Yosemite

So Yosemite was terrible and fabulous and I'm already mentally circling items in the REI catalog and pondering when Bode will be old enough that he sleeps like a normal person and we can go back.

The terrible part was that we put Bode to bed in his pack and play at 7pm and he woke up around midnight and basically didn't sleep again after that.  I thought bringing him into bed with Chris and I would keep him calm and it did, but it seemed to also preclude sleep.  I did it anyway because we were staying in the tent cabins in Curry Village and letting him cry at all would mean waking up like 100 people.  So basically I didn't sleep at all starting around midnight that day and at 4:30 gave up and got up with Bode and tried to just feel grateful that at least the sun rose really early and Yosemite is a beautiful place to see a sunrise.

So we can't go back until Bode can sleep like a normal person.  And when we go back I want to do actual tent camping.  We went through the Lower Pines campground and it was so much nicer than Curry Village.  You have to bring your own tent and gear but it's much less densely packed and just seemed all around more peaceful.  Hence the tent/REI shopping I'm mentally doing.

So Bode and I hiked to Yosemite Falls for sunrise (that little brat slept the whole way, only waking up when we arrived at the falls and I stopped pushing and was about to lay down on a bench to snooze).  And of course it was phenomenally beautiful.  Then we walked back to CV and picked up Geneva who was wide awake also and we all went and had breakfast together in the center of camp and then I couldn't stand it any more and went and woke everyone else up and made them get ready to go.

Oh, I should mention that the only thing that kept me chill in the 4:30-9am hours was my resolution that we were NOT staying a second night no matter what we had paid for it.  Turns out CV is so easy for Yosemite to fill that they give a full refund as long as you check out by 11am.  After we were packed up, Yenny, Geneva and I took the bus to Happy Isles for the Nevada Falls hike.  This was her favorite part of the entire trip.  That kid, I swear.  Sometimes I can't understand how she can be related to me.  Hates hiking, loves riding buses.  We had brought the folder bike and the jogging stroller/bike cart and Chris just biked Bode over to Happy Isles.  He said the biking was one of his favorite parts of the whole trip, so next time I want to figure out how to get bikes for everyone up there.

Anyway, we schlepped Bode and Geneva up to the Mist Trail and were there by noon thanks to the early rising.  I pushed Bode in the jog stroller and Chris carried/cajoled Geneva up that amazingly steep trail.  For the actual stairs part I carried Bode (Chris still carried Geneva) and I was very grateful that I have been doing so much running because it still seemed like a pretty easy hike in spite of all that extra weight.

After hiking we took another bus (Chris and Bode biked) over to the base of Yosemite Falls so that the folks who hadn't yet seen it could do so.  After Yosemite Falls we went back to Curry Village, ate pizza, and then finally headed home and I was in bed at midnight.  This one day felt like one of the longest ones of my whole life.  Pretty good overall although I could have done without the midnight-5am parts especially.

So, note to me for the future: Bring bikes, Stay in Lower Pines (or probably Upper Pines), try to convince someone to come with us who doesn't want to hike and just wants to play in the river with Geneva.

And I really want to go stay at Yosemite for more than just a couple of days.  I want to hike in the back country to Clouds Rest and finally see Tuolumne and all these great places.  I would love to do it with the kids but I'm not optimistic about my ability to mesh my hiking style with Geneva's (I'm very go-get-em, she's very casual). Maybe Bode will be really gung-ho about hiking?  Or maybe it'll be a good time for the kids to go stay with grandparents.

Playing with the train set