Yosemite

We just returned from Yosemite National Park. It was, without a doubt, the most beautiful place I have ever visited. My world travels are more limited compared to Mike's but I think he was in agreement. To prove that statement, (Mike will agree and make fun of me at the same time) I cried when I first drove into the park. Yes, it brought me to tears. I'm a total loser but what can I do? It was just the most beautiful landscape I'd ever laid eyes on. We took hundreds of pictures-me with my modest Sony Cybershot and Mike with the designer camera complete with different lenses. He griped about not having a tripod with him as we watched the other nerdy tourists with theirs.

Fortunately, we could not have chosen a better time to go. The weather was glorious and there were NO CROWDS. The waterfalls were in full force having just had a warm up and snow melt. We opted to rent a house in the park. We are so glad we did-it was a darling place and it was much easier with Elise to come back to a house at the end of the day.

We saw different kinds of animals, many of which we could not capture on film because they ran off too quickly. A red fox (a bonus. sightings are rare and they are a threatened species), a black bear (which was actually brown), many deer (boring) and several different birds. The coyotes were out at night which I managed to capture on video but I won't post it-it's really boring... Mike drinking a beer on the patio with coyotes howling in the background.

Half Dome at twilight:

El Capitan=monolith

Yosemite Falls:

These birds were everywhere. I think it's called a Stellar's Jay:

Family in a carved out Sequoia tree:

Grizzly Giant..grrr. Reminded me of the scary tree in Poltergeist:

Holly & Lysie & a giant sequoia:

I honestly think E had more fun carrying sticks and poking things:

can a bear be nonchalant? I think this one was:

S'mores..mmmmm: