Day 35 - The crowds of Yosemite

 While we hoped for a nice night of sleep, that was NOT what we got.  There are apparently a combination of field trips and “bro” trips in Curry Village as well as some particularly loud-talking neighbors when going to bed.  All of this combined for not a great night of sleep.  But that wasn’t going to stop us from making the best of our day in Yosemite.

We headed out to the parking lot to cook our breakfast in the back of Rover (no cooking in the tents - apparently enough people have caught their tent on fire that it is banned).  Breakfast was…..you guessed it, oatmeal and grits, though it was supplemented with some powdered donuts the boys had found at the grocery store before we came into the park.  As we were eating breakfast, we witnessed the mad rush that seemingly happens every morning of people scrambling to get a parking spot.  People were NUTS as they tried to find a place to put their car!  

With breakfast behind us, we headed out for hike of the day and explored the Mirror Lake area.  We anticipated doing the full mirror lake, but unfortunately there was a rock slide just past Mirror Lake and so the trail was closed.  Very unfortunately, the park service didn’t put a sign up until we reached the closure so our loop was forced into an out-and-back.  Robinson made sure this fate didn’t happen to anybody else though and explained to all other hikers that the trail was closed up the road.

After we got back we gave the boys more time in the lounge while we got lunch ready.  It was then that we checked out the bowling pins which created quite a bit of interest from the staff.  Apparently they had never rented these out before.  They turned out to be wooden pins that could be set up on the shuffleboard.  So it became bowling which was super fun for Sebastian.  Robinson made a friend there and they played chess against each other.

Later we decided to get into the long line for the shuttle with multiple goals.  The boys and I were going to find the local Wi-Fi/cell coverage so that we could call about getting the door lock fixed and download some shows to watch later.  Amy was going to go a few stops down and hike on the upper Yosemite falls trail which was labeled as strenuous.

The boys and I had success finding the cell service, but finding someone to do the repairs was a complete bust.  Apparently Burning Man is coming up so everybody is getting their RVs tuned up.  On the plus side, we did get to see the Ansel Adams museum, the native American replica village and we did get some shows to watch.

Amy had a much more exciting journey.  While she did not get soaked by the waterfall again (in fact she never saw it!), she did get some good hiking in and got to see a bear…..twice!  On her way up, the bear was just sleeping and someone pointed it out to her.  But on the way down, the bear was actively eating something in the ground and Amy came very close to it because it surprised her.  The bear stared at her, but just continued eating.  Eventually, she slipped by and made it back down the mountain - phew!.

After each of our mini-adventures, we met back up at Curry Village (we actually ended up on the same shuttle!) and enjoyed a meal there.  And to celebrate the end of our Yosemite journey, we enjoyed some of the ice cream that was on offer.

That was a full day that would suggest a good night of sleep, but alas, we were still in Curry Village so we didn’t have the highest of hopes.

Total Mileage - 5,766

# States/Provinces - 14