honeymoon days seven and eight.

dates: Wednesday, 14 August to Thursday, 15 August 2013.
final destination: Yosemite National Park, California.

Day seven was spent driving from Crater Lake to Yosemite.  It's a pretty lengthy drive - around ten hours - so we didn't have anything planned for the day except to get to our campsite.

The thing about camping in/near Yosemite is that they take bear safety reallllly seriously.  Like, you sign off your initials swearing you'll utilize the bear box and be responsible or you will be fined (if a bear doesn't eat you and everyone else first).

But apparently it's not as crucial to warn campers about raccoons.  Jon and I were reading by the fire that night, and while he was reading I thought I heard something behind us, so I turned around to look.  I didn't see anything at first, but then I turned my headlamp on and I'm almost literally face-to-face with a raccoon.  Commence freak-out mode, because those things are soooo gross and freaky, and I've seen enough episodes of Parks and Recreation to know that those things are nothing but trouble.

In the morning we drove to the Tuolumne Meadows and hiked to Dog Lake.

Full disclosure: Yosemite wasn't and isn't my favorite place in the world to visit.  It is certainly pretty and I am positive that there are a million places to be discovered there that I haven't even been near, but it's a little too crowded in places for me to enjoy.

Fortunately, there weren't many people up at Dog Lake.  It was a nice, peaceful place, and I wish we could have stayed longer, but we had other places we wanted to get to.

We spent about an hour and a half at Tenaya Lake.  The water was freezing, but the beach and sun were warm and it was nice to lay in the sun for a while.

Then we drove allll the way to Glacier Point because what is a first-time visit to Yosemite without a panoramic view of the park and a touristy photo with Half Dome behind you and Asians and stylish French people on all other sides of you?

Portraits of the day:

And then we drove alllll the way home to San Luis Obispo, where we stayed and relaxed for the remainder of our trip until we had to return home.  This was such an amazing trip, and we count ourselves so lucky to have been able to go on a crazy awesome adventurous honeymoon.  We honestly are so blessed and incredibly grateful for everything we have and are able to do, and hope that others will have the same opportunities as us - especially to travel to the places we went on this trip!

honeymoon day six.

date: Tuesday, 13 August 2013
final destination: Crater Lake National Park, Oregon.

Finally, I made it back here.  I was so excited to be back, I'd been waiting the moment I'd left it two years before.  And this time, I was back with the guy I couldn't stop thinking about while I was here!  It's sort of like poetry, really.

I don't know how to describe this place to people, and I don't quite know what to say when they ask, "Why do you like Crater Lake so much?"

This place is just out of this world.  It's like nothing I've ever seen before.  Most people will point to a beach they've been to, maybe in the Caribbean somewhere, and say the water is crystal clear and so unbelievably and beautifully blue, and I have to assume that they have never been here.  The water is so gorgeous and pure and straight out of our dreams, it seems fake.  But it is so real.

And so freezing.  This time, I promised myself that I was going to jump in - it was my one regret from the first time that I visited.

There were a lot of people there doing the same.  The rocks form a small cliff but the jump isn't too bad.  It's just the cold that gets you.

Oh, and if you lose the GoPro mounted to your head on impact and it starts to sink to the bottom of the deepest lake in the country.  Thankfully Jon jumped in after me and miraculously recovered it, but it was still one of the most gut-wrenching moments of my life.

Sun, don't burn my white boy!

(recreating this picture!)

Portraits of the day:

honeymoon day five.

date: Monday, 12 August 2013
final destination: Diamond Lake, Oregon.

On our first night in Oregon, we didn't get a spot in the campgrounds at Crater Lake National Park, but Diamond Lake is only ten minutes from there so that is where we camped.  Diamond Lake is nice and peaceful and the camping spots there are beautiful.

There were docks on shore for people who had boats, and man did I wish we had a boat for that day.

When we were exploring the area we saw some people playing with their boats and I thought ohhhh nooooo, please don't give Jon any ideas - he already has enough of an RC hobby!

My favorite camping night/morning was at Diamond Lake.  The sky was so clear and there were sooooo many stars.  It was cold by the water where we were star-gazing so we didn't gaze for long.  But we had a good hot fire going and we read Ender's Game (which we had been reading over the summer) next to it for a good while.

The morning was so relaxing.  It was the first day that we didn't have to get up early to start the driving day.  We only had to drive 10 minutes, so we (I) slept in and took our time packing up.

Diamond Lake is wonderful, definitely a recommendation for everyone!

Portrait of the day:

honeymoon day five: redwoods and RCs.

date: Monday, 12 August 2013.

stop: Redwoods.

I'm starting to get confused by whatever method I thought was best for dividing up all of these posts.  This is what happens when you post about a trip that happened four months ago.

Jon took this photo of a tree that belongs in a nighttime Halloween set.

We made a mandatory stop to see some Redwoods because, come on.  These trees are amazing.  The Lorax would die of bliss if he ever visited a Redwood forest.

As we left the coast and started for Oregon, we lucked out with this turn-off and I was not disappointed.  This wasn't part of a regular tourist stop, so there weren't a million people or full parking lots.

But, we did the touristy thing to do and took pictures with the trees.  We should have carved our initials in a tree à la Robin Hood and Maid Marion (Disney's, of course), but sadly we did not.

Then Jon busted out his quadcoptor and he was a happy man:

Portrait of the day:

honeymoon days three and four.

date: Saturday, 10 August and Sunday, 11 August 2013.
route: North Pacific Coast Highway

After San Francisco we continued our way up north via the PCH.  For the first hour or so it was predominantly overcast.  It was gloomy, you might say - especially if you're Jon, or a fine change of pace from blinding sunlight - if you're me.  We stopped whenever we saw something interesting, which is probably the very best way to carry out a road trip.

Our first stop was at a beach.  It was beautiful, but also a little mysterious because of the fog.  I discovered that Jon has an affinity for climbing giant boulders, and I have a little more trouble.  Skinny jeans, you know.  Limited mobility.

And then!  We came to this lookout area with a great view, but the fog rising up against the cliffside and the sun lighting up the air made it incredible.  All of the pictures and videos we took didn't do it justice.

The next morning we stopped at another beach - the same one where Sam, Diana and I met the pirates!  Jon found another rock to climb.

And then we came to this beach with dark brown sand.  It was so beautiful and sunny, and Jon brought out his quadcoptor to fly.  View from the sky:

Portraits from the day: