Yosemite National Park
Just the title conjures up feelings of magnificence to me. Yosemite is just MORE of everything that I grew up with in the Rockies. The big rocks are bigger. The big trees are bigger. You get the drift.Since we arrived at our hotel in the dark, I was very excited to peek outside as soon as I could wipe the crusties from my eyes that morning. Yep...the view was MORE than I expected. Being springtime, the new flowers were bursting out all over the place. I'm use to a placid green in the hills around our house.
Sadly, we were lacking in the Eagerness Department to scale any mountains or hike historic trails. Yep....we were doing the Car Tour. I am embarrassed to admit that we drove all this way to sit on our tushies; but there you have it. We took advantage of the Yosemite Visitors Center. You get more bang for your buck that way. We figured it was a Reader's Digest version of the first national park (you think it is Yellowstone? Wikipedia begs to differ. And as we all know, Wikipedia is the gospel truth).Photographic evidence that our pilot was out of the car in Yosemite.
North America's tallest waterfall.
Yosemite Falls.
Gift shops are also nice when doing the Car Tour. You buy souvenirs to prove you got out of the car. Please note the cute fleece jacket Brielle is modeling from Monterey Bay. She wore the souvenir to school her first day back and lost it 3 hours later. Well....LOST is a strong word.....I dragged her to the Lost & Found after school and it never showed up. Some child who never stepped a foot in Monterey is now wearing ...............rant............rant.........
North America's tallest waterfall.
Yosemite Falls.
Finally out of our cozy car, we avoided the foreign-speaking tourists. We hoped they couldn't smell the laziness emanating from us. These adventurous people had obviously read and studied and planned and traveled across the world to stand next to where we were standing. The Green family was just a disgrace, and we knew when to bow out. We also knew when to snap photos. We aren't any good at photo snapping, but we do our best.Monica and Amanda praying that they don't
have to look at the Big Tree Rings 15 feet away....>
but this random man thinks they are as fascinating as I do!! This tree is almost 2,000 years old. Wow dee dow..When you give a bored child in the back seat a bundle of Stickerpalooza stickers you are bound to get something like this...
A short video of a Wiwok Village. There was an engaging tour going on nearby....but our family preferred reading the tiny plaques next to the structures...
And finally, here we rested from a restful day. Monica loves taking pictures of sunrises and sunsets. She has a good eye for it, really. Downtown Visalia (a little drive from Sequoia National Park) was a bit of a challenge when the sunset called to Monica.
She titled this, "Ghetto Sunset".
What you don't see is the brewery/pub next to the fabric store. I'm guessing that Visalia's louder, drunken nightlife enjoy this pub a lot.
5 comments:
Silly girls, I mean the teenagers of course. Are they "all done" with the trip before the trip even ends? Whats funny is that years from now they will tell you how they loved the trip and that they have the best family in the world.
Can you even believe the kids at elementary schools? Hello? I bet there is only one light blue Monterey jacket in size 10-12 in NP!!!! Have fun wearing that cute jacket little miss stealer! rant rant rant.....Like nobody is going to see you wearing it...I will stop now.
Fun trip log today!
Just to remind you... we have HUGE mountains, and medium sized waterfalls and nice fishing creeks(sorry Monica and Amanda)just minutes from my house. Come see.
what beautiful pictures...love the one of you in the post below...the trip looks fantastic...yosemite is so pretty...
I'm behind in blog reading, but now caught up on your wonderful adventurous spring break!! I bet you drove right by my house!! We can see part of the 101 from our home. Next time call and we can do lunch at the place with best clam chowder!!
Your trip sounds wonderful and you went to many of my favorite places. We loved our Jelly Belly tour and Yosemite is one of my absolute favorite places. I love it in the Spring with the flowers and trees blooming!! So glad you had a good time. I'm sure all your girls will look fondly on this in years to come.
The national park alone is awe-inspiring. Flowers in the spring must be just breath-taking. Sorry about the jacket...same story with a very fun BYU sweatshirt we bought for Teresa. You know when you go into the bookstore as an alumni and even though everything is WAY overpriced (like you KNEW it was when you were a student there, its just that now you only go to the bookstore once every 15 or 20 years so you can rationalize...). So her overpriced comfy sweatshirt is also on some very poor, underprivileged child (from Newbury Park) who doesn't own another jacket in this world. Does your heart good. :)
I am living vicariously through you! This park and the ability to post similiar pictures is on my list of things to do before I die. It is all so beautiful!
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