We didn't have a tight schedule today so we were able to linger at breakfast and really enjoy the morning. Grammie cooked enough biscuits for an army so we were all stuffed by the time we got up from the table. I took the kids to the game room with plans to play 2 games of ping pong, 2 games of foosball, and 1 game of pool. The kids were so awful at ping pong I shortened the games to 10 points and it still took us almost an hour to finish! There was lots of doubled-over laughter throughout the games as they got used to the rules, the paddles, and the bounce of the ball.
Next up was foosball which we'd played many times before so the games were pretty quick. Ryan and I blew away Laney and Brayden so Brayden and I joined forces. We were beating them so horribly we played facing backwards with our arms crossed. Talk about some serious brain coordination happening! Once they made it within 2 points of us we played facing forward
but still with our arms crossed. My brain was so slow to react as goalie that we almost lost it. We played a third game with Laney and I teamed up and it was definitely more even than any other matchup with a final score of 9-10.
On our drive to Yosemite we'd gone through the tiny town of Groveland. Brayden noticed a couple pizza places and I noticed a general store so we decided to drive back and explore for the morning. I was assuming there were a few gifts stores we could walk through or maybe a small museum. Unfortunately it was already pretty hot and the stores were a flop. There were more taverns than anything! We just dropped post cards at the post office and headed for pizza.
Once we walked into the pizza place I didn't have very high expectations but it actually was very good. The crust and sauce were delicious and ours was piled high with veggies. I asked the owner if there was a laudromat close and this was a good day to do it but it was more than 20 more minutes away. I noticed on my plans we were to have laundry at our next stop and Grammie already had laundry at hers. Our to-do-laundry or not-to-do-laundry quandry solved itself.The kids were interested in swimming and I'd noticed a spot called Rainbow Pool on my map in between our sites so we headed that way next. With it being so warm and a Sunday the place was absolutely packed! We drove through anyway just to see the swimming hole then continued on to drop Grammie at her laundromat. We still had a few days of clothes left so the kids went to swim at the river and I relaxed and read with Lola.
I was rudely taken away from my book about 45 minutes later and close to napping with wet hugs from Brayden and Dave. They wanted me to come down to the river so we put Lola back in the RV and walked down. The girls were wrapped up in towels by the time I got down there but I talked them into going back in to jump off the rock. It was a nice little spot with colorful rocks but the water was COLD. There was no way I was getting in any higher than my ankles.
Once the kids got in dry clothes we headed back down to the game room for a few last games. It was a little more crowded now so the kids settled on playing pool. The kids are getting better but I don't think we'll have pool sharks any time soon.
After dinner we made the not-to-miss drive up to Glacier Point. This was supposed to be the best view of the valley and mountains in the park and I was hoping we would be able to time it to make the ranger program and the sunset. It looked like we were going to just make the program until the traffic came to a complete stop about 100 yards from the parking lot. We inched and inched closer and finally were at a point where everyone could hop out and I could find a parking spot. The parking lot wasn't too small, everyone had just been waiting for people to leave and holding up the rest of us.
I joined up with everyone after a few minutes and we walked the trail to the point. This was a spot Lola could join us so she was thrilled. It's been almost like everywhere we went we were missing someone until we are allowed to bring her too. Brayden not be as thrilled as she sat in his lap during the more than hour drive up!
We caught the last few minutes of the ranger program about fire then explored the point while the sun dipped behind the trees. There wasn't much color to the sky but it was still beautiful to see Half Dome from this perspective. On a rock by the edge I spotted a survey marker for our spot. We were at 7,214 feet.
The Santa Cruz Astronomy Club was all set up in the Amphitheater with a bunch of giant telescopes all aimed in one of two directions. There was still enough light to be able to easily see so I didn't
expect much until it got dark. Boy was I wrong! We saw Jupiter in all it's color with 4 moons in two of the telescopes. Then we saw Saturn as clear as if we were looking at our moon in the others. It appeared so close it seemed fake!
There was a night sky program scheduled next but once we did the calculations of when we would actually arrive back at our campsite we decided to skip it. I could only imagine how brilliant the stars and planets were at this perfect spot. Ryan had been eyeing a rock ever since we got here and it was finally empty for her to climb. I promise this picture wasn't taken at JC Penney - it just got dark on us!
About halfway back to our spots I was so very glad we had opted out of the sky program. There wasn't any traffic but I was so tired I was yawning those big, noisy yawns that meant it was time for me to be horizontal. With the help of the cold wind on my face we made it back and all sunk into our sleeping bags for the night.
