I've never been to Yosemite in the warm weather before. After I learned ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
laurie31 and her family would be vacationing there around this time, I thought why not joining them for a bit of fun.
I managed to get two nights stay there at the last minute. First, on Sunday, which happened to be Father's Day, I was lucky enough to get a cabin in Curry Village. The next night, I got a room at Wawona Hotel instead. This was backward fromlaurie31 's itinerary. But it couldn't be helped.
Our plan was to hopefully meet up in the afternoon on Sunday for a look around Mariposa Grove. If not, we would hook up early Monday morning for a hike to Sentinel Dome.
Things didn't exactly go according to our plan, it turned out. Despite that, everything worked out beautifully in the end.
laurie31 and her family would be vacationing there around this time, I thought why not joining them for a bit of fun.I managed to get two nights stay there at the last minute. First, on Sunday, which happened to be Father's Day, I was lucky enough to get a cabin in Curry Village. The next night, I got a room at Wawona Hotel instead. This was backward from
laurie31 's itinerary. But it couldn't be helped.Our plan was to hopefully meet up in the afternoon on Sunday for a look around Mariposa Grove. If not, we would hook up early Monday morning for a hike to Sentinel Dome.
Things didn't exactly go according to our plan, it turned out. Despite that, everything worked out beautifully in the end.
We left a bit later than planned on Sunday. As we were heading out, we noticed two messages left on our answering machine and voicemail. They were both from our friend whom hubby and son planned to stay with when they go to China for the Olympic this summer. It sounded very urgent. Unfortunately, it was too early to call him back right away since it was middle of the night over there. We decided to hold our call until later.
Due to our late start, we missed the chance to meetlaurie31 and her family on Sunday. It was almost 6:00 in the evening when We finally arrived at Yosemite Valley.
(Photo on the left: El Capitan)
In front of the towering El Capitan, we got out of our car.
Incredulously, we found out there was a decent cell phone signal in the valley. While my son and I took in the magnificent view of El Capitan and Bridalveil waterfall, hubby called our friend.
Boy, were we in for a surprise! The reason for our friend's urgent calls turned out extremely exciting: he was getting an Olympic Opening Ceremony ticket for our son! But the catch was we had to email a digital scan of the kid's passport, plus an additional passport picture to him right away (a stringent requirement for every ticket sell in order to prevent ticket scalping).
But, but, but... We were hundreds miles away from home! After we exhausted other means to get the blasted documents, hubby suggested we should head back home immediately. This could be a once in a lifetime experience for the kid, how could we let it pass?! Even if we would waste a whole night's hotel fee, not to mention the money for the extra gasoline, it was worth it.
My biggest concern was lettinglaurie31 know our change of plan. Even though my cell phone worked in the valley, hers didn't seem to. So I called the hotel she was staying at that night, and left a message with the guy at the front desk. He assured me he would hand deliver the note to her room (they didn't have phones in their guest rooms).
Luckily, Curry Village agreed to cancel our reservation and gave us a full refund. After a nice Father's Day dinner at Ahwahnee Hotel for a bit of sustainment, we began our arduous back-and-forth journeys. We didn't get home until around 3:00 in the morning. By 6:00 o'clock, we finished what we needed to do, and headed back to Yosemite one more time!
When we reached Yosemite before noon, we went straight to the hotellaurie31 and her family stayed at the night before. As expected, they had already checked out. But she left me a note suggesting we could meet up at the start of the Sentinel Dome hike around 9:00 am. Uhm, that obviously couldn't happen at this point. However, I found out she was planning on checking into their next hotel after 4:00 pm. At least I could try to meet her there instead.
With a plan of action in hand, we went on to start our own hike. Since we could no longer catch up with our friends at Sentinel Dome, I decided to hike to Taft Point instead (the two hikes start at the same point and go in opposite directions). The pictures I saw of the place were nothing short of awe inspiring.
The hike was relatively easy, 1.1 mile each way. Perfect since we have a kid in the party. The view awaited us when we got there was gorgeous indeed.
