the gift shop in Yosemite Valley and then had lunch.  Savannah said she wasn't feeling well, but we attempted to do a hike after lunch.  We got to see Lower Yosemite Falls as a family.  About halfway through, Savannah puked (she said she felt better after that).  But after playing in the water for a bit and starting to walk back, she said she still wasn't feeling well.  Alex said he would stay and walk slowly with her and take her to do something inside.  It was really hot that day.  

I took the boys on the Mist Trail hike to Vernal Falls.  We knew that was supposed to be a hike where we got wet, so we thought that would be a good hike for a warm day.  I didn't realize how strenuous it would be.  It was an uphill climb, with several stair steps near the falls.  Even if Savannah was feeling well, she wouldn't have been able to do that hike.  I wished I had let Alex do the hike, because I was struggling to get to the top.  And while usually a wet hike (most people wear rain jackets to avoid getting drenched), there was only a small amount of mist near the falls.  So we were sweating it out, but the falls were pretty rewarding.  

Those two hikes were all we had time for on the first day.  We caught some nice pictures of other parts of the park on our way out.  

The squirrels throughout the park were really friendly.  We didn't feed them (not supposed to), but you could tell they were used to being fed.  They weren't afraid to come up to your hand. 

 Near the top... almost there, with lots of steps... and then on the very top of the falls looking down. 

Much easier coming DOWN from the falls...

We spent the second day at the resort (Wednesday).  We're not sure why Savannah wasn't feeling well the day before, but we didn't want to try another day of hiking that very next day.  We played a little tennis, spent a lot of time in the pool, grilled hamburgers, ate ice cream, and watched movies.  We found, bought, and watched Avengers End Game, so it was pretty much the best day ever for the kids.  Savannah made a lot of progress on learning to swim - she swam from side to side of the pool a few times.   

From our balcony on Thursday morning, we watched 4 cats and several deer.  The deer were used to being fed as well.  People were feeding them from the lower rooms.

 On Thursday, we went back to Yosemite. We saw Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias.  It was cool to see the big trees, but probably not worth the time it took to do the hike.  If I had it to do over, we probably wouldn't have stopped there. 

 We headed on from the grove of trees over to the east part of the park, Tuolumne Meadows.  It was a nice day to dip our feet in the water of Tenaya Lake.  We planned on just getting our feet wet, but Owen did manage to fall down and get all wet.  He didn't seem to mind (I think he planned on falling down).  We wish we had had more time to relax at the beautiful lake. 

 Those were our main stops for the day.  We drove back the northern route by Mono Lake and had some expensive pizza for dinner. 

On Friday morning, we packed up and headed out of the resort.  We spent the day south of Yosemite Valley, exploring Glacier Point in the park.  We had a beautiful view of Half Dome from there, and we could just see Yosemite Falls from there as well. 

We then headed out through the southern end of Yosemite, seeing Mariposa Grove on the way out.  I really love the giant trees.  The kids are standing next to the "Grizzly Giant" in the picture on the right. 

I wish we had more time in the park - we barely scratched the surface, but enjoyed what we saw.  It was pretty warm the week we were there, but I think it was less crowded since it was the week before school started.  Many of the people there were foreigners - we heard several people speaking different languages. 

We still had a bit of a drive to get home on Friday, picking up Kai on the way.  These pictures were actually before we boarded her, on the way to Yosemite - she was so excited to be on the trip with us.  Little did she know we were dropping her off along the way. She did well with the other dogs at her "pet hotel".