Day Three - Monday Aug 17th

Our third day in Yosemite was also Tamara's birthday.  20 years old!  Nowhere better to celebrate the moment than with the family in the great outdoors.  This turned out to be one of my favorite days in the Park. The first event of the day was to go to a local bike rental shop and grab bikes for everyone.  They were the kind where peddling backwards is the break, so it took a little getting used to but the combination of Yosemite (very fun) with bike riding (also very fun) made for an awesome morning.  We were like a bicycle gang, all nine of us in a row.  We took them first to the base of half dome at what is usually mirror lake.  There still was a bit of water, but nothing "lake"-worthy.  A cool memory of the place was to see the sun rise just over half dome, with the angle between us and cliff such that we would walk forward to stay in the shade and see how quickly the sun covered the ground we had walked.

Sun coming up over half dome

Our next stop was in Yosemite village, where we grabbed some ice cream and enjoyed the late morning air.  We also went to a small museum.

Nick: Beard-less, not metallic, yet the resemblance is there.

After a delicious meal of crackers, cheese, pickles, veggies, fruit, and more, we spent a little relax time at the camp playing in the stream and catching our breath.  Our next activity was to ride over to the trail head that leads to Half Dome, Vernal and Nevada falls, and the John Muir trail.  There was a sign that revealed the lengths of the different paths.  Luckily, Vernal falls was our destination, and I think it was the closest one.  Some of the trails were forever long.  Like Bilbo said, "It's dangerous business, going out your door.  You step onto the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no telling where you might be swept off to."  The trail was steep.  Andrew and I were good hiking buddies and reached the falls first.  I was amazed how far away you could stand and feel the spray from the falls.

We were rewarded for our steep, uphill climb

A perfect family if I ever saw one : )

By the time we had hopped around on all the rocks at the base of the waterfall, then ran down the mountain, our legs were made of jelly.  Oh I remember a funny story.  I think it was Nick that was ahead of Andrew and I on the last hill.  I decided to sprint down the last hill to try to pass him.  There was a little girl with her parents walking the same direction I was running that heard my loud footfalls and became very scared.  Who knows what she was thinking?  She screamed and started running too until her parents got her.  It was really funny.  Anyway, eventually we all made it off the mountain and made a exhausted but determined beeline for home, and correspondingly, food. 

It was Tamara's birthday, so of course we went out for dinner.  There is a nice pizza place in Yosemite Village we went to and, oh man we were so glad to feed our faces after a long day.  We joked that everything we did that day was to make the pizza taste better.  I think worked.

I have my key chain on my desk as I type this out.  On it is a pocket knife I bought that night after pizza.  We all had a budget to get whatever we wanted for souvenirs.  After we were satisfied with a bag of trinkets, we went back to camp and finished the night with a little chocolate cake adorned with lighted candles.