Day 8

Day 8 is a place I've traveled to. I thought I'd pick one that I had pictures of on the computer. Yosemite. We went quite a few years in a row as a kid so I kinda know my way around. Scott and I were gonna be celebrating our 1 yr anniversary and he was gonna be finishing school right before plus his bday and I just thought it'd be fun to go. We stopped in Reno our first night and had a super nice suite at Silver Legacy for like $100. Then headed to Yosemite. We didn't know if the back roads were open yet because the week before they were closed so we had to take the longer way around. But it is such a beautiful place to visit and I just love nature so I was just super excited. We planned the trip only a couple months before and if you don't book like a year in advance its almost impossible to stay in the valley. So we had to camp outside of the valley but were by this river and it was just a nice little place to stay. They didn't have showers where we were so we'd pack the car with lunch and clean clothes and towels and stuff then once we were done hiking and sightseeing in the valley we'd go to one of the other camps with showers and use them before heading back to camp. It was kind of a pain but it worked and we got clean. This was our little camp area. You also get a firepit and a table and a box to put your food in to protect it from bears. We only camped like 3 days but I had a really good time.

 There was a turnout point after you go through this super long tunnel and you had this view. It was about a 30-45 min drive into the valley each way. Half dome is so amazing though. I'd love to hike it someday.

 This is me doing what I'm not supposed to be doing. My mom took a pic of me doing this a few years before this picture so I thought it'd be fun to do again. This was Mariposa Grove. Some of these trees are so huge! It's incredible trees can be this big! Another cool place to visit is Sequoia National Park. They have huge trees too.

 I think this is Upper Falls. We were trying to hike to it but I couldn't do it. It's a ridiculously difficult switchback the majority of the first portion of the hike. If you're not in shape, DO NOT ATTEMPT. I wanted to die. I was so sore and my feet were killing me. Not sure what the elevation change is but it was too much for me. I could probably handle it better now but not back then! We still had some amazing views none the less.

 That have a visitors center and neat things to see around the shopping areas and in town. This was a little tepee I made Scott sit in for a picture. I wouldn't do it because of fear of spiders. He's such a good sport.

Then we ended our trip by driving out the back way, which I had never done. I suggest not drinking liquids unless you're comfortable using nature. I had to go to the bathroom so bad and there was nothing! We finally drove through this tiny town with one little gas station and in the one stall was a lady who must have been more desperate than me. She must have eaten something bad that her body did not like. I didn't want to stick around so I held it longer and we found this tiny park with bathrooms. It was kinda gross but I had to go so bad. Then on top of that we were so hungry and had eaten most of our food and there was not one fast food restaurant in sight. We finally did find food as we got closer to South Tahoe. We stayed there and I was able to get Baja Fresh for the second time on our trip (we went to one in Reno too). Our motel was kinda crappy but had a jacuzzi in it. Plus the room was pretty big. This is what it looked like:

Nice mirrors right? Straight outta the 70s or something. I wish we spent more time in Tahoe but it was more like a pit stop. Didn't do much sightseeing. It was a really fun trip though. I always like road trips with Scott. We have quite the adventures.