Yosemite, Part 1

This past week Nader and I took the girls to Yosemite for their first official camping trip. The drive was long, 7 hours each way, but the girls are such seasoned travelers that they handled it well. The highlights from our trip included an awesome campsite near a stream, warm sunny days, a wild deer that came so close that Sahara got to pet it and tons of natural beauty. Low points included yellow jacket bees visiting us at every dinner, the girls going poo poo every hour (at least it felt that often) and an irritating malfunction of my bike. I took a million pictures of our trip so here's the first installment of our trip.

Here's our campsite near the stream.

Here's daddy trying to set up the tent while Sahara jumps on the air mattress. The girls were so crazy excited when we got to the campsite that they ran around like wild monkeys for the first couple of hours. It made it kinda hard to set up camp while this was going on. In the end the girls were covered with dirt. Nader and I agreed at that early point that there is no way to avoid this and we assured each other that we would wash everything including the girls when we got home.

Here's our home away from home. Wawona Campsite # 46 was our new address. The smaller tent was only for the girls to play in with their toys.

After a bone chilling first night (45 degrees) we drove into Yosemite Valley in the morning. Here's our first view once we drove out of the tunnel. Beautiful !!!

We brought our bikes and rode around the entire valley with the girls in tow. They were so excited and in awe of the beauty that they fell asleep.

Beautiful ! Pictures don't do it justice.

I think the open meadows provide the best views.

Here's I am leading the pack.

We stopped by a steam and had a picnic. Afterward the girls decided to play in the stream. Here's Sahara playing with rocks.

Sahara and Maya inching their way into the freezing cold water.

It didn't take very long before they were naked and soaked to the bone. Here's Sahara bringing me a rock she found in the water.

Another beautiful picture. This is god's country.

After riding around all day we visited the Ahwahnee Hotel before were headed back to our camp site. I have been told that the Shinning was filmed here. Creepy. Here's a picture of Sahara and Maya standing in a fireplace.

The next day we visited the Pioneer History Village in Wawona. Here's a family shot in front of the covered bridge.

Sorry for the reflection of the flash. If you can read this it is pretty cool. The bride was built in 1857.

They had a horse driven stage coach there that you could ride. This gave you a taste of how things were many years ago.

Family shot on a relic.

The girls loved the horses.

We visited the Wawona Hotel. Here's Maya dazzling us with her smile.

Here's another shot of the Wawona Hotel grounds.

Stay tuned we have more picture to come....