life: Weekend Trip

This past weekend we decided to do a weekend away. We bought a National Park Pass last year at Sequoia, and haven't been to any parks since then, so figured we should get another one in. Adam really wanted to go to Yosemite, so that's where we went. On Friday, Gabe & I picked Adam up from work and then we headed north. We stopped for pizza about halfway and then continued on our way. We spent the night in Mammoth Lakes. Our room was pretty nice (king bed, fireplace, a kitchenette with small stove, fridge, microwave, sink) although a little noisy. Can't imagine what it would cost during ski season - as it was right across the parking lot from one of the lodges and ski lifts.

Saturday morning we were up pretty early. The hotel didn't serve breakfast until 8 and since we were up & ready we didn't want to wait around for that so grabbed some McDs on our way to Yosemite. Gabe was not thrilled to be back in the car, but he did pretty well on on the couple hours it took to get there. We stopped for gas part way there, because we knew it would be higher in the park - we paid $4.95 a gallon!!! Yuck - but it was $5.05 in the park, so glad we did. It was pretty busy once we got in to the valley area, so we had to park in a lot that was further away from the main area we wanted to see. We had lunch in the car before loading up the stroller and walking over to the falls area. It was probably about a mile walk - they had shuttles, but they all looked pretty full and we had our big jogging stroller, so didn't think we'd fit on the bus. We checked out the visitor center and got our Yosemite stamps for our national parks passport book. Then we walked over to the falls area - which was super busy. But incredibly beautiful. It was so refreshing standing on the bridge over the river by the falls - it had gotten pretty warm out - and the water spray from the falls felt really good.

We headed back to one of the stores and got some ice cream treats. Then Adam went back to get the car. We had walked a good 3+ miles and between my knees and the altitude, I was pretty worn out. Of course Gabe fell asleep in his stroller about 5 minutes before Adam picked us up. :-/ We got loaded up in the car - of course Gabe woke up (finally fell asleep after over an hour of driving) - and took off back to Mammoth Lakes. We stopped at a little picnic area and had some sandwiches and stuff part way pack. By the time we got back, Adam and I were both exhausted - Gabe not so much. So Adam and Gabe went outside and ran around for a good half hour to wear Gabe out. Sunday morning we had breakfast at the hotel, checked out, then explored a little of Mammoth Lakes. We checked out some shops at the Village, Adam got a few things at the local brewery, and we had lunch at a little deli / bagel shop - which was super delicious! They even had mac & cheese for gabe, which was nice because he had mostly been eating watermelon and goldfish crackers. We also got a dozen bagels to go - yum! After lunch, we got on the road to come back to Tehachapi. Luckily Gabe fell asleep pretty quickly and slept for a good 1/3 of the drive back, so that was nice. It was a fun weekend, and I'm glad it worked out for us to go (which we didn't decide to go until mid-week last week, so luckily we found an available hotel with reasonable rates).

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzww x (Gabe wanted to type...)