No Pain No Gain

SIDEBAR-Isn't it funny that when you have a bathroom available to you that you never have to use it but once it on the other side of a camp site and it's dark you have to go all the time!!! Why is that??? Needless to say Jenny and I got a semi-decent night of sleep with the exception of having to pee all night but not wanting to go outside to do it! No more beverages after 8pm!

Anyways, we were up and at it around 9am so that we could start hiking before it got to warm outside. Our plan was to hike the Mist Trail which is a trail with two different waterfalls. Unfortunately, there was not much water coming down the falls due to the time of year. If you really want to see the falls in action you need to visit during the summer...just an FYI. However, I didn't care I really just wanted to see more of the sites and possibly see some more wildlife out in the forest.
Here some more photos as we began our hike.
This is the other side of half dome. More black and white....Ansel Adams inspired.
The great sequoia trees the surrounded the campsite.

The road we took to get the trail. Doesn't it look so cool???

I also hoped to see some other animals during my hike but all we saw were a bunch of little squirrels that just wanted food. I mean there are so darn cute but since you can't feed them we just stared for a bit and kept walking. My hope of seeing a bear or a fox was not realized on this trip to Yosemite

Cute huh??

This one was eating a nut....I think....

As we began the hike jenny warns me that it's a little steep at the beginning and that it's not that bad. Now maybe I should have done just a little cardio to get myself ready for this trip because I just about died at least ten different times on this hike!! Now, this was not just a basic hike either so it's not like I was being a total baby. We hiked over seven miles round trip and we climbed up over 5000 ft! We got to the top of the one waterfall and we got to just sit up there and relax or in my case catch my breath!! It was so peaceful up there. All you heard was the water from the falls and the trickle of the near by stream. It was a very serene place to just sit. It made the pain and suffering from the hike all worth it!

Here I am on one of the many breaks I had to take along the way....sorry Jenny! : )

This is a view from the top of the falls. Notice the trail way down at the bottom on the left. That is part of what we hiked up! We began way back in all those trees! Sympathy...I want some sympathy and support people! You can also see some people sitting on some rocks on the bottom if you look carefully.

Jenny and me at the top of the falls.

Another view from the top of the falls.

More artistic photos of the falls that I took.

This is the entire falls which is really a drizzle compared to what it normally looks like (per Jenny).

Here it is in color. Jenny and I at the bottom of the falls after we were almost done with the hike. This was to document that I lived!!! : )

After our long hike we grabbed some lunch and then it was off to the cabin to relax. We both showered and took a short little nap. Once we got up and moving again we decided it was time to go eat dinner before our Night Prowl tour started at 8pm. We ate some AWESOME pizza and had some yummy hot chocolate to warm us up. After dinner it was off to the Night Prowl tour. Now, this sounds cooler then it really was....trust me. Basically, all we did was go out into this open area in the forest in the pitch dark to try to get more familiar with our night vision and other senses such as smell and hearing. It was pretty lame but on the flip side it was a beautiful night. There are so many stars that could be seen from Yosemite it was INCREDIBLE! I think we saw at least three different shoot stars in that hour!! I had never seen a shooting star before so that made the whole tour worth it to me and as for my night vision....it sucks...along with my day vision!! : )

Once the tour was over we headed back to our cabin for bed. Now, one thing I didn't mention earlier was that I brought the book Twilight for Jenny to read. She laughed that it was a "young adult" book but I warned her she would love it if she started it. She read during dinner and almost all night. I think she finally put the book down around 1am Saturday morning. I told her it was addicting!! However, I was happy to see she liked....I had warned her earlier that if she didn't we might have to break-up but that was just an idle threat because I knew she would love it! I even gave her my copy of Twilight to keep so she could finish reading it. I told her to keep it and to pay it forward by encouraging someone else to read the book. : )

In the end Yosemite was a great time and I had so much fun! Jenny, thank you for taking time off work to hang out with me on my sabbatical. It was a lot of fun and I'm ready to go back (maybe when it's not so cold so you don't freeze). Just let me work on my cardio and I'll be there!! : )

More to come!

xoxo