englishrose47
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2007
Did I sub to this ?????
Don't know about THAT......but you probably tried to torpedo your way in Alte Frau! (see......I HAVE "learnt" more German than just hmpf)Did I sub to this ?????
Yes, that will be wonderful. I really hate I won't be seeing you any time soon.....probably for a long long time. .....at least NOW that is. Hmpf.......And Marv, I am very impressed on your language skills! Looking forward to chatting with you in German the next time I see you!
Well then he is a keeper...
I missed that the fan was ON at first ----- OUCH. I guess for me I am not usually in the way of ceiling fans. If I were in danger other people might get their heads chopped off!!!
I am glad you were okay and yes I have been attacked by the hoodie too and gotten stuck.
Why are those things so hard to back over your head???
Looks like a lovely day with a great tour, minus perhaps the tour guide. You got some great pictures and yes a place I would love to visit. A simple and "safe" dinner looked okay - like you said hard to really mess it up.
The mountain lion is even more scared of you. Or so they say.
Seeing the Milky Way at Bryce Canyon remains one of our travel highlights.
I heard the spring was a good time, to catch it when the snow is melting. If, you know, there is any snow.
Wow... amazing to see the effects of the drought like that.
BLASPHEMY!!!!
Once I was in a restaurant in California and they offered a "steak sandwich" on the menu. I ordered it and received a piece of sirloin steak and one slice of garlic bread.
It reminds me quite a bit of the Old Faithful Inn.
5:00 p.m.? That does seem incredibly early to close
Yeah...you really can't avoid that. It would be nice if the food was better at those prices.
Wow, that's a stunning photo!
This was worth posting for both the view and the hair!
Again? Doesn't he already sleep till noon every morning?
Might want to go back to that "how much I adore you" bit again...
Oooh! Teach us some German profanity!
That truly is a missed opportunity. Can you re-enact this episode, with the 80's hair too?
Yes, the conditions weren't much better when I was there. This is also the case where I live and we have numerous waterfalls in the area. Late spring after the heavier rains is always the best time to view them, just like the Yosemite area after the snows melt.
I agree with Michael...........yeah, not so much!
Definitely one of my top tourist destinations!
What? Where's that lettuce infused bun you have shown a propensity for???
Okay children, let's play nice........
That was my first thought too. Disney buses come around pretty often too...........just not necessarily headed to the park you are trying to visit.
Sadly, I'm guessing very few people take advantage of this feature...........
So did you take advantage???
Very spacious.........sorta like Biergarten.
Simply gorgeous!!!
USA! USA! USA!
Yes, I got that impression with the very sedate people you like to dine with at 50's Prime Time..........
Hey, she has a sense of humor. The time we hung out a lot at Disney I found myself laughing at her quite a bit! Oh, maybe that was for a totally different reason..........
Sharing a sunset is always a nice way to put a ribbon on a good day!
Unfortunately I didn't get to spend any time in Yosemite at night, but I did get a few good early morning pictures.
Oh, gotta LOVE that hair!!! You should go back to that style...........
Half undressed and an image that would sear into one's consciousness??? I'm pretty sure she would be more than just a global sensation........
We have Granita over here. I assume it's very similar.
That would be the reason for stopping in Tulare.
I love sequoias too!!!
Poor Cap Oblivious.
Bwa ha ha ha ha.
Lucky you! Love being able to see bears in the wild.
Eucalyptus trees are like that too.
You and M kept driving with that tyre??? YIKES!
That always surprises me as well that in all NP I visit in the US, there are always more international visitors than Americans.
Why does everyone always have to update like crazy while we are on vacation?
But none the less, I am finally all caught up again and again too much to comment on, just want to say that the scenery is just breathtaking and I love that photo of you and your aunt. Memories!
I just need to get close enough, close enough. Last year the conference was in Palm Springs and we did Disney, and San Diego before heading out to Palm Springs. Most times due to getting time away from work, I can only add a few days to the conference.
Keeping up!!
Awesome, you told me Justin time!
WOW! I guess once in a while you can get rather lucky with shots. There have been some good ones with my phone I've gotten too. Rare, but it does happen.
I know I will catch flack from Rosie for this, but..............
Because they're all busy reading when you're updating like crazy the rest of the time...........???
For a few years now I've been coached by the best!
Yeah, definitely don't ask Pat for confirmation..........she lies!
That is my claim and is absolutely true , I have never or anyone else ever accused you of being innocent
I remember that on this vacation my aunt asked me why I did not use any conditioner and I had no idea what this was as in Germany conditioners were not available - yet. I came home with three or four bottles of conditioner and was so happy to have found something that made my hair manageable! It wasn't until around 1990 that I was able to get conditioner in Germany.
Keeping my fingers crossed for getting close enough! Where is this years conference?
Or as we would say in German: Even the blind chicken finds a corn now and then.
Pat lies??? I would have always thought that she is such a honest person!!!!
The ceiling fan incident the previous evening made me afraid that this would disturb my plans for the next day, but I was very happy when I woke up and my fingers felt fine.
The problem was that during our days there, there was a real heatwave happening. The temperatures were in the high 90s every day.
I jumped on a shuttle bus and it took me about 25 minutes to get to the start of the trail.
As you can see, there is not a lot of water, but there is still a decent amount of water in this waterfall!
And then my camera died! I thought it was broken, but luckily it turned out that it only had lost all of its battery.
And I had made it up there in one hour and 15 minutes.
And the other one was to make my way over to the John Muir Trail that would then lead me back to the valley, so this would be a loop then instead of climbing down all those stairs.
