Recuperating and all that.
Aug. 3rd, 2005 11:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pacificpikachuKuso, I forgot to call Nicole and Cody again. How many times do I need to be reminded before it actually sticks?
Oh well--KK and I can call them tomorrow.
Anyway... Yosemite trip. (In concise, random format.) Please feel no obligation to read this. In fact, I'd almost prefer you don't, because it makes me sound so *negative*.
By the time I woke up on the morning before departure, Dad already had everything packed in the car pretty much, so I basically just awoke, got some stuff together, and got in the car. I waited a little while to start watching FMA (as we had several stops to make before leaving town), but once I started...I didn't stop.
I watched twelve episodes, and 'engrossed' was the best word for my state of mind. That show is twisted and wonderful, and I had actually seen more episodes of it than I had given myself credit for. Let's not note the fact that I've been semi-lurking in the FMA fandom for...well, since it first started getting fansubbed. That's not the point. >.>
Anyway, we arrived and 'ooo'ed and 'ahhh'ed at the giant rocks and such, went through tunnels (attempting feebly to hold our breath through the long ones). We went up to our campsite (which was very nice, but somewhat crowded and about a forty minute drive from the valley floor). It took a bit of struggle to get the tent up, but once it was up everything fell into place just fine.
You know what? I don't really remember what specifically happened, so I'm just going to go through the major points.
The view from Glacier Point was awesome--especially at night. We went during the day once and at night twice. From more than 3,000 feet above the valley floor, you can see people's campfires and all the lights, and it just looks...so cool. Also, the stars are SO bright and there's just an immense expanse of them across the sky. We went and star-gazed quite a bit, pointing out the somewhat frequent shooting stars. Ryan saw a HUGE one that lit up the whole sky, but Dad and I missed it because we looked away at the wrong instant. ._.; We kept flashing our head-lamps to the people on the valley floor, and we didn't think anyone would see, but a TON of people blinked back at us. Kind of cool communicating with people who are 3,000 feet below you.
The first night, I did *NOT* sleep well. I thought I was sleeping well, until I woke up because the campsite got so quiet. Yes, I woke up because it was so eerily quiet. And...get this. I've never been afraid of anything in the traditional sense in my life (there is not a single horror movie thusfar that can really unsettle me), but... For some reason, there were a few images stuck in my mind from FMA, and (partly because it was 3 AM and I was sleep deprived), I couldn't get the images away. o_o I wasn't scared of them, really, they were just haunting me. The first image is that...thing that Elric brothers created when they tried to revive their mother, the second was that bird chimera going "Ro...se... Ro...se.", and the third was...well, just how sad the whole arc with Nina was. ;_;
Anyway, that was weird. And it disrupted my sleep.
I made pathetic attempts at fishing. I'm actually quite good at fishing--I fished with my uncle every day for at least a week in Michigan a few summers back. However, left to my own devices, setting up the rod and all that... Eh... That didn't go so well. ^^; Needless to say, I didn't catch a single thing. The bait kept falling off, too.
The second day (and, in fact, most of the trip) I was exceedingly apathetic. I just...didn't care. About anything. About things that I normally would love to see. I don't know why. It just...didn't feel right, or something.
I slept most of the second day. I slept in the car for a few hours while Ryan and Dad took a walk, I slept in the car on the way back up to the campsite, and I slept when we got back to the tent. It's a wonder I slept just fine that night.
We went to see waterfalls. Not much to say about that. We arrived at the wrong time and the sun was directly above the waterfall, so we couldn't really look at it.
I couldn't handle life without showers (clean freak), so we located showers at Curry Village and I took to taking daily showers. I don't know if I could've survived otherwise.
For part of the camping trip, we had three Japanese guys in the campsite next to us, so I kept trying (unsuccessfully) to overhear their conversations. XD;; Mew, I'm weird. I could only hear about three words they said, all in all.
