Yosemite, mini-trip

[napman]

I promised that I will put a thread about this trip, so here I am even if it's only small portion of what I first planned to do. But like they say things hardly go as planned. So here's the mini one that I still enjoy it more or less.

And certainly hope that you guys will enjoy it too, if I can make one of my friends here happy I'd consider myself that my mission is accomplished.

We planned to be here with friends and our daughter and her family but they couldn?t make it as planned. So here we are alone-together again after 30 years of togetherness as man and wife and that's not a bad thing neither.

So when we got there I had to scrape my plan of going up to Half Dome. Because it?d take at least 10-12 hrs to accomplish that and I don?t think it?s nice to leave my wife at the valley floor alone even if she said it?s OK with her.

We brought along our 2 bikes so we can bike around, there?re so many trails for you to explore until you drop down there besides taking free shuttle bus or simply walking around. So many bike and hiking trails and people of all ages tremendously enjoy their biking/hiking around.

The weather was very warm around mid 90s in day time and nicely cool at night, no mosquitos around. So quite a lot of kids and young at hearts can be found in Merced river and at Mirror lake or at Happy Isles to cool themselves off by the cold water that actually melted from snow up on the mountains.

I biked around almost all day and occasionally with my wife because she?s not that strong to do it all day and you will understand if you are a lady at 60 years of age!

This is my bike and me at the SMALL tree by the side of the road around Mirror lake area.


I biked to Happy Isles which is the gateway up to those wonderful places as this sign said.


Here?re just few pics at Happy Isles area.


I guess this kid just pondering what the heck he's going to do when he's growing up to be an adult like the others!


From that point, I parked my bike and hiked up to Vernal fall bridge and not much water at this time of this year.
I hiked up the famous Mist trail but not a single drop of mist at this time. You will definitely get soak and wet in May or June here!
Here?re some pics of the trail.




Here?s the dripping water Vernal fall itself.



I kept on climbing up to the top of Vernal fall, and here?s what I saw when looking down. (This was the spot where I scattered my Dad's ashes down the fall in July after he passed away in June 1995 because I knew in my heart that he'd love to be here. so part of him is here forever)


I just walked around to see the Emerald pond my favorite swimming spot. And took my time hanging around enjoy the scenery and stuffs.
And here it was.


In all I took about 100 pics and few of Videos but put only about 10 pics so you guys can easily see them in here because Muk said it takes longer to download pics in Thailand than in USA.

I went down to our camp site at Upper/Lower Pines (we got 2 nights at Upper and 1 night at Lower due to extremely hard to reserve the site condition) and went down to Merced river, wading, watching kids and old people of all ages enjoyed themselves in the river. Here?re one of the views there.




And here some of Mirror lake view with not much water but still enough for people to wading and swimming.


Well, this is just a simple and really mini-trip for these 3 days of relaxation, there are so many things for active people to have fun in this one-of-a-kind valley.
For me I've already expended 30 years of my life for at least once a year over there and still not getting tire of it.
So many trails to hike, to bike, so many places that you can literally get lost and would never be found all by yourself, with your loved ones or with your family,
I've been there every seasons of the year and each of them gave me so many good memories to cherish when I get too old to do these physical stuffs.
But I'm pretty sure I'll never get tired of at least dream about "My personal playground" in my death bed whenever that will come and I'll be gone with smile on my face.