Yosemite

The week has flown by so though I'd better get on top of sharing some photos from the

weekend in Yosemite! We left Friday afternoon, only got lost once.....well the little navigation thingy didn't tell us to turn off.....arrived in the dark, of course...so predictably had trouble finding the carpark after we had

checked in! But settled into the very cute

"Tent Cabin". Note that chest on the side is for storing food, toothpaste anything that a bear might eat....it's a bear chest....designed to keep the bears out of your cabin!

Given we had storms the week prior to the trip we lucked out with the weather, it was warm and we didn't need a heated cabin (none available anyway, we would have bugged out to a hotel if it got too cold and I had my trusty woolen hat that I wore to bed - not glamorous but effective!)

Saturday morning we slept latetish then headed off to Mirror Lake.  They have shuttles that take you all over the park (well those walks nearby) so we were dropped close to the start of the

walk and ambled along. It was lovely - we walked as far as we could (only about 3 miles) then I abandoned Michelle and ran back so that I could get my daily run in. It was great to run along a trail and so lovely. It was only 3.5miles back to our cabin so a relatively leisurely run. I did encounter two deer with horns on the track, very calm they were!  Photo on the right is me not long before I ditched the pack and stared my run back to camp.

Sunday we did the Yosemite Upper Falls hike, bears, tiny snake, birds, squirrels - vertical paths! Was very relieved to get down just as it turned dark as my night vision is shite (although I did have a torch) and Michelle is still recovering from eye surgery

so would have been the blind leading the

blind. We were both exhausted but elated and tumbled into bed early - all that fresh air and exercise.

Monday the rain set in but all we had planned was brunch at the Ahwahnee Hotel. It's very beautiful inside

(accommodation runs into the $100s of dollars a night).

It reminded me of New Mexico - mix of Mexican/American Indian decor and artwork. Headed back to

Santa Cruz at 1230......4/4.5 hr drive, easy enough and we were both relaxed.

On balance a great few days, limited cellphone access (and I didn't take my computer) so really was getting away from it all.

Back at work, fighting a cold (not giving in, not giving in......H1N1 is alive and well here so need to be careful that I don't ignore signs or make everyone else paranoid!).

Journey to the Top of the World: Upper Yosemite Falls Oct 20

Herewith, part 1 of our adventures in Yosemite. And yes those are real bear cubs that we encountered on our journey to the top of the Yosemite Falls! Momma bear is not so very far away and yes, it was a little terrifying! Of course the funniest part of the day was discovering that we were at 7000 ft by the time we got to the top (ignore my reference to 1000ft) and we had walked 7 miles (3.5 UP) and 3.5 down, having thought we were only going for a 2 mile hike. Took us just on 6hrs and we were both more than a little tired. More photos to come and comments welcome on my first attempt at creating a video......

Holeedays, seeing stuff, new toys and work'n

Much happening but I’m heading into a long weekend camping in Yosemite with Michelle (well staying in the tent cabins!) so this is a little snapshot with more to follow.
Eyes are working fine, fantastic even, have completely adjusted and loving no glasses or contacts, yippee.
Training three times a week and feeling the effects (both good and bad – I’m clearly no longer 20 something, body takes somewhat longer to recover, although it is grand to grow muscles and actually feel myself get fitter).
We’ve had “storms” here although not on the scale of the neverending storms happening in NZ (okay not even close, bucketing rain for 24hrs then it’s all over).
Had a hideous 430am start on Tuesday (global meeting that we were supporting, had to be onsite so stayed in San Jose so I didn’t have to drive across the 17…..during the storm…..at 3am in the morning). Funny how quickly I’ve adjusted to packing up and dumping myself in a hotel on demand.
Had a grand day pumpkin carving with Maria, Michelle and Irene. I have a little video of the entire event that I’ll load up after the weekend (recorded on my new geek toy) – I’m learning how to use the editing features so u’all will benefit from my learning curve…

No more glasses, no more contacts

On Thursday I had the laser surgery and it's .... amazing.  I went in Wednesday for an assessment then asked when I could have the surgery.  If I could make it in the next day they would give me a discount of $200, bingo, no brainer, I'll take the money.  Whole procedure took 10mins - four hours of needing to keep my eyes pretty much closed and I was out for dinner and today (Friday) seeing clear as.  Goes up and down apparently but, here's the cool thing - they offered me mono-vision. Basically one eye is set for distance and the other for up close.  That way I won't have to have reading glasses in the future.  Some people find the whole thing too disorientating but I tried it out using some glasses and it was fine, didn't make me nauseous at all.  Anyway, nothing like spontaneously having eye surgery.