Top Ten reasons you know you have a Disney Obsession:

[estherhead]

Despite our hunger we decided to press on and go to Sherman. You know this is flat out against my rules to continue the vacation past people enjoying themselves. However we didn't feel there were too many options. We were staying at Montecito lodge where dinner is included and it wouldn't be served yet. And to turn around and get food was a long drive. So Donald said we were pressing on and it's good for kids to learn you have to deal with adversity sometimes and continue to have a cheery attitude. I prefer to not teach these lessons on my vacation, but agreed there was little choice this day.

So to General Sherman we went. As we got out of the car Boo continued her brattiness and Donald hung back to explain a few things to her. I'm not sure what transpired but when they met up with us halfway down the trail she was happy as a lark and going on and on about seeing a turtle. Sometimes a little Daddy attitude adjustment is just what the doctor ordered.

Here is the turtle:

Do you see the brick pattern where Donald is standing? That is the base of the Sherman tree. That is a BIG tree.

Can you see Ariel's green jacket?

I am including the picture below because I love you all and you deserve to see it. But I HATED this pic. And I have lost 9 lbs since it was taken just 2 months ago. I used my hatred for it as my inspiration.

This walk and viewing of the General Sherman tree was with the nicest tourists I have ever encountered. Mostly German, Australian, and American they were delightful. Friendly, laughing, having a wonderful time, offering to take other family's pictures. It was as if we were all on the same giant tour bus.

This I am sure is also a terrible photo of me but the tree is so big that to get a picture of it the girl had to stand so far away you can barely see us. And the whole tree is STILL not in the picture.

How many of us would it take to give the General Sherman a hug? To be tree huggers of this tree? A LOT, lot more of us:

Then we hiked back up the hill and everyone enjoyed a turtle ride.

Attitude Adjusted:

And with that we had all had more than enough. And were near faint. Into the car we hopped and off we went. There is a lot of road work in Seqouia and we quickly found ourselves at another long red light. To our left was a swampy area and Donald said the whole time we sat there:
"Do you guys see that creature? I can't tell what it is." And then he guessed all kinds of things. Well I never could see the creature, try as I might. And then someone of us, maybe Mulan, said, "I think this swamp is a dammed." And that's when it hit us: it was a BEAVER! None of us have ever seen a beaver and so we were all VERY interested in seeing it and tried even harder. You know how the person who has it view describes and points "It's there near the brown log with the green, there! Do you see it?" and of course the ENTIRE area is all one giant brown log with green?

And then the light turned green. So Donald has seen a beaver, a nice long view of a beaver on it's dam. And I haven't. Dam.

And then we were at Montecito Lake Lodge. It was only 5:10. But to us it was 8:10. And dinner wasn't until 6:00/9:00. Ugh. I felt like a city slicker as we had to drag all of our giant suitcases in to de-bear them instead of just our backpacks like I had planned. But there was no helping it. I didn't want bears hurting our rental car. You have no idea how much luggage a family with winter coats, hats, and scarves AND Disney shorts, ears, and flipflops has.

Our room and the whole lodge had a decidedly summer camp feel. I LOVED it. Wish we'd had two nights instead of just the one.

Once all our things had been dragged in, I made myself immediately comfortable.

Boo played with her toys and this big bad boy:

After about 20 minutes, we went ahead and headed downstairs to play games and await dinner.

Dinner was served in two rooms, a cafeteria feel room, only way cozier. And a ski-lodge feel game room. We chose the ski-lodge room and proceeded to enjoy ourselves.

While Boo made herself comfortable with the blocks, the big girls and I headed outside to see the view. There was a couple from Pennsylvania also out there who really loved to chitchat. Donald came out for a moment but could see it wasn't his scene (NOT into stranger chitchatting, even though he's good at it.) But under the pool were these two deer:

And they were funny to watch. So even though I was a bit cranky I let the lady tell me her life story (the key to stranger chitchat is to just keep asking THEM questions and let them do 100% of the work) while I enjoyed the clean air and entertainment.

Then Mulan and I decided to play Foosball and had a fierce battle. It was very close, but I pulled it off and beat her. She's 11. I never just let her win.

Pretty soon they put some biscuits out and they were GOOD biscuits. Cheddar. And that took the edge off. So we played a little Euchre and enjoyed some biscuits. Boo played away.