I have to say I was grateful my son was not a daring kinda kid. Although there was a small railing at Taft Point, many nearby cliffs and fissures don't have any barrier. People can get as close to the edge as they dare. In fact, at one time, I freaked out hubby by sitting at the edge of a cliff with my feet dangling in the air.
It's actually not as scary as it looks or sounds. I find *sitting* at the edge a lot safer and steadier than *standing* near it!
A funny thing happened after I did my "crazy" stunt. As we were taking a closer look at an interesting fissure in the rock, I looked up, and there werelaurie31 and her family walking toward us! Turned out they had a later-than-expected start as well. After they got to Sentinel Dome, they took the connecting trail, and hiked toward Taft Point. I couldn't believe how well things worked out.
Together, we spent quite some time at Taft Point, admiring the views, and taking pictures.
Hearing how wonderful Sentinel Dome is, hubby wanted to take a look for himself. He decided he would take the connecting trail and run ("pull a Jamie" aslaurie31 called it) to Sentinel Dome while the rest of us hike back to the base (roughly 3 times the distance). Heh, turned out he was only less than 10 minutes behind us in getting back!
Here's a picture of the view atop Sentinel Dome hubby took:
After the Taft Point/Sentinel Dome hike, we headed toward Yosemite Valley once again. The kids wanted to swim in the swimming pool atlaurie31's hotel. We thought we'd let them play in the pool while the two of us watch the recorded BSG mid-season finale I brought with me (our hubbies had their own separate plans).
But we collectively made an impromptu detour after we crossed Wawona tunnel on the way to the valley. The view greeted us was breathtaking! From one vista point, there's El Capitan on the left, Half Dome in the center, and Bridalveil on the right.
The picture I took doesn't do justice to the place. The Half Dome was only barely visible in the late afternoon sun. Clearly, Ansel Adam I'm not! Speaking of the master, I later found out he had taken photograph(s) from the same vantage point.
After seeing how close we were to the Bridalveil waterfall, we decided to hike over there for a closer look. It was less than a quarter of a mile walk from where we could park our cars. Piece of cake. I had always wondered why this particular fall is called Bridalveil. Aren't all waterfalls long, flow-y, and white? The answer was right there in plain view as I got closer.
The picture on the left is how the waterfall normally appears. But when wind breezes through it, it opens up like a gossamer veil (picture on the right).
At the foot of the waterfall, I found out the rocks were treacherously slippery, even when they were not wet. I learned an interesting fact fromlaurie31 here: of all the accidental death happened in Yosemite, the most common ones are not from rock climbings or dangerous hikes, they are from drowning in the icy cold river after slipping off the slippery rocks!
The day rounded off beautifully with me watching "Revelations" withlaurie31 in her hotel room. She hadn't seen it at this point, and me not enough times. It was a perfect episode to watch together for us Lee-fans! Hubby got what he wanted too. He went to the bar at the hotel and watched Tiger Woods miraculously win another US Open. How many major wins does he have now? Fourteen? I lost count. One imperfection of the day was the kids missed their chance to play in the pool due to our sojourn at the waterfall. But they had a big day anyway. Plus the two younger ones were perfectly eager to watch BSG with their mommies! :b
The next day, hubby and I split up doing different activities. He went on to hike Half Dome by himself. I was anxious for him to do the difficult trail alone. But he assured me there should be plenty of other hikers along the way since it's a very popular trail. Besides, I didn't have the heart to hold him back when he was all psyched to do it.
The pictures he brought back from his hike were wonderful. Of course he couldn't take picture while climbing the last segment where he had to pull himself up with the aid of cables, like this. But he painstakingly documented other stages along the way.
Here's a picture while ascending the Half Dome:
And this one is at the top of the Half Dome:
These two were taken during the descend. It's at the foot of the Vernal fall. On the right is the "intrepid" hiker himself. ;)
While descending, he took the ever popular Mist Trail, where the grounds were slippery from the mist of the waterfalls.
The cooling mist was a welcoming relief after a long and taxing hike, according to him. The picture however, was like a scene straight out of a Chinese Wuxia novel to me!
