Klein Family Blog: Vacation 2010 Yosemite

Vacation 2010
Yosemite/ Sacramento/ San Francisco

This year's Vacation happened by circumstance. The bottom line is... we pretty much invited ourselves on our friends, the Vrabels, family vacation. When we met them, they were just starting to plan their trip. And being the "Yosemite Experts" we are, we sat down and told them everywhere to go and what to see. Then Stephanie made the mistake of saying "you guys should come". And Dan took it as "we should go with them on their vacation". So we did. Maybe next time Stephanie talks she will be more specific and careful with her wording.

Since we could'nt check into our condo until the afternoon, we started our trip with a hike in Mariposa Grove.

We saw the huge Sequoia trees and had a fun little hike. When we got back from our walk/hike the Vrabels notified us that the giant chocolate birthday cake they had brought for my birthday, to be eaten 2 days later, was melting and we needed to get rid of it NOW. So we found some forks and napkins and ate birthday cake on top of a bear locker. We still had tons of cake left and couldnt take it with us, so Dan started offering it to hikers and people in the parking lot. Its amazing how many people will take food from a stranger. I would like to think we also did our part in helping racial relations within the National Park System, because we fed some gang members.

Once we were done with our cake, we headed to Wawona to see the History museum (which was closed) and the hotel. We dipped our feet in the river and pumped an old fashioned water well. The kids hung out in the jail for a few, and then we headed to our hotel.

When we go to Yosemite we like to stay in a little area called Yosemite West. It is located out of the park but is only 20 minutes from the Valley Floor. Our condo was decorated in 1980's wolf theme. Everywhere we looked there was wolves, down to the switch plates. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture so everyone could enjoy this retro-decor.

The next day, we went to the valley floor.

The kids climbed the slippery rocks of Bridal Veil Falls and dipped their feet in the stream on the way back to the car.

We then stopped at Cathedral Beach Picnic area and had some BBQ sandwiches and enjoyed a picnic, mingled with keeping an eye out for bears. Then we went to Curry Village and put in our rafts for a fun day of floating down the river.

The next day, we had planned to rent bikes and ride around the park all day. But upon finding it would cost $150 to rent the bikes, we decided to take the shuttle around. (Which worked out fine, because we had never ridden the shuttle system.)

We hiked up to Mirror Lake (taking the horse trail, not the road) and then had a picnic at the Village shops. (Notice security closely watching Dan, Mark & Reed. Perhaps they were recognized from previous trips. It would'nt surprise me if the park system had their own "Most Wanted" list.) At lunch, the girls got a huge kick out of the squirrels, who were quite forward.

For dinner that night, Stephanie & Mark made yummy tri-tip for my birthday and decorated their condo with streamers and balloons. After dinner, we went up to Glacier Point for sunset.