We had a nice day at Yosemite today.
When I got up today and checked the windows they were a little better as I left fans blowing right at the cracks of the blinds, and the air circulation there helped reduce condensation. It still had quite a bit, but was better than prior days. Let’s see how things work with the dehumidifier, and I may not need the fans, or I’ll need a combination of dehumidifier and fans.
Bia got her work done quick as usual, and had an art project to work on while she waited for her final class of the day. Pretty much all her work is done live and it’s not usual for her to have work for later. Late morning, we were all just waiting for her class to finish so we could leave to go to Yosemite. We were able to leave around 11:30!
Bella was up earlier, on her own. She just got up around 6:30, and grabbed her computer herself and started doing school work. Nice! I got her the few things she needed for the day, and she had very little for today, so she was done super early, like before 10.
I had a call right at 7. I did some work, got some paperwork taken care of, handled some bills that needed attention back home, and made some calls. I guess my Aurora auto payments got screwed up, and even though they were receiving the monthly payments there was a note on the statement that they were going to send my bill to collections. What!?? Hahahah.. I called, and they got it all figured out on their end, all good. Payment plan reset. I am glad Aurora lets us do these payment plans, it’s an interest free plan and you can pay as much as you can afford, so if you have bills at Aurora, give them a call.
We got the boxes we were expecting in the mail today. Bia’s book came in, it’s the 3rd and final book about some adventures in Yellowstone. She’s hooked on that story, and took the book with her today and read a bunch in the car. She even read on our way back at night, using a cell flash light. hahahaha.. We also got a box with some of our stuff that Judy mailed. She added some gifts that were super cool. A trailer tree ornament and some lights, etc. And we got the dehumidifier. I have not been so excited about getting something in a while hahahahaha… but the condensation has been bugging me, so looking forward to testing it out and getting this under control.
Carol got all our food ready for the day and packed it all to go. She used some of the leftovers we had and cleaned out the fridge. Nice.
The girls were all done around 11, so we were out right around 11. It was a bit warmer today, in the mid 30s and in some areas low 40s. There were no signs of chains needed today at Yosemite, so our drive was a bit faster. We drove in and went towards Wawona, as we wanted to see tunnel view and Mariposa Grove. Tunnel view definitely had a great view of the valley and El Capitan, Half Dome and some of the falls. It was a great view point and it was not that far from the valley loop, so worth checking it out.
We kept driving from there towards Mariposa. We would have gone to Glacier Point, but that road was closed for the season. As we drove, we had some different mountain range views that were pretty awesome. We had our lunch on the way, had some bread that Carol had made which had ham and cheese inside, yummy! There were all kinds of snacks in the bag, so we had a good amount of food to eat. Bia had more food when we arrived there. Our drive all the way to the trail head should have taken about 40 minutes, but took an extra 30 as we were stopped due to road construction. I even took a power nap and woke up with my own snore. hahahahaha. We eventually made it to Mariposa Grove Trailhead around 2:30.
Our plan at that point was to hike to the big Sequoia trees, then back and then exit Yosemite from the south and go around West of the park back north bound towards camp. We were that close to the south entrance, and the only way to have time for the hike and still exit the park by 5 would be the leave through that exit.
Th first thing we did when we arrived, and before we hit the trail was to use the restrooms. Fortunately for the girls, they were nice and clean. We started our hike and have a great time. It’s an easy hike, but some areas are a bit steep, so it’s not for everyone. It is a beautiful area, with big trees, and creeks… just amazing. There were many spots with snow, and some with mud. The girls did awesome on this hike. They were pretty chatty, which is a good sign and usually means they are happy and content. They were extra chatty on the way back hahahaha… we walked back via the car road, so we could go faster. Bella was with me and Bia with Carol. Bia talked non stop… all kinds of usual crazy stories. Bella and I talked all the way back to, all random stuff…
The hike was a total of just about 5 miles, and almost 2.5 hours. The girls rocked it. So nice when they do it and there’s little to no complaining. Bella did complain a bit as we were getting close to the big trees, saying she was tired and her legs hurt. But we kept going.
When we got to the big trees area, it was almost time to go back. Bella didn’t want to walk much more, so we had to manage a small loop around the trees that were right there. Those Sequoias were pretty big, and they are not even the biggest ones. The biggest ones are at Sequoia National Park, which is our next park. But these were pretty massive trees, massive trunks and they stay pretty large all the way up. There was a big fallen tree at the end of the small loop we took, and we took some pictures of the girls near the roots, you can see how they were pretty massive. We did our quick walk around, checked out the trees, use the restroom they had there and walked back via the car road access, which was faster than taking the trail again. And as I said before, the girls were chatty all the way back. :). Great time on the hike. Since the girls did so great, we told them they could chose something special later for dinner.
The exit of the park is right there by the parking lot we were in, and we left the park exactly at 5pm. We had to drive south to Oakhurst first, to then start going north. The girls wanted MacDonalds and Ice Cream as their prizes for doing the hike, so we stopped at one in town. Everybody got something to eat as we had a 2 hour drive from there. The girls like their chicken nuggets happy meals, with apple slices. Bia gets chocolate milk and Bella gets Apple juice. I don’t care for much, but when we get McDs I get 2 double cheeseburgers with no onions :). They always come fresh as they are custom made due to no onions hahahaha.
We had a 70 mile drive back, but going up and down mountains and through constant zig zags, it just takes forever as we have to go slow, especially at night. The drive was a bit of a pain, it was long, but it was fine. We made it back, started all showering, watched some movies and went to bed late.
It was a nice day at the park, seeing new areas, enjoying amazing views and doing a great hike.