Yosemite

Thursday night when Dena got home from work Chris and I headed to Yosemite.  The ENTIRE drive was scenic!  It was gorgeous!

We enjoyed a gorgeous sunset, but the camera just couldn't capture the colors at all!

We stayed at the Tenaya Lodge.  We headed out for a mountain bike ride in the morning.  I'm so glad we did it in the morning.  The rest of the day it POURED.

On our bike ride.  We appreciate our legs.

Once we were done with our bike ride, we headed up to Yosemite.  We were headed up to Bridalveil Falls to meet up with the Gomms.  They had been camping in the park and we needed to meet Buddy's woman.;)  So we were running late but had no way to contact them and let them know (no cell service) but it was incredible to pull in at the SAME EXACT time as they did!  So we parked next to them and enjoyed the falls, some sandwiches, and a chat in the rain.  

The rain in Yosemite never stopped that day.  We went to the visitors center and watched a movie, but we were soaked to the bone and there was not much visibility with the clouds and rain so we headed to our next hotel.  We dried out and went out to find some food.  We went to this place called Crab Cakes and the food was YUMMY!  Chris got 6 crab legs, filet minion and 2 sides for $20!!!  I had their shrimp, some clam chowder and hush puppies.  The shrimp was amazing, the clam chowder was dreamy, and the hush puppies were gross....lol.

The next day we headed back in to a much dryer and much more crowded Yosemite.  (El Capitan and Half Dome are in the distance.)

El Capitan

Yosemite Falls

Half Dome

So that Saturday the National Parks was letting everyone in for free...so we enjoyed Yosemite via a car tour because it was so crowded there was no where to park to go on any of the hikes. We were in bumper to bumper traffic throughout the entire park...which was frustrating, but the views were incredible!  And truth be told - it makes a difference not to have little kiddos screaming from the back of the car.  Chris and I enjoyed our time with each other!!!!

We stayed at the Best Western Yosemite Gateway Inn in Oakhurst and we seriously loved it.  This big mural on our wall was pretty kewl!  So yeah, just had to share it.

As we were headed out of the park we pulled out onto the side of the road and went for a little jaunt at the base of El Capitan.

And after a long day of sitting in the car, we went BACK to crab cakes.  Chris enjoyed another $20 surf and turf and I had clam chowder (the BEST clam chowder I have EVER had) in a sourdough bread bowl.  YUM!  Great way to end our weekend getaway.  Thank you Dena for making this possible for us!!!