Tuesday morning we woke up early and headed to Yosemite! I have always wanted to go to Yosemite, so the minute Half Dome came majestically into view with waterfalls, mountains, and rivers surrounding it, it was one of those moments when everything you wanted it to be was exactly what it was! I think I'm in love!
With eight little kids we did what we could, we did the small hikes to Lower Yosemite Falls and Bridalveil Falls, went to the Visitor's Center ate lunch, and drove around.
Jon had been planning a more advanced hike since the day he found out he was going to go to Yosemite, he needed a hiking buddy, that's why he needed me! At least I know I'm good for something! The only question remained - who would we take with us? We needed to take two kids, if there would be enough seat belts in the Yukon that was going back. Elise was always a good, I'm not sure she decided that or her dad, but the real question was if we would take William and/or Ian. William found out about the hike and wanted badly to go, his mom said she would see how he did on the little hikes, so to prove himself, he was up with me in front, trying to listen and keep my pace going. Around four we were switching cars, and Ian was a: "I'm want to go." and then a: "No, never mind I don't." Right to the last minute. At the final second he decided that he did want to go, so Jon, Elise, Ian, William and I set out to start a hard hike, late! We had to retie shoes, I made the kids eat something, we packed our water and found a parking spot (which proved to be the hardest part), and we started around 4:40 pm. It was a straight up from the beginning kind of hike, and we felt it right away. William, proved to be the heir, and Ian the tortoise, William would bound up the trail, we had to tell him to slow down and not run all the time. Other hikers commented on him, I'm sure they were just jealous of his seemingly endless energy! William would plop down on any rock when I told him we had to wait for the others, then when they caught up, he would jump up and be ready to go again. Ian (the one I was most worried about) on the other hand just kept going, slow and study. Elise was the hard one to coax up the mountain, Jon had to stick with her and encourage her the whole way, but I'm sure he enjoyed the breaks that they took (I sure enjoyed mine with William!). We did a set of endless switch backs, followed by what we thought would be a flat section, but it went down hill, which was nice, but I hate the thought that we would just have to hike up it later. After that we reached the top of the lower falls and the bottom of the upper, we also reached the view of the next set of switchbacks. It was a little daunting - but trying to encourage my group, I said it wasn't that bad, and that we could do it. Jon looked at me and said,"Stop spewing sunshine Mary!" It was funny!
We started up the next set of switch backs and found these to be longer, steeper and rockier. Everyone was going at a much slower rate at the end, but we made it, and like all hikes, getting to the destination is instantly invigorating! We even hiked down a section of stairs (that we knew we would have to hike back up) to get a better look at the 2,400 ft drop off, the falls and Yosemite Valley! It was amazing. We also got out everything we had to eat (which consisted of some granola and power bars, jerky, dried fruit and water), pieced it out, and then started again, Jon and the kids went down and I went up. I had come so far and it was only another mile to a lookout for Half Dome. So I jogged and walked quickly up to the look out, stopping for pictures, I missed the best time of day for a great picture by minutes, but took some of the famous rock anyway, turned and ran down the hill (and I really did run! it was a lot of fun, and I only almost fell twice, still got a picture of a deer, and made some great time). We stopped for our "dinner" around 7:40, so it had taken about three hours to get up, I made it to the top and started back down at 8, I caught up with the others in about 40 minutes, so at about 8:40 we were still only half way back down and running out of day light. We got out the flashlights and slowed our pace as we hit darkness and the last switch backs at the same time. It took what seemed like forever to make it out, but we did right around 9:30. We got a call from Beth who was worried that we hadn't called yet, and we just confirmed her worries, when we told her we weren't done yet. We got one of the last shuttles back to the general store, got ice cream - that I had promised everyone - the view from the top wasn't what kept William going up earlier, it was the ice cream, he had talked about it the whole way up and back down! He really was a sport, being our guide with the head lamp. We made it to the car, and soon after they finished their "supper" of chips and ice cream, the three kids crashed! Jon and I talked during and listened to songs as we drove the next few hours back to the condo, where we all hit the beds and feel instantly to sleep. I woke up the next morning to find that I was sleeping in a room with Jaden and Melissa. Jaden called out in his sleep, "Harry Potter!" then turned over, woke up, looked at me and said, "Aunt Mary, have you seen Jack the Pumpkin King?" I couldn't help but laugh!
We had a relaxing morning, found a park for the kids to play at, went into some of the small tourist shops, then Beth and I loaded up and headed south, leaving Jon and family to enjoy San Fransisco by themselves.