After a delicious dinner of chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, broccoli (oh my this broccoli was GOOD) full salad bar, fish, and quinoa (none of us had this, we've tried quinoa a zillion ways and just don't like it) we just enjoyed the people watching. None of the tourists here were foreign. They were all solidly British Empire. It was odd. How did the English, Australians, and Americans know to come here and the Germans, French, and others not? It was odd. Maybe only British empire people like summer camps?

A little boy named Trenton started playing with Boo and the trains. How do I know his name was Trenton? It got yelled a lot. Trenton was no so good with the sharing. Boo can be a turkey, but when she is playing with strangers she is very good and cooperative. But Trenton didn't care. He was a crazy train/block enthusiast and having a cooperative partner was not helpful. The only thing that would have been ok is if Boo did not exist.

Well, that didn't take us long to get tired of. So we finished up our Euchre game and decided to head out to the hot tub. I was SO tired but Donald thought it would be relaxing to go hot tubbing in the cold and then participate in the outdoor campfire. So off we went. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the hot tub except me. It was a lovely temperature and the cool outdoor temperature made it seem even better. Plus the view and the smell of the trees. It should have been blissful. But Boo had been bad all day. From crying randomly for no reason, to stepping in the rotten fruit, to her bratty behavior after Moro Rock. I realize she had been good too. But the bad overwhelmed the good for me this day and her bratty, spoiled behavior continued in the hot tub. And I was tired and had no tolerance. So I didn't enjoy it. I just wanted to kill her.

We then wrapped up in our coverups and towels and went and sat by the campfire. It was a little cold for being wet and everyone else around the campfire was in jackets and jeans, but it wasn't bad and I knew had we gone up to our room to change, we wouldn't come back.

Bizarrely our camp director's REAL name given to him by his parents was Yogi. I'm not joking. He had a name badge and everything. Who names their kid Yogi? He was probably in his late 20's and was BORN to be a camp director. Fun, outdoorsy, he had a steel guitar, and knew a lot about trees. I really like Yogi.

Also around the campfire was our friends from PA and a nice family from Oklahoma. Yogi had to step away for a moment and we were left with a REALLY geeky counselor and his girlfriend. I have no problem with geeks however geeks who know NOTHING and just pretend to drive me crazy. And this particular geek when left in charge decided to school us in Sequoia knowledge. Of which he had none. Seeing that you are sitting there with a group of people who have spent all day looking at and reading up on this subject, you probably should check your facts before spouting off. Even the children were trying to politely correct his geyser of incorrect information.

Finally after what seemed WAY longer than it probably was, Yogi was back with the s'mores ingredients and song books for the singalong. Yea for Yogi!

We enjoyed our s'mores (not me, I'm not a huge fan but Boo is a HUGE fan) and I enjoyed watching this 8 year old who didn't like graham crackers trying to make a s'more from a toasted marshmallow and 2 hershey bar halves. In theory this should make a sandwich. In reality it makes a total disaster that covers you in sticky marshmallow and chocolate and drives your neat and tidy Oklahoma mother NUTS. Not my kid and therefore amusing.

And then Yogi handed out songbooks and directed us to a Land called Hannalee. Boo wasn't familiar with Puff and that made me happy as forever more that song will be linked in her head with this trip and when she hears it it will bring back vivid memories. Love that.

This was really fun and I wished we could stay but by this time it was past midnight in my head, I'd had limited sleep the night before, and I was FREEZING. And so we had to go. I think the group was sad at our departure as we can keep a group on key pretty well and poor Yogi was not too good at the staying on key. Pretty sure the singing quality got a bit more inconsistent after our departure.

I went to take a shower and got Boo cleaned as well. Mulan was to do her hair while I dried off. But Boo continued her reign of terror and finally Donald had had enough and Boo was confined to her bed in absolute silence watching the Chipmunks with headphones. I'm glad she didn't disobey and try to get out of bed or talk as I think Donald may have given her what was coming. Perhaps she was well aware and thus kept her little mouth shut.

My next task was to sort through the bear issues. But the wonderfully huge closet had no light and so was pitch dark cave. I quickly gave it up till morning and collapsed into bed. Thank the LORD.

Had I not been tired and hungry for almost half of this day, it would have been spectacular. As it was, it was fantastic. Just one tiny notch below spectacular.

 

[estherhead]

Despite being dead tired, I woke up at 3 am. At home I'm up at 6 so I was really scared I wouldn't be able to fall back asleep. But the exhaustion helped I was able to sleep until 6 am. I laid in bed for a bit but the rest of my family also was on the wrong time and so were wide awake pretty early on. Donald and I sent the big girls down to get us coffee while we packed for bears. We were on full scale threatdown. Do any of you watch Stephen Colbert? The biggest threat to America according to him is bears. It may not be true, but this particular morning it FELT true.

