Hands on!

I've visited several National Parks and have always enjoyed the sights from afar. However, we learned from our friends in Yosemite that the best way is to get up close and personal. I've never seen a place where you can scramble, boulder and climb to your heart's content.

We had a blast scrambling to the foot of the Lower Yosemite Falls to find there's a swimming hole where you can actually swim! Tom and the kids climbed close enough to put their feet in the water, but I sat in the mist and enjoyed nature's air conditioning.

Tom and James thought it would be fun to take pictures of us actually climbing El Capitan. So...

And James had a grand time jumping on top of the world! (On top of Sentinal Dome, that is.)

Next we discovered another swimming hole at the base of El Capitan. Tom and the kids are standing on the rock at the bottom of the picture. I was standing in the middle of the river.

And finally, we discovered a fallen sequoia tree that was hollow. Tom crawled half way through it, but the kids made it all the way.

I think I put in another 20 miles of hiking on this trip, so overall for the summer I have a total of about 35 miles hiked. I'm so excited about that! I couldn't do that just last summer. How I've missed hiking!