Convocation at ISU

Today we attended Convocation at ISU for Jeffrey.  It started at 5:00 pm at Reed Gym.  At first I didn't think there were very many new Freshman in attendance, but after a couple of speakers and a video presentation from the new ISU President, I realized that the gym was full.  They had the ISU Marching Band play the fight song, and Jeffrey was in the middle of it playing the Mellophone.  They sang the fight song a couple of times, and then the marching band led all of the students out of Reed Gym to the field nearby for a class photo.  I'm guessing there were about 500 students.  They formed the letters I S U on the field and a drone captured a video and photo of them.  Then the marching band continued to play and lead the students down the road past the Rendezvous Center, the Quad, and to the Swanson Arch.  The band continued to play while the students walked through the Arch, and then the Freshman band students, including Jeffrey, were the last ones to walk through it.  Wendy and I left after that, but Jeffrey stayed for a dinner and gathering at the Quad.  It's hard to believe that Jeffrey is in college.  He is ready to go with classes, internship and part-time work for sound design at ISU, staying in a dorm room, and participating in marching band.  It should be a fun semester for him.

Mariposa Grove and the Trip Home

We slept in this morning and took our time getting ready to leave.  I bought a breakfast of bacon strips, orange juice, milk, and another cinnamon roll which we ate in our room.  We checked out and drove to the Tunnel View for one more look at Yosemite Valley.  The morning shadows kept it from standing out like it does in the evening, but it was still nice.  Then we drove the winding road to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.  We were able to drive to the upper parking lot to walk the level trail to see the Grizzly Giant and the California Tunnel Tree.  It was another beautiful day with blue skies and sunshine.  We continued our drive, and when we left the park gate we saw a line of cars waiting to get into Yosemite that stretched for a couple of miles.  A sign told visitors that the wait time to get into the park was over 30 minutes.  I think we planned our visit well.  Our drive to the airport was not as well planned out.  We ended up taking a winding road through hills of tall dry grass and no services.  By the time we finally found a gas station we were on empty.  We stopped for a late lunch at a Black Bear Diner in Los Banos, California.  It was a long drive, but we finally got back to the San Jose Airport, returned our rental car, checked in, got through security and found our gate with plenty of time to spare.  I bought us some Jamba Juice drinks before boarding our flight.  We arrived at SLC about 10:30 p.m. and drove home.  We spoke with Jeffrey for a little bit and then crawled into bed around 2:00 a.m.

Wendy's Birthday at Yosemite

We have a comfortable room.  We have a fan, but no air conditioning, so it was a little warm, but our building is surrounded by tall pine trees that shade it during the day.  We were able to watch some Olympic events on TV last night and this morning.  I walked over to the Lodge food court and bought some breakfast food including scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes, orange juice, and a cinnamon roll.  The pancakes were huge, and we couldn't eat them all.  We decided that our first destination would be Yosemite Falls which was within walking distance of our room.  The falls were still beautiful even though the water flow was low.  The path was pretty level and there were quite a few people on it, but we spent over an hour appreciating the beauty of the falls.  After that we drove to Tunnel View which is a wonderful place to look over the valley.  Then we drove through the tunnel and up the winding road to Glacier Point.  If I thought the previous views were good, Glacier Point is definitely worth the drive.  We stood at the edge of a high cliff overlooking the valley below, and we had a bird's eye view of Half Dome directly in front of us.  We spent about two hours at Glacier Point, and we bought souvenirs and ice cream at the gift shop before returning to the valley.  We stopped at Bridal Veil Falls, and we walked the trail to the base of the falls to take some pictures.  Then we returned to our room and relaxed.  I tried the swimming pool, but the water was pretty cold so I didn't stay in too long.  We cleaned up and went to the Mountain Room Restaurant for our dinner reservation at 6:30 p.m.  We shared a meal that included a Prime Sirloin, mashed potatoes, salad, French Onion soup, and seasoned bread.  The steak was delicious.  After dinner we drove back to Tunnel View for an evening look at the valley and then returned to our room.  It was a wonderful day.

Trip to Yosemite National Park

Yosemite has always been on my bucket list, and a couple of months ago I was looking randomly for available rooms in the park and one day I saw a room with a king size bed available for August 6th and 7th which is when Wendy celebrates her birthday.  I booked the room which was located at the Yosemite Valley Lodge and planned the trip.  Yesterday, August 5th, we drove to Caz and Ashley's home to stay the night.  This morning we were up at 5:00 a.m. to drive to the airport.  We parked in the garage at the airport - which is probably the last time we will do that - too expensive!  We flew from Salt Lake City to San Jose, California on Delta arriving about 9:00 a.m.  We rented a car from Alamo and drove to Yosemite National Park.  Along the way we stopped for lunch in the city of Manteca, and we ate at Ono Hawaiian BBQ.  We picked up some chocolates at See's Candy before hitting the road again.  It was kind of a long drive, and the day was hot.  We stopped to admire the view of Don Pedro Reservoir and then the road made a dramatic steep climb up the mountain with several sharp switchbacks.  We drove through Groveland, which is a unique mountain town, and then stopped at the park entrance to take a picture.  Then we stopped at a view point on Big Oak Flat road for our first amazing view of El Capitan and Half Dome.  We stopped at El Capitan and Bridal Veil Falls before finding our way to Yosemite Valley Lodge.  We checked into our room and had dinner at the Lodge food court.  After dinner we drove up the valley towards Half Dome and then back to our room.  I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the place.