Also, another funny story with campsites... I swear, for two or three days of the trip, I thought that the next campsite over was inhabited by Debra, the former foster care coordinator with AnimalSave. I was a little weirded out, because I honestly thought it was her, but I was confused because she didn't come to say hello or anything, and Ryan wasn't saying anything like "Hey, isn't that Debra?"... I considered multiple times going to say hello to her. However...ehehehe...I stuck around a little longer, and I realized the lady was definitely NOT Debra, and didn't even speak English. XD; So, good thing I didn't follow my stupid instincts.
Dad dragged Ryan and I on this huge hike. He said he wanted to take a big hike. I don't mind big hikes--in fact, I rather like them. I didn't know what he meant when he said 'big hike' apparently, but he also didn't know how strenuous it was going to be. The hike was only about 3.5 miles, there and back, however... It was ALL uphill, other than *maybe* twenty feet that was a bridge we had to cross. We're not talking little hills. I mean, vertical. My Dad runs marathons and does triathalons all the time. HE was having a hard time on this hike. At least .8 miles of it was stairs. HUGE, near-vertical stairs that were completely killer. I usually *like* going up stairs. This was torture. Not even joking.
Granted, it *was* kind of worth it (we got to see this HUGE waterfall, and all these rainbows and mist falling all around you), but of course I couldn't let Dad know this.
When we got up there, unfortunately all the squirrels and bluejays were really tame. They all wanted the trail mix I was eating, so they were coming so close I was literally afraid they were going to jump in my lap. I kept having to scare them away. I got great pictures of 'em, though. I love interacting with animals, but wild animals should be...well, wild. Not acting like someone's spoiled pet hamster or something.
The hike down was pretty awful, too, in its own ways. For one, I kept slipping. Constantly. It was that type of terrain where it's sand over solid rock, so it was extremely slippery, especially when we were going down at the angle we were. When we got to the part with all the mist and the stairs, I slipped and fell and scraped my hand, legs, and bruised my butt. And got a huge mudsplotch on my back. This was not so much painful as it was discouraging, especially seeing as we still had quite a way to go.
So...yeah. That hike was no good. Dad felt kind of bad afterwards, though, because it really wasn't fair.
I went to go take a shower, and when I got dressed and got out of the shower and everything, Dad and Ryan showed up and told me they had just seen three bears. A mother and two cubs. I felt really bad to have missed that... We went back to the spot where we saw them, but they were long gone by then. Of course, it was a lose-lose situation for me--they wouldn't have seen the bears if it wasn't for the fact I had gone to take a shower.
We roasted marshmellows, and made ramen, spaghetti, and macaroni for our dinners, which was pretty cool. Dad was obsessed with the fire for some reason. Ryan, Dad, and I also played a lot of poker on the trip. I had really bad luck with that, but I thought it was really fun to bluff over nothing anyway. Ryan and I had a disfigured marshmellow competition in which we tried to burn our marshmellows ultimately. I won. Mine blew up, black and warty and gross, to almost the size of a small balloon.
Yesterday, this HUGE bus showed up, and I was about to freak out because I thought it was a Christian bus (it had the word 'ministry' on it), but it turned out to be a group of Hare Khrishna (is that spelled right?) kids. They seemed cool, from the faraway observations of them. :D But I like alternative religions, so I automatically warmed up when it turned out to be something so different.
I slept fairly well last night.
This morning, we basically just got up, packed, and I watched FMA the whole way back, up to episode 24. Loved it, needless to say.
Aaand... I've just spent the rest of the day talking to KK on the phone, saving stuff on the computer, ordering the Fluke soundtrack (Dad bought it for me! ♥), and watching lots of Law & Order with Dad. Dad and I have this funny thing of watching sitcoms and forensic shows together. Not sure why.
Yeah, that's it. The trip was...kind of weird, because despite the beautiful surroundings, it felt very...uninteresting, and melancholy even, to me.
