Yeah,Yeah, Yeah

So, I didn't update like promised.

Surprised?

Anyway, lots to get through, so let's get started.

Went to Yosemite for a long deserved and very late vacation. All of us working at the hostel get a free trip there, which is pretty great, as a result of us hanging out with Yosemite Dave and giving him a free place to crash each Sunday.

I spent my drive down there silent and avoiding conversation with everyone.

"Don't feel like you need to get to know everyone on the bus," Dave said to me. I took it to heart.

I didn't say a word to anyone except "hello" to Benny and Brian, the tour guide/drivers, when they picked me up. I spent the trip isolated with headphones on, tuning everyone out. Something about being friendly and getting to know everyone through two jobs over the course of 7 months leaves you with the desire for a little "Me Time".


My view from my private Back Seat Isolation Spot...

After a 3+ hour drive, we got out at the hostel and checked in. I haven't stayed at any other hostel and realized why Pacific Tradewinds has a reputation for being so friendly. We really are. We go out of our way to get to know people and give them all the information they need. The staff at the Yosemite Bug Hostel were great, don't get me wrong, but the check in process involved taking my money, handing me a key, and pointing downhill to the cabin I would be staying in. I wasn't in the mood to talk anyway, so it worked out, but it was definitely different from my usual 20-minute spiel I give the guests about the hostel and city and my personal tour.

I dropped off my things and caught up with Yosemite Dave at a picnic bench. Then time for dinner. The meals there were great and relatively cheap. In fact, the whole trip only cost me $37 after I bought the Breakfast/Dinner Meal Plan and entrance to the Spa. Not bad for a full weekend out in the woods.

I think I took the not talking thing too far though as I found myself feeling pretty lonely around 8 pm. I had already eaten dinner, hit the hot tub and sauna, had a very brief (and literally breathtaking cold shower), another dip in the hot tub, and a real shower.

Now what?

I started feeling pretty lonely but still didn't get myself to approach some people to strike up conversation. Very mature, Nick. Instead, I just kind of walked around aimlessly for a bit and then tried drawing/reading a book.

No luck.

I've also realized that loneliness leaves me with an empty feeling in my stomach which in turn leaves me... hungry. Ridiculous. And here I was, in a National Park, with no cash at a place that only accepts such payment. No food for me.

I finally decided to try going to sleep earlier than I have gone to sleep in the past 8 months (with one exception - when I fell asleep at 8:30pm and then found myself wide awake at 3pm, a condition that lasted until the next night...)

To save myself time and provide a more entertaining story, I'll copy the explanation I sent to Jenny:

I intended to listen to music but ran into a problem. As soon as I put in my headphones and turned my head, one of the earbuds popped out. The wire had been trapped under my shoulder and yanked it out of my ear. But it was much worse than that. The rubber earbud (the only size that fits my funny ears) popped off the rest of the headphone and I watched, helpless, as it bounced twice (very action movie, slow motion-like, as I slowly mouthed, "Nooooo...") and rolled off the edge of the bed.

Behind the bed.

Under my mattress was a large wooden cabinet locker for my bag. And now my earbud was somewhere on the floor, trapped between the locker and the wall.

Now comes the ridiculous.

I'm now swearing repeatedly under my breath, rummaging around, trying to get my fat hand into the tiny space between the bed and wall, openly defying all we know of physics. I hopped off the bed and started doing an Angry Dance in my underwear. For my roommates' sakes, they were all guys.

I continued with the swearing, trying to keep the volume down. There were two roommates in at the moment. One was asleep in the other room. Another was in a perpendicular bed at the end of mine. In between my bouts of random swear words I was repeatedly apologizing to the roommate in my room.

It was only 10 minutes later that I learned he was watching a movie on his iPod and had headphones in, not hearing a word of any of it.

So, there I am, clad in only black and gray boxers, dancing and swearing, swinging around violently, spitting gibberish, and talking to imaginary roommates.

Hmm...

I tried a MacGuyver-like move by pulling my belt out of my pants on the floor and dragging it between the wall and locker to attempt to slowly move the earbud to the edge where I could reach it. No luck.

Then I realized that the locker had a bit of space underneath it and it was very likely my earbud had rolled a bit under it too, therefore meaning I was wasting my time trying to get it out with my belt.

So I slipped on my shoes and ran outside into the cold mountain air to find myself a tree branch to use in my quest for my earbud. I couldn't afford to lose this earbud. I don't even know how much trouble it would take to get a new one and the only quick way would be to buy all new headphones, which was not reasonable as they were fairly expensive in the first place.

Maybe it was the cold mountain air.

