Sunday Salon: How to Hike Your Butt Off

We had another great week on the Nawrot summer vacation. This week was spent doing everything we could possibly do in Yosemite National Park. I will post a more detailed recap later, but we had an incredible time. We rode horses through the mountains…my son managed to fall off of his, thankfully with only minor bruises. We took some road trips within the park, up to 9,000 feet with lots of snow (big novelty for us Floridians). Almost on an hourly basis, we blown away by the dozens of bursting waterfalls, huge granite rock formations, and scenic overlooks (I just didn’t get too close to the edge!). Most of all, we hiked our tails off. We figure we logged in about 40 miles of trails, all of them beautiful, some of them strenuous. Our last adventure was 9 miles nearly straight up the side of a mountain, ending at the top of a waterfall. I could barely walk at the end of that one! And if I think too hard about how close we were perched to the edge of death, I will lose sleep. Many trails were precarious and tested my fear of heights. One hike resulted in my son rolling down a hill, ass over teakettle, with a few more scrapes to carry around as battle scars. I was worrying we wouldn’t get him back home alive.



Because of all the family time, I didn’t do much reading. I have been working my way through “Columbine”, which is an incredible, incredible book. True crime is really my thing, and I become obsessed with stories like this. I yearn to understand the “why” and the “how”. Maybe I should have been a psychiatrist when I grew up! I’ve also slowly been listening to “This Body of Death” by Elizabeth George on audio, but only when I was cooking or getting ready in the morning.

The most distressing thing about this trip was the lack of connectivity. Yes, I know, this is good for me! We had a whisp of Internet connection for a day or two, but then lost it until the last day. We had to sit on the curb, “borrowing” Internet from the neighbor, just to pull in our e-mails. No phone service at all. With all of my son’s mishaps, I worried what we would do if he seriously injured himself!

So now we are in San Francisco until tomorrow. We will see what we can today…maybe a little China Town, Coit Tower, the wharf for some crab, Lombard Street…then head home to reality for a few weeks. Hope you are all having a wonderful summer so far!