Grand Ol Cal-i-for-ni-YAAAAAAAYYYY!

Completely different than my other two vacations was a trip to SoCal in late July/August. For our senior trips we get to pick where to go (within reason :D) Kim picked Yosemite about six years ago and when we were there I decided that sometime I was going to hike Half Dome, the tallest dome in the park.

So, guess where I picked to go for my senior trip? To Yosemite to hike Half Dome and then down to the LA area to visit family.

The trip to CA was definitely an adventure! To start off it was Mom, Kim, Dan, Edie, and I driving the big white van. We were to meet Dad in Colorado on Saturday and go to church in Denver on Sunday. Well, we blew a spark plug just about 30 miles out of Colorado Springs, our destination, and instead of visiting Whit's End spent the afternoon putt-putting (interrupted by rain), getting a bite at a diner, and sitting in our van at the repair place watching a movie while it charged or something like that. I'm no mechanic.

Colorado Springs isn't what I'd call breathtaking beautiful. But hey, it could have been worse! Like setting up a tent in the rain...moving on...we really kept pretty positive and enjoyed ourselves.

From there on our trip was pretty uneventful. We had a wonderful day of fellowship on Sunday and by Sunday evening we had reached our last big grocery store before Yosemite!

Kim found a GRANDE sized bag of carrots. The horses probably wished they were along :D

We rolled in Monday and of course first things first! Straight to the trail! We hiked to Cathedral Lake which was a good break-in for the week. Danny and Edie were amazing!!! Those little legs were so strong.

At the cabin, pool was a favorite past time. The layout of the cabin is so perfect for our family. It was actually the cabin we had stayed at the first time we came to Yosemite. However, my grandparents, cousin, parents, and all five siblings were there. This time there was only six of us. Sometimes it was sad to be making memories without all the family there.

On Monday morning I found out that Dad and I had won the lottery for a permit to hike Half Dome. With some misunderstanding the dates to apply for a permit, Dad had to enter a lottery and it sounded like we had a bit of a slim chance. I was a bit giddy when I found out...after all that's the reason I came back!!!

So very early on Tuesday morning, I got up with an unusual amount of energy (aka adrenaline) and got ready to go on my big hike! This pic is blurry, but as we approached Half Dome I was trying to get one in the morning light.

We were hoping to be on the trail by 5:30 because on average the hike takes 10-12 hours. It is a 14-16 mile trail and gains almost 5000 feet in elevation. I had been working out with DVDs during the winter but once summer rolled around I was not in the same shape. So, we wanted to have plenty of time.

Well, we got lost finding the trail head but we were on the trail by 6:00 so it wasn't a huge setback. In fact, it was probably good for us to stretch our legs on some flat campground terrain before that grueling first mile. At the time I wasn't going to admit it, but I was wondering if we would make it. We got passed by some people and that's all right unless you're a worry wart like me.

Probably what made this hike so difficult for me was keeping up with a long-legged dad. He felt it too that first mile but that didn't stop him from pushing on. In fact, we were passing most people that passed us at the beginning and passing others that had begun before us.

Getting close to the top of a waterfall! Not sure if it's Vernal or Nevada but either way I was glad to stop for a picture!

After those first few miles though, mainly after we got past Nevada Falls, it was more level. Not necessarily easy, but I knew I would make it! Dad and I had some good talks and it was just a neat time of day watching the sun rise and see the variation in vegetation as we gained elevation.

My dad is developing a phobia of heights within these recent years, so what I didn't realize is that while we were hiking he was praying that he would be able to get to the top. There are cables which I will show pictures of that are pretty intense, and Dad just wasn't sure how he would handle that. I think it's when we hit the 2 mile sign that Dad was getting more and more queasy and finally he told me that if he couldn't make it I should go on without him. Of course, this wouldn't be as special, but nothing was going to stop me once I got that far!

