DAY SIX and SEVEN- YOSEMITE & DEATH VALLEY

We awoke at 6 am to the sounds of a car booming I don’t know what genre of music on the street below our window. It was so loud it shook out beds and we all woke up laughing. Luckily today we are on to somewhere beautiful.

The drive from San Francisco was great and the boys loved going across the Bay Bridge. We stopped in this tiny town and had lunch at this old saloon. It was the first watering hole in CA that had been there since the 1800’s. There was all this history all over the walls about hanging some men on the tree outside for stealing gold. The boys dug it.

Yosemite was incredible!!!! The moment we hit the park and we saw El Capitan and the Falls I knew I was in love. We checked into our tents in Curry Village and just messed around the rest of the day and evening. It was so gorgeous. Smelled like pine and sitting in rocking chairs on a porch made my soul sing. We met a few families from France and Germany.

It was so fun staying in the big commercial tents. We even got an accessible one which made AC really happy. He could fly around the village in his power chair and we also took the hiking chair so we could access the inaccessible trails. Deedee and I decided we are definitely coming back for a week next year.

After ten was quiet time in the village and you could hear a pin drop. I’m definitely in my element here. I felt so incredibly peaceful and serene and had one of the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had. I think we all did. Even AC slept great, after all the bear stories.

The next morning after packing up we hiked up to see Yosemite falls. It was incredible and we were sad we hadn’t built in another couple days here. Our next stop was Vegas for tonight but the boys chose to stay in the park as long as we could and forego any shows or activities in Vegas. That turned out to be wise because we had no idea what was in store for the day ahead!
When I did the research, I saw it took 5 hours to get from Yosemite to Vegas. Well, that was from the edge of the park! It took us three hours to get through the park. It was an extraordinary drive but it was certainly made for a long day.

It got pretty interesting! Going through Death Valley was another travel moment we will never forget. I had no idea it would be so spectacular. But I also had no idea it was SO windy and steep and that we would need to go so slow. We came down 11,000 feet to Sea level. It was a trip! There were sand dunes everywhere…it was so silently beautiful. At one point though, the brakes were slick and stinking, we were low on gas and we were sure we had missed our tiny turn off. Things got a bit stressful and everyone got a little short with one another. We were so excited to find a gas station/oasis in the middle of nowhere. We fueled up and found out we were actually on track, it was just taking way longer than planned.

AC was a total trouper and Oliver kept pointing out all the good things every time Deedee and I got a little bit negative. Once again, not the most comfortable part of the trip, but one everyone will remember forever. We played would you rather and laughed for hours. As Oliver pointed out, it’s been great family time.

We got into Vegas super late and very exhausted! We decided to end our long crazy day Vegas style and ordered up some decadent room service. It was a great conclusion to a pinnacle part of the trip.

I thought about how everything in our lives go, when it gets a little rough we just slow down and take our time. Whether it’s physically carrying AC or getting through something really uncomfortable emotionally, we just take one step at a time, rest and reboot when necessary. Once we are on the other side, it all looks very different. There isn’t anything we can’t do when we tackle it that way.