Yosemite: Day 2: Biking around Yosemite Valley

In my opinion, biking around Yosemite Valley is the way to go. There is often a lot of traffic, large buses, and huge (many rental) RV's driving around, making for lots of congestion and lots of wasted time for you. Also, parking is very scarce, and almost impossible for rv's. There are very nice, paved bike paths all around the park. Just make sure you don't ride on trails or dirt paths, as they will ticket you!

There are so many beautiful views, you can easily stop your bike for a fantastic photo whenever you like. Here are some of the photos I took during our ride:

Yosemite: Day 1; Bee Stings, Bike Rides and Baby Deer

So, the big trip to Yosemite is upon us! First the road trip itself. It takes about 8 hours to drive to the park, so we got an early start and left at 6 am. That was perfect for our early risers! They were so excited to go, they all woke happy and ready to hit the road.

We watched stark, desert landscape like this for many hours.

Yosemite trip is on!

 

 After discussing it at length, and reading all of the information possible, my hubby and I decided to make the trip to Yosemite, despite the recent news of hantavirus outbreaks, including two deaths from the virus. During our previous visit in 2002, we had looked at Curry Village, and the "tent-cabins" they provide for guests. We felt pretty certain that the illnesses were due to the mice nesting within these cabins themselves, and we would be safe staying in our own rv, in a different campground. If you look at the cabins, you can see that they are insulated to provide greater comfort against the elements. As Yosemite staff has substantiated, they have found nests and mice within the insulated walls of these cabins (ew, blah, yuck, disgusting! I hate mice...even if it is nature & all.)

Packing for kids

 

I feel very lucky to have so much storage space in our little Winnie, but it is always a challenge to get everything packed and in order before each trip. This is due in large part to the fact that I have a two-year-old very active baby boy who likes to attempt to give us heart attacks at every moment with his latest adventures. I can't leave him unattended for even a second, or hand soap gets spilled all over the counters, he unscrews the toilet seat and flushes the bolts down, gymnastic feats of epic proportions etc, etc. You get the picture, right? 

So all of my prep work must be done at nap time, or with my little "assistant" who is not really a little helper at all, but an energetic ball of fury, bound on un-doing all of my hard work. That being said, I'm getting more & more efficient at the packing thing.

Yosemite and the Hantavirus

 I thought my 5 year old son's rat drawing was fitting for  a Hantavirus post. Much more fitting than for   his homework...but I digress.

You may remember my last experience trying to camp in Yosemite. If not, here it is. Well, since that disappointing time in 2002, I have been trying every single year to score campground reservations in the Yosemite Valley for a vacation. Each time, I've been denied. Of course, there is always the first-come first served reservations, but 8 hours is a long time to drive to a "possible" site. Especially with our kids.



So this year, we were really trying to get a week in Yosemite in October. Our eldest has a week vacation from school, and we thought it would be perfect. So, I decided to try for reservations in September, just to practice and fine-tune my reservation skills. At 7:30 am I was up, coffee in hand, reservation screen up, mouse finger pointed...7:59....and 8:00 am, GO!! By some miracle, I got the first spot I tried for. Wait, what?! I got a spot? For September? In Yosemite? YES!! So, my kid's just gonna have to miss some school. This is monumental. I had also sent the reservation link to my brother in the hopes that they could camp with us as well. Again, this was a huge reach, as it is nearly impossible to get a reservation in the park. And my brother is not quite as er...meticulous okay, anal as I am. But about 9:30 or so he called me and told me he had gotten a site too. What?! Awesome. Apparently he had forgotten about it being reservation day until about 8:40 or so, when he remembered, and managed to get a site anyway. Have I mentioned what a terrible time I've had trying to reserve at this place? Maybe it's me. Anyway, I asked what site he got & it sounded way higher than my number. Just to be sure, I checked the campground map. Turns out, our spots are right next to each other. Right next door! Isn't that crazy? We hadn't even tried to get neighboring spots. Just got really, really lucky! I was elated. It looked like my Yosemite luck had changed.

Well, looks can be deceiving. Or dead wrong as the case may be. Now, just weeks before our trip, there are all these stories about two people passing away from the hantavirus, which they contracted in the Yosemite Valley. Yikes!! Very sad for those campers and their families.

Right now, we are still planning on going. We are staying in an r.v., not in the tent cabins, and we're not staying in Curry Village, which is the place where both victims contracted the virus. I have read all about the virus, and will bring Lysol, bleach, and be prepared to do a lot of hand-washing. Still, I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't a little nervous. Just another reason for me to hate rodents. I hope this is not an omen for the rest of our vacation!

Bike Riding with three small children

Beautiful view of the overlook on our family bike ride near Mammoth Lakes, California

Because my husband didn't think I was crazy enough, he suggested we get some bikes for our family. Our oldest daughter already had a little bike, and she was getting very good at riding. So good, in fact, that we could barely keep up with her, even if we were running at full speed. Her Dad had resorted to riding her little razor scooter while she zoomed along on her bike. Hilarious to watch, but very sweet. "Big man on a little scooter!"(Tommy Boy, anyone? Big Man in a little coat...okay, nevermind).

Our First Trip-- Silver Strand State Beach: Coronado, California

After my good-natured husband had fully recovered (after a good shower, and a good night's sleep) we began planning our first RV trip in "The Skinny Winnie" as these rv's are sometimes called. We wanted to go somewhere pretty close by, since we weren't totally familiar with our new rig and wanted to be near home in case something should go wrong.

We decided on the Silver Strand State Beach in Coronado, California. I knew there were beachfront spaces there...and how can you go wrong with that?! It was very easy to get reservations, as the campground is not terribly in demand in February. There are no hook-ups or dump stations there, and rv's must be fully-contained in order to camp there.

We arrived on a Friday evening, and pulled in to our space. The spaces there are like large parking spaces in an asphalt lot. Beachfront spaces (like ours) allow your back end to be directly over the sand.
Here is a pic of our spot:

Beautiful spot at Silver Strand State Beach