We got up early in order to get to Yosemite and have enough time to see most of the sights. It took a little longer to get ready because Eric wasn’t feeling well and was slow going. We finally got on track to Yosemite, but soon I was in the driver’s seat and Eric was struggling with head congestion and watery eyes.
We were held up for about an hour due to construction on the road into the park. We paid our admission and were excited to explore, then we had to sit in a car and wait for an hour… it sucked. Eric took this time to practice his accordion and I worked on my hair, which is slowly turning into dread locks.
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| I practiced my ukulele to! I find unusual instruments therapeutic |
Finally we got through the construction, passed through the tunnel and were greeted with a magnificent view of Half Dome, El Capitan, a small waterfall and various other rock formations. The information called this "tunnel view" because it is the first thing you see when you come out of the tunnel and you simply must stop for pictures. So we did. Then we headed towards the valley.
We saw Bridal Veil falls, upper and lower Yosemite falls, Half Dome, El Capitan and Cathedral rock. All were pretty flippin sweet! We were going to take a rather strenuous hike up to Vernal Falls called The Mist Trail, but to my disappointment, Eric wasn’t feeling up to much more than a half an hour hike. I wish we had had the time to hike more because it seems like half the park is only accessible by foot, but we only had a day and it had already been cut short by the construction.
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| He couldn't do this if it was a whole dome |
We did get a good look at the historic Awahanee Hotel. It was very pretty on the inside. There were plenty of rought iron decorations and Indian designs on the walls and windows. Even the china had Indian art on it. We went up a flight of stairs and were offered tea and cookies, which we graciously accepted. Then we explored the remaining 5 floors. Many had a little tidbit of history posted on the wall for all to read. We ran into another couple that seemed to be simply walking around much like us and we joined with them for a bit (Eric was also intrigued by how the young man dressed).
Then we headed toward the exit. It was only 4:30, but the sun goes down at about 5:30 and we didn’t want to get stuck in the park after dark trying to navigate the perilous curves in the road. We didn’t get far before we were stuck behind a line painting truck. So much for getting out before sunset, by the time we got to pass the truck it was dusk and we were far from out of the park.
I turned the wheel back over to Eric because I have horrible night vision and we began the slow trek back to our friends’ place. The construction we had driven through earlier seemed to be finished, but the lines and reflectors had yet to be replaced. This made for a difficult and stressful drive. We were concentrating so much on the curves that we failed to see a family of deer in the road until it was too late! Eric slammed on the brakes, but couldn’t swerve very much or else we would plummet to our death off a 1000 plus foot drop off. We clipped the rear end of the fawn with the driver’s side front bumper. At the next pull off, we checked the car over. There didn’t seem to be any damage or blood. We didn’t know if the fawn survived, but hey, wolves gotta eat too right?
We made it back to Melissa and Cameron’s about an hour later and they had dinner ready. We both cracked a beer as soon as we got inside to take the edge off from the drive. We finished off the evening with lasagna, beer and a movie called Cry the Beloved Country.
- Virginia
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