We finally stopped for a break to really sit down and rest (for 15 minutes) and eat some power bars that neither Dad nor I could finish. They were like chunks of cardboard and stale pretzel being held together by peanut butter. Bleh! The most refreshing snacks were the almonds, APPLES, and water we carried in our back packs. By the way, if you do hiking and don't yet have back packs with water pouches and straws, those are an amazing investment. They are fairly light and it's handy to be able to grab the straw at any time on the trail and sip while you're walking.

As we got closer to the dome, the further away I felt.

But eventually we made it to the permit station. Now this was by far the hardest part! I had to stop and take breaks about every five steps because we were climbing stone stairs that were very steep for short legs. It was such a good feeling to come up over the top of that Sub Dome and see the CABLES!!!!

To if you look on the right side of the middle of those trees you can see a faint line and a pole. It might require a magnifying glass, but those are the cables.

Or here's a better picture...

This doesn't quite show how steep these cables were. At some points they were almost straight up! And that rock is very smooth! We had met an older man as we were approaching the Sub Dome that also hated heights but had climbed this 14 times!!! And he was in dress pants. Wow. He told dad to just look down at the rock and not out at the horizon. So when it got down to doing it, God sent some amazing people our way. A boy and his sister were getting ready to go on the cables, and the girl was putting on a harness with a hook that attached to the cables. The boy wasn't going to use his and offered it to Dad. It was perfect! With that harness, Dad was game to go!! This made me so happy.

Going up was definitely a challenge, but I managed to get a short video and really enjoyed looking out. Heights thrill me so this was definitely fun.

After climbing the cables we made it to the TOP! The sky was a little hazy so it wasn't quite the view I had expected, but it was definitely worth every moment. (Easy to say now...)

Woohoo! So proud of Dad. One thing he told me that is really special: "You came for the view. I came for you." Wouldn't have rather shared that hike with anybody else!

I didn't get many pictures up there since it was hard to capture such height and vastness. But here's the lip of the Dome that stand out in many pictures. In the above picture I am on a rock just above the triangle one pointing off the top of this photo...like HERE.



We spent a decent amount of time at the top, but after a while you've seen it and it's time to go down. So we started the long hike down. After all, we weren't even half-way done distance wise.

Descending the Sub Dome. Much easier this way :D

On the way down we got to the top of the two waterfalls where the trail gets steep again. To save our toes we decided to go a longer, less steep route hoping it would also be less crowded. It was beautiful.



But it got to a point about a mile and a half from the trail head that I was wondering if we'd ever be done. Of course, we eventually made it. By the end of our hike we had gone approximately 19.5 miles in 9.25 hours. No wonder after the 30 minute drive to the cabin we soaked in the hot tub and zonked out on the big leather sofas! Dad had some black toe nails that still aren't completely grown in and I lost a toe nail from this hike about two months afterward :D It was soooo worth it.

That's the novel of Half Dome. I hope to do it again, and maybe again and again!

The rest of the week was amazing. The previous time we went to Half Dome the waterfalls were gorgeous and gushing full and bright. This time, we hiked back to a rocky area with some trickles. So the huge rocks that were being pounded by water the first time we came were now perfect rocks for bouldering and sliding on.

Danny and Edie were amazing. Everybody including the parents enjoyed jumping from one rock to another, discovering a little waterfall or pool here or there and just being free.

By Bridalveil Falls



By Lower Yosemite Falls

Yep, I fell in. Surprise anybody? It was a stupid move on my part. I knew I couldn't make the jump but why not try anyway and soak my hiking shoes?

We rented bikes one day and enjoyed the different view of Yosemite Valley. Yes, that's Half Dome in the background. I have way too many pictures of that rock.

Edie and her new black bear name Yosemite.

Half Dome kept fading in the picks, but Dad and I were posing in front of it with our matching shirts.

Mom and Dad at Glacier Point. Love my parents!



