Yosemite!

The kids’ new beds were delivered last week so blogging got side-tracked by other projects.  Both the big kids’ room (we moved Naomi in with Logan) and the baby’s room are pretty well set up now so we’ll see how much more progress I can make here in the next six or so weeks!  Any bets how far I’ll get before Pumpkin appears? 

In the meantime, back in September . . .

Mom, we saw this along the road between Sequoia and Yosemite, and I had to grab the camera quick to snap it for you!

                      
That first picture is still a good distance from the park, but the peek-a-boo view is of Half Dome.  The second shot is inside the park, looking up at El Capitan (if I remember correctly).  The drive between Sequoia and Yosemite was rather lengthy, so we only got a few glimpses like this before we headed to our cabin.

A significant portion of the drive from Yosemite’s entrance to the cabin looked like this.  Remember, this was in September—that’s not a winter scene.  Those trees and that ground were burned!  Most of what we saw were the remnants of controlled burns to create a fire-proof buffer and the wildfires were mostly contained when we were there, but they were still burning not too far from the park.

Our cabin was in the Evergreen Lodge and that place was wonderful!  (Says the woman who DEFINITELY prefers this over tent camping.)  We got a one-bedroom cabin and we tucked the kids into the bedroom at night so that we would be able to move around the rest of the cabin after they were asleep.  It was great: the cabin was clean and nice, even stocked with a few books and games, the food was good, and the location was perfect.

           
They even had a few amenities: hammocks, a playground . . .

        
free marshmallow roasting/s’mores and a small rec center.  Seriously, I loved this place.

    
The next morning, headed back into the main part of the park: that’s not fog, that’s smoke.  The road, meanwhile, had some hills and turns which the kids decided were worthy of roller coaster-type shrieks and laughter.

             
A few more shots taken from the road on the way in. 

Et voila!  Welcome to Yosemite Valley, a relatively small part of the overall park, but when someone is speaking of Yosemite, this is generally what they have in mind.
       

We took our time driving through the Valley, stopping at several points to enjoy the views and sights.

And also stopping to collect acorns, admire leaves and generally meander and explore.

This is an entirely random place to break up the post but it’s also as good as any other.  The rest of Yosemite Valley will have to wait for another day.  G’night all!