Yay! Yosemite!

August 3
OKAY. It's Monday and I am EXHAUSTED!!! I rushed home Friday afternoon, quickly threw everything I needed into my backpack, grabbed my tent and barely had enough time to double-check my items before my ride arrived. That was 5:45PM. After making a stop at Riverside, we took off. We passed through several state and national parks and oohed and ahhed over the scenery the whole drive to Yosemite, despite the fact that it was night time. Finally by 3AM, we arrived but we couldn't find a campsite that wasn't full. We drove around looking for an open one but finally pulled over at 6AM and rested for a bit, brushed our teeth at Mariposa Sequoia grove (a-mazing!) and finally found a camp by 9AM. Tiring! After setting up camp and barbecuing, we went to bathe in the Merced River while fish fry cleaned our toes, trekked the creek behind our site, and had a confrontation with a bear, YES!, a bear. The following day, we packed up and made our way back, stopping at Bishop to fish and bathe in the fast-flowing ICY river. The circulation in my legs actually slowed to a painful crawl after about 5 minutes standing in the melted run-off, but this was the funnest part. Some of us were brave enough to face the currents but we quickly learned not to underestimate nature when we were bounced painfully against several rocks. Then as we were driving back, we stopped at Manzanar, the detention camp that was set up in the 1940s for Japanese-Americans. It's definitely a beautiful, but desolate place. I can't even imagine what these people went through decades earlier, how they must have felt, even though they were citizens of the U.S. =(

We finally arrived home at 1AM. I should've taken today off!

July 30
Ever since I got home and decided that I'm going to go to Yosemite with family and friends, I've been on an adrenaline high. Wow, I can't believe that I'm feeling giddy and still feeling it 5 hours later. (Is it weird to feel like this about a camping trip?) I haven't been to the national park in 5 years and I can't wait 'til tomorrow! The drive there is going to be an experience because we're taking a 15-passenger van and we're just going to chill and laugh, and oh! the good times to come. I so want to be there already! Tomorrow, hurry up!