Weekend of Camping Lurve.

Yosemite. Bomb Ass.

Well I don't want to talk your heads off so I'll make it short. We packed up and left Friday after Jerad got off work. All of our camping gear is in totes in the basement that we re-organize and stock after each trip so we are always ready to go. We have three different sized tents so since it was going to be a shorty trip (only two nights) and we were traveling sans pups, we took our little tent.

Fast forward 4 hours (we made quite a few stops including a leisurely Target shopping spree since I forgot to pack Jerad PANTS) and we arrived. In the dark after the fires had to be out. Taylor and Dom, and Matt and Lucy ended up coming, but they were about an hour behind us. We set up camp and shivered.

From left to right, Matt and Luce, Tay and Dom, Us:

Here are some highlights from Saturday and Sunday:

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Annnd a few of my favorite parts. The two and a half hour mule ride to Mirror Lake:










Taylor cooking the Tri Tip by covering it in Whiskey and lighting it on fire:


The intense hike past Vernal Falls, up Mist Trail (worse than any stair stepper known to man), past Emerald Pool and toward Nevada Falls. I think just to Vernal you climb 1000 ft. elevation. Then once you've hiked the whole thing you have to go back down. Ugh:)

See that little "No Pets on Trails" on the bottom? This hike is why we didn't bring the pooches this time. It was beautiful and worth it:)

Getting ready for the hike:

Stuff along the way:






Part of Mist Trail:






View from the top of the falls:



Once we got to the top we had some fruit and took a little siesta. It was kind of like sitting at the top of heaven.

Emerald Pool:



After the LOOOONG hike back down, we had a picnic lunch. Jerad had some fresh squeezed juice:

Here is the view from the lookout point driving out of the Valley. See why we love it?


The part you can't tell from the pictures was that it was about 50 ° during the day and 19° at night. Still fun though! The trip home was uneventful. Except for when we saw a CAT hat in the road and I could tell Jerad wanted to stop and I told him he should and he slammed on the brakes and ran about 1/2 a mile up the road dodging traffic to retrieve it. The little yellow speck would be Jerad (still running):

So, basically he cheated on John Deere AND almost got killed doing it. That'll teach him. The cool part was it was a brand new hat. Not that I won't wash it just in case but still, nice!

In summary; great place, great friends, great boy, great trip.