This pic shows a lot of our trail to Half Dome. On the right you can see two waterfalls which are Vernal and Nevada. The Sub Dome is the little 'shadow' to the left of Half Dome.



While God created the huge and magnificent, He also took time to make those tiny details like flowers...

Needless to say the week FLEW by! Pretty soon it was Friday morning, time to head to Altadena!



When you have alot of leftovers and need to clean out the fridge that last morning before leaving, you get interesting breakfast quesadillas. Dad really knows how to make stir fry, hard boiled eggs, and other random supper foods into a pretty flavorful breakfast!

 

 Our last game of P-ball. We had thrown the numbers away so we each picked two in our head. Five out of six people picked the five ball. What a way to end a fun week.

Oh, but it's not over yet! On our way to Altadena we stopped at Mariposa Grove to see the Giant Sequoias. So massive and amazing!



California was a blessing of a bunch of family time! My mom was born and lived there pretty much until she got married to my dad. So it's always fun to go back and visit the family. Since we are such a large family it can be a lot for people to keep us, but they always do a great job of helping us have a good time. What pretty much sums up our time there is: family, beach, good food, and lots of laughs.

Edie enjoying the waves!

A fun day with the Mills Girls.

Little Jordyn Rose. It was my first time to meet her and she is such a sweetie.

Edie and Anikah in a boogie-board fort.

A beautiful evening at the beach.

Jacob seems pretty pleased with himself :D

Fun times!

Breakfast with Grammy! Such special memories.

In all, this vacation was AMAZING! Getting in that big white van and driving home always brings mixed emotions. The dread of being on the road isn't what makes it hard to go. It's the tearful goodbyes to family we don't see too often, no more beach, warm (not humid) weather, that kind of stuff. But then there's that piece of me that's ready for home sweet home. And without blowing a spark plug, that's where we went.



Boundary Waters

The next summer adventure is quite a stark difference from my previous one. Can't let life get too  boring!

Last winter us YG girls decided we needed to take a trip together. Pretty soon the destination was set to Ely, MN which is on the US/Canada Border. Right now I will recommend one of my family's very favorite youtube videos called the Canadian Border Patrol by jeremyrowley. Caution: it is stupid humor and for best results watch late at night. Anyway, it turned out to be a group of 8 girls. We hopped in the big white bus (ok, just the family van) and headed north!!!

First we stopped in Belvidere for church. Then we made it to our first hotel and found some supper at the Orange Moose. The statue outside looked like a playground for high-energy people who had been sitting too long!

While waiting for our food we played the slap game (don't worry, there were very few people in the restaurant and we weren't too loud :D)

Alisia and Kim in mid action!

 

And then came the fun part!



 As you can see it was a little challenge to get up on this moose. He was rather large.

Since there weren't many people around to take a pic for us, our leader took this one.
Top L-R: Me, Kayla, Katie. Bottom L-R: Kim, Ruth, Leah, Mindy

 

  Back at our hotel we were still a little full of energy and had some fun pretending we were dangerous. L-R: Mindy, Leah, Kim, Me

Alisia our fearless leader and Ruth.

Kayla and Katie.

 

Even though Alisia had given us very thorough packing lists, we still checked all our supplies at the hotel and made a list of things to buy at Wal-mart. Yes, those are my clothes for four days and three nights in Ziploc bags! Goodbye blow-dryer and towel!



 

 

The next day at Wal-mart we split into teams to make our shopping go faster. Leah and I were 'canobies' aka canoe buddies so we went in search of some draw string backpacks and apparently got a little distracted. No, we didn't buy these hats but they probably would've come in handy....

 

 Finally we arrived to Ely and went to the outfitters to sign in, pick out paddles, and watch a video on how to 'Leave no Trace' in the wilderness. For our nighttime accommodations we were settled into a bunk house. It was fun to hang out together in a woodsy setting and get pumped up for our big adventure!

