It is now the third morning in a row I have been climbing the slide. I can recall it perfectly.
Yosemite on the other hand is a harder ask. Although we were there two days ago our visit today felt like it was fresh. Superficially we knew the roads and some of the layout but that felt very two dimensional compared to the glory of walking in the place.
We started off at Bridalveil Falls. It took an age to get a parking space but it was worth it. The falls were amazing and you get up close and personal with them - in other words soaked! It was such a hot day (fire risk was high compared to moderate on the previous visit) so actually quite refreshing.
We then parked at the old church and walked across to Yosemite Falls - using the bridge unlike the bear. Alas there were no bear sightings today and no mountain lions either. Since we were without pushchair Harriet travelled in the back-pack which got as many curious looks there as it does back home (hopefully spare wheels will be waiting for us at the hotel in San Francisco if all goes according to plan).
After a stop at one of North America's best burger joints (seriously, it's quite good) we finally visited the visitor centre.
We then had one last stroll and tried to absorb as much of the place as we could. Really we should have visited before now because it is such a breathtaking place and holidays in the future are going to be more about the slides and the swimming pools than hikes and scenery. Still, we can always combine them as we have for the past four days here. In fact the only thing that will change is the RV is just going to get bigger as we hopefully accommodate more children and expand to meet the needs of the one we've got.
The measure of the success of this trip is there for all to see. Our daughter has ruined three pairs of jeans as she has played in playgrounds, firepits and and every bit of dirt and gravel she could find. The red wine lies undrunk because it has been just too damned hot to contemplate (yours truly bought all the beer they had in the store yesterday although if you are my sister reading this then these were ginger beers of course).
The ultimate measure of the success is that we don't want to pack up tomorrow. However, to steal a phrase from the wise ruler of this place: 'We'll be back'.