Compared to hubby's, my day wasn't shabby either. Both my son and I had a great time rafting withlaurie31 and her family down the river in Yosemite Valley. The vistas from the river afforded us a unique perspective of the surrounding area.
Here are two pictures of the Yosemite Falllaurie31 took from the raft:
And this one is the Half Dome, also taken by her on the raft. I pondered how close to the top hubby was when she took the picture. Coincidentally, the time stamp on the picture showed it was indeed around the same time he reached the top!
While going down the river, we made a couple of stops on the "beaches". Even though the river was icy cold from the freshly melted snow, the kids loved wadding in the shallow water. At one point my son even floated on his back in the water after witnessinglaurie31's little one did the same thing. Later, I dared him to put his face in the water. I didn't think he would do it, but he surprised me and stuck his head under! Eeek, it must've felt like smash one's face in the snow (picture on the right). But he was all happy and proud after he did it.
Seeing what a wonderful time the kids were having in the water,laurie31 and I finally braved the cold ourselves too. Here's a picture of all the "girls" in the middle of the river:
After posing for that last picture, it was enough for me. The water was so cold, I felt like thousands of needles were poking at my legs!
In short words, I loved Yosemite Valley in the summer. It was indeed very different from winter time when everything was covered by snow. But, at that moment, little did I know my best experience there was yet to come. For that, I don't even have pictures to show (see the next journal entry).
Due to our late start, we missed the chance to meet
laurie31 and her family on Sunday. It was almost 6:00 in the evening when We finally arrived at Yosemite Valley.In front of the towering El Capitan, we got out of our car.
Incredulously, we found out there was a decent cell phone signal in the valley. While my son and I took in the magnificent view of El Capitan and Bridalveil waterfall, hubby called our friend.
Boy, were we in for a surprise! The reason for our friend's urgent calls turned out extremely exciting: he was getting an Olympic Opening Ceremony ticket for our son! But the catch was we had to email a digital scan of the kid's passport, plus an additional passport picture to him right away (a stringent requirement for every ticket sell in order to prevent ticket scalping).
But, but, but... We were hundreds miles away from home! After we exhausted other means to get the blasted documents, hubby suggested we should head back home immediately. This could be a once in a lifetime experience for the kid, how could we let it pass?! Even if we would waste a whole night's hotel fee, not to mention the money for the extra gasoline, it was worth it.
My biggest concern was letting
laurie31 know our change of plan. Even though my cell phone worked in the valley, hers didn't seem to. So I called the hotel she was staying at that night, and left a message with the guy at the front desk. He assured me he would hand deliver the note to her room (they didn't have phones in their guest rooms).Luckily, Curry Village agreed to cancel our reservation and gave us a full refund. After a nice Father's Day dinner at Ahwahnee Hotel for a bit of sustainment, we began our arduous back-and-forth journeys. We didn't get home until around 3:00 in the morning. By 6:00 o'clock, we finished what we needed to do, and headed back to Yosemite one more time!
When we reached Yosemite before noon, we went straight to the hotel
laurie31 and her family stayed at the night before. As expected, they had already checked out. But she left me a note suggesting we could meet up at the start of the Sentinel Dome hike around 9:00 am. Uhm, that obviously couldn't happen at this point. However, I found out she was planning on checking into their next hotel after 4:00 pm. At least I could try to meet her there instead.With a plan of action in hand, we went on to start our own hike. Since we could no longer catch up with our friends at Sentinel Dome, I decided to hike to Taft Point instead (the two hikes start at the same point and go in opposite directions). The pictures I saw of the place were nothing short of awe inspiring.
The hike was relatively easy, 1.1 mile each way. Perfect since we have a kid in the party. The view awaited us when we got there was gorgeous indeed.
I have to say I was grateful my son was not a daring kinda kid. Although there was a small railing at Taft Point, many nearby cliffs and fissures don't have any barrier. People can get as close to the edge as they dare. In fact, at one time, I freaked out hubby by sitting at the edge of a cliff with my feet dangling in the air.
