Day 5: Our day at Yosemite

After a toasty night in our cabin, we woke up as the sun rose and started to dress and start our day. I specially mention dress, because the temperature had dropped since we came from sunny LA and it was time to bundle up!

K in her turtleneck top, scarf, outer jacket, tights under her jeans topped with socks and boots. 

We were enroute to breakfast, at the lodge again. We had wanted to go to this tavern that the husband remembered from before, but it was shut. 

J in a turtleneck, his outerjacket, tights under his pants, socks and boots. Don't mind his cranky face :)

We ate simply that morning as the food options were pretty bad. J was on the mend from his stomach flu but still not 100%. He was pretty happy feeding on the hot oats that I'd bought and prepared in tiny portions for him; and K was just on the verge of crashing more ill. It was trying.

After breakfast, the husband and I carried each child - they refused to walk as each whinged non-stop about feeling unwell (lazy) - and walked back to our car. The air was crisp, cold and the only amusement to the children were that they could blow smoke out of their mouths. Simple joys.

The husband had been to Yosemite before, and he's expressed his desire to bring me/us there to share it with us. He's not a very open man, and to hear him say that made me yearn to see the place. When we arrived the night before, it was already dark and we couldn't see anything at all. From our lodge, we drove the car off and within minutes, arrived at some - space - for lack of a better word. I was truly in awe of mother nature in its natural state. In concrete jungle Singapore, we really barely have the opportunity of wide, open and vast space. But here we were, in the midst of a national park full of natural beauty. It was pretty cool, literally.

This took my breath away

And because it was such beautiful, cold weather, we couldn't help but have a bit of fun. It started with the husband and I who were more than eager to get into the open space to breathe and inhale awesome. After snapping some shots and laughs with each other, we invited the children out of the car to join us. 

The little girl was beginning to feel awful, so she opted to stay in the vehicle. The little boy was game to step out into the cold.

He is not one who will #jumpshot on whim, so this place is truly special

Tree-trunk balance beam walk

#jumpshots

Handsome and beauty

We were near Yosemite Falls, so we hauled the girl out, took out our 5th travel partner, the sturdy pram, and off we went.

We asked the kids if there were any ugly old trolls guarding this bridge (to the uninitiated, go watch Dora)

Us, at the base of Yosemite Falls

It took us about 15-20 minutes to get to the bottom of the waterfalls. By then, this grumpy boy was so much grumpier since breakfast.

Someone was feeling pretty miserable

Surprisingly, when we got to the waterfalls, this little girl perked up!

Rock climbing

Look at that cheery face #whenshehappyweallhappy

Didn't take long for him to drink milk and go to sleep #grumpynomore

We stayed there for a bit, settling the boy and playing with the girl. Then we trekked back to the car.

Trees, very tall trees

Boy, sleeping boy

After visiting the falls, the husband decided to drive about to Camp Curry. It was the place that he stayed at on his last visit.

Surreal and familiar

Camp Curry was closed. It was then that I realised that it wasn't the right season to visit Yosemite. True, it's still beautiful but it wasn't crowded (not a bad thing), many places were closed (due to it being off season), and there was no snow (biggest bummer). 

We hurried to find lunch, and over cold sandwiches (off-season = not all facilities are open = we had to make do) and grumpy children (the kids took turns to snooze in the pram), we hurried to locate our next destination. The husband wanted to visit the giant trees, so off we went in search. The drive took about 20-30 minutes. During this time, the children snoozed in the car while we kept our eyes wide open, to soak in all that we could take in.

Space, vast space, cold winds

It wasn't long that we popped out to see the sights better, but I needed to put on some gloves because it was that cold. Or maybe I just wasn't too used to it - doesn't matter why, but it was needed. 

While the kids were sleeping in the car

WE SIGHTED SNOW!

Catching the sight of snow was pretty exciting and we wanted to show the kids. Except that they were sleeping. So we continued driving until we arrived at where we thought the giant trees were at Tuolomne Grove - but there was road closure due to "winter". The husband didn't give up and instead, opted to go to Merced Grove. The air was cool, the sights was amazing, the company - dubious.

Truth is, both kids were probably tired with one recovering from his illness, the other just getting sucked into hers and they were not exactly happy campers. So the both whined to be seated in the pram, refusing to work, making the trek pretty challenging.

Our unhappy campers

Grumpy

So we trekked for a bit, disturbing the peace of the forest with the rumble of wheels of our stroller in mother nature. It was rather dis-jointing. After a few minutes (that felt way longer than what it was because of our grumpy load) - we saw a tree that resembled the giant tree!

Giant hole in tree, little boy

That's me, standing at full height

That's little missy, who was so uncomfortable she opted to stay seated

The same missy who wept when told to get up and give up her seat to her brother as they were taking turns

Memories are made of these

We made it back to the car - not before I share that we used a public toilet that was probably the most awful yet modern. It was a proper toilet, but the bowl was covered (and encouraged to be kept closed) and the whole room smelt stale, and I can only imagine that whatever went into the bowl stayed inside - the grounds? for natural recycling? It was pretty icky. We quickly scrambled out. 

The kids got back and snuggled into their seats and pretty much dozed off. They barely had any lunch due to lack of appetites and the cold probably made them feel tired.

Can you see it?

A fox!

That was an exciting spotting. Both children were asleep and we didn't want to wake them, but it felt very exciting to see a live animal, wild yet up-close.

We drove back to the lodge and everyone went to sleep. I spent that first night taking a long hot shower, then going through the pictures in my phone - all by myself. The three fell asleep and I think the husband was also very tired out from the long drive. No one even had any dinner (J had some oats, the husband had a banana I think and poor K just wanted to sleep), so I ended up eating a cup of yoghurt.

It was probably pretty late by the time I slept, and that night was awful. The husband awakened just as I was about to sleep, announcing that he is running a fever. J was whiney but probably slept pretty ok. And poor, poor K was fully hit by the bug. She soiled herself twice in the night, as she couldn't control her loose stools. By the 5th hour, I put her into diapers and we'd pretty much run out of space on the bed as it was either dirty, or dirty. I remember feeling so sorry for her, and feeling so tired and not knowing how to help her as she was feeling weak, yet out of control.

After pretty much no-sleep through the night, morning came. And that was how we spent our fifth day at Yosemite.

(you can read about day 4, here.)