Tourin' Over California 2017 - Day 5 Yosemite

[Birtie]

17 July

We were still at the stage of waking up too early to get up. When we did get up we had breakfast of the donuts and orange juice we got from the shop the day before and Megan had a cookie.
We were in the car and ready to go at 8.20 when Megan said she needed her hat, so Tracey went back in to get it.

We drove straight to the valley this morning and there were already plenty of cars there, we parked at Yosemite Village and the car park was already quite full.

Tracey and I both visited the toilets on the car park, not a pleasant experience.

We then waited at the bus stop 1 for the shuttle to arrive. It was another hot day and the temperature was already in the 90s so while we waited for the bus, we put sun lotion on.
We caught the bus and had to change busses at the next stop to get to Happy Isles for the Mist Trail.

It was standing room only and when we stopped at the next stop the driver shouted was there any room at the back with a guy shouting “no” straight back which I found funny and laughed out loud, much to Megan's Embarrassment.

The trail to Vernal Falls was to be the most strenuous of the trails we had planned do, so we decided to get it out of the way first. It was a steeper climb than we had expected and we kept stopping for a rest.

We got to a point where Megan decided she wasn't going any further, so Tracey and I carried on and about 5 mins later we reached our destination, the bridge at the base of Vernal Falls. It was worth the climb to see the water crashing over the rocks from the waterfall behind.

Tracey went back to tell Megan to come and see while I waited there for her. After Megan had seen it, and filling our water bottle from the water fountain, Megan and I started back down meeting Tracey waiting for us.

We got the bus to the next stop to walk to mirror lake.

We followed the trail through the wood and when we got there realised that we could have stayed on the road.

We thought we would take the road back, but needed to cross the lake to get to it. We weren't sure if it was shallow enough to cross without getting our clothes wet. I said I would test if and paddled into the water. It was freezing and my first thought was it would be too cold even if it wasn't too deep. I carried on and found a place to cross that was fairly shallow although it did still wet the bottom of my shorts. The other 2 followed, the sand was really course on our feet

Megan and I both washed and dried one foot and then hopped to dry land to dry the other and get our shoes back on.

We walked back down the road and caught the bus to Majestic Yosemite hotel for lunch. It was a really nice hotel and we ate in the bar Tracey and I both had moms chicken salad sandwich and Megan had pizza. The food was really nice and the service was good, and it had proper toilets.

We got the bus back to the village had a look in the village store and then walked back to the car. We gave up on our plan to do a third trail to Yosemite falls and instead drove to Glacier Point. It was further than I had thought and took us about an hour to get there, but was worth the journey.

Spectacular views of the mountains, it felt as if we were on top of the world. We got an ice cream and visited some more lovely toilets before we drove back down and back to the hotel, passing through the tunnel once more with the sight of Tunnel View as we emerged.

Tracey and I walked to get a photo of the Yosemite sign and then we went for tea at the river restaurant.

The meal started well with water and bread being brought and our order taken. We then waited a long time for our food, Tracey had a burger I had fish and chips and Megan ordered pasta but it was pesto sauce which she didn't like. She did have soup and salad from the salad bar.

We then waited ages again for the bill and then the waiter brought us the wrong one. Eventually we paid and left the restaurant. We walked over to the lobby and shop to get cookies for Megan's breakfast- she ended up with a white chocolate macadamia cookie, a can of sprite and Nutella with bread sticks. We walked back to the room where Megan and I had showers. We were ll weary again after another long day.

Day 6 here