Swim to the ocean floor

Greetings from Fresno, California.

Today, I played hookie from the 2009 US Masters Nationals (that are here in Fresno, starting Thursday and going through tomorrow/Sunday), and dragged my dad and sister up the road an hour or so to go to Yosemite National Park. (The picture at left is near the entrance to Yosemite Valley, with El Capitan on the left and Half Dome in the center.)

Actually, it wasn't so much hookie, as a way to spend a day with my dad and sister, who I've not seen in about a year (I also didn't enter any events today at the meet).


The drive was actually kinda cool: starting out with some vineyards on the outskirts of Fresno before gradually working it's way up in elevation through some open fields and then into the mountains in Sierra National Forest. (Elevation on the drive topped out over 6,000 feet above sea level; though the valley floor--pictured at right with Yosemite Falls in the background--is around 4,000 feet.)

We even went through a town called Fish Camp--which made me think of a few Aggie friends of mine.

And all-in-all, we had a good time, and the weather was particularly nice (not too hot, nor cold; with the sun out all day, and only a few clouds in the sky). The trip even has caused me to want to return at some later point and hike around the park--definitively a place where I felt it would be good to get off the beaten path. (Pictured at left is one of the more beaten paths: a paved bicycle path on approach to the base of Half Dome.)


I'm gonna carry this train off the track
I'm gonna swim to the ocean floor