My Vacation Photos

There is a long-standing cliche about how it's rude and boring to inflict one's vacation photos on others if they didn't ask. But given the fact that I'm rude, and old (turned 50 while on said vacation), and generally disobedient, I'm going to do it anyway.

Even when I travel, I'm almost always working at the same time. This time, for almost four whole days, I actually had a vacation. (Okay, so I worked a little bit, when no one was looking.) Amanda, my brother Shawn and I ran off (or flew off and drove off) to Yosemite in California. Above is the "driveway" into Yosemite from the east side.

Despite it being in the eighties every day, there was still leftover snow from the ridiculous amounts they get during the winter.

We didn't do any real rock climbing, but we did scramble around on a few pebbles here and there.

It was the first time Amanda had been to Yosemite, and the first time she had seen Halfdome. (For those who don't know, it's ... a big rock.)

Yosemite is essentially a terrarium ... which happens to cover three quarters of a million acres.

We strolled around, sometimes on paths, sometimes not. (Paths aren't the boss of us.)

We only had to crash around for a while before we found Pollydome lake.

Here's me being all contemplative and stuff. (Mostly I was contemplating how evil mosquitoes are.)

If Amanda got tired, I was ready and willing to carry her ... in the most awkward, uncomfortable way possible.

The next day we wandered up to May Lake, and I had to run up a nearby mountain to get a better picture of it.

Amanda started to turn feral. (Or maybe she just already was.)

Later we visited the valley, with iconic images everywhere, including Halfdome.

And El Capitan.

And our timing was lucky enough that we got to watch climbers cresting the 3,000-foot face of it. (Luckily, the zoom on Shawn's camera is ridiculously good.)

After Yosemite we headed south, and went through Sequoia National Park, too. On the way, it was Shawn's turn to get all contemplative.

Sequoias are big. Big enough that you might not have initially noticed that Amanda is actually in the picture above.

Like ... really big. Big enough that 2D images can't really capture it.

But a little size comparison helps.

No, that is not photoshopped. And yes, Amanda is in that picture too, if you didn't notice.

But all good things must come to end. (Except for the ones that don't.)

Until next time, fare thee well, big-ass rocks and trees and stuff.

Oh, we also saw a really big chipmunk. See if you can spot it in the picture above.