Half Dome, Yosemite National Park

Yosemite is so beautiful, and yet it’s like the Grand Canyon: there’s no way for pictures to do it justice. This is a place you really should go and see yourself! We are attempting, with these photos, to show you why people love Yosemite National Park!

The Homestead Bed and Breakfast Cottages

I also want to tell you about an immaculate place to stay that we found. Now, if you are trying to see Yosemite without spending any money, I have good news for you. You can camp on the park for nothing more than your park admission fee.

I don’t camp. Nope. I do not. The last time I went camping was in 2003. Alan was in Iraq. I had not seen my friend Katie in a while, and she invited me to go camping at this big Christian concert event called One Day, in Sherman, Texas. It was like 100 degrees. We slept in tents. I didn’t know any of the songs the bands were singing. We washed our teeth using water bottles, and we used port-o-potties.

I do not use port-o-potties. Yes, I know I’m sounding like a diva, so you might as well know that I have decided that I’m okay with that. I’m an adult. If I don’t want to sleep on the ground, I don’t have to. 🙂

That camping experience truly made me empathize with Alan. I couldn’t get him out of my head that day. He was in 130 degree IRAQ, wearing “full battle rattle”, and there I was wilting in 100 degree Texas, in summer clothing. I decided that while I still felt desperately sorry for my husband, there was no reason I should subject myself to that heat any longer, so I hugged all of my dear Alabama friends, got back in my car, and drove home. They stayed there and camped another night! Now this may make me sound like a wimp, but I think it’s just pure good sense. 😉

Just so you know, I don’t think any of you will melt at Yosemite Camp grounds. With that altitude, I doubt it gets too hot. I looked it up. It gets as high as 89 degrees in the summer, but the nights still get as low as 32, so take your warm blankets and shorts, if you’re camping!!

For non-campers like Me: Try The Homestead Bed and Breakfast Cottages  This place is beautiful and clean, it’s just 10 minutes from Oakhurst, and it has Wifi! You get the personal touch of a bed and breakfast, with the privacy of a cabin. This was so much more peaceful than a hotel stay! I just cannot tell you!

The Homestead Bed and Breakfast

We stayed at the Country Cabin.

We didn’t hit the road until lunch time on day 2 of our trip. (For Day One details, click here)

We stopped off in Oakhurst and picked up more of those incredible BBQ sandwiches from Alice’s Cookhouse. As I said before, coleslaw INSIDE the sandwich–who knew!

We actually ended up doing more driving than hiking in Yosemite because we wanted to cover a lot of ground in only one day. This worked out just fine, but I was disappointed that I didn’t get more exercise.

First stop: Giant Sequoia trees

Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias

This fallen tree is so old, there are photos of the Buffalo Soldiers posing on this fallen tree, on their horses!

There is a loop you can hike and see 10 or so of these giant trees, and the loop is only around a mile. This would have been more exciting if we had not already been to Henry Cowell State Park, where they have Redwoods, in Santa Cruz. We are such spoiled tourists! But here are a couple of impressive new things we got to see:

Giant Sequoia

Forest Fires: Surprisingly important to the life cycle of the forest!

The forest fires actually help to spread new sequoias. For many years, well intending people stunted the spread of these trees by putting OUT fires. Isn’t that funny!? As it turns out, the fire heats up the cones, which releases the seeds inside of them.

tiny pinecones of the Giant Sequoias

“The Grizzly Bear” tree

Are you curious as to the difference between a Giant Sequoia and a Giant Redwood?

Well, I certainly was, so I looked it up for you and made you a little chart:

              Giant Redwoods                                    Giant Sequoias

• live up to 2,000 years                          live up to 3,000 years
• branches: up to 5ft in diameter           branches: up to 8 feet in diameter
• Bark: up to 12in. thick                          Bark: up to 3 feet thick
• Can reproduce by seed or sprout        Reproduce only by seed
• Grow taller than Giant Sequoias          Typically shorter than Redwoods
• grow in moist, coastal Nor. Cal.             live at higher altitudes, require periodic dry heat: Nor. Cal.

