Yo-Semite...

Half Dome

For our "something different" summer trip we decided on Yosemite. Both Blair and I were envisioning forests full of Giant Redwoods (wrong) lots of bears (wrong) and it being as beautiful as Yellowstone  (wrong wrong wrong). We have come to the conclusion that we are glad we saw it, but once was definitely enough. We are officially Yellowstone people.

The trip wasn't miserable by any means. And Yosemite is beautiful, but you can only drive so far through a forest with nothing to see but forest. And the super winding roads were killer on all our stomachs. Especially the little two. (Yes Mom I was prepared with barf buckets... but Dill puked on himself and in a snack bowl and Jordan made it to the parking lot and puked all over my feet.)

In the sun at the Glacier Point overlook

Found some shade!

Yosemite has some amazing waterfalls. We went at the perfect time of year when all of them were running. They have a few that only flow during the melt off of early summer.

Bridal veil Falls from Tunnel View

Getting wet underneath BV Falls

Two crazy boys in fromt of the rushing rapids

For me the most noticeable difference was the lack of visible animals. I know they were there but it was nothing like driving through Yellowstone and seeing bears, bison, moose, elk, coyotes etc... We saw a couple squirrels and that was it. 

What I was looking forward to the most was seeing the Redwoods. Growing up I watched the movie "The Gnome Mobile" and I envisioned that Yosemite was just like that. In reality there is only one grove of the giant trees. They are still pretty amazing.

Two Sisters

The Midgets in comparison to the California Tunnel Tree

While not entirely as expected the trip was fun. We got out of the heat and saw the beauty of the country. All our trips this summer have solidified the desire I have to travel with my children (come what may) and show them the beauty of the world that we are lucky to live in. 

Pebbles...

After our stop to see the seals we continued on up the coast...

 Our next scheduled stop was to take the midgets to the Aquarium in Monterey. We decided to get there via the 17 mile drive through Pebble Beach. Thankfully our trip was the week before the Masters and we were able to do it. If only we were millionaires and Blair could play the course there. It was awesome. Even the buck that was minutes away from from getting run over by us was awesome  (who would have that we would see that on a golf course on the beach).

You can't drive that close to the beach without getting your feet in the sand at least once right? They had a ball!

That was until they realized just how cold the water is! Poor Pickles turned blue!

Seals...

Well we did it! We survived our last "big" vacation of 2010 (and probably our last for a long time).  We broke from the usual tradition of visting Yellowstone and decided that this year we were going to go to Yosemite instead. The boys prepped for the trip by watching Yogi Bear cartoons and thought we were headed t o Jellystone so really it didn't matter much where we went.

We took the scenic route to get there and traveled along the Pacific Coast Highway. It was such a pretty drive. Espcially the farther north we got. The best stop by far was at the Elephant Seal rookery near Piedras Blancas.

 The beach was absolutely covered in seals! The boys thought it was awesome. And stinky! Oh Boy it was stinky! We mostly saw the big males who were either fighting or lounging it the hot sand sloughing off their winter fur. Dillon and I kept a lookout for babies but didn't spy any.

 Maybe I can convince Blair to head back in December when the babies are born. But I doubt it...