It's actually not as scary as it looks or sounds. I find *sitting* at the edge a lot safer and steadier than *standing* near it!
A funny thing happened after I did my "crazy" stunt. As we were taking a closer look at an interesting fissure in the rock, I looked up, and there were
laurie31 and her family walking toward us! Turned out they had a later-than-expected start as well. After they got to Sentinel Dome, they took the connecting trail, and hiked toward Taft Point. I couldn't believe how well things worked out.Together, we spent quite some time at Taft Point, admiring the views, and taking pictures.
Hearing how wonderful Sentinel Dome is, hubby wanted to take a look for himself. He decided he would take the connecting trail and run ("pull a Jamie" as
laurie31 called it) to Sentinel Dome while the rest of us hike back to the base (roughly 3 times the distance). Heh, turned out he was only less than 10 minutes behind us in getting back!Here's a picture of the view atop Sentinel Dome hubby took:
After the Taft Point/Sentinel Dome hike, we headed toward Yosemite Valley once again. The kids wanted to swim in the swimming pool at
laurie31's hotel. We thought we'd let them play in the pool while the two of us watch the recorded BSG mid-season finale I brought with me (our hubbies had their own separate plans).But we collectively made an impromptu detour after we crossed Wawona tunnel on the way to the valley. The view greeted us was breathtaking! From one vista point, there's El Capitan on the left, Half Dome in the center, and Bridalveil on the right.
The picture I took doesn't do justice to the place. The Half Dome was only barely visible in the late afternoon sun. Clearly, Ansel Adam I'm not! Speaking of the master, I later found out he had taken photograph(s) from the same vantage point.
After seeing how close we were to the Bridalveil waterfall, we decided to hike over there for a closer look. It was less than a quarter of a mile walk from where we could park our cars. Piece of cake. I had always wondered why this particular fall is called Bridalveil. Aren't all waterfalls long, flow-y, and white? The answer was right there in plain view as I got closer.
The picture on the left is how the waterfall normally appears. But when wind breezes through it, it opens up like a gossamer veil (picture on the right).
At the foot of the waterfall, I found out the rocks were treacherously slippery, even when they were not wet. I learned an interesting fact from
laurie31 here: of all the accidental death happened in Yosemite, the most common ones are not from rock climbings or dangerous hikes, they are from drowning in the icy cold river after slipping off the slippery rocks!The day rounded off beautifully with me watching "Revelations" with
laurie31 in her hotel room. She hadn't seen it at this point, and me not enough times. It was a perfect episode to watch together for us Lee-fans! Hubby got what he wanted too. He went to the bar at the hotel and watched Tiger Woods miraculously win another US Open. How many major wins does he have now? Fourteen? I lost count. One imperfection of the day was the kids missed their chance to play in the pool due to our sojourn at the waterfall. But they had a big day anyway. Plus the two younger ones were perfectly eager to watch BSG with their mommies! :bThe next day, hubby and I split up doing different activities. He went on to hike Half Dome by himself. I was anxious for him to do the difficult trail alone. But he assured me there should be plenty of other hikers along the way since it's a very popular trail. Besides, I didn't have the heart to hold him back when he was all psyched to do it.
The pictures he brought back from his hike were wonderful. Of course he couldn't take picture while climbing the last segment where he had to pull himself up with the aid of cables, like this. But he painstakingly documented other stages along the way.
Here's a picture while ascending the Half Dome:
And this one is at the top of the Half Dome:
These two were taken during the descend. It's at the foot of the Vernal fall. On the right is the "intrepid" hiker himself. ;)
While descending, he took the ever popular Mist Trail, where the grounds were slippery from the mist of the waterfalls.
The cooling mist was a welcoming relief after a long and taxing hike, according to him. The picture however, was like a scene straight out of a Chinese Wuxia novel to me!