In addition to Boo being unhappy about constant bear conversations and me muttering under my breath "stupid bears" there also was a spider on the ceiling. Now, I myself am not a spider lover. But this was a pretty small non-invasive spider on the ceiling. Not really a threat. But to Boo it was a disaster and she mainly spent her time staring at it as if taking her eyes off of it for one minute would make it decide to pounce on her and kill her in one deadly stroke. Did I mention it was smaller than a penny? And asking things like, "Do you think he's watching us?" and "Would it hurt really bad if that spider bit me?"

It took me about 30 minutes to repack everything. We had our jackets and gloves and scarves on and anything that would smell good to bears, which was a LOT of stuff, in ziploc baggies in backpacks. Ready to tent camp.

The view out our window:

All decked out in warm clothes:

By just after 7am we were wander the gorgeous resort. The whole place smelled like wood smoke. It was just wonderful.

Montecito Lake:

I mean, come on, do you SEE that lake? And imagine the brisk temperature and wood smoke mixed with fresh coffee. Really, really enjoyed this place.

We got done exploring and putting the luggage in the vehicle and headed back in. Ariel wanted to see if she could find her Aunt Suzy a pair of earrings as that is what Suzy always buys us when she is on vacation.

This is where the campfire was the night before:

The only bears we saw this trip:

I sat here and read for a bit and drank more coffee:

Breakfast was served at 7:45 am. Personally, I didn't enjoy it. Mainly it wasn't my thing, the generic breakfast buffet. But the setting and people were enjoyable. We ate in the main cafeteria room this time:

That being said they had scones. When I think of a scone I think of a hard tasteless thing you dip in coffee. These were the best tasting most amazing things ever. The were berry flavored and huge, light, flaky, YUMMY! They were so good, in fact, that we each had one AND took one for the road. After our experience the day before, I wanted to make sure we had an afternoon snack.

Ariel had found earrings but had to wait until after 8 am to buy them. So as soon as she was done eating, she was off.

We completely checked out and said good bye to our cute little family camp. Off to General Grant we headed. What would today bring?

 

[Casey's Mommie]

Thanks so much for sharing your family's adventure! I've been reading along and am looking forward to your next update!!!

 

[knitster]

Man, everything about that place is gorgeous. I can almost smell the trees just looking at the pictures!

 

[estherhead]

10) You write a Disney TR for each of your trips
9) You let your sister talk you into going to WDW just 2 months after DL
8) You stage an elaborate game to surprise your kids
7) You surprise your kids with a WDW trip 2 months after their once in a childhood DL trip!!!!
6) You make matching tshirts for this trip
5) You have a FANTASTIC time
4) You come home and immediately plan your next trip
3) You repent to your readers for not writing over the summer
2) You finally admit outloud you have a problem
1) You refuse to take medicine

Because why stop a good thing, peeps???

Bottom line? I will commence this TR now that my kids are back in school (Boo goes tomorrow to Kindergarten!!) and I promise to not go to any Disney park until this TR is finished. Promise.

I will begin in the very next post.

 

[taymaesmom]

Yeah! I hope to you finish this trip and the next two! So glad your back and writing.

I know how you feel, once the kids are back in school you have so much more time to yourself!

 

[jedijill]

10) You write a Disney TR for each of your trips
9) You let your sister talk you into going to WDW just 2 months after DL
8) You stage an elaborate game to surprise your kids
7) You surprise your kids with a WDW trip 2 months after their once in a childhood DL trip!!!!
6) You make matching tshirts for this trip
5) You have a FANTASTIC time
4) You come home and immediately plan your next trip
3) You repent to your readers for not writing over the summer
2) You finally admit outloud you have a problem
1) You refuse to take medicine

Because why stop a good thing, peeps???

Bottom line? I will commence this TR now that my kids are back in school (Boo goes tomorrow to Kindergarten!!) and I promise to not go to any Disney park until this TR is finished. Promise.

I will begin in the very next post.

Jill in CO

 

[estherhead]

After our scones were secured in the glove box, thereby assuring we wouldn't starve later like we had the day before, we headed off to meet another general.

On the drive there Mulan kept pointing out interesting rocks. This is the mountains after all and there were very interesting rocks. Ariel would have none of it.

"Why are you pointing out rocks? Do you SEE these trees??? Rocks are boring."

