Happy Memorial Day!  I hope you had a wonderful holiday.

Yesterday, Sunday, we went to church with our friends, Daryl and Linda.  This was pretty meaningful to us because Daryl and Linda have not always been Christians during the time we've been friends.  We had the wonderful privilege of taking communion with them.  This was really significant for both Doug and me.

After church we headed up to Oakhurst, which is a community of about 3,000, but it is the biggest community close to Yosemite.  We are staying in a B & B just outside Oakhurst.  Our hostess, Dawn, is really nice.  We stopped in around noon yesterday to drop off our bags, but she had already prepared our room so we moved in then drove up to Yosemite National Park.  It is about 50 miles from Oakhurst into Yosemite Valley, but yesterday it took us nearly 1 1/2 hours to make the drive.  It is a windy road, allowing an average speed of around 35 mph.  Of course, yesterday being the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, you can image the number of people wanting to be in the park.  We were advised it would be better to visit Glacier Point instead of attempting the valley.  As we drove up the road to Glacier Point we were told there was a 60 -90 minutes wait before being allowed to proceed.  Well, since we were already this far we decided to wait.  We spent out 90 minutes eating lunch and reading our kindles and moving the car inch by inch.  Here is a picture of the line-up.

It was about 4:30 p.m. when we were allowed to proceed and it was worth it.

On our way to Glacier Point we stopped to walk the 2.2 mile round trip trail to Taft Point.  It was a pretty easy hike and felt so good after waiting in the car for so long.  We met some really nice young men from Thailand on the trail who are studying at Northwestern in Chicago.  They were visiting Yosemite for the 3-day weekend.

Here are a couple photos of the view from Taft Point.

The next stop was Washburn Point.  This has got to be my favorite view in Yosemite.  It is breath taking when you see it in person.

We finally made it to Glacier Point.  The view there was really wonderful, too, but there were gobs and gobs of people.  Doug and I have been amazed at the number of non-English speakers we've encountered.  We've seen a lot of people from India and quite a few Asian people, as well. In fact, there is a young Chinese couple staying at the same B & B as us.  I can't imagine the guts it takes to go to a foreign country and then stay in a B & B way out in the country.  Here is a sample of the view from Glacier Point.

We arrived back at Oakhurst around 9 p.m. hoping to buy an ice cream cone from McDonalds for dinner, but they had closed their dining room before 9 and the drive through was really busy.  So, we went to Vons and found a delicious Hagen Daz rocky road ice cream, which was way better than McDonalds.  (We try to eat healthy on our vacations.)

This morning our hostess had prepared for us fresh fruit parfaits for breakfast.  They were scrumptious and filling.  We left Oakhurst at 7:30 a.m. and arrive in the park at 9.  Our first stop was lower Yosemite falls.  The trail into the falls meanders through forest and is pretty easy.  The view is breathtaking.  We hardly saw anyone on the trail, but when we got to the falls realized everyone else had taken the shorter trail.  Tons of people were there.  Here's a photo of the falls and also one of the crowds.

From the falls we walked about 3 miles to Mirror Lake.  Hardly anyone was on the trail.  It was nice to escape some of the crowds.  At one point on the trail we ended up walking through a boat load of horse doodoo.  Yuk!  Truthfully, it was difficult to avoid stepping in it.  Later we realized we had taken the horse trail instead of the people trail.  Oh well.  

Mirror Lake.  Such beauty!

Needless to say, we took the shuttle back to our car to pick up our lunch, then headed to Awhwanhee Lodge (grand lodge of Yosemite) to eat on their lawn.  Here's a photo inside the lodge.

We got back to Oakhurst around 5:30 and are spending a relaxing (and warm) evening at our B & B.  Just to let you know how warm it has been, it was 93 degrees in Yosemite Valley, around 87 when we got back to Oakhurst and is 86 right now, 9 p.m.