"No Woes!"

When we left on our trip, we only had one location with set dates and reservations: Yosemite. Although Vicky and I both grew up in Southern California--a mere seven hours drive--neither of us had been here before. All I can say to our Southern CA friends who have never come: do it. The pictures you've seen don't do justice to the beauty that's here.

We left yesterday (Saturday, April 10), caravanning with our weekend hosts, Jeff and Glen, who joined us for the trip and our first day in Yosemite. We made the long, sometimes steep climb up into the Sierra Nevada mountains on a road that to Vicky's dismay often lacked a guardrail. It was slow going with our V-6 4Runner being maxed out on its tow capacity hauling up our 2 ton trailer, us and all our stuff. She did a wonderful job keeping her nervousness to herself, and only later did I learn that for much of the climb into the mountains she had her eyes closed. I only found out when we made our first turn into Yosemite Valley and I let out a "Woe" of awe at the spectacular scene. With her eyes closed, she heard a "Woe" of fear, thinking we were about to careen off the road. I got a brief scolding of "No Woes!" and we've been joking about it ever since.
We're blessed with a total of six days that we'll be able to spend here in Yosemite, with the extra day coming in the beginning courtesy of some bad weather moving into California that I didn't feel like driving in with our above-mentioned tow vehicle/trailer combination. We're camped in the Valley, not far from the base of Half Dome. Yosemite Valley, in spite of its grandeur, is only 24 miles long, so all of its famous elements are fairly close: El Capitan, Yosemite and Bridalvail Falls and Half Dome.
We spent our first full day driving around the Valley and taking some short hikes. I'm excited we'll be able to take our time and enjoy this beautiful place. We're also excited that our friends, Fr. Samer and Julianna Youssef and their kids, will be joining us from Wednesday to Friday.