Now I realise that yesterday's blog took a little while to get going and some may not have managed to make it to the arrival of the bear so I have decided to jazz things up with the title and get straight to the animals.
Well, I've taken a bit of creative licence here. It's true we met two Llamas but they were in the petting zoo within our campsite and they didn't attack, they just came to us hoping for some food.
Today you see was a day for Harriet. Yosemite may be majestic but she spent much of it in a push-chair and J spent much of it driving. Today the RV has moved not an inch although I have been moving more than most days - up and down the steps to the top of the slide mainly.
Two glorious weeks I have off and it makes such a difference being away from it all. I get to notice everything and see her progress. She has been so reluctant to walk recently but today marked a real change - she decided she wanted to play in a fire pit and without thinking much about it she just strode right out. She has been climbing into the RV and up the steps of the play structure. Every meal has been scoffed and every bottle sunk but almost a terrible sight was seeing her sitting in the playground drinking her juice out of her own cup - looking so grown up and independent.
The other boon to this campsite (apart from the petting zoo and the bizarre tractor tours they do) is the swimming pool. It's not quite so inviting as it looks because it is not heated so there was a definite shudder when she went in. Still she and J had a whale of a time larking about in the water.
Not everyone is supportive of us. It's not overt hostility but we have both noticed that people will talk to us individually but when the other appears they withdraw. Chatty Americans become hushed or silent.
When it happens it really makes me tense and I feel ready, just so ready to pounce on them if they dare vocalise their opposition. I care little, if anything, for what people think of me but the collateral damage taking in an innocent child infuriates me beyond all belief (when it's their problem, not ours).
All of which makes it just the more perfect when the elderly man comes across to us at the pool's edge where we are changing her. "I remember those days" he says and walks off into the pool chuckling.
When we left the pool area an elderly American woman who had been avoiding eye contact looked straight at us and spoke: "You're really great Dads".
We feel on top of the world and even those menacing llamas couldn't chase away that feeling.
