Beautiful Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. The campsite doesn't officially open until July 15, so when they ended up opening on June 22, all sites were open on a first-come, first-serve basis (no reservations taken). Lisa and I drove up early on Friday to ensure we would get The! Best! Birthday! Campsite! Ever! and we totally did. G-7! Yeah!
The rest of the crew showed up Friday evening. We had burritos and beers and saw a bear in a tree at the campsite next to us. Apparently our neighbors missed all of the hundreds of signs and warnings that are posted all over the entire park about not leaving food out because they told us, "We left the camp for just a couple of minutes and when we came back, the bear was eating our mint milanos and bagels!" Duh. It was a sweet bear who seemed pretty content eating the milanos in the tree.
The next day we woke up and Nate cooked up bacon and eggs. We decided to hike up to Elizabeth Lake (Lake Elizabeth?). Uphill until a meadow and the lake.
(The Uphill)
(The Meadow)
(The Lake. With the betrothed lovebirds in the foreground and Unicorn Peak in the background.)
Here are the dudes performing one of their tests of machoness by plunging into the snow-fed lake. Eddie jumped in first, Dominic stayed in longest and Nate wore the tiniest suit.
Back at camp that night, the crew smoked Swisher Sweet cigarillos (the closest things to cigars they had at the Tuolumne Meadows general store) and we enjoyed fancy goat cheese and bottle(s!) of wine.
The birthday dinner was super spicy sausage (chorizo beat out Italian) and grilled corn. Followed up by brownies and ice cream. Brownies made in Eddie's birthday camping stove and ice cream made in that camping ice cream maker that's been advertised in REI for years now.
(The camping oven on the camping stove. Looks kind of eerie.)
(The birthday brownie with candles en fuego! That's what happens when you celebrate a 30th birthday and 26th birthday at the same time...lots of candles...)
The next morning, the dudes had another test of machoness and got up at 5:30 or so to climb up Lembert Dome. Sunday was the actual birthday, so here's a picture of Nate at dawn on the day of his birth.
Isn't he cute? (Pic taken by me, snuggled in my sleeping bag in the tent.)
Eddie and Lisa had to head home early, so Dominic, Rebecca, Nate and I took a stroll through the meadow and stopped by the soda springs to sample the water.
(Dom and Rebecca at the spring)
We then went up the road and stopped by Tenaya Lake for a picnic. Then a looooooong, hot drive home.
All-in-all a fantastic weekend! A good way to kick off the summer (or at least to end the busiest June ever).
(Us with Dom and Rebecca in front of Lembert Dome. At 5'8", I was the shortest member of our camping group!)
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2 comments:
fun fun! i assume those were your tostitos next to the goat cheese and wine? :)
Yes, sadly (happily?) I did not drink any wine or eat any goat cheese (or smoke any cigarillos). All I got to do was hike up a hill and sleep on the ground. :)
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