Yosemite

After my trip to the Reagan museum I drove north to see friends in Fresno. The city itself has fairly little to show for, but it's less than two hours from lovely Yosemite National Park. Tuesday evening I had dinner with my old friend Roslyn, her hubby Rob and a couple of their friends. I also got to meet Roz' dog Jackson, a friendly little Pomeranian.

Wednesday we drove up to Yosemite and the trip was made extra super special cool by the fact that Roz brought a couple of walkie talkies so we could stay in touch during the drive. I felt like a kid again, and we had fun with various codes like "roger", "over" and the immortal "10-4". At the park entrance I bought the $80 annual pass that gives me free access to all federal parks and monuments through June 2010.

We started out with a 1.6 mile walk at Mariposa Grove to see some Redwoods. Daymn, them things are big. Here I am in front of a fallen tree (no, I didn't lean on it, it was that way when I got there, I swear!) the sunlight makes it look like I'm some kind of armless, radiating alien...


Roz and Rob, perfect hosts throughout


Famous view of several well known mountains. I believe the granite thingy on the left is called El Capitan, the jagged top in the distance is Half Dome and the waterfall is Bridalveil Fall. Very, very purdy.


Down in the bottom of the valley we had lunch (Roz had packed a huge cooler full of all sortsa goodies), and we were soon surrounded by some local wildlife. This little fella was very strategic, he went around to all newcomers and tried to look cute.


Famous and purdy Tuolumne Meadows


I took lots more pictures, you can find the rest here.