YOSEMITE

Oh dear, my poor old blog has been shoddily abandoned…. I’ve been busy, very busy, my parents arrived a week ago, and things have been pretty hectic since then! Two days after they got here, we left for Yosemite National Park for 3 days, and I’m still getting over the whole experience. This is, after all, the park that President Abraham Lincoln took time out for during the Civil War, to visit and declare a national park for the American people. And what a fantastic, amazing, awesome place! There is nothing that could prepare you for such an onslaught of magnificent beauty and sheer greatness of nature. We’d done our research, seen pictures, thought we knew what to expect, and then – wham! We drove up the hills, along windy roads through forests and past vast expanses of pretty countryside, around a corner, and were hit with the most stunning view I’ve ever seen. And we were so lucky with the weather! Blue skies with dramatic white cloud formations only added to the whole picture of natural beauty. The girls loved it too, although they would have been happy just with the amount of rocks they could climb on. And the second day, although it couldn’t possibly top the wow effect of day one, didn’t disappoint either. It was my dad’s birthday, and I don’t think he’ll ever forget it. What a glorious location to celebrate! First thing we did was see more redwoods (F and I decided to stayed behind as she’d chucked up her breakfast the minute she got out of the car, and we were both covered in what had been yogurt and cereal an hour before, and were too busy cleaning ourselves up). By lunchtime she’d recovered though, and proceeded to eat a few slices of birthday cake, sat on a log in the middle of a river bank right in Yosemite Valley, one of the most scenic picnic locations you could imagine. And in the afternoon, the skies darkened, and it started to rain, thunder and lightning and all. The thunder seemed to ricochet through the valley from mountain to mountain, an amazing effect, and a perfect cue for us to leave. But we’ll be back, I think the park is something to be experienced in every season, there’s so much still to discover. And I’m already looking forward to that.