Yosemite Trip Days 1-3

Well, this vacation is definitely one to remember, but not in a good way.  Instead of a vacation full of fun and relaxation, it was one full of problems and stress.  There's a lot that happened, so here we go.

Day 1-Friday: We left to drive to California at 7:15am (even though we were supposed to leave at 6:00am).  It was an early morning for all of us.  Kyle and Brianna rode with us and were a great help with Kylie.  We stopped 3 times and Kylie did great with the long drive.  The other times we've driven for 10+ hours, we drove through the night so we didn't have to worry about Kylie as much.  She only fussed when she had to be put back in the car seat after being taken out.  To help pass the time, we set up the Ipad and Kylie watched Frozen (the only movie we have downloaded).

She is becoming a Frozen fanatic.  We had to drive through Yosemite National Park to get to where we were staying.  I had no idea the park was so big or the roads so windy.  I never usually get car sick, but I started to feel nauseous which was not fun for the 2 hour drive through the park.  We stopped and took some pictures at the most famous view of Yosemite.

Half Dome. We climbed that. Ugh.

Most famous view of Yosemite National Park.

On the way to the Pines Resort, our car stopped at got dinner at El Cid's Mexican restaurant. Mom and Aaron were too car sick to join us.  Because it was dark, we got a little lost and drove around Bass Lake twice.  The chalet wasn't exactly what we were expecting especially with the pictures we saw online.  Since it was such a long day, people got a little frustrated with how the chalet looked.  The place worked, but I wish it would have had two bathrooms instead of one.  Also, there really were no kitchen supplies to where you pretty much have to bring everything from the utensils to the pots and pans.  It was kind of cool that we were right next to the lake.  We only had to walk a little bit and we were right there!

Day 2-Saturday: Woke up at about 8:30am and we all hung around the chalet resting from the drive yesterday.  We went down to check out the lake and skipped rocks.  The water level of the lake was really low as California is in a drought.  It was pretty and it's a shame we didn't spend much time really enjoying the lake (especially since we were right on it).

Hubby's eyes match the lake.

After lunch we headed into the park as mom wanted to make sure where the entrance was for the hike.  The hike to half dome is all the way at the end of the park, so we had to drive through it again.  There are so many little hikes you can do in Yosemite, but I felt like all we did was drive through the park.  Yes, we hiked half dome, but I didn't really get to enjoy Yosemite, in whole, as a park.  Things would have been more enjoyable if we went and just did those little hikes instead of one big, exhausting one.  Maybe Scott, Kylie and I can try going there again and I can change my mind about the park because right now, I don't like it.  We stopped to see the small visitor center and Aaron and mom wanted to see another lookout point.  Our car was super low on gas, so we headed back.  Another thing that was annoying was that no one had cell phone service!!  So, we couldn't get a hold of mom to let her know that we weren't following.  It was just super frustrating to not have a way to communicate.  The only place we got cell service was Oakhurst and we stopped to get Chinese food there on the way back to the resort.  We played Settlers of Catan and then went to bed.

The wind was blowing so hard the water from the waterfall was going backwards!

Kylie had a blast playing in the bark.

Day 3-Sunday:  We tried to go to church in the morning, but a squirrel hit a power line and church was cancelled for a power outage.  Scott went in and talked with the new bishopric who said that the power came back on pretty quickly after they had already cancelled.  Oops!  Scott was a little sad because church was the one place he could have caught up with everyone from when he lived there.  After church, Scott, Aaron and I went to go see Scott's old home in Ahwahnee (which is right next to Oakhurst).  While at the gas station, our car overheated so we had to buy more coolant and wait for it to cool down. We are lucky it happened at a gas station instead of in the middle of the park.  Scott's old house seemed to be turned into some sort of resort/bed and breakfast type place. No one was there and the place was locked, but we were able to check out the land (5 acres worth!) and new pool.  Scott was most surprised by the pool and it did look really nice.

After seeing his old house, we went back to the chalet to have lunch and pack our hiking bags (which took longer than necessary).  We (except Brianna & Kyle) then headed off to dinner which was so graciously provided by the Burrow's. The Burrow's were a good family friend and Josh was Scott's best friend.  Scott had a blast catching up and talking with everyone.  Their house was very large with a lot of unfinished areas.  There was a hallway with smooth pebble stones that Kylie loved running on. Besides when she ate dinner, you could catch her running up and down that hallway.  We had a delicious dinner with home-made ice cream and cake for dessert.  It was very nice of them to have us over and that was the highlight of the vacation for Scott.  After dinner, we headed home, went to the beach again and tried to go to bed early as we had an unexpected long day ahead.

Look at Kylie run!

Cute picture. :)

Here daddy, kiss this.