Top of Vernal Fall
Distance: 2.4 mi (3.9 km) round trip (via Mist Trail)
Elevation gain: 1000 ft (300 m)
Difficulty: Strenuous
Time: 3 hours
I first had to cross the river that originate from the waterfall:
The trail started out with a nice climb, not too bad:
But then the stairs started! And soon I got a view of the waterfall:
And then my camera died! I thought it was broken, but luckily it turned out that it only had lost all of its battery. Not sure how that happened as I had charged it. But, I was happy that I still had my phone with me.
I was totally on my own. At first it did not bother me, but then I started to think of bears and mountain lions and I got really scared!!
By now, I was really really scared! I kept making noises on my own, hoping that if any bear was around that that would scare them away.
I started to go down then and by now there were a million people coming up!
I saw so many people with flip flops!! Who would ever think about any kind of trail in the countryside that should be walked in flip flops????
Michael found a place to climb down to the river and sat there a little while to put his feet into the water. He came back and told me that his feet are now very happy – and that’s how this place became Happy Feets instead of Happy Isles!
Then Michael got quite excited because we saw something on the trail that he, as the expert, recognized as bear droppings (or bear poo – but not Winnie!).
I guess they really want people to not use their own cars when in Yosemite Valley!
We shared this and it was definitely a portion that was large enough to share! It was really good!
They have a dress code and people definitely followed the dress code, even though they were in a National Park. There was someone playing on a grand piano. There were candles on the tables, the service was excellent, the food was very good. We had so many fantastic meals during this trip, but this definitely belongs in the top 5.
I was very happy when I woke up and my fingers felt fine.
Unless you have a really early start – mornings were quite bearable as it cooled down nicely during the night. I guess, you all will see where Michael’s problem with that scenario was. And I think splitting up was the smart thing to do. This way, I could start as early as I wanted instead of being annoyed that Michael was not moving as early as I would have wanted, which would then have resulted in both of us being grumpy (one because of the early morning, the other because the morning was not early enough) and then having to hike in the hot weather.
Upon arrival at Happy Isles I saw that this was really quite an interesting spot, too.
The reason why I wanted to do this hike is that I think I did this with my aunt in the 80s. I remember that we walked to one spot together and then I hiked up some more on my own. Looking at my photo album of that trip, I don’t have any pictures. But there is a postcard of Vernal fall next to a strip of film with a notice from the photo service that this roll was damaged and that’s why they did not develop those pictures. Seems an indicator that my pictures from Vernal Falls are lost. But I did not write anything in that album…
I don’t understand people who litter along the trail, but here I came across the most bizarre piece of garbage left on the side of the trail:
Some people asked me to take their picture and then they were nice enough to take mine as well. After that was done and they had started to move again, I heard that they were actually talking German to each other. That was funny as we had spoken English the whole time!
There were two options: One was to go up to Nevada Fall, which was the next water fall, kind of one level up. And the other one was to make my way over to the John Muir Trail that would then lead me back to the valley, so this would be a loop then instead of climbing down all those stairs. I like loop trails. I never really approve of hiking back the same way that I came. Also, the other trail supposedly was less steep and I really was not looking forward to climbing down all those stairs.
So, when I got to the signpost that indicated the trail for the John Muir Trail, I decided to go this way.
And then I started to become more and more aware of the fact that while it had been really busy on that other trail, no one else was using this trail!! I was totally on my own. At first it did not bother me, but then I started to think of bears and mountain lions and I got really scared!!
I wouldn't worry about lions or bear, but I would worry about slipping and falling down a cliff with no one around to notify authorities
I knew that this trail was connecting to the other trail, the real John Muir Trail so I hoped that I would soon get there and then there would be more people. But that was not the case. So, after about 15 minutes I realized that what I was doing was not good and actually could be potentially dangerous! So, I turned around. By now, I was really really scared! I kept making noises on my own, hoping that if any bear was around that that would scare them away. Most likely I was not nearly noisy enough though. You should have used your scary sounds on the ceiling fan! But I made it down to the place where my trail split away without any difficulty. In hindsight this was really a stupid decision. I should have followed the trail to the bottom of Nevada Fall, where I would have had a beautiful view and the trail would have been far easier to walk.
I convinced Michael that we should go and check out the Happy Isles Nature Reserve, so this is what we did.
This lovely little stream can turn into some mighty river in different weather conditions. They had a display there about the streamgage they have there:
Michael found a place to climb down to the river and sat there a little while to put his feet into the water. He came back and told me that his feet are now very happy – and that’s how this place became Happy Feets instead of Happy Isles!
So, I finally saw a bear and a mountain lion during my wanderings. Luckily they were both not dangerous anymore!
We started out on the trail and very quickly it turned into a very sandy trail. This was not so good as we both were wearing sandals.
So, yes, it was caused by horses, not bears! And lots of it! It appeared that we had ended up on a horse riding trail!! It would have been really nice if they had put up a sign. We were getting really hot, the trail was horribly dusty and not good for walking in sandals anyway and then we had to deal with the horses’ stuff as well. This made us not very happy.
And then when we were already pretty grumpy we came across a group of riders that had stopped in the middle of the path. We were told that we should make our way past them. I am really not sure why they did not move. But we had to climb into the woods and kind of struggle along at least 12 horses.
On the way back we chose the road. This was much better!
We had made a reservation for dinner at the Ahwahnee Hotel dining room.
We had so many fantastic meals during this trip, but this definitely belongs in the top 5.
When we were done, we still had plenty of time before the shuttle service ended, so that worked out well. We got back to our room and sat outside on our patio with some of the Conundrum wine that we had picked up in Oakhurst and chatted. It was a perfect evening!