Ask and you shall receive!

Well, I said I wanted to encounter a bear and what do you know. We didn't high five... or even touch for that matter. To be honest I think I was a lot more jazzed about our meeting than the bear was, but its always that way with those celebrity types. Anyways, check the photos on Picassa (linked from the second post on this blog) to see our bear buddy. So cute.
Today was another loaner day for the most part. Ellen spent the morning hiking along the Upper Yoemite Falls trail to Columbia Rock for the view. (Deandra won't like this, but I totally was hanging by a hand and a foot off some cliff to take pictures of these awesome orange flowers growing out of the rock - Ellen). We both took trips to Yosemite Falls before heading on a little car trip up to Glacier Point which boasts sweeping views of most of the valley. Ellen got the urge to boulder and so climbed this big 'ole rock. She nearly busted getting down, but her face is thankful that things turned out OK. We visited Bridalveil Falls on the way back. These aren't as tall as Yosemite, but they are certainly accurately named because the wind fans the water out to make the falls rather white, transparent, and soft.
This afternoon we traded activities from yesterday so that we could get more time alone with nature and with God. Ellen walked all over the valley, from the meadows to Mirror Lake, and then along the most inefficient way possible to Yosemite Village. Holly took the Mist Trail to the top of Vernal Falls. Both of us had really good days. This place is magical.
For dinner, Ellen scored us some eggs and sharp cheddar - yummy cheese eggs!
We pack up tomorrow and head to Page, Arizona. The hilarious thing is that its the exact same route we took on the way here - even going through Las Vegas. So we pass into Nevada, into Arizona, into Utah, through Zion National Park (yes, the highway actually goes through ), and back into Arizona. It makes me tired just to write about it, but it should only be about 10.5 hours. Ha, "only". That phrasing should give you an idea of how much driving we've been doing. Anyways, we're camping in Page so that we can see Antelope Canyon (google image search that to see why we're bothering with a state park) before heading to Capital Reef National Park. I'm not sure when we'll next have internet (we've been getting it for free at Yosemite Lodge! Thanks, guys!), but we'll update as soon as we can.
Oh my. I can't believe I almost forgot to tell you about last night. So all this talk about bears isn't without reason. The bears are EXTREMELY active in the park right now. We overheard employees talking about all the bear sightings that happened even just yesterday. We have to keep everything that could potentially smell yummy in bear boxes at the camp site. The bears have broken into cars just to get at plastic bags or perfume ads, so this is serious. Well last night around 1am we both get woken up by some really loud rummaging around a bear box. I'm (Ellen) laying still listening when I hear Holly "ELLEN!!!" "I hear it". It really did sound like a potential bear, but honestly, even if it was, we were already in our best defense - laying down and being quiet. Well, Holly apparently doesn't know that dead people (or even people pretending to be dead) don't talk. After a few moments of waiting pensively, I hear some other campers talking and laughing and human footsteps outside our tent. "Fwew," I think to myself. "Its just people." But Holly pops up beside me all loud and whatnot "Are they leaving because of the bear!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!" "Hollz. No. Its just people". Good gracious, but she was freaked out. And she didn't even believe me. Yeah. We call her Hollzipanzi for a reason.
That's all for now. Pray that Holly doesn't botch it if a real bear appears in our camp tonight. Our trial run didn't go so well.
Until we type again. =]