Yosemite to Lake Tahoe

Day 13 - This was the first morning where the temps were about 60 degrees, so Curtis and I woke up early for a 5.5 mile run/bike ride around Curry Village, Happy Isles, and The Campgrounds.

We will definitely try to get a site in Lower Pines next time.  The spaces are much more spaced out, like we're used to, and it's right on the river.  

When we arrived back at the campsite, we cooked a yummy breakfast of bacon and eggs and headed back to the Visitor Center for our extra packet Junior Ranger Patch.  We relaxed around Yosemite Village and visited the Indian Museum.  The boys loved the tepees the most!

Before we knew it, it was time to move campsites....yet again....so we took the 4 mile ride back to the Casita, hitched up, and moved to our final campsite #54.

We were all pretty much exhausted by this point, so I made a quick crude a te lunch of tuna, hummus, carrots, green peppers slices, cheese sticks and crackers.  We set out the lounge chairs under the beautiful shade tree and Mommy and Daddy took naps and the boys watched Ghostbusters 2 on the little portable screens....we cheated a bit, but we were DONE!

The movie ended and we were rejuvenated...win/win, so we loaded up the bikes and headed for Lower Pond at Mirror Lake where the boys could swim and play under Half Dome.

We were prepared this time and brought the boys in their swim suits...by this time it was a ripe 93 degrees and they were ready to cool off.  

The big kids started jumping off the giant boulder into the freezing ice water, and who was the first one to follow?!  Mr. Cole!  He climbed right up that Boulder and jumped off like he was SuperMan!

Keep in mind, this is ice melt water....brrr!

Go Cole!!!

Crazy kid jumped again!  We warmed up the boys, and rode back down the trail for dinner of tacos, quesadillas, and Mexican Quinoa.  We finished off the evening with bike rides around the campsites, fire, and hot chocolate....these are the days we'll remember!

Day 14 - We woke up, ate breakfast, hitched up the Casita and we're off by 9:00 am.  Curtis checked the mileage on his bike and we had ridden 27 miles since arriving in the Valley!  That didn't include the hours of riding the boys did around the campsite.  Cole and Carson we're going to have legs of steel by the time we return to Texas.  We were anticipating a 4 hour drive up to Lake Tahoe.....boy were we WRONG!!!  We decided to take the newly paved Tioga Pass across the upper meadows of Yosemite.  What a beautiful drive!!!  We stopped at Olmstead Point to hike out on the granite to see the back side of the valley and Half Dome.

What a site!!!

We had no idea we were in for a quarter mile hold on granite cliffs and Cole only had on his flip flops, but he trudged along like a trooper.

We loaded back in the car and headed to the Far East side of the park, Tuolomne Meadows where the John Miur Trail loops up north to split off from the Pacific Crest Trail.  Absolutely beautiful!

After a quick stop at the Visitor Center, we cruised another 20 slow miles to the exit and a recommended lunch stop from our camping neighbors, Whoa Nellie Deli at the intersection of 120 and 395.  They sold the "World's Best Fish Tacos" and didn't disappoint!

YUM!!!!!!  We chowed down on our first non-campsite meal in 8 days and headed to Mono Lake Visitor Center for you guessed it....another Junior Ranger Badge!  This one was a lot of paperwork and questions, but not many people can say they have a "Inyo Forest Wilderness" Jr. ranger Badge.  The Mono Lake is surrounded by tiny active volcanoes, tufus, and springs....very cool!

By this point, we had been traveling for almost 5 hours and still had another 75 miles to go.....not 75 Texas miles....75 Scenic Route Mountain Pass miles.  We crossed over 3 different peaks with a speed limit ranging from 20 to 35 miles per hour.....3 hours later....a total of 9 hours after we left our campsite, we pulled up to the Campground By The Lake in Lake Tahoe.  UGH!  We immediately called the local Dominoes Pizza Restaurant to have hot pizza delivered to our site and hit the Laundrymat across the street.  Not very romantic for our first night in Lake Tahoe since our wedding 10 years ago, but whatcha gonna do?  Tomorrow, we visit our little chapel in the Harvey's Casino and go on the Dinnerboat Cruise with the boys!!!  Yay!!!!