almost there

Today I was officially cleared for graduation.

April 22, 2011. I'm. Done.

Then what?

Yo Yo Yo Semite!

I'm turning into one of those bloggers. You know the kind. The kind that only posts every other month. We all dislike them. And I can say that because we know they aren't going to touch their blogs and somehow end up reading this.

On the other hand, despite my lack of blogging, I've managed to keep up quite well on everyone else. So. Maybe I am offending some bloggers on my blog list. Hmm. Well, if under your blog reads more than a month, blog for us!

Either way I have a lot to catch up on. We'll start about a month ago with our adventure to Yosemite. My family decided to hike Half Dome. Half Dome is THE hike of Yosemite National Park. Its popular. Its dangerous. Its breath-taking. Its brutal.

We started hiking around 6:00am. Spotted a black bear in a tree literally feet above our heads. Can you say bad omen? The climb started on a steep but paved path. This lasted about 1/2 mile before we hit dirt and then a series of gorgeous waterfalls. The elevation gain from here on out was crazy. I was so not in shape, and it was so too late.

We hiked about 8.5 miles in (substitute up) before we hit the sub-dome. This mound consisted of switchbacks for about 30-45 minutes before cresting and Half Dome came into view. The last haul is literally that, hauling your body up wire cables. The surface of the dome was unexpectedly steep and slick. Wes insisted on being behind me so if I fell, then I would take him out too and we'd die together.

The view was SPEC-TAC-U-LAR. Dare I say totally worth it?

Which was worse, coming up or going down? My thighs say going up. My knees say going down. The pound pound pound (thousands of times) got really old, really quick. I was sore for 4 days after this adventure. Curse you lactic acid and enzyme systems!

We added a rock to our collection. We always pull one of the summit of a cool hike. The collection has even made it to our living room coffee table. Good conversation starter.

Feast your eyes. Leave a comment telling us how awesome we are.

Can you see the cable trail on the second dome? Its a little white line.