Road Trip to Yosemite

We headed out on our road trip to Yosemite a couple of Friday’s ago. It just happened to be Jamie’s 6th birthday and she couldn’t have been more thrilled to head out in the van. She loves that thing.

Here is a shot towards the back of the van showing Vada sleeping in her car seat and Jamie leaning her head up over the back seat.

Our first campsite was near Mt. Shasta in northern California. Jamie was focused out the back window and we were surprised to find a whole family of deer sneaking up to the back of our van. We joked with Jamie that they were her long lost family coming for her birthday.

Day two was unfortunately where we started to catch a glimpse of just how flexible we would have to be on this trip. Vada was running a fever off and on and required much more resting. Here is our van in a suburban California shopping mall parking lot somewhere near Sacramento with Vada napping inside. Toban got to try In-n-Out Burger here though and the palm trees always amaze us.

While Yosemite was our key destination, our second campsite may have won all of us over. We camped at Tulloch Reservoir about two hours west of Yosemite.

We were able to camp in an undeveloped area right along the lake. 

Here is a pretty good shot of our nightly set-up. Top popped. Awning out. Outdoor carpet rolled out. Jamie tethered outside. I’m probably in the back of the van getting Vada settled for bedtime in her tent. While Toban is finishing setting up camp and starting dinner.

The morning sun was glorious. And the lake was calm and peaceful.

We walked around the lake a bit in the morning.

And for the first time Vada actually wanted to wear her sunglasses! Yes – I love it! 

No more smiles here. This is our last gas fill up before Yosemite. Ouch! And in case you are wondering gas pumps stop at $100 so this was not even a full tank.

We spent two days in Yosemite but don’t have many pictures to show for it. One possible reason is that we were camping on the Valley floor literally at the base of all of the famous giant rock faces – Half Dome, El Capitan, etc. It was very difficult to get a good full shot of anything amongst all the trees. The more likely reason though is probably that Vada really started struggling here. She just wasn’t feel well and needed constant holding and attention. We spent most of our time managing how far we were from the van and getting Vada’s needs met.

This is the longest hike we did on the John Muir trail up to see a large waterfall. You could keep hiking up right beside it but those who did were soaking wet. In Vada’s condition, we didn’t want to push it so we hiked to the edge of the mist and then turned around.

The flexibility I mentioned earlier took full effect on our last morning in Yosemite. Our plan had been to head straight to the coast from Yosemite and then slowly make our way back home camping along the ocean. Vada was miserable and not getting any better so we headed straight back home instead. Toban was a trooper and drove late into the night to get us home in one day. We took Vada in to her doctor the next morning and found out she had walking pneumonia and a sinus infection. She was back in action a couple days later thanks to the antiobiotics. Unfortunately all my time spent cuddling her and wiping her nose meant I soon had a sinus infection as well. I spent a couple of days down for the count but the medicines have kicked in and I am back among the living. Looking back it feels like only a little vacation and a lot of sick. 

We are all headed back to work and daycare tomorrow and looking forward to rescheduling the second leg of the road trip along the coast sometime later…