Driving up to Glacier Point, which is at over 7,000 feet above sea level, there was still snow on the ground!

snow, still on the ground, in mid-May

Glacier Point is a must-see. These views!!!

the half-dome of Yosemite

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park, at Glacier Point

Glacier Point, Yosemite National Park

Glacier Point, Yosemite National Park

one of the many waterfalls of Yosemite

Yosemite National Park

April, eating an Ice cream at Glacier Point

Yosemite

But let me warn you about the bathrooms…..they are a lot like port-o-potties:

I got really good at squatting…ewwww

Just for the record, Alan took that picture. I would never….but apparently I would share it on the internet, so I don’t know what that says about me…

Back to beauty:

Yosemite Falls

Alan and me at the Mariposa Grove

Wow.

feeling on top of the world

Alan and me at Glacier Point

We, in our matching sunglasses, decided that we were the King and Queen of Souvenir t-shirts. Yep. We bought Yosemite shirts too.

Yosemite

Bridalveil Fall

so silly

Yes, we did do some rock climbing, and obviously I was quite proud of myself.

“Are you coming, April?”

Alan, probably wondering if I was coming, or if I was just going to take pictures of myself.

Glacier Point

Tunnel View

These beautiful rapids are near Yosemite Falls.

This morning we slept in again, and then we headed home. Right now we are at the library, working hard again.

Hope you enjoyed the photoblog!

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20)
1{{To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. }} The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handy work.  Psalm 19:1

The post THIS is why people go to Yosemite: Photoblog appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

San Luis Reservoir

Day One: You know we love a road trip.

Today we did something wild and crazy. We left our children with Alan’s parents, and got ourselves out of town! Does Alan have big, important projects due on Monday? Yes. Do I have important things to do Monday? Yes. Do we have children recovering from illness? Yes.

Do we have a wonderful life that we are thankful for and don’t actually NEED to RUN away from? YES! We just needed REST. Alan needed to go to bed at 9, and I need to sleep all night and wake up at 7–like a wild woman! We just need to be together, just the two of us, and remember who we are, outside of our jobs and our stress.

So excited!

Yosemite National Park, here we come!
Sometimes you just HAVE to get away.
First, we had a road trip, just a few hours. Alan drove. I built next year’s school calendar for Pacific Christian Academy. I got all the way through quarter 3, and then the Doritos and soda kicked in and I felt a little like hurling, so I put all the books away and just enjoyed the rest of the ride.
Why do I eat things that I KNOW will make me feel terrible? Bad decisions, repeating mistakes: One of life’s mysteries.

It looks beautiful, but don’t touch it. Now that we live here, we know that that tall, brown grass that covers everything is actually full of thorns. Yow!

The drive was, of course, beautiful. Endless, endless farms and ranches, mountains, valleys, hills, and plains. God just shows off in California.
Only one thing missing. Facilities. I can neither confirm nor deny if anyone peed on the roadside for the very first time. 70/ounces of water/day is a lot; that’s all I’m saying…

Ah, so nice!

And then we saw it: our little piece of paradise: a one bedroom cottage, with a kitchen, a gas fireplace, a gigantic bathtub, and…..WIFI.

So comfortable! You gotta visit this place!

This mirror reminds me of the ones they sell in Mexican border towns. I bet that’s where they got it. Now I wish I had bought one in Mexico myself!

We are so happy. We even took a couple selfie in a mirror, just like the “young people” do. 😉

We found an awesome BBQ joint!

After hours of seeing no sign of civilization, we were pleasantly surprised to hear that we are staying 10 minutes from the town of Oakhurst. By this time, it had been three hours since the Doritos/Coke mistake, so we headed on over to a BBQ joint in town, Alice’s Cookhouse. I love finding pulled pork BBQ in California. This is the food of my people. It just feels like home!

Did you see the wall sign behind Alan in the above photo: “Vegetarian” of Indian origin: meaning “bad hunter”. LOL!  Meanwhile, this place forever changed my ability to enjoy an ordinary BBQ sandwich!

YA’LL!!!

They put put coleslaw in the sandwich, right on top of the pulled pork. I couldn’t get over it. SO DELICIOUS! Now I just need to learn how to make coleslaw…
Tomorrow: we hike Yosemite. That will be the really good pictures! Don’t worry. I will share.

Tonight: Alan passed out at 9pm, and I’m plotting ways to get the whole family to this amazing vacation location!! That’s the thing about vacationing without the children. We needed the rest so badly, but I just keep thinking, “Oh, the boys would love this!!” And they will! Boys, I think this looks an awful lot like “Science Camp.” 😉 Field trip planning is in the works!

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