Day #24: Resting in Heaven

Today's Route: Rest Day at Yosemite National Park (7 miles)
Total Trip Miles: 941

It was well past 10pm last night when we returned from Glacier Point. For the last 23 nights, our bedtime has been 7pm -- maybe 8pm, if we're pushing it. And so Alex and I were exhausted last night. I slept in until 7am this morning, which felt amazing!

Today was a rest day for us. We spent the day casually relaxing in the valley.

Alex and I headed over to Curry Village in the morning. We sat out on the porch, in rocking chairs, with the warm sun on our legs as we enjoyed the only free wifi we've been able to find in the park.

Enjoying the wifi.

While we were doing our wifi thing, Alex pointed out a Facebook post. The post was about Maslow's hierarchy for current day people. At the base of the hierarchy was "wifi." So. Very. True.

We returned to our campsite at 11am and proceeded to move our tents, our bikes, and all of our gear (including the contents of the bear box) to the campsite across the roadway. In a nutshell, BJ and Lilia were fortunate to score a campsite for us, but doing so involved a bit of musical chairs.

Tomorrow we are hiking to the top of Half Dome. Whereas Alex and I will do the entire route as a day hike, BJ and Lilia will backpack about five miles into the route this afternoon and camp out in the wilderness this evening. We saw BJ and Lilia off after lunch.

BJ and Lilia, setting out to backpack part of the way to Half Dome.

After that, Alex and I spent a bit more time exploring Yosemite Valley. We visited the historic Ahwahnee Hotel.

The Ahwahnee Hotel.

I love how the hotel blends in with the valley walls.

I love this wall in one of the rooms of The Ahwahnee Hotel.

We watched a Ken Burns video in Yosemite at the Visitor's Center. And we relaxed in a comfy couch in the lounge at Curry Village for awhile.

I thought I saw something scurry across the lounge floor.

Indeed, a ground squirrel was inside the lounge!

Although it was a "rest day" for us, we added seven miles to the odometer riding around the valley. It is great fun to ride bikes from here-to-there. It seemed as though we were riding our bikes in a city park. And so we constantly reminded each other to "look up at the walls surrounding the valley--we are riding our bikes in Yosemite!"

For the most part, any signs of graffiti in Yosemite have been destroyed, but this one remains.

I like creative graffiti.

On a mostly unrelated topic to our rest day in heaven...

I received an email today from my friend, Dug, who has been an absolute saint to store my belongings and my car while I'm away. My car is parked at Dug's auto shop. He sent me a photo showing that my car is in good company.

From left to right: a 2004 Chevrolet Corvette, my 2005 Toyota Corolla, a 2007 Subaru WRX Rally Car, and a 2006 Honda S2000.

To calm any concerns of auto theft, my car is the least appealing of the bunch. Knowing this helps to make my rest day in heaven even more restful.

As I spend my rest day in heaven, I'm reminded of how fortunate I am to have such wonderful friends.