The Last Summer Vacation

I'm about to do a photo dump of all our summer fun. Watch out. It's coming.

But I'll probably work backwards and start with the most recent. This was from the aforementioned trip that got us home the day before school started. There's a good story in here...stick with me.

We woke the kids up early (4 or 5 am?) and drove to Tuolomne Meadows (for those who might not know, it's the eastern-most section of Yosemite National Park). We knew we needed to get there early in order to get a campsite since we didn't have reservations. Our plan worked like a charm and we got a spot without a problem (that place is crowded!). We had a few hours to kill while we were on the campsite waiting list so we did a couple mile hike up Lembert dome.
The summit blob! It's not quite as steep and dangerous as the picture makes it seem. And even if it was a 500 foot drop off, I wouldn't admit that here. Grandma reads this blog, you know. :)


Despite the crowds, Tuolomne is jaw-droppingly beautiful. Being in a place like this can make any loser feel like life is worth living. I speak from experience on this. :)


Camping with kids is the dirtiest, funnest thing ever. Seriously, we have a perma-ring around the tub from these grubbies.



The next day, we took our time and headed south past Bishop to a little town called Lone Pine. Then we hooked a right and headed up a steep mountainside as far as the road would take us. We found ourselves in Whitney Portal--the outpost/base camp for Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the lower 48 (14,505'). In addition to being the starting point for climbers, there is a gorgeous campground with a cold mountain stream, a big waterfall, a fishing hole, and the Whitney Portal Store, a tiny little place with legendary burgers and fries.

Keith, of course, had a plan to enjoy more than the incredible scenery of the campground. He was there to bag a peak. (As you'll soon learn, any vacation of ours is likely to have a mountaineering/crazy-Keith-adventure thrown in for good measure.) His plan was not to follow the leader for the bragging rights of Mt. Whitney. Instead, he picked the solitude of Mt. Russell (14,094') which is right next door to Whitney and didn't involve a lottery for the chance to climb it.

So the next morning, Keith got an alpine start to his day (3 am) and woke up to this little fella wandering our campsite.

He was harmlessly sniffing around our bear box but he gave Keith a little scare! And then off Keith went to climb the mountain.

MEANWHILE, the kids and I slept in and tried to kill as much time as possible. Keith was planning to be gone until at least 3 pm so I had a bunch of time on my hands with 3 little kids. After breakfast (I groaned when I realized it was only 8:30), we decided to hike from our campsite to check out the waterfall and get some treats at the store. It was a steep little hike, probably nearly a mile with all the switchbacks. When we got to the top, we took a rest near the fishing pond and only a couple minutes later, a fish & game truck drove up and dumped a fresh load of fish in it.

Shortly after, a dad and his son came out of the store with their fishing poles and starting catching fish. Those new fish were biting like crazy! They were casting without bait and reeling in a fish every time. Leah and Bennett, of course, were totally enthralled. The dad and the son (who was around Bennett's age) were happy to give L & B turns with their rods. I couldn't believe how many fish they were catching! I was busy trying to keep Bryce from jumping into the water and becoming a fish too.

A few minutes later, I heard an awful scream. I looked up and saw Bennett freaking out. I had wandered a few yards away with the baby and I picked him up and ran to see what was going on. The fishing dad beat me to it and I could tell something was really wrong. I got there to find two prongs of a fishing hook sunk deep in Bennett's finger. The fishing dad told us to go into the store for help. Inside, there was an older man working the counter. He took one look at the finger and told us we needed to get to a doctor.

Really? Sooo not what I wanted to hear. They explained how I could find a clinic in town ( a very small town) to avoid going to the ER (of a tiny hospital) and offered to take me there. I declined but did have them give me a ride back to my car at the campground. So, the kids and I took off down the mountain in search of a doctor to remove the fish hook, while my doctor husband was up smelling the flowers in the high country.



The doctor ended up being a nice hippie sort of guy who was pretty good with fish hooks. He gave Bennett a numbing shot and took a minute to wrangle the hooks out.

We now have a nice fishing hook in a jar as a souvenir. Incidentally it was a brand new hook. Used only once--just not on a fish.

By the way, I'm noticing a bad trend here. Bennett was wearing the same shirt (his favorite) for his doctor visit earlier this summer. Excuse me while I go burn that shirt now....

Since we found ourselves in town instead of at the campground like we had planned, we spent the rest of the day at the city park. It ended up being a great way to spend our day, if not for the emergency that got us there.

Meanwhile, Keith was enjoying this:











See? He really was smelling flowers!

After we were all safely reunited, we went back to the Whitney Portal Store for the legendary burgers and fries. When we walked in, the older guy at the counter (who turned out to be the owner) immediately recognized us and made Bennett tell him all about his trip to the doctor. When he was done telling his story, the guy insisted on treating us all to dinner (which rocked because those burgers are $10 each!) and he autographed a book for Bennett. Who knew the guy was an author? In the end, we ended up getting more in burgers, fries and books than we had paid the doctor for the mini-surgery. And they treated Bennett like a celebrity!

Although I could definitely have done without a trip to the doctor that day, I think that ended up being the best part about the trip for Bennett--in hindsight, of course.