Yosemite

Today was our final day to have fun on LWOW. We spent yesterday traveling from the San Francisco area to our cabin (koa kamping kabin) outside of Yosemite National Park. We took our time packing up (for the last time!!) and then walked over to the Pacific Ocean one last time. It was a very special time. The kids ran around the beach chasing each other and running away from the waves, and Michael and I got to watch them from a distance and reflect on all that we had done. 

WE DID LWOW. Ba bam! The trip was no longer an idea or a notion....but an actual thing that we did. 

LWOW: we came. We saw. We conquered.  I got very emotional about the end of our time on the Pacific Coast and what leaving the beach meant that morning as we turned toward the east and started home. 

This was the picture from our final morning of camping. We camped at 4 different tent sites, slept in 2 different cabins, slept in our car 2 nights, friends houses for 4 nights and will have 1 hotel room on the way home.  I will not miss, in any way, packing up our campsite. It is a lot of work. The first time, it took us over 2 hours. By the final morning at campsite number 4, we had it down to just under 1.5 hours. 

At our cabin near Yosemite, we cooked s'mores on the charcoal grill because no campfires were allowed here. Not the tastiest s'mores I've ever had, that's for sure! 

Thursday morning we packed up our cabin and drove 30 minutes into Yosemite. I had been indoctrinated by everyone (every.one.) I had ever met in my life (who had already been to Yosemite) that it would be the most (the most!) majestic and amazing place I could ever hope to go. 

And you know what? They were pretty much right. It is an amazing place. It is majestic. But I was so tired (we all were) and we had such a limited amount of time to be there that I could not find it within myself to get fired up about Yosemite in a proper way. Perhaps if we had been to Yosemite at the beginning of our trip, I could've fallen in love with it like everyone else. 

The two main attractions are Half Dome (8,000+ foot tall sheer rock/granite faced mountain/cliff thing) and El Capitan (another tall rocky thing.). They were spectacular. We drove to the top of one of the lookouts (glacier point) and got a great view of the whole shebang, took some pictures, then drove back down to the valley to check out a few waterfalls and the visitor center. 

And then? It was officially time to go. Wah wahhhhhhh....

The trip home is a beast in its own right--we have approximately 2,200 miles to go. We are currently 1/3 of the way through with that (I'm writing this in the middle of the night) and hope to be home sleeping in our own beds by Saturday night!!