The American Tour (4)

The following morning, we left Las Vegas for Yosemite. I was actually very enthusiastic about it, I loved being back to the nature after all the fanciful casinos. I was dreaming about meeting the bears or some wild animals but I guess that was quite a big dream! No bears (might be a blessing actually!).

It was quite a few hours of drive and as usual Josh would stop over at some petrol station for us to use the toilets or get some drinks or snacks. It was always an interesting visit at each petrol station, some looked super retro and had some gambling machines in them. They really looked like those in old cowboy films (Brokeback mountain??).

During the long ride, I suddenly remembered I had this lollipop given to me by the man I paid a dollar to take a photo with in Santa Monica! LOL. It's called "Blow Pop" and is actually a bubble gum filled lollipop. That was something new :) Syndy, as usual, would be snapping photos of me sleeping or teasing the quiet Dutch lads or offering her handcream and lip balm to everyone. She was always hyperactive in the car, while I was always able to sleep it off ;) She didn't seem happy about it because there was no one she could disturb or talked to! It was a long ride, so we stopped over somewhere to make our sandwiches. I thought I would be so sick of them by then but surprisingly I wasn't. There was always a different way to invent a new sandwich, different sauce, different cheese or different ham.

I think we were really near to Yosemite when we saw lots of lovely mountains with snow! It was already 4pm! And not long after, I supposed we have entered the nature park. We did a short trail to Vista Point to see a waterfall, and so lucky, when we got there, there were double rainbows!!! It was so wet and slippery and most of us were almost drenched trying to take a photo there but we just had to with those beautiful rainbows.

Then we got to our campsite where we set up our tents and unpacked our stuff for the next two nights. I thought I was going to love it and I really did! The nights weren't anything like Grand Canyon (freezing), instead it was pleasant and a very safe and well-lit camping ground. Someone (a group of them) cooked dinner but I couldn't remember what we had. LOL.

The following day, Josh told us we would do 2 treks, an easy one and a more difficult one. The first one was to Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias, it was magnificent, those gigantic trees and huge pine cones! Josh conned most of us thinking that he ate some bear's poo when actually it was museli bar!! He even made a dare for someone to try and Gavin ate it. Bravo!

Even though it was Josh's first tour, but he definitely did a good job taking us to quite a few scenic spots for great pictures! Then we went to see someone taking a piss (yeah the lovely mountains) before heading for the next trek.

The next stop was to see the Yosemite Falls, it was a really long trek uphill. I don't remember how long it took, probably over an hour or so to get to the Lower Yosemite Falls, and by then I was exhausted and I kind of regretted not going up those slippery steps to see the Upper Yosemite Falls. I only saw them through the photos of the others :( I didn't know what went through me but I was tired and wasn't feeling confident to go up all the way. So I told Josh and he actually escorted me down those slippery steps holding my hand *blushing*!!

So I went back down and met lots of chipmunks on the way :) Josh told me to wait somewhere and he would tell the guys to meet there once they had seen the falls. He and Syndy joined me not long after, I guess they didn't go up all the way too. So we sat together and ate our sandwiches and chips. On the way back, I soaked my feet in those super COLD waters!!! And dear Syndy of course took some embarrassing photos of me again.

It was our last night of the tour, it was our turn to cook. Actually I was tasked to help a group to cook and none of them could actually cook! Wow, I was surprised as I thought the European boys could since they are probably living on their own by now. So everyone thought of depending on me thinking that an Asian girl could probably be better!!! LMAO. When I was in the supermarket, I only thought of the pre packed asian sauce where they would have some recipes on the back!!! Haha. So I managed to deceive everyone thinking I could cook, well actually I did in the end. We modified the ingredients slightly as they didn't have everything on the list and added some, and so I whipped out these Kung Pao chicken (slightly spicy) for dinner. It was tough, imagine cooking for over 10 people and my arms were tired from all those stirring! And of course, I had to do some vegetarian version for a few of them. The rice turned out to be badly cooked, as it was a different kind of rice and the Koreans weren't familiar with it. But all good, we had some bread to go with it.

We were so lucky to have a guide who would cook for us as dear Angela's guide never did. Josh made all of us apple pancakes the following morning for breakfast. He's such a sweetheart! It was so sad it was our last day together and we would be ending our tour in San Francisco that afternoon!

Note: Trip was in May 2012.