California, part 2

 The next day we went to Yosemite.  It was beautiful!  So many rocks!  And trees!  It took us about an hour waiting in line in our car to get in the park.  There were some places that have rocks sticking out over the roadway, so I made sure to duck under those. 

Us with El Capitan

The water in the waterfalls was a little sparse!

We spent a little time in the visitor center hoping for air-conditioning.  Alas, there was none.

We hiked to this little waterfall.

And saw some rocks and trees along the way.

The water was super clear! (Little did we know how super-clear water could be [foreshadowing of Glacier].)

Half Dome

Pretty flowers.  Pretty Mima.

We spent some time finishing up the junior ranger booklets.

Hung out a lot by this water fountain where we filled our water bottles.

And left to drive through the rest of the park.

We stopped to hike to Soda Springs.

This is as close of a picture I have of the carbonated springs, but they were fun to watch.  There were bubbles just coming up through the water on the ground.

Getting a drink of not spring water.  There were like little birds.

After we left the visitor center, we noticed smoke in the sky.  You can see it here in this picture.  A fire started where we had driven just a few hours before.  It was interesting to see it go from just a plume of smoke to the smoke filling half the sky and not being able to see the sun.

When we left Yosemite, we were planning on driving into the Nevada desert.  We thought we were okay on gas, but thought we should get a little more just in case.  There were two gas stations in the town.  The first was about a dollar cheaper than the second, but it was closed, so we couldn't pay cash, and there was no cell service, so we couldn't use our credit card.  And that, folks, is how we came to buy the second most expensive gas in the nation.  We put in $20 worth of gas and got less than 3 gallons.  It was crazy.

And then we changed our plans and went to Carson City instead.