Yosemite and Fresno

The last time that you heard from us we had just been to the Needles near Porterville, California. The next part of our road trip was little different and it didn't involve that much climbing. My brother, Nick, flew in from Lincoln, Nebraska to spend four nights with us. The night before we picked up Nick, we stayed at my friend, Monica's house. Monica and I are friends from college and we hadn't seen each other for over four years. It was amazing to see her. We picked up right where we left off all those years ago. We were able to reminisce about old times, friends and memories. Scott and I were able to meet her husband, Adam, and her two kids. It was great, definitely a good memory. Thanks Monica for all of your hospitality! I love you and I can't wait for our paths to cross again in the future.

Back to my brother...we picked Nick up from the Fresno airport on Wednesday and then headed into Yosemite National Park. Right away Scott pointed out El Capitan and Half Dome and he was stoked to see these mountains in real life. He's heard stories about people climbing these ever since he was twelve. We got to the park in time to find a campsite and then head to bed. Then next day we did a little climbing and then went on a hike to Upper Yosemite Falls. We didn't ever make it to the top, but we found a cool place to hike off the trail and get right to the falls. It was beautiful. There's just something about waterfalls in the mountains.

The next day was our huge adventure day. We left our campsite around 7:30 in the morning and then hiked eight miles to the top of Half Dome. For those of you who have done this, you know what an accomplishment this is. Not only were we hiking uphill for most of the way to the top, the last 400 feet were ridiculous. Let me set up the scene for you...Nick and I walked up to this sloped piece of granite and saw two cables coming down. We looked at each other and thought that there's no way that people are supposed to get up this thing by holding on to these cables. You see, usually these cables are about 3-4 feet off of the ground and stairs are placed in strategic places...but not today. Since they are getting ready for the winter season, the park had taken down the "stairs" and only thing left were the cables. There was a pile of gloves and we all choose of pairs carefully. You see, these gloves were the difference between life and death (well not really).

It definitely seemed more dangerous than it actually was (well that is what Scott kept telling me as I was walking up this inverted piece of granite praying that my shoes didn't slip). The 400 feet to the top went by slowly, but we did make it safely. (If Scott were writing this part of the story, this hike up the cables wouldn't be that big of a deal...the guide book said that even grandmas go to the top...so don't worry mom and dad masten/chapman!)

In all, we did make it to the top and it was a spectacular view. We ate lunch, took a few pictures and then headed down. We made it safety back to our campsite with the 16 mile hike taking us about 9 hours in all to complete. That evening we cooked a good dinner of breakfast tacos and then went to bed.

We headed back to Fresno in hopes of watching the Nebraska Cornhuskers game on tv with Monica's family. We ate at a really good bar-be-que restaurant, but didn't ever find the game on tv. Nick ended up getting updates through text messages from his friends all the way until the end of the game. Yes, the Huskers did beat Oklahoma. Go Big Red!

We are now headed to site-see San Francisco. I am pretty excited to see this city (and we found a hotel room for $50 a night)! This wasn't in our plans, but we felt like we were close enough to this city, that we better take advantage of that. We'll be there for two nights and then off to a ton more climbing destinations. More updates to come soon. Thanks for reading and thanks for praying.

Anne