To which I replied, "Just wait till you see Yosemite. Rocks aren't boring in Yosemite."

We parked and headed toward General Grant. This is a fallen tree that many years ago had a bar in it.

"You wanna grab a drink after work?"
"Sure. How about that hole in a wall place nearby?"
"Nah, let's go to the hole in a tree place instead."
"Ok but I heard it had fallen on bad times."

You simply can't tell how big it is, or how enormous that fire damage is.

When Donald and I had been here 18 months earlier we had taken a little walk to the Seqouia graveyard. It was about a mile roundtrip hike, not all pleasant. But we had enjoyed it so much and it was early morning that we decided to risk that there might be some whining.

It is a VERY cool walk. It is where they cut down Seqouias in the 20's before realizing they are impossible to cut down, no good for wood, and should be just left alone.

And beautiful.

Can you imagine if the forest was clear cut??????????

You see my 3 girls in there?

Just chillin' on a tree. No big deal.

This is me standing on the railing trying desperately to get high enough to get the whole stump and not even getting a tiny fraction of it.

Hello, pine cone.

I didn't see any signs to take the pine cones but really, who could fit them in a suitcase if they wanted one???

My Hercules:

There ended up being no whining on this walk at all. Because it was early in the day, no one was on the paths, and there are so many things to see, the mile flew by and Donald and I knew our girls were ready and old enough to hike a bit more than a few 1/4 mile hikes or one longer one. They could handle a 2-3 mile hike.

We then began our descent. This hike is actually just outside the park. So once back at our car, we headed down. It's an amazing drive and totally different than what we'd already driven through. Of course it was. Every tiny corner of California is unique and amazing.

So, so beautiful.

 

[Mommy2BnB]

I've been missing you. Glad you are back to finish! Those trees are just amazing! Hope I get the chance to see them one day.

 

[Torrance]

I love all the great pictures you guys got with all the huge trees! It looks like such a great trip!

After reading your 10 MORE reasons, I wasn't able to deny that I suffer from ALL the symptoms, including the new ones). DH and I got back from our honeymoon to WDW and now my mom and I are taking a "girls' trip" to DL at Christmas... after I said I wasn't going to make a trip for at least a year! Disney twice a year is becoming the new norm!

So excited to read the rest of your TR, and the newer one with the whole Suzy and Perla clan!

Oh, and I hope Boo is liking kindergarten and that the big girls are having a great school year so far!

 

[estherhead]

I've been missing you. Glad you are back to finish! Those trees are just amazing! Hope I get the chance to see them one day.

Awww, Thanks. I hope you do too.

I love all the great pictures you guys got with all the huge trees! It looks like such a great trip!

After reading your 10 MORE reasons, I wasn't able to deny that I suffer from ALL the symptoms, including the new ones). DH and I got back from our honeymoon to WDW and now my mom and I are taking a "girls' trip" to DL at Christmas... after I said I wasn't going to make a trip for at least a year! Disney twice a year is becoming the new norm!

So excited to read the rest of your TR, and the newer one with the whole Suzy and Perla clan!

Oh, and I hope Boo is liking kindergarten and that the big girls are having a great school year so far!

Ha ha to you sharing my addiction. The scariest part for me is Boo is more addicted than me. Last night when we were picking a movie for her to watch (so we could play a board game without her destroying it) she chose a Disney promotional video from 3 years ago.

She is finally enjoying K. She struggled the first week. She felt it a big waste of time to learn to sit quietly and obey rules. She can already sit quietly and raise her hand and could not understand why they would waste a whole week learning such dumb things when the only reason she agreed to go to Kindergarten was to learn to read. But this week it's gotten better. They started learning about the letter S and how sneaky it is and that is productive enough for her to forgive her teacher for wasting her time last week.

I've been delayed a tiny bit by Donald's computer breaking and having to be sent to Apple. He's the one with all the pictures on his computer. I've tried to decide if I should wait for it or just carry on with only my photos. I've not 100% decided yet, but I probably will just use mine. You won't even know what you're missing. And I won't have to have even more delays.

As for our other trip, I've decided to write my TR differently for that one. Instead of day by day hour by hour, I'm going to do chapters on subjects. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Mommy2BnB]

Glad Boo is liking Kindergarten now. Can't wait to read about the rest of this trip and the next one!

