Yosemite

for a few days before the race, we hung out in Monterey.  We went to the Aquarium and whale watching and Adam and Suzie went SUPing (standup paddleboarding), and did marathon stuff.

 On Monday we headed to Yosemite.  Neither Adam or I had ever been there and it was pretty awesome.  People have been asking how my recover from the race was; and it was on the right track.  I wasn't too sore, Monday my quads were tight, but I think Yosemite is what put me over the edge and on the wrong track for recovery.  We killed it here.  The waterfall behind me, Yosemite Falls, largest waterfall in North America or something- yeah we hiked to the top!  It was the hardest hike I have ever done.  So in this photo, we hiked to the top edge which is to the right of the falls.  Hard but well worth it.  And then the reward was the food when we got down, really good pizza.

Our hike on the second day was another hard one, ranks #2 on my difficulity list.  We hiked to the base of Half Dome, saw some nice falls on the way. 

We went to the tree groves, huge huge trees that have been around for hundreds of years. 

This was our last hike of our stay, Sentenial Dome.  I really didn't want to go, it was getting late, we were both so tired, and just like on the ski hills- when you think you are done, you should be done, that last run- something always happens.  Well nothing happened on this last hike.  Thankfully, there were nice views- here I am with Half Dome, we were higher than it, but I just had this horrible feeling that we'd run into a bear.  We did not (we didn't see any all trip) but we did see a coyote from the comfort of our car.

Here is Adam at the top of Yosemite Falls, another good view of Half Dome, as well as the rest of the Yosemite Valley (which you can't see in this photo)

I don't know when we'll get back here, but we will be back.  It was fun, and we needed/ wanted more time.  We plan to drag the kids kicking and screaming on that Yosemite Falls hike, when they are like 16.