Yosemite

Most of the time Mike isn't able to join me on a trip. But occasionally everything falls into place and he can. This past weekend I had a 32 hour layover in Fresno so I asked him to come. I wasn't the only crewmember who decided to do that. The Captain and one of our flight attendants brought family too. There were very few seats available on Friday night. Fortunately, all three of them were able to get on the flight. We arrived late into FAT (the identifier for Fresno)and picked up our rental car. Our Hotel is just minutes from the airport and we settled into the room. It was already late and we had both had some food in Dallas at the airport. So we decided to get some rest. We woke around 7am and got ready for the long day ahead. It was Pacific time and felt later so I was starving when we found a subway and ate a little breakfast. We then headed toward the Park. It was over an hour to the Park itself. Then we had another 45 minutes or so until we hit the big rocks. Curvy roads and lots of cars made travel a little slow. We stopped to take pictures and see the sights. The water falls were amazing and of course we were there to see the famous rocks El Capitan and Half Dome. This area is the birthplace of sport climbing which is the kind of climbing that we enjoy. After driving through the tunnel we broke out into this beautiful view of El Cap, Half Dome and Bridal Veil Falls. It actually is so beautiful it doesn't even look real. It is Saturday and people are everywhere. Most of them do not speak English. And everyone wants a picture in front of the scenery. We are no exception. We take some pictures for other people. They take some of us. We finally get out of the parking lot and head down to the first stop which is Bridal Veil Falls. The temperature drops because of the cool water from snow melt that is misting above us. There is quite a bit of snow at higher elevations. The temp is around 65 degrees or so but very cold as we get closer to the falls. Mike is carrying the fancy SLR camera and it is getting wetter as the wind is carrying the water over our heads. Normally, he is so protective of the camera but this time he wants to get some great photos and we keep getting closer. I was soaking wet and cold but it was an amazing view. When we left I was glad to get into the car and turn the heater on. We drove down the road a little more and Mike had directions for our private climbing area. We found the parking spot and hiked up to the boulders. We were alone and it felt like our own private gym. We walked around and tried some of the problems. I found a view of El Cap from our private area and positioned the camera on a rock to get a picture of us in front of the famous rock. For a rock climber this was a dream come true. After a few hours of climbing in our street clothes with just climbing shoes and no crash pads we decided to leave and another couple showed up. We headed to see Half Dome. I will admit that Half Dome was my number one reason for coming here. Ansel Adams made this rock famous with his beautiful black and white photos made into posters. After visiting I think the waterfalls and trees are shockingly beautiful as well. Royal Arches were so beautiful and I had never even heard of them. All of this beauty in one place. Kind of unreal if you ask me. We didn't really have time to take it all in because we only had one day. We started to run out of daylight and we were getting hungry too. So we started driving back. We stopped to see some of the beautiful places for a last picture. We found a small town BBQ joint on the way home. The food was awesome. We drove back to Fresno talking about the fun climbs and the amazing scenery. We arrived at the Marriott around 8:30 pm. We had a early flight in the morning. So we fell asleep pretty fast. The next morning we dropped the car. I went to get the airplane ready. We prayed that Mike would get on the very full flight. He was the second to last to get on with two people on jumpseats. He went home to our house and slept while I had to finish with a Phoenix turn. Needless to say when I arrived home Sunday night I was exhausted. But that was the very best layover I have ever been on with American Airlines in my 12 years.