Yosemite National Park Aug 8 - 12, 2024

Thursday

This year Matt decided to drive across the US with James to San Diego so I opted take Greta on a work conference trip. The conference was at Tenya Lodge in Fish Camp, CA, just minutes away from Yosemite National Park. Greta and I made the most of our morning in Madison and did some last minute school clothes shopping. We scored at Target with awesome apparel. We dropped it off to be embroidered and then dropped Wilson at Aunt Susan's. She loves watching him. We caught our Van Galder bus at the Dutch Mill Park and Ride at 2:50. Greta read her book, Moon over Manifest, and I listened to my podcasts on biohaking. We arrived with plenty of time at O'Hare. We had to laugh when Greta's stuffy was pulled aside to be checked in security. We grabbed dinner at the airport and boarded our United flight to Fresno at 8:10. Our flight was just under 4 hours. Greta has nightmares of car rental places and was nervous we'd have a wait for our rental, like we often did in Hawaii. Fortunately that wasn't the case, not many people are renting their enterprise cars at 10:30pm! We got in our black 4 door and made our way North on high 41. We had an hour drive to our Resort. Was that ever a windy road. Once here we were in awe with the pine smell, crisp feel to the air, and amazing stary night. Something I can't say I have ever felt! We soon hit the hay as we were exhausted!

Friday:

This morning Greta's alarm woke me up. Whoops…her weight lifting alarm that is. I wasn't able to go back to sleep so I headed out for a run. I didn't realize the access we had to the trails right behind our lodge until the next day. Instead I crossed Hwy 41 and ran up Summit road and back down again. I was exausted! Once to the room we hit the hotels breakfast. We both ordered their buffet. That was amazing! I am definitely making chia pudding when I get home. Greta loved all the pastries. We showered up and headed to Yosemite National Park. We chose to hike Taft point and sentinel dome. It was a 5 mile loop. We packed our backpack full of water and snacks and hit the trails. Wow…were there amazing views! Greta did get a little scared of the heights but did it anyway. Once to our car her Cobb salad didn't quite hit the spot for her. Too much blue cheese. My organic green tea and dark chocolate bar was amazing. Once back to our resort Greta had her first chai oat milk, barista version, she is hooked! I know why! We decided to hit the pool for awhile, showered and chilled. We did dinner at our resorts restaurant. I loved my mixed berry salad on greens with Mahi Mahi. Greta loved her crispy chicken sandwich. We split a lemon tart pie. Afterwards we broused the gifts shops to find a Yosemite coaster for Aunt Susan and a dark chocolate almond bar for myself. We headed back up to our room and hit the sack.

Saturday:

This morning I discovered the Tenya trail loop that exits our resort. It is through the Sequoia National Forest. I ran 2.5 miles up the mountain paralleling the stream and ran back down. It was a gorgeous run. The final 1/4 mile passed a horse ranch. Once back to my room we opted to go to the resorts breakfast. This morning we ordered from the menu. Egg white omelet, gluten free toast, and green tea. Greta ordered a breakfast burrito. Afterwards we headed to the spa for Greta's facial and my yoga session. Because she is a minor I was able to use the spa facilities with her. We sampled flavored water in our bathrobes and slippers while chilling in the waiting area. Fortunately her aesthetician was super friendly. I went back with Greta to hear the details about her service. She got two masks, face/scalp/shoulder massage, extraction, steaming, cleansing etc. All products were organic and were made of fruits, vegetables, or oils. Meanwhile I took a yoga class of a new style. My instructor certainly had a different look. He looked like a hippy. He had long shaggy dark blonde hair and was super skinny. His class focused on stretching, music, tapping, and vibration. The last 10 min of the class we all had ceramic bowls on our stomachs. He went around the room with his musical instrument and hit the bowl. The vibration supposedly woke up the internal organs. Our class was mainly middle aged women. All except for one 6 year old boy who came with his mom. He goofed off the whole class. Let's just say it was an interesting hour. After Greta's facial she was super excited to have received her facial prescription and have an amazing glow. She spent another 30 min in the spa checking out the steam room, mouthwash, razors and creams. After we opted to hit our resorts pool for chilling. After a while we decided to do lunch at our resort and then went mountain biking. We biked up the same trail I ran on each morning. 3 miles in was our stopping point to get off our bikes and hike up the final 3/4 mile. Unfortunately I didn't have the right shoe wear for the next adventure but I made it work anyway. We crossed the top of a waterfall and several more creeks. It was a beautiful area to chill until near sunset. We headed back to our bikes and cruised back down the mountain. Right before entering Tenya Lodge we spotted a side trail that meandered deep into the woods. We figured why not try it. It was gorgeous! It brought us to a meadow clearing with wildflowers and a creek at the base. We granny geared back up and returned our bikes. We showered up, dressed up, and headed to the Pizzeria for dinner. Once back in our room we watched the final day of the Olympics and hit the sack.

Sunday:

My final day running here was just as amazing as the last, up and down the mountain trail again. We hit the restaurant again for breakfast. I was super bummed they were out of my gluten free toast…:(. We went back to our room and chilled till the last possible moment in our room….11AM was checkout. We then went to our pool for swimming, reading, and journaling. I thought my yoga instructor would come by again asking if I wanted a stretch session, but no such luck. He had the day before. After his morning yoga in the spa he gave free private stretch sessions poolside in a cabana. We ordered salads for lunch and then decided to head out. We made our way to Bass Lake. It reminded me a little like Lake Tomahawk. We broused the stores and found ice cream at the Pizzeria. Greta got a calzone…little did she know they make them the size of your head!! I enjoyed my once a month ice cream….espresso chocolate chip. We were too warm for a beach so we opted to try something different. We drove to Fresno and watched the movie, Harold and the Purple crayon. Was that funny!!! Afterwards we found a Whole Foods for me and Target for Fuzzy. We got our steps in walking the perimeter of air conditioned Target and played guess that candle smell. We made our way to Fresno International Airport and waited till our 11:59 departure. Lucky Greta was able to sleep the entire 3.5 hour flight. Not quite the case for me.

Monday

We arrived at O'Hare at 5:20 AM, plenty of time to catch our Van Galder home. Greta found blueberry chia overnight oats in the vending machine and I devoured my organic lemon cashew coconut bar from Whole Foods. Now on the bus back to Madison, our driver made us laugh….his list of bus rules went on for 20 minutes!

Well….I enjoyed Yosemite. I hope Greta did too. I truly felt more relaxed than I have ever felt…kind of like the last trip Greta and I did together…. Pre Covid. She is a great travel partner. As I told her thorough out the trip….there are going to be moments you don't want to go on…but when you do…that is often when something amazing happens. That is how memories are made.

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