Yosemite Summer Kick-Off

For the past four years, we've our begun summer vacation with a trip to Yosemite. We go with a large group of friends and share meal responsibilities. Most years it's been very warm during the days, and we've loved hiking up to some of the falls so that we could cool off in the mist. This year, it snowed part of the time on the way up, and drizzled much of the time that we were there, but it didn't matter because it was Yosemite, and Yosemite is the most beautiful place in the world!
The view from our campsite was incredible. I had visions of sitting by the Merced River, knitting away, but that didn't happen this year.We did go for a little walk up to the Ahwanhee Hotel. The cheapest room in the Ahwanhee is over $450, so we can only enjoy pretending to be guests. Russ and I did stay there once before the kids were born. My school paid for a two-day stay for me, and Russ happily tagged along. There was a big English conference at the Yosemite Lodge that year, but the rooms there were sold out, so my generous school approved the Ahwanhee stay. I still remember that the room was $315 per night, and that was back in the early 90s. It was such a memorable experience. The rooms are actually quite rustic with few amenities, but that's not what you're paying for. We also walked to the Visitor's Center and watched a movie since Kai had a cough that kept getting progressively worse.Throughout the day, Kai kept coughing and coughing. We finally decided to admit that we weren't going to have our typical Yosemite experience with loads of hiking, and headed home a day early. Kai was in good enough spirits to play with the water pump at Wawona, but he was pretty sick by the time we got home.


I did get to finish a pair of Loksins on the way home. It wasn't quite the same as sitting and knitting by a river, but it was still knitting!