We admit. We are eating like pigs. Hey, it was long day.

The Kabob Feast

A man's gotta feed his woman. Our dinner consisted of (each person), 4 beef kabobs, 3 shrimp kabobs, 1 cup of extra chunky steak soup, 1 grilled corn each, 1 Smirnoff Ice drink.

Half Dome View from Sentinel Bridge

Mrs. Fozzie claiming that she climbed the great Half Dome. (she didn't... but next time)

Update: Mrs. Fozzie returned to Yosemite on September 5, 2005, and conquered Half Dome.

Hollowed tree trunk

Home sweet home.

Hallelujah!

11:38 AM: We waited it out inside the car once we got to the Valley. We've just driven out to our site in Lower Pines and have started setting up camp fast, now that the snow has cleared and half a sun is peaking out. The ground is muddy, but it's certainly better than snow. Will this hold up in the cold wind tonight?

Tunnel View

10:36 AM: It's much colder than it looks in this photo. We just passed the Wawona Tunnel (elevation 6200 ft) and stopped for the view (there's thick snow everywhere here). It's currently about 29 degrees here according to our car's thermometer.

Arriving at Yosemite Gate

10:02 AM: On morning arrival at the South entrance (elevation, 5200 ft) via Hwy 41, it is snowing!! The very reliable Weather.com forecasted only 20% rain showers (Hello! I guess the other 80% was SNOW then!). It's WunderGround.com for me now. Okay, so these fairly large "winter" snow flakes are tumbling on our cheezy rental Toyota Matrix (Mr. Fozzie's still driving in his flowery beach shorts). Arrgh. We'll still head up Wawona Rd. toward our destination, the Valley (elevation, 4000 ft) to see if death is there to meet us. After all, we didn't haul around a pair of heavy-duty snow cables and scaper back in the right corner of our trunk for nothing (plus every other imaginable piece of emergency/survival gear). From the entrance, we still have 45 miles of mountain to go (that's about 1.5 hours with the snow falling on us).

Day 1 - Leaving Home

4:30 AM: Okay, so we were on our way by 4:30 AM Wednesday morning (not 3:00 AM as we had so planned for weeks) . Our original plan was to have our breakfast at Fresno, but after an unexpected gusty wind storm near Bakersfield, we were now behind schedule big time. So much for that delicious breakfast--we bit our fingernails instead. Fresno hosted our quick gas stop (btw, gas prices are much cheaper ANYWHERE outside of So. Cal.), and back on the road we went. This photo was actually taken later during the day.