Yosemite Anniversary Adventure

December 16, 2006

The best day of our lives

Amazing and wonderful things have happened over the past five years

It was perfect to celebrate our time together in Yosemite this year.

My mom scored us a room at the Yosemite View Lodge, literally a mile outside the park. It's definitely the off-season so everything was pretty deserted which made it even better. This was the view from our back balcony.  There hasn't been much rain or snow so far this year so the Merced River was running pretty low, but it was still an incredible view. 

We didn't get to the lodge until the late afternoon, so we just explored and went swimming in the indoor pool. It was pretty chilly outside... a perfect excuse to cuddle up to my sweetheart!

The next morning, we hopped on the bus into Yosemite. It was cheaper for two bus tickets than to drive my car into the park and it was great not having to worry about finding a place to park. 

We started off the morning at the visitor's center, learning about different cultural and historical aspects of the park. Exciting, right?

Then we ventured outside to explore nature for a while. Even though there wasn't any snow on the ground, things were still frosty and pretty chilly!

On our hike up to lower Yosemite Falls, we encountered a lot of wildlife. I won't bore you with Clay's repeated comments about the animals and firearms. We got crazy close to a whole lot of deer. Clay decided that the animals get spoiled living in a protected national park. They aren't ever in fear for their lives from him or his relatives.

We are getting pretty good at finding creative places to put my big camera to take self-timer pictures. 

There wasn't a whole lot of water falling anywhere in the park, but they were still pretty!

More lower Yosemite Falls. 

After we had walked and hiked around for a few hourss, we decided to take the free shuttle around the park. It was fun riding around and looking at everything from a nice, warm bus. We ended out day at the stunning Awahnee Hotel. I wish that I had taken more pictures that this one outside. The hotel is amazing, with huge fireplaces that would fit 10-12 of my huge husband standing up. Not that I want him to stand in a fireplace. They were setting up for their Bracebridge Dinner later that night. Clay and I went to a little history talk given by a man in a doublet and tights and learned all about the history of the dinner. We thought that one day, when we have money to spare, we would really like to go back during Christmas time again and participate in this cool tradition. Clay guessed that it was probably $70 per person. I guessed $100-$150 per person. Turns out it is $425 per person. Regardless of how much money Clay makes one day, that's probably NEVER going to happen. Yikes. 

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. We missed our little man like crazy, though. It was nice to see him Saturday  morning. He gave us the biggest squeezes and didn't want to stop snuggling. I just love him so much.

Happy anniversary to my love! The past five years have been better than I could have imagined and I am sure the rest of eternity will be even better!