 

[estherhead]

I'm so sorry for being such a loser. Clearly my life is no longer my own. I have done this little video of our WDW surprise, however. I think you have to watch it on a computer, not an ipad for some reason. But hopefully it is a small condolence for me being such a bad blogger as of late.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCb-Y3ydsJk&feature=em-share_video_user

 

[knitster]

I'm so sorry for being such a loser. Clearly my life is no longer my own. I have done this little video of our WDW surprise, however. I think you have to watch it on a computer, not an ipad for some reason. But hopefully it is a small condolence for me being such a bad blogger as of late.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCb-Y3ydsJk&feature=em-share_video_user

I was doing fine, until that darn "Good Life" song, and then...I cried. Ugh! It gets me every time!!

 

[Laura Loves Tigger]

Very cool! Looks like you had a wonderful trip!

 

[estherhead]

I was doing fine, until that darn "Good Life" song, and then...I cried. Ugh! It gets me every time!!

I love that song. The original version of our video had the Wreck it Ralph song When Can I See You Again on it but YouTube wouldn't let us do it with copyright issues.

Very cool! Looks like you had a wonderful trip!

Thanks. We had a great trip! Especially for a cheap on the fly trip.

 

[estherhead]

First and foremost, before I start this chapter, I lost my notes in an iphone debacle. So from here on out you are all on your own as far as the accuracy of this report. My memory is not what my iphone's memory is. Though clearly it is more resilient. But not as prone to accuracy.

As we headed down the mountain from Sequoia my poor little ears were freaking out. I am deaf in my left ear and have always had inner ear issues. So dropping such extreme altitude so quickly was not good for me and I swear I thought I was going to vomit. I looked up on line altitude sickness and they were all in unison. DRINK WATER! So when we stopped for gas, I grabbed a bottle of water and sucked it down as fast as I could. I was so surprised that when I was only half way through that bottle I felt better.

Lesson learned for my next mountainous national park trip. We are taking food and water into the parks, bears or not.

Once in Fresno I found a convenient In n Out Burger so my girls could enjoy the experience.

California had already started putting their calories on their menus. I thought it was wonderful here where the menu is small and simple. But at the bigger menu places, McDonalds and Taco Bell it was downright confusing. Calories are now coming to our local McDonalds and Taco Bells but they have worked out the kinks and it is much clearer. On this trip I actually struggled to find what items were for sale and how much they cost.

Fortunately In n Out only sells three things. Burgers, fries, and shakes. We ordered all three in multiple varieties and chowed down. This In N Out was CRAZY busy. CRAZY. I cannot begin to emphasize that enough. The line was out the door, the people were running around like mad.

It was so hot, though, that despite the madness, we ate inside. It was amazing to think in the blastedly hot Fresno that it was snowing in Yosemite. Boo and I split a burger and fries and strawberry shake. Yum! The only other time I've eaten at one of these place I shared with Donald and when I went to the bathroom, he at the whole burger minus a bite! So this time I made sure to share with Boo. That way I'd have the upper hand in the sharing.

After going to the potty, we headed up the mountain. Now, it was here I made my second mistake because of those stupid bears. I didn't want to bother with food and the bears. So we didn't get any. And as you will discover, that was a huge problem. Oy! These national parks and food.

It was about a 2.5 hour drive. Breathtaking, of course. Boo watched a movie and the rest of us looked out the windows. Before we knew it, we were in Yosemite.

Having just done Sequoia, we opted to skip over Mariposa and head to Wawona. I wasn't sure how entertaining it would be since school wasn't out yet and they didn't have their summer programs running. But oh how wrong I was to be worried.

Across the street and this adorable covered bridge, was a wonderful village.

Can you imagine touring the national parks in the cold in one of these?

I heard a loud, strong voice coming from the first building we came across so being the curious person I am, I stuck my head in. Inside was a man in red long johns and dungarees instructing these boys in work ethics. "What did you call me?" "Sir, yes sir!" Very military instruction.

Yosemite is just one gorgeous photo op after another. And that is not an exageration. It's just silly. It's silly to have a camera. Because you can't deal with the imagery coming in your head, in your camera. You want to say when people are looking at your pictures, "I wish you could understand You just don't UNDERSTAND!"

Look at the sunlight dappled grass, strewn with purple flowers and pine cones next to the authentic log cabin:

What all the kids were doing was working. I guess you in the local schools can volunteer to learn at the village. It was HARD work they had these kids doing but I guess if you really hate math, it's a way to not be in school.

This boy was carrying bucket after bucket of water to the laundry area. I'm not sure he was supposed to let us help him but I wanted my girls to feel just how heavy pumping water and carrying those buckets was. I, also, wanted to know so I too carried buckets. The one laundry supervisor lady saw us but turned a blind eye to my having sweet talked him into letting us help.

