Favorites from our trip

Days: 12
Miles: almost 3,200
Breweries: 8 (we think)
Showers: 4
Blisters: 1

We headed out Labor Day weekend to celebrate my sister's 30th birthday with the help of friends Jack & Anastasia. We played around in the Portland area, visiting Powell's bookstore, touring gorgeous wineries, drinking beer, camping, & staying one night at the McMenamin's Old Kennedy School House. All photos should enlarge when clicked on & the rest can be found on Flickr.

We toured the Tillamook Factory--here's Levi with the love of his life.

Cheese is sexy.Boo kissing the Tillamook cow.A fun evening on the ocean.

If she's 30, that must mean I'm getting old too! :)

Levi with a toy he found on the beach.

This was in a diner we stopped at for breakfast--I like it.

The whole gang at a winery.

So toot!

It was cool to see the grapes on the vine.

Vineyard acrobatics.

We loved the presentation of this beer sampler.

My beautiful sis.

The awesome theater at the McMenamin's--couches for seating & food & beer for eating!

My milkshake brings...

From Portland the rest of the gang headed home & Levi & I continued south on the first vacation we've taken just the two of us since our honeymoon. Yosemite was our first destination. Below is Half Dome from the valley--we would be climbing it the next day.

Little photo break on the hike up to Half Dome.

Staircase built into the cliffside.

View of the Dome from the base. See that little ladder going up the side? That's what we climbed to reach the top!

At the top-8,836 feet elevation!One of my favorite parts was belly-crawling out to the edge of the Dome to look down into the valley, over 2,000 feet below! I craned my neck out to look straight down the Dome & was thrilled to see two rock climbers making their way up the sheer face! I learned later that the ledge they are crossing in the photo is called "Thank God Ledge." The climber directly below me happened to look up & we waved at one another. :)

We also got to see the last activity of a search & rescue. Two rocks climbers in the face of the Dome got dehydrated & had to be rescued. We missed the actual rescue but witnessed the search & rescue team repacking all their gear & the helicopter making multiple trips back & forth to gather the gear & rescue team. It was awesome to watch the helicopter land on the Dome & then take-off & drop over the edge to the valley below.

Coming down the Dome on the cables.

Levi walking the granite surrounding the Dome. We hiked 16.5 miles that day & gained over 4,700 feet in elevation--it took us all day.

The next day we headed off into the backcountry, hiking to Young Lake for the night.
The lake was gorgeous (& cold), but we were pretty tired out after hiking Half Dome the day before & then hiking up to the lake at 9,980 feet elevation.
We hiked back through Tuolumne Meadows, with the Cathedral Mountains in the distance.
By the end of the week we were pretty satisfied with what we'd seen & done in Yosemite & when the weekend crowds started coming in, we took off south to the Kings Canyon & Sequoia National Parks. We fell in love with Kings Canyon--it had much of the same awe-inspiring features as Yosemite, with towering granite walls & a deep glacial valley, but had a wilder feel & way less people. We only had time to stay for one day, but we look forward to returning & experiencing the amazing alpine backpacking the park has to offer.Logged meadow from 1890s, Sequoia Nat'l Park. The huge, dead stumps made me sad.
This is one of the sixth largest trees in the world.
Giant Sequoia's bark is toxic to fungus, so it takes the fallen trees centuries to decompose. This huge one has been down for over 200 years, natives used it as a shelter, then pioneers, then the calvary for their horses, & it's still much the same. It even spent some time as a bar!
Sunset over Kings Canyon.

Thanks to those that hosted us along the way!