California, here we come!

So, now we're just missing Kurt's last mountain climbing trip, for which he has to get the pictures from his friend, Alex. So I'll go ahead and let y'all know about our California trip...
My last day at WestPro was September 22nd, the same day as my last LOL show. The next Monday we packed up and spent 2 nights with Kurt's mom and then the rest of the week with my grandma (during which time Kurt and Alex went to California to hike Mt. Whitney and Half Dome in Yosemite). We spent Labor Day weekend hanging out with my family and then on Monday we took off for California!
I'd never been to Cali before and Kurt served his mission in San Jose, so it was the perfect place to take our one last free-for-all, no-holds-bar vacation. Our vacation started with a trip out onto the salt flats, because neither of us had ever walked on them before...

I dared Kurt to lick them, which he did. Then he dared me to and I did it too. I can verify that they are salty. Very, very salty. And we got both on video. :D At Wendover we got off the I-80 and drove the rest of the way on highways...

This is Boundary Peak, the highest peak in Nevada. It's basically the last thing you see before you cross into the Golden State. So Monday night we camped in a national forest just outside of Yosemite, where we froze our behinds off. It was dang cold. The next morning we got up bright and early and headed over to Yosemite to hike Half Dome.

The first leg of the Half Dome hike is two beautiful waterfalls. Here's the first one. There were tons of people and lots of them were Italian! I was wishing that my Italian wasn't so rusty so I could speak to them, but alas, not to be.

We wanted to go swimming in that pool after our hike. Unfortunately, we didn't get back down to the pool until nearly dark, so no swimming for us. :(

The top of the falls. You can get a glimpse of what Yosemite looks like. It's an amazing place.

You think this pine tree is big? Wait till you see the giant sequoias...

Kurt likes to take artsy pictures. I need to get that boy a nice camera so he can get into photography.

So we hiked and hiked and hiked and suddenly got to the final push. Nevermind that I was already exhausted because I hadn't hiked in a month. But now I had to climb up the sheer face of a huge rock with only wire chains and the occasional foot board. Heights make me nervous, not scared. But this terrified me. At first, I didn't think I could do it. Then I started and about 20 feet up I froze. Tears leaked out of my eyes and I told Kurt I couldn't do it. Finally, I took a deep breath and only looking down at my feet, I charged up that rock.

And I made it. Somehow. We're at the top of our hike, we still have to go down and I was already limping. My hip and knee joints don't like it when I hike. The main reason I included this picture is the view... pretty amazing, huh?

Victorious!

I like to tease Kurt because he poses in pictures. Here you can see the amazing Yosemite Valley....

Kurt told me to go get on this rock, don't go any further, and just stand there while he ran across the way and took a picture. I then looked at the picture and was very glad that I had had no idea what I standing on at the time... but it's a cool pic, nonetheless.

They call it the Diving Board. Yikes.

Going back down the cable rope was not a whole lot easier, but it was easier. I was able to kinda look around every now and then. But I still breathed easier when I got to the bottom.

There's the beast that nearly stopped me.

Another one of Kurt's artsy pictures. :D
Just as we got back on the road to our car, one of my blisters popped. We hobbled to our car, drove to the showers, were happy to find out that showers (which are normally $5) that day were free, and I took the best shower of my life. Then we ate some burritos from the park store, and set up camp. The next day we drove down to Fresno, where we found...

Rally's! Rally's is the burger place from my childhood and I insisted that we go there. But first I had to call and confirm with my mom that it is, indeed, as good as I remembered it being. She thought it was and we got the food and it was delicious. Not as good as In 'n Out, but a solid yummy burger. We then headed south and east, towards Giant Sequoia National Park.

We found this sweet fruit sweet by the road, just next to a farm, where they were selling the best dang fruit you've ever had for 99 cents a pound. We bought a ton of nectarines (my favorite fruit) and gorged on them for the next week. I dream of those nectarines...

Here we are in Giant Sequoia National Park! This is one of the first trees we found... we thought this one was big...

But after over an hour of driving found the General Sherman tree. This tree is the largest living organism in the world. It's not the widest tree nor the tallest, but the biggest by sheer volume. This tree is massive. You never know how small you are until you see a Giant Sequoia.


Here's the General Sherman from far away. Here you can see it's whole height.

A tunnel they cut through a fallen Giant Sequoia.

This tree, Sentinel, looks massive, but apparently it's only average sized. My. Goodness.

I thought this was a fun shot. We then headed down out of the park (windy, twisty road and I barely managed to keep my lunch down) and on to Visalia, where some of Kurt's old investigators now live, the Irvine's. We stayed the night with them and ate some of the best steak either of us has had in our lives. We watched them all dominate at ping pong, but especially Minh, the wife. The next morning we said our goodbyes and thanks, and headed for the coast...
Stay tuned for the next post!