Those buckets were HEAVY and the laundry was far away. I know not really, but it felt that way. I couldn't help but ponder the lands where the only village well is a mile from town. No wonder the women learn how to carry things on their heads. And no wonder they bring the laundry to the rivers! It'd be way easier to bring the supplies and dirt clothes to the river than the water to the stuff. I wondered how many people on earth right now have running water. And how many have access to clean water to do laundry. But at least in Yosemite it was gorgeous while you worked. Trade offs I suppose.

Next we went into the kitchen which was quite the funny scene as the teachers really didn't know what they were doing either in the basic little kitchen.

Having been to Williamsburg, Va recently we didn't have too much empathy for the Yosemite cooks. Their stove was downright modern in comparison to the 1775 version. Plus in Williamsburg it is 106 degrees outside. So the kitchen was probably over 120. In Yosemite, at least in May, it was a perfect temperature in the kitchen, perhaps a little warm. But I imagine 9 months out of the year it was where everyone wanted to be. And with thebig windows and beautiful views, you know what? Even without running water, I'd take that kitchen right now (without the full time job and cell phones, of course.) It was a great kitchen.

We were also allowed to work with these hot coals! They let you get very up close and personal in Wawona. It was great!

After trying several jobs and watching the kids do more, we headed back to car and on up the road. We all voted and agreed to have our scones we had grabbed at breakfast at the Glacier Point overlook. It was about a 45 minute drive, but worth it.

 

[taymaesmom]

Yay! Your back! Totally missed your report!

The village is amazing. I have always thoroughly enjoyed pioneer villages, the closest one to us is Lincoln's Old Salem and I love every inch of that place. Its neat you got to "help" too.

 

[estherhead]

It was quite the long drive to Glacier Point. Halfway down the road I got concerned that it had been a mistake to make my kids do a 1.5 hour drive for just a view. And I remained nervous throughout that last 20 minutes. There wasn't a lot to be seen, it was just forest, and if it was lame, there were gonna be some cranky people on the drive back to the main road.

The parking lot was HUGE. We found a spot quite a ways down near the bathroom. We all went and then headed up the hill. The parking lot was laid out in plateaus. As we crest over the hill to the next parking plateau, there was another potty. Only at that one there was a very long line. Ours had had no line at all. Being the nice person I am, I announced to that line that there was a nearby potty (and pointed) that had no line. One couple started to move, but didn't leave. That's right. No one left the line. I wanted to stay there and convince them but Donald felt it was time to move on.

This was interesting to me and I pondered it. People often ask on here why people do this or that at Disney World. Why do they stand in standby lines that are longer that FP lines? Why do they spend $10,000 and not do one bit of research to discover there are actually 4 parks and Universal is not part of Disney? And so on.

And I think many of these questions can be answered by two truths about many people. One: they prefer to deal with the known that can be seen but is inferior than the unknown that can't be seen that is superior. Because if they can't see it, how can they be sure it's superior? And Two: they struggle with adapting to new data. The way it has been is the way it always is.

I think a lot of confusing things about human nature is summed up in the above. Despite the fact that I had given them new data about a line free potty, they couldn't adapt to such data. They had to continue in the path in which they are already traveling. And, though I had absolutely no reason to trick them and therefore was a believable and reliable resource, they knew they were 10 people back in this line and they could see exactly what this line meant to their life. Whereas what I was offering, though surely superior, they could not see. If they trusted me, and I had lied, they would be 20 people from using the potty when they came back to this line.

Of course, it really is none of business how people take care of their business. It's just that I find human nature so fascinating. And how humans react in crowds is even more fascinating to me. If I had of been more compelling, had I convinced just one person to leave that line, many others would have followed. But because no one did, no one else did. So interesting.

We left the bathroom scene behind, passed a building that I believe housed ice cream since many people had ice cream cones, and walked up to the view.

You be the judge. Was this worth a 45 minute drive?

Curry Village in the valley where we would be spending the night:

Here we are enjoying the view and our scones:

At this lookout there were many, many French. I didn't see any big tour buses so I'm not sure if it was just a French holiday or what. The interesting thing about the French is their photography. We have a good friend who is from France and whenever we go see things with him we get really cool pictures. Because they like to interact with their scenes.

