Monday's Memories--Yosemite

 It used to be a lot easier to get Yosemite reservations.  Mom and I took the kids several times when they were younger.  I'm not positive about the years, I'm kinds going by how old the kids look and Amy's bangs

1981--Amy looks about 3?

1982--I'm pretty sure about this date

1983--

1985--again, pretty sure

One of my strongest memories was mom staying back at the camp site while we would explore.  She would sit in her lounge and read a book, or maybe take a nap.  This year for my birthday, I asked Amy for one of those lounges so I could do the same!!  I figure mom was in her early 60's during this trip.  I'm 75!  I think I'm doing pretty good!!!

One of the things I loved best was dish duty.  Now, we use paper plates!  I can't believe we don't have a picture of our tent. I know I did an entire blog entry on it, so go find it if you are interested.  My absolute favorite thing about camping was night time.  When it got dark, we'd go inside the tent with our lantern, put it on our old metal suitcase, and play games.  When we got tired, we say goodnight...goodnight Erin...good night Jim Bob...good night John Boy (all of the Walton's names) and then we'd turn out the lantern and watch the little mantle go blup, blup, and finally go out.   

2004--positive about this date!  Carson was 2 months old.

Happy 75 Birthday to Me!!

 I don't know if I'm ever going to top my birthday this year!  

It started with a hike.  The trail head marker said it was only .8 miles to the bridge.  That was my goal, just to the bridge.  I walk 3 miles a day, so this should be a peace of cake, right?  Wrong!!  I walk at sea level, and the path is flat.  This was not either.  There was an elevation gain of almost 500 feet in those .8 miles! I started out OK, but by the end, I was having to stop like every 20 feet to catch my breath.  It's a good thing I had my watch on.  I'd look at it and say I'm almost half way...almost there...only one tenth more.  Without that feedback, I think I might have given up.

I will say, I was so proud of myself.  On my 75th birthday, I did a hard thing.

I turned around and headed back to camp while Amy and the two kids kept on going.  After a cooldown I headed out on the bus for a tour of the valley and a stop at Starbucks for my birthday strawberries and cream frappuccino.

And my birthday cake was fabulous...a boysenberry dumpcake.  Delicious.  Happy birthday to me.

Yosemite

 Amy's family has been trying to get camping sites in Yosemite for several years, but they always sold out within a minute of when the reservation site opened.  Somehow, the reservation gods were with us, and we lucked out.  Yosemite, here we come!!

Amy summed up out trip perfectly, so I am just going to copy her Instagram post!!

Thursday--It was so fun to go camping again…it’s been too long. It was absolutely gorgeous…and HOT!! Thursday we drive into the park through Glacier Point and took in some beautiful views. Wyatt decided to hike down 4 miles to our campground in the valley (I think so he didn’t have to set up camp). We drove through tunnel view and on to our campsite in Upper Pines. By the time we were done setting up camp we were dying of heat so we went and played in the river to cool off. 

Friday--Todd and Wyatt got permits to hike half dome, so we made that our hiking day. We all left pretty early to avoid the heat and set off for the Mist trail. Grandma made it to the Vernal Falls footbridge, Emma, Owen and I made it to Nevada Falls, Todd made it to Little Yosemite Valley and Wyatt made it to Half Dome!! The hike was soooo hard and had about a billion stairs. I hiked a total of 6 hours, 8 miles, and 4,000 feet of elevation gain. Wyatt said half dome was mid and the rest of the trip would yell out, “screw you half dome” whenever he saw it. After our epic hike we went to Yosemite Lodge to celebrate Grandma’s birthday with her free Starbuck’s drink. By then we were scorching hot so we went to play in the river and ended the night with boysenberry dump cake for Grandma’s birthday (which was the bomb)!

Saturday we started the day with birthday pancakes and spent the day riding the air conditioned tram to see the sights…mostly because we were so sore. Did a short hike to Yosemite Falls, watched a movie in the Visitor Center, and bought lots of ice cream and cold drinks. Then we spend the rest of the day floating the river. Our cheap inner tubes did pretty well, even when Todd got stuck on a log and flipped over. Wyatt made Mountain Man Breakfast in the Dutch oven for dinner and it was delicious.

Sunday morning we packed up (after eating camping doughnuts) and headed to do one last hike to Bridal Veil Falls. We finished off our trip at the Mariposa Grove seeing some giant Sequoia trees. All in all it was a great, albeit hot trip. . And the best part was the fun family time.

Some of my last memories...

While we were driving into the valley, Amy asked me to get a shot of the tunnel...this is what I took!

When we stopped right after the tunnel, I showed her my shot.  Evidently, that was not what she was thinking of.  I guess there is an iconic shot coming out of the tunnel and the valley opening up before you.  I walked back into the tunnel to get the right shot!!

I was so hot (over 100 in the valley floor, it actually melted the insoles of Todd's shoes!

I think the best part of camping is the food...

On our "azy" day, we got off the bus at the lodge and looked around.  The fireplace is huge!!

While they were rafting down the river, I stayed around camp and when it got too hot, I went down to the river to read.  Heaven!