Yosemite 2016

Saddened.. yet again.. by another mass tragedy. France is incredibly close to my heart as I spent all my summers going up with my French exchange family and try to go back as often as I can.

I am sad for all of the victims, and for humanity.

=================

Let me count the ways that I love the West Coast: 1) Oregon 2) California 3) Washington. This past week, we traveled to Yosemite with Stanford Classmates where we lounged, hiked, made smores, laughed, swam, and simply enjoyed the simplicity of the California Nature. AHHHHHH California.

Yosemite National Park is known for its waterfalls, meadows, giant sequoias, and vast wildnerness. This is a photo from our hike on Day 1. It was an easy hike yet truly beautiful, surrounded by trees, water, and waterfalls.

Of course, I did an excellent job packing and packed appropriate hiking shoes for Toosh (better than her birkenstocks or jellies, so #winning).

Impromptu swim in the crisp cool water.

Me and Toosh, oh so glamorous. Yes, I am white trash rocking cut offs and a camouflage shirt (you can’t see me in nature wearing this shirt, right?)

Hiking means dirty face and exhaustion. I mean, I just want to kiss her cheeks regardless.

After lunch festivities included zip lining over and over and over again.

After the hike, we went to Evergreen Lodge for lunch and use of their amenities, which included a playroom, a ping pong table, zip lines, and some fun obstacle courses. It felt like Miraval for kids.

Playing in a web

Sunset at our hotel, Rush Creek Lodge. Mind you, we did a Yosemite LITE version, where we were not camping, but staying in a lodge. I know, not very hard core, but we still got plenty dirty, lots of fresh air, a buzillion bug bites, legs full of scratches and scrapes, and the smell of campfire on us. So basically, we camped.