 

 

The next day we got to hit the water! We were briefly instructed on how to tie our packs into the canoes and get in with some coordination and grace. Then, we were off!

 

From now on the pictures will have an odd coloring. That's because they were taken on a waterproof film camera. Yah, old fashioned film. We had a waterproof digital camera that slipped out of my pocket and into the water on the second day. I felt absolutely awful, but the other girls were very kind about it and we still have hopes that it will be reeled in someday by a fisherman!

 

Here's a typical view from the front of the canoe.

The first day we were all ready to conquer the world! We had been preparing ourselves mentally (and not so much physically ;D) for this for months! Our spirits were high and we were feeling great. For lunch we decided to stay on the water and just pass food back and forth between the canoes. We feasted on frozen ham, American cheese, white bread, and PBjs. Oh, and we got a candy bar for dessert! This is one of the huge differences between Boundary Waters and Europe hehe. But we had food and it kept us going!

It started raining after lunch so we set up camp a little early. IN THE RAIN!!! I think the men who got us ready were in their warm clothes at the Outfitters just laughing their heads off at our misfortune! Okay, maybe not. At least we all were really trying to stay positive.

 

For supper we couldn't get a fire started (damp wood doesn't like to burn) so we pulled a tarp between several trees and piled under it to watch our steaks grill on a gas skillet. Every so often one of us would bounce the tarp to drain the pool of water gathering on top. Let's just say that it wasn't exactly what I would call a formal dinner. But we had food and it kept us going!

 

That evening the sky cleared up and we found a trail to some flat-ish rocks by the water where we were given a beautiful view of water, trees, and clouds. God's amazing handiwork in display!

 

The first day left a pretty big impression in my mind since it rained and all, but from there on out I kinda forget what happened on what day. So here are some of the memories that stuck...

 

The wind picked up one dayand the water was white-capping. I personally enjoyed this because it made it a little more exciting. However, it was exhausting. Especially when we decided to take a detour and visit some falls. Finally we arrived to a port only to realize we needed to go further! (This kinda happened a lot :D) Then we really arrived to where we could get out and take a little hike. I'm not going to lie: the falls weren't anything spectacular. The water looked like root beer and only fell several feet. However, it was fun to see something different and stretch our legs!

 

Me, Kim, and Leah. We got a group pic on the camera but unfortunately we didn't take any on the disposables.

 

Once we got back on course we found a little island. Kim (the pink dot in the canoe) decided to ditch Mindy :).

 

While I enjoyed being out in God's creation, sometimes it was hard to stare for hours at water, trees, and sky. 20 questions to the rescue! Leah and I played countless games and came up with random subjects from Harriet Tubman to bubbles. Often we didn't even count questions cause it didn't matter.

 

Sometimes our four canoes were close to one another while other times we were spread over the water.

 

One part that is quite unforgettable were the portages. We had to unload our packs and carry our canoes on a sometimes rocky and hilly path to the 'other side of the mountain'. I guess it wasn't a mountain. But with a canoe on your shoulders it kind of felt that way!

 

Leah sacrificing moments of heaviness on the shoulders and stinging mosquitos humming in her ears for a picture. Somebody is coming behind her on the trail with one of those big green packs!

 

Kim and Kayla. I'm thinking this photo was taken at the very end of our trip. But it's hard to tell when we wore the same outfits every day! Anyway, when we portaged half the people would carry packs and half would carry canoes. Since we had 8 packs and they could be bulky, awkward, and heavy we would have a few people take two trips. Yes, I'm sure that all men could put us to shame and be so macho and carry two packs and a canoe, but we were not that strong so we did what worked best!

Camping was probably my favorite part. While we were blessed with sunshine the rest of our time and being on the water was pleasant (there were no mosquitos on the water), I thought it could get a bit monotonous. We would round a bend to see more trees and water, trees and water. And while experiencing God's creation from the water was different than normal, I enjoyed the times when we could get out of the canoes and explore the islands.