Maybe it was a brief moment of sanity.

Either way, I suddenly realized I was skulking around in the moonlight in only my boxers and a pair of shoes, looking for a tree branch in the dark.

Suddenly embarrassed, I ran back into the cabin. Plan B.

I tried to lift the bed itself but soon realized it weighed about the same as a rhinoceros. Then I discovered the locker shifted a bit. I turned it one way but then couldn't see in the back. I turned it the other way and had the same result on the other side.

Ugh.

So, the Swearing Angry Dance began again. Then I pulled the locker open and started trying to drag it along the carpet under the mattress. Success! Luckily, I was in one of the only beds to have just one locker under the bed, so there was space to drag it. With considerable effort, I got it moved halfway down the bed and was able to retrieve my earbud.

Phew.

Then I proceeded to spend most of the night awake anyway. Oh well. Music didn't help, but at least I got to listen to a lot of new stuff.


The next morning, I woke early to get some breakfast (again: great) and got ready for the day's hike. We were going with Brian into the park for most of the day.

The drive took over an hour and the first destination was the Sequoias.

In case anyone needs this clarified: They're big.



Real big.

My favorite trees I saw were called the "Faithful Couple".



Two trees that had grown together long ago and now lived as one. Very sweet...

A little perspective if you need it.



We then hiked to the top of Sentinel Dome, a massive rock structure formed my glaciers sculpting the rock into a sort of onion shape.



The view from there was fantastic, allowing you to see large parts of the park.







We stopped and ate our bagged lunch. I made the first of a couple new friends while I was there, Nibbles and Mr. Whiskers. Nibbles was checking out my cup o' hummus and I let him do so but then he got greedy and stole the whole thing. I forgave him anyway.





Sadly, try as I might all day, the trip did not generate any bears. My quest continues.



We spent a while hiking to the top of a waterfall after this. Seven months worth of climbing up and down 5 flights of stairs multiple times a day definitely helped me with this task.





On the way up, we saw a rainbow through the mist of the waterfall. It was so close, it looked like you could reach out to grab it.



I want my gold!

At the top, we spent time sitting in the sun and enjoying the weather. In a matter of hours we had gone from walking around in snow to sunbathing.

I met another new friend, Roger, but he turned out to be the fair-weather kind and didn't stick around for long as I was food-less.



We heading back after this and enjoyed a relaxing evening. I went through my spa routine again first before going for dinner, deciding not to repeat the mistake of the night before, going to bed hungry. I had a huge meal that night and met a lot of new people. Some of them had just been at the Pacific Tradewinds, so it was a good starting point for conversation, including one fella who had one of the best names I've ever heard, Barnaby Jagger.

Ended the night listening to music without any earbud fiascoes but still didn't sleep much. I'm starting to realize the noise of the city drowns out all the head-noise and the time out in the wilderness was not nearly as peaceful as I had hoped. But it was still great.

The next morning we all packed up everything, checked out, and went out for a shorter hike with Benny. It was a nice hike along a narrow cliff right next to the Merced River.



Nothing to fear but Poison Oak and Rattlesnakes. Reminded me of looking for Rattlesnakes at Ginseng National Park in Washington. And Scorpion Hunting in Death Valley. And Bear Searches in Yellowstone...

Hmm...

There has to be something wrong with me...

I made one more friend out there, Newt (yeah, so it's not very original... but stop blaming me... blame his unoriginal parents... in fact, maybe we should just stop talking about it... he's quite sensitive about the matter...)



I was tempted to go swimming at the swimming hole we stopped at, despite the fact no one else was willing to. I figured I would just tough it out slightly wet and commando on the ride back.



I felt confident I could handle the chilly water after two late-night dips in the San Francisco ocean, something that was not entirely comfortable temperature-wise. i was encouraged to test the water out, which I did, even though I had only planned on jumping in and then climbing right back out again.



I'm glad I did.

The river was all snow melt from the top of the mountain and unbearably cold. The foot dipping in the picture above lasted about as long as it took to take the picture. Then I ran away...

We sat in the sun, my feet warmed up, and we hiked back to the van.

Some nice close-ups on the way back...



After grabbing our belongings and eating lunch, we headed back to San Francisco.

Benny voted me as navigator for the front seat since I was the only one "from" San Francisco and could help with directions when back in the city. I ended up talking his ear off most of the trip back. We talked about traveling a lot and he extended an invitation to Portland should he ever return there. A cool guy.

I was good to get back and hop in the shower. My goodbye party was that night and I had a chance to visit with a lot of friends I had made through work and the city. A good bookend this part of my time in San Francisco...