Beds and Bears and Foresty Things at Yosemite: Part Two of "San Fran: Oh Man!"

Imagine being on vacation with my family, in a two-story condo; your brother took a bedroom, your parents got the other bedroom, and you are left with the bed that comes out from a closet - they have a name, these beds. I could open up Google, and refresh my memory, but I'm lazy. My bed folded down from a closet. People got tired of blowing up an air mattress, or the coroner got fed up with, "Could you come down to the Chateau? Yeah...another body in the fold-out....well, it's like a bear trap in that thing! He suffocated," and the inventors got together, hashing out what objects to put a bed in. One idea was to have it lift up from the floor, another idea was to stuff the air mattress in a cannon, and you pull the string and it shoots the mattress out, inflating it. The BBQ is spitting out comforters and pillows. Finally, they got it right with the couch. The couch made since. You're sitting on an empty frame with cushions, why not hide something in there? A ninja! And then naturally, we started hiding beds in closets. And the ninjas said fuck that hiding in couches-shit! Have you been to Japan, have you seen our hide-a-beds...no thank you! Just because we're nimble...if I'm gonna stalk someone and murder them in the shadows, at least give me some comfort!

I would like to hide a bed in everything. Boy, getting up and around in the morning is fucking hard! I keep wanting to go to sleep. I'm pouring milk all over the cupboard, its running over in my bowl of cereal because I fell asleep pouring again....Why not pull out the refrigerator, there's a bed! Open the dishwasher, and there's a pillow and a blanket. Brushing your teeth, with your head resting on the sink!? Open the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, and a tiny four-posted bed falls from one of the shelves. You couldn't sleep in it, but the sheets of the tiny bed are soaked in chloroform...

Awoke to coffee brewing, 7:53 a.m June 23. Never have I ever slept in while on vacation. Had a lovely shower. Ate something for breakfast. On the road by 8:40. On our way to Yosemite National Park. I'm thinking of Teddy Roosevelt while taking these pictures.





Here's ol' Half-Dome *snicker-snicker*

The reason why we wake so early is to beat the traffic. Ever hear your parents utter those words, beat the traffic!? We plan our lives around this philosophy! Always beating some random crowd out of a spot, either at the last open table of a restaurant, or before a line forms at the theater. Being first. My dad got us one of the last spots at this lookout. Most others had the same plan we did. Well it seemed that way, getting in for this view as another family left, then suddenly, more people showed up. Followed by a mini RV.





There was information on what these formations were called, but I wasn't reading anything.





This might be the obstructed view of Yosemite Falls (pronounced "Yos Mite") This is in the corner of the top picture. Yeah, I got two perspectives. Very brisk morning out that day; maybe 72. What was it back home, 90 something... ;)






Ooo, a tunnell!! I wonder what that's gonna be like.....






Oh.

If we would have had more than a week and a day, or two weeks as I summed up in the last post, we might have ventured up to the Redwood Forest. Why am I telling you this now? That tunnel picture up above my comment...imagine that a tree. You drive through trees in the Redwood Forest. Man, oh man!










I believe this is Bridal's Veil Falls. Many people were around me when I took this picture. You take an extremely easy hike up to these falls, and there's a pool of water for the kids to splash in and soak their clothes, young girls are basking on rocks sprayed down with waterfall mist; there was an enormous influx of Chinese and Japanese folks scattered among the crowd. It was amazing that I even got this shot without a head or two sticking out at the bottom edge of the picture. I'm also surprised this picture came out so clear. The mist coming off the rocks the water is cascading on is plentiful, and I should have had little droplets of water on my lens. The body of my camera did.




We were walking back from Bridal's Veil, and this was lying by the side of the trail. The rangers must of sawed through it after it blocked the walking trail due to its fall. I thought it looked cool through the viewfinder.











The best National Park I've been to would have to be Zion National Park in Utah, mainly due to how organized everything is. You park a ways out from the main lodge of the park, and they swing by and pick you up on a trolly. The trolly ride is maybe 5 minutes, and along the way to the lodge you see a nice view of Angel's Landing, which is one of the best attractions there. A trail follows a steep, narrow ridge with chains added to provide handholds to this one spire; on both sides of you would see quite a drop. You see this landform from a few miles out. You also pass right by the Watchman, a beautiful red rock mountain. Once at the lodge, you sort of pick-and-choose where you want to go. I'd say there are probably about 8-10 hiking trails you can take, depending on how strenuous they are. At Yosemite, you could walk the park if you've got free time. It would take you awhile, I'm not gonna lie. That one might be a good 20 mile or so. It's stupid to wanna walk the whole Yosemite site.

The majority of my pictures are from the backseat of a moving vehicle. I also didn't realize Yosemite loops around, so when this next picture came in to view, it stunned me.





El Capitan. Actually, I don't know if this is El Capitan or not. It looks like him.




Driving out of the park, we got caught in a traffic jam, due to some road work. So we pulled to the side of the road, and soon afterwards, we noticed several people gawking at something in the meadow. Down the road a ways from the picture above was a clearing with grass as green as pictured. Here's the little guy who was drawing all the attention.








It's most likely a female.





Me and my brother fought for pictures. While I snapped these, an Aussie came up to our car and replied, "Ah, I saw you had your cam'ra owt. May I inquire what you see out in that feeld!?" I told him there was a bear out there. "A baar! Where d'ya see a baar!?" I told him to look between the two trees, and that brown spot with ears was the bear. "I steel don't see it, mate..." I told him my finger that was extended was pointing right at her. "Look at the tree to the left of my finger," I told him, "Then look right of that by 5 degrees." Sure enough, she came within his sight. "Oh yeah! Hey kids," and his troop of girls around the same age came up to him with their mother, and watched the "baar" graze.

Here's Owen. Nothing like taking a picture of him taking a picture of the Yosemite park entrance sign.



The next day would find us wasting an afternoon at Big Trees State Forest, me being upstaged by a modern hippie and his camera phone, me eating handful after handful of Triscuits and opening my beer on forest-life, and finally, a day in San Francisco. But let's wait to discuss that later.