I NEED TO WRITE MY AX REPORT! IT HAS BEEN A MONTH! >
Oh well--KK and I can call them tomorrow.
Anyway... Yosemite trip. (In concise, random format.) Please feel no obligation to read this. In fact, I'd almost prefer you don't, because it makes me sound so *negative*.
By the time I woke up on the morning before departure, Dad already had everything packed in the car pretty much, so I basically just awoke, got some stuff together, and got in the car. I waited a little while to start watching FMA (as we had several stops to make before leaving town), but once I started...I didn't stop.
I watched twelve episodes, and 'engrossed' was the best word for my state of mind. That show is twisted and wonderful, and I had actually seen more episodes of it than I had given myself credit for. Let's not note the fact that I've been semi-lurking in the FMA fandom for...well, since it first started getting fansubbed. That's not the point. >.>
Anyway, we arrived and 'ooo'ed and 'ahhh'ed at the giant rocks and such, went through tunnels (attempting feebly to hold our breath through the long ones). We went up to our campsite (which was very nice, but somewhat crowded and about a forty minute drive from the valley floor). It took a bit of struggle to get the tent up, but once it was up everything fell into place just fine.
You know what? I don't really remember what specifically happened, so I'm just going to go through the major points.
The view from Glacier Point was awesome--especially at night. We went during the day once and at night twice. From more than 3,000 feet above the valley floor, you can see people's campfires and all the lights, and it just looks...so cool. Also, the stars are SO bright and there's just an immense expanse of them across the sky. We went and star-gazed quite a bit, pointing out the somewhat frequent shooting stars. Ryan saw a HUGE one that lit up the whole sky, but Dad and I missed it because we looked away at the wrong instant. ._.; We kept flashing our head-lamps to the people on the valley floor, and we didn't think anyone would see, but a TON of people blinked back at us. Kind of cool communicating with people who are 3,000 feet below you.
The first night, I did *NOT* sleep well. I thought I was sleeping well, until I woke up because the campsite got so quiet. Yes, I woke up because it was so eerily quiet. And...get this. I've never been afraid of anything in the traditional sense in my life (there is not a single horror movie thusfar that can really unsettle me), but... For some reason, there were a few images stuck in my mind from FMA, and (partly because it was 3 AM and I was sleep deprived), I couldn't get the images away. o_o I wasn't scared of them, really, they were just haunting me. The first image is that...thing that Elric brothers created when they tried to revive their mother, the second was that bird chimera going "Ro...se... Ro...se.", and the third was...well, just how sad the whole arc with Nina was. ;_;
Anyway, that was weird. And it disrupted my sleep.
I made pathetic attempts at fishing. I'm actually quite good at fishing--I fished with my uncle every day for at least a week in Michigan a few summers back. However, left to my own devices, setting up the rod and all that... Eh... That didn't go so well. ^^; Needless to say, I didn't catch a single thing. The bait kept falling off, too.
The second day (and, in fact, most of the trip) I was exceedingly apathetic. I just...didn't care. About anything. About things that I normally would love to see. I don't know why. It just...didn't feel right, or something.
I slept most of the second day. I slept in the car for a few hours while Ryan and Dad took a walk, I slept in the car on the way back up to the campsite, and I slept when we got back to the tent. It's a wonder I slept just fine that night.
We went to see waterfalls. Not much to say about that. We arrived at the wrong time and the sun was directly above the waterfall, so we couldn't really look at it.
I couldn't handle life without showers (clean freak), so we located showers at Curry Village and I took to taking daily showers. I don't know if I could've survived otherwise.
For part of the camping trip, we had three Japanese guys in the campsite next to us, so I kept trying (unsuccessfully) to overhear their conversations. XD;; Mew, I'm weird. I could only hear about three words they said, all in all.
