Sunday, April 19, 2009

Yosemite!?!

Exhausted.

Virginia City and Yosemite aren't that close together. Virginia City and Mariposa, California are even further apart.

Thanks to Ellie (who desperately needed to go out due to fajita leftovers), Steve and I got up early and took a wonderful walk around a very quiet Sunday morning Virginia City. We did a large loop and saw all kinds of wonderful old mining town architecture. We ended up at Cora's Coffee where we visited with a number of the locals.

Finally rolled out of VC around 11 am with plans to go as far as South Lake Tahoe and then figure it out. Did a drive by Lake Tahoe but opted not to stop. As we crossed into California, the friendly agent at the agricultural inspection station suggested the best route to Yosemite. We were going back and forth between Yosemite or San Francisco but with his suggestion, opted to skip the big city.

Beautiful drive through Angel's Camp and Chinese Camp and then on to Yosemite. My first time and Steve's first return in 30 years, especially momentous for him since he lived and worked there for a summer 31 years ago. No way I had any concept how big El Cap and Half Dome are. Due to the recent snows, the waterfalls are raging. We didn't get into the valley until 5:30 pm or so and most everything was closed for the day so after some half hearted attempts to find a camping spot, we opted to drive to El Portal where we got shot down due to the prevalent no pet policy.

Made me wish that we had just tried to sneak her in . . .

Drove on to Mariposa where we found a quite nice haven in the Mariposa Lodge where Ellie is legal. Had pizza delivered and now to bed, hopefully to arise early and make the trek back to Yosemite. We'll be very limited in what we can do due to the National Park Service's policies on dogs in National Parks but we knew that when we ventured out this way.

Just couldn't pass up the opportunity, even if it ends up being little more than a drive through.

Still trying to figure out how long we'll be here, where we're going next and whether I'm driving all the way home or flying home from somewhere between here and there.

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