Yosemite Valley part I

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January 29th, 2006

As a belated celebration of my Dad's Birthday we (my wife Pam, my father John and my mother Julie) headed to Yosemite Lodge for the weekend. This was my first overnight stay in Yosemite Valley (other than one possible trip when I was a couple years old). We spent a lot of time just walking around the valley, visiting the Ansel Adams gallery, watching the snow and taking photos. We also ate at the Ahwahnee for the first time, which was a great experience. I was taken aback by the selection of seafood at breakfast time. I don't usually go for seafood that far inland. But I tried to adopt a 'when in Rome' mentality. So I'm happy to say that the lox and the green lip mussels were the best I've ever had. My favorite dish though was pork with sweet potatoes and cornbread pudding.

We could see Yosemite Falls from our front door and Half Dome from our back door. The best part was being around for dusk without having to drive home for two hours. It's hard to make an original image of Yosemite given it's one of the most photographed places in the world. But since I don't live too far away and I go there a few times of year I didn't spend my time worrying about having a snapshot of Half Dome, El Capitan or the view of the valley from the tunnel parking lot that everyone else has to stop and get. So I just followed the changing weather conditions and focused on what interested me.

And now to the photos..













All photos in this post were taken with a Canon Digital Rebel XT camera.