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cali trip: day 8

after a TERRIBLE night’s sleep, we got up, made eggs and bacon for breakfast, cleaned up and tore down. we were off, back into the park for some real sight seeing.

first glimpse of half dome.IMAG0324

after finding a place to park, we were ready for our first hike to find bridal veil falls.IMAG0328IMAG0331IMAG0334

dave, shane, and nolan scrambled way up the rocks.IMAG0336IMAG0340IMAG0342IMAG0344240

layla, micah, and I only scrambled up the bottom ones… see those two people behind layla? this was right before they both fell into the water, waist-deep. the rocks were very smooth, which is why I did not let the younger two keep going, much to their disappointment.242244245IMAG0350248250

back in the valley. 253 

we had some lunch, perused the gift shop, and then headed out to find yosemite falls.

they had several of these fences, presumably around trees they wanted to protect. this one had a chipmumk hanging on the side, completely immobile. I seriously thought it was dead. it just sat there. after several minutes, it finally turned its head. so weird.IMAG0354

view of the very top of yosemite falls.IMAG0356 

view of half dome through the trees en route to the bottom of yosemite falls.IMAG0361IMAG0362

when we got in there, it was awesome. there were rocks and pools at the bottom of the falls. tons of kids wading and swimming. we all kind of wished we had bathing suits, because it was very hot.IMAG0365260

so pretty.IMAG0372

we did scramble down some rocks and put our feet in. the water was so cold!IMAG0378261265268

after being super careful about making sure everyone’s shoes were accounted for, that no one fell in, and keeping tabs on layla who was determined to take her wading to the very edge of what can still be called “wading” and not “swimming”, I managed to drop one of micah’s socks into the water. 270

el capitan.IMAG0393

one last shot of half dome.271

waiting for nolan to meet us with the truck. layla was “soooo hot. she was gonna die.” it was hot, but she’s just a tad dramatic.272 - Copy

the drive out of there was long and hot. we saw a lot of nothing, and then some farms and ranches. we came though turlock (home of colin kaepernick), and found a dairy queen for some well-deserved blizzards.

the dairy queen, in addition to being air conditioned, had this huge industrial fan. 273

between that and the ice cream, I was frozen. 274

I was happy to get back outside and warm up. everyone thought I was nuts.

275

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