A few of us girls were hoping to see the Northern lights so one night Kayla and I whacked our way through trees, thorns, and brush to find the northern edge of our island in hopes we would have a good view of the sky. When we came upon a latrine in the middle of the woods we realized we had stumbled upon another camp on the island and decided we better head back to our camp. Even though we didn't find a good look-out spot, I had so much fun climbing over trees and feeling truly adventurous!

That same night us four youngest took the canoes out onto the water in hopes to get a better view of where the Northern lights might be. While we didn't see any, the stars were so bright and beautiful that for once I wanted to sleep on the water where I could have a clear view of the sky. But we headed back into camp and crawled into our snuggly sleeping bags.

This spot was especially pretty since there was some rock showing. It was pretty neat to canoe up next to it.

This is the beloved latrine. All I will add is that it inspired Leah and I to write a somewhat disgusting song. Hehe, if you go on an adventure like this sometime you will completely understand :)

Bleh, moving on! The last night we camped something unexpected happened! Alisia and I were swimming and noticed a turtle in the water. Later in the evening it was walking around our camp. This was kind of fun and different. But it really got interesting when it started digging. It dug a little then moved to a different spot. Then it dug and dug and dug. Very very slowly. It would put it's leg in the little hole and drag a speck of dirt to the surface. Then stick it's other leg in the little hole and repeat until it had a pretty deep hole. I think it took about an hour and a half to dig it's hole! We were trying to think of why a turtle might dig. Maybe if we had correctly guessed that this turtle was a female we would've known why. It was when 'he' laid an egg we realized this turtle was a SHE! We watched her lay 12 eggs then slowly and carefully press the dirt on her hole til we could hardly recognize where she had dug! The kettle on the right between Katie and Mindy is our campfire popcorn. While some people were watching National Geographic or Discovery Channel with microwave popcorn in the living room, God gave us a live show of His amazing design in the great outdoors!

 

What stood out to us is that most of the time we are too busy running around and going places to take time and enjoy the nature around us. But while we were on our trip, we had nothing seriously pressing except to cover about 36 miles in four days which is very reasonable. Never at home would I have the patience to sit 1.5 hours to watch a turtle dig a hole then lay eggs.

The evening went pretty fast. The last night I slept on a rock under the stars. I couldn't really enjoy the stars though cause I had to pull my sleeping bag almost completely over my head to keep the sound of the mosquitos out of my ears! I could see their black little bodies fly over the stars and hear their blood-thirsty hummmmmm. Only two of us ended up staying out all night and I think I'm the only one that slept more than a wink!

The bags under our eyes might clue you into the fact that this next photo was taken near the end of the trip. We are stuffing our faces with dry granola for breakfast (only a few people could brave the 'milk' that was supposed to help this stuff go down). Like every other food we were served there was an abundance...an over abundance! Seriously, we had to force ourselves to eat and eat and eat. To this day we still joke that the last thing we want to eat is hash browns. We had our lifetime fill of those :D We had food and it kept us going!

While the adventure was fun and full of great memories, it was good to feel my canoe hit the rocks for the last time and step onto land! A man came and picked us up and took us back to the bunkhouse so we could shower and freshen up.

 

They seem a bit excited to be in the van!

The trip didn't end there. We still had our long drive home. But that was more like normal life than anything I had experienced those four days on the water!

It was wonderful to experience this with a group of great Christian girls. We all tried to stay positive and think of the best when things were a bit challenging. Each night we had a devotion and our topic was 'Attributes of God'. Then we would share highs and lows and each of us had secret prayer partners so we would share prayer requests. It was those times in the tents with flashlights, journals and Bibles that made this trip extra special!

As for our outfitters: Cliff Wold's did a great job and we felt very well equipped for our journey! They were recommended to us and I would recommend them to others.

Will I be going again....hmmmm....not in the near future! But never say never :)