You know how you see people pretending to hold up the Tower of Pisa, or hold the sun in their hands? It's all about depth and perception of the viewer. That is how the French take pictures. It's fascinating. It made me want to take more interesting pictures with my family. But I was so comfortable in my little spot, enjoying my thoughts and the scenery, that I decided to just watch them do it instead. Plus, I'm not French, so I'm not very good at it. You are always able to tell that my kids are really just standing right in front of me and not actually pushing Half Dome.

Here is my creative shot of my family:

Woohoo! They are sitting on a rock. Yup.

But it is a rock in an excellent location if you are wanting to just sit on a rock.

Boo was terrifying on these rocks. They just hang over a giant cliff. And she scrambled all over them like a mountain goat. After me having multiple heart attacks and her not paying one bit of attention to me, Donald decided to just go with her.

We were VERY right at Moro Rock to not let her let go of our hands. She would have died for sure.

On our way back to the car, we spied a penny machine. So we got some for our Disney collection.

People were at both potties when we went back to the car. So perhaps someone with more influence than me stood there and convinced them to split up. Or maybe the newcomers to the park were smarter than the previous tourists. Or maybe no one in the first line spoke English. Who knows?

The drive back seemed quicker as we knew the way and I wasn't nervous it was a waste of time. And then we turned towards the valley.

You drive through a big tunnel (we always hold our breath) to enter the valley. And right at the end of it is another parking lot for tunnel view. This isn't very intelligent as you have to cross the street for the view as people are popping out of a tunnel. I didn't want to cross this street. It seemed like a very bad idea. But you just can't really see the view from the parking lot so we crossed the street and no one hit us.

From there we moved on the Bridalveil Falls. Blissful Sigh.

I love following babbling rivers down wooded paths to raging waterfalls. LOVE. I absolutely love this. I would be hard pressed to decide between spending 4 hours sitting on the beach watching the ocean or 4 hours hiking through the woods to a gorgeous waterfall.

Bridalveil had a well laid parking lot, and a huge, wide pathway to it. An excellent walk for a family.

As you get close the mist hits you. It is such a big and powerful waterfall. Spectacular!

And when we got really close I switched to my iphone as it was more of a soaking than a misting and I was a little concerned for my camera.

Boo in her rainbow shirt under a rainbow. Perfect.

After our short little, unbelievably enjoyable waterfall walk, it was time to do something less enjoyable. Check in.

I read horror stories on TripAdvisor of Curry Village. It's HUGE! Gianormous. With multiple campgrounds and stores, etc. And if you go the wrong way you have to go all the way around as it's a one way loop. But with just a little confusion we found our way to the right parking lot. Kind of. And walked through some trees next to some canoes.

The check in log cabin was packed with a giant line our the door. I stood in line with a couple who lived in Sacramento and came often. They told me that they had planned on visiting Tuolumne Meadows but a heavy snowfall had shutdown Tioga Pass. Wow. And to think it was 100 in Fresno where I had been that day. It's like a different universe just 3 hours away.

The family went to check out the area and see if they could find food. But, alas, no. It was finally my turn and I got the longest lecture I've ever had on any subject while not actually in a classroom on bears. No wonder the line is so long. And I had to sign MULTIPLE papers that said I understood a bear could eat me and my family at any moment. I happily signed and got my keys and hopped out of there.

We drove to the correct parking lot and dragged any and all bags out that might contain any and all toiletries or food. We locked away our toothpaste and terrifying bear bait things like lipstick in our bear box outside our tent and went in to see our room.

I had paid extra for the luxury tent. And was glad as that heater was very handy.

We found the potty which was nearby and easy to find as it was right next to a giant rock and then I wanted to take Boo to a children's ranger program that was happening.

On our way:

Coming up... Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La

 

[estherhead]

One of the most enduring memories from this entire trip was just a tiny little thing. Isn't it always?

I wanted to do this ranger program for kindergarteners as I like to do ranger programs. There was no real description in the magazine, just the time and age range. So we didn't know what to expect. And the family was still hungry and the only available food at off times was pizza, expensive pizza, when they were not interested in. But I pushed for the ranger program. It was in the outdoor main ampitheater facing Glacier Point where we had just been. Our timing was excellent and the children were just assembling on stage.

Boo went on up and a girl ranger came out and began telling a story about a worm. It was just a normal story and the girl wasn't that great of a story teller. But about 5 minutes in she ducks behind the wall and comes back as the worm. And this is where things got interesting.

Somehow the worm costumer had changed her from being kind of a loser story teller to being a Yosemite worm. And after a self conscious giggle, she lost herself and became one with the worm.