Also, another funny story with campsites... I swear, for two or three days of the trip, I thought that the next campsite over was inhabited by Debra, the former foster care coordinator with AnimalSave. I was a little weirded out, because I honestly thought it was her, but I was confused because she didn't come to say hello or anything, and Ryan wasn't saying anything like "Hey, isn't that Debra?"... I considered multiple times going to say hello to her. However...ehehehe...I stuck around a little longer, and I realized the lady was definitely NOT Debra, and didn't even speak English. XD; So, good thing I didn't follow my stupid instincts.
Dad dragged Ryan and I on this huge hike. He said he wanted to take a big hike. I don't mind big hikes--in fact, I rather like them. I didn't know what he meant when he said 'big hike' apparently, but he also didn't know how strenuous it was going to be. The hike was only about 3.5 miles, there and back, however... It was ALL uphill, other than *maybe* twenty feet that was a bridge we had to cross. We're not talking little hills. I mean, vertical. My Dad runs marathons and does triathalons all the time. HE was having a hard time on this hike. At least .8 miles of it was stairs. HUGE, near-vertical stairs that were completely killer. I usually *like* going up stairs. This was torture. Not even joking.
Granted, it *was* kind of worth it (we got to see this HUGE waterfall, and all these rainbows and mist falling all around you), but of course I couldn't let Dad know this.
When we got up there, unfortunately all the squirrels and bluejays were really tame. They all wanted the trail mix I was eating, so they were coming so close I was literally afraid they were going to jump in my lap. I kept having to scare them away. I got great pictures of 'em, though. I love interacting with animals, but wild animals should be...well, wild. Not acting like someone's spoiled pet hamster or something.
The hike down was pretty awful, too, in its own ways. For one, I kept slipping. Constantly. It was that type of terrain where it's sand over solid rock, so it was extremely slippery, especially when we were going down at the angle we were. When we got to the part with all the mist and the stairs, I slipped and fell and scraped my hand, legs, and bruised my butt. And got a huge mudsplotch on my back. This was not so much painful as it was discouraging, especially seeing as we still had quite a way to go.
So...yeah. That hike was no good. Dad felt kind of bad afterwards, though, because it really wasn't fair.
I went to go take a shower, and when I got dressed and got out of the shower and everything, Dad and Ryan showed up and told me they had just seen three bears. A mother and two cubs. I felt really bad to have missed that... We went back to the spot where we saw them, but they were long gone by then. Of course, it was a lose-lose situation for me--they wouldn't have seen the bears if it wasn't for the fact I had gone to take a shower.
We roasted marshmellows, and made ramen, spaghetti, and macaroni for our dinners, which was pretty cool. Dad was obsessed with the fire for some reason. Ryan, Dad, and I also played a lot of poker on the trip. I had really bad luck with that, but I thought it was really fun to bluff over nothing anyway. Ryan and I had a disfigured marshmellow competition in which we tried to burn our marshmellows ultimately. I won. Mine blew up, black and warty and gross, to almost the size of a small balloon.
Yesterday, this HUGE bus showed up, and I was about to freak out because I thought it was a Christian bus (it had the word 'ministry' on it), but it turned out to be a group of Hare Khrishna (is that spelled right?) kids. They seemed cool, from the faraway observations of them. :D But I like alternative religions, so I automatically warmed up when it turned out to be something so different.
I slept fairly well last night.
This morning, we basically just got up, packed, and I watched FMA the whole way back, up to episode 24. Loved it, needless to say.
Aaand... I've just spent the rest of the day talking to KK on the phone, saving stuff on the computer, ordering the Fluke soundtrack (Dad bought it for me! ♥), and watching lots of Law & Order with Dad. Dad and I have this funny thing of watching sitcoms and forensic shows together. Not sure why.
Yeah, that's it. The trip was...kind of weird, because despite the beautiful surroundings, it felt very...uninteresting, and melancholy even, to me.
I NEED TO WRITE MY AX REPORT! IT HAS BEEN A MONTH! >