Compared to hubby's, my day wasn't shabby either. Both my son and I had a great time rafting with
laurie31 and her family down the river in Yosemite Valley. The vistas from the river afforded us a unique perspective of the surrounding area.Here are two pictures of the Yosemite Fall
laurie31 took from the raft: And this one is the Half Dome, also taken by her on the raft. I pondered how close to the top hubby was when she took the picture. Coincidentally, the time stamp on the picture showed it was indeed around the same time he reached the top!
While going down the river, we made a couple of stops on the "beaches". Even though the river was icy cold from the freshly melted snow, the kids loved wadding in the shallow water. At one point my son even floated on his back in the water after witnessing
laurie31's little one did the same thing. Later, I dared him to put his face in the water. I didn't think he would do it, but he surprised me and stuck his head under! Eeek, it must've felt like smash one's face in the snow (picture on the right). But he was all happy and proud after he did it. Seeing what a wonderful time the kids were having in the water,
laurie31 and I finally braved the cold ourselves too. Here's a picture of all the "girls" in the middle of the river:After posing for that last picture, it was enough for me. The water was so cold, I felt like thousands of needles were poking at my legs!
In short words, I loved Yosemite Valley in the summer. It was indeed very different from winter time when everything was covered by snow. But, at that moment, little did I know my best experience there was yet to come. For that, I don't even have pictures to show (see the next journal entry).
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
So, you're not going to China with your husband and son? Or did I read that wrong?
From:
no subject
But I just found out my friend
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
I'm checking the airline tickets to Beijing too. The cheapest I can get right now is just under $1,300. Over twice as much as I paid to go to Shanghai two years ago. Urgh...
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
SAG strike? Oh no! Not again.
Have you heard any more info on the webisodes Jamie supposed to direct? Is it only going to be one or a series of them? Would any of the main characters make an appearance? My guess is they would mostly consist new or minor characters. But since Jamie is directing, maybe Lee would show up here and there?
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
I wonder when they'll start filming those. Probably right after the series wraps. I can't imagine they'd strike the set, and then rebuilt it for these webisodes.
I don't hold my breath hoping for the main characters (except Lee or Baltar maybe) making an appearance, not with their contracts ended whatnot.
From:
no subject
How awesome that you and Laurie "run into each other" by accident! I'm glad you two had such a fantastic time together :o)
And wohoo for your son!!! He's going to have so much fun in China!!! :o)
From:
no subject
When you decide to go next time, if I can't take you there, I'll join you there. ;)
I had a great time with Laurie. She told me about the list of things she planned to do when you go visit her. You are going to have a fabulous time!
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
But you live in Europe! A place I could never get enough of. I'd be happy to visit any place in Europe.
That icon of yours, are those the gargoyles at Notre Dame? Ahhh, I'd love to go to Paris again!
From:
no subject
True. :) A friend and I are planning on making our way through the most beautiful cities (next year, Rome. The year after that, Spain (probably Grenade))...
That icon of yours, are those the gargoyles at Notre Dame?
Yup, that's them. Probably my favourite thing in Paris. :D
From:
no subject
Your plan for next year (and the year after) sounds a lot of fun. I wish I'm that young again, so that I can make my way across Europe. Maybe after the kiddie grows up and I'm retired... ;)
I love climbing all those stairs up at Notre Dame to see the gargoyles. Kinda makes me feel like Quasimodo. But then again, I love everything about Paris. I wish I could live there for at least a month!
From: (Anonymous)
no subject
It's so awesome that Andy will get to see the opening ceremonies! I got to go to a couple of Olympic softball games when they were here (including the gold medal game--I'll never forget them playing the National Anthem), and my parents even got to go to some of the best of the track and field! Your guys will have so much fun--something they will never forget!
From: (Anonymous)
no subject
mick
From:
no subject
I had such a great time with Laurie and her family. I'm really looking forward to seeing her again. That'll be Dragon Con, and I'll be seeing you there too! *Dance*
Whoa! It's so cool you got to see Olympics yourself, a gold medal game to boot! Sounds like US won the game no less. As to myself, I haven't bought the airplane ticket yet. They were so expensive, and I'm not a big sports fan. Silly me, I opted not to go when hubby and Andy purchased their tickets. But then, I found out