This, naturally, engaged the children. And they began to truly listen, to mimic what she had to say. And were therefore more than willing to follow the worm where ever she may wander.

The name of the worm is Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La. And while walking around they began to chant, getting louder and louder: "Tu-Tok, Tu-Tok, Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La." And again, "Tu-Tok, Tu-Tok, Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La." And once more, "Tu-Tok, Tu-Tok, Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La." (if you are chanting in your head while reading this, the emphasis is on the Tok. Two-TALK-a-new-la.) All around they walked and chanted, bending their knees as they marched pretending to be the little worm inching his way up the great El Capitan (originally called Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La by the indigenous indians, renamed El Capitan by the Spaniards.)

It was absolutely adorable and Boo LOVED it. We have chanted that chant so many times it's not even funny.

Once the program was over, we wanted to go get some burgers. We hopped on the bus. The buses here are great. Just like Disney World.

Sadly, when we got off at the food court type place, they were all closed. Curse the national parks and their food system!!!!! I can't help it that we are from Ohio and on a different time schedule than you people. We went to the grocery store but it was cost prohibitive for food we didn't really want. So we just got snacks and headed back to our own area to settle for pizza, the only thing open at non-meal times.

Still hungry, we found seats for evening ranger program at the amphitheater and Mulan and I headed over to get dinner. Disillusioned but too hungry to care anymore what we ate. The pizza was very good. Whatcha gonna do? We should have just eaten what was given to us to begin with.

The program for the evening was called Firefall. And it was a movie and discussion and history lesson of when there was a hotel on Glacier Point (which made perfect sense, there should be a hotel on glacier point.) They used to get a big giant fire going and then a guy would use a shovel type pusher thing and in with a rhthmyic motion push the coals off the mountain so that below in the valley it looked like a water fall made of fire. It was really cool and we now also say, "Let the Fire Fall!!!!" Just like Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La, you have to say this just right. You have to shout it, and the "fire" is dragged out with the "fall" super dragged out.

Hope all you readers are playing along with my great verbal descriptions of how to say my TR outloud. Hopefully you aren't reading this from your ipad while watching tv with your families. And they all start looking at you, saying, 'What fire???"

It was pretty cool to imagine Curry Valley mid-century crammed full of even more people. I wish I had seen the Fire Fall. It sounds amazing.

After that, we headed to bed, making sure to lock our toothbrushes up nice and tight. At one point I sat the baggie down on the chair and then Donald set his backpack on them. I then couldn't find them to put them away and was on a crazy rampage searching and searching for them so they wouldn't be in our tent luring the bears to come eat us while we slept. All the girls swore up and down that they hadn't lost them but I didn't believe them. Finally I moved the backpack and discovered it was all Donald and I from start to finish. Then we locked them up and went to bed.

I really do hate bears.

I slept quite well. And when I got up, I turned on the heater so we could get dressed in relative warmth.

I end this chapter with a story that happened 8 weeks later. I was sitting at home reading USA Today on my ipad and there was this interesting article about Hantavirus. I was feeling so bad for the schmucks that might contact such a dreadful disease while on vacation. I was at home because I had a dreadful cough and fever. Which just happen to be the symptoms of hantavirus. And it kills you. So I clicked on the article to read further.

Turns out it was an outbreak at Yosemite for people who stayed in the nice tent cabins in June and July. Wait a minute, that's me. AND it takes weeks and week to incubate. So I could be sick. And dying. And not know it.

I went and checked our dates, and we had actually been in Curry Village at then end of May and were therefore safe.

But here is the thing I found so intriguing. Rats and mice cause Hantavirus. And they come to the tents because there is food and snacks they can smell in those bear boxes.

So the whole time I was rearranging my packing life to avoid bears killing me, I was luring rats to my tent. There have been NO deaths in all of Yosemite at the hands of bears in the past 20 years (at least that I could find online.) There were 3 deaths from rats in the actual 100 tent cabins around me in the month that I was staying there.

Explain to me why I had to repack?

As a final note on this subject, we weren't allowed to keep our lipstick and shampoo in the car as bears might attack the car to get the lipstick. And since it was a rental, I really didn't want to pay for bear damage. However, because I have a 5 year old, when we went back to get in the car she had left an open bag of chips under the seat. Rental car was fine. No bear damage.

When I next go back to Yosemite (and I surely will, it's FANTASTIC!) I will A) bring all my own food into the park. B) listen and be intelligent about bear precautions, but not be militant about it.

Because from my own experience, rats are more dangerous than bears.