A little while ago we decided to take in Yosemite one last time before leaving California, so we headed up north to visit the place again, and to meet my sister's family coming down from Idaho for a bit of vacation.

We had a bit of misfortune on the way up: our rear tire blew out, as we were passing some cars, doing about 70 mph on the highway. It took a few moments to realize that it was our car making the noise, but the vibrations quickly confirmed it. We had to pull over on the left shoulder, then wait a while for a gap big enough to get up a little speed and traverse three lanes to the right shoulder. We then unpacked much of the cargo and replaced the tire with the spare. Kelley helped from her seat.

This happened just outside of Fresno, a fairly large town, and by chance the first exit we chose for some food and gas also had Luis' Tire store, and it was open, even at 7:20 on a Friday night. We bought a replacement tire for insurance on the rest of the trip - used all our ready cash - but got back on the freeway after not too long a delay.

We de-stressed in our hotel room after meeting up with Krista and Co. a couple hours later. Turns out the hotel was much further than Google maps showed, but all that much closer to the park.

We loved our hotel room in the Yosemite View Lodge; never had such a nice view before, nor such a large in-room tub, nor a double-headed walk-in shower.

My sister's family had the room directly below, a most convenient arrangement. While there we also enjoyed the hotel's pools and hot tubs - Kelley really likes swimming.



The view from our balcony.