We’ve had a really cool 2 days in Yosemite (well, driving into Yosemite from our motel which was quite a way out). However Yosemite has got the most spectacular scenery I’ve probably ever seen – mountains, lakes,valleys, outcrops, rivers which I liked to paddle in, meadows, forests… and all this with endless sun and cloudless skies.  Can’t be bad.

Despite there being tons of people at certain points, if you just go a few paces off the path you can avoid virtually everyone (lots of people seem way too lazy to walk).  Aaron was nominated as driver as he told me off the day before for driving and wanting to look at the scenery, so he’s been driving while I’ve been staring and becoming quite clever at taking photos out of the car window.  Yesterday we went uphill and saw spectacular views from the top e.g.Glacier Point; today we were in Yosemite Valley and at the bottoms of various waterfalls.

There’s loads of new ‘English’ I’m learning e.g. yield = give way, turn out = lay by, and my favourite Ped Xing, which I actually thought was Chinese until Aaron (after pissing himself laughing at me) explained that it meant pedestrians crossing.  Quite amusing.

Today we drove through Yosemite to get to Lone Pine, a bit of a god-forsaken place where we’re staying this evening on the way to Death Valley.  The road we took through Yosemite today was really amazing.  The scenery was totally different to yesterday and the road rose to nearly 10,000 ft.  We sat for a bit by Lake Tenaya which was stunning. Once we left the park, I then took over driving for a bit (the ‘easy’ bit as Aaron put it,  down the freeway).However it wasn’t all that easy – I nearly pulled out straight into something in the next lane. Whoops.  The left-hand drive thing is OK though,getting quite used to it now.

Can’t really get used to the money thing though – first thing is that prices advertised are always before tax and so you can never work out how much you need to pay, resulting in me carrying round what seems like a ton of change as I can’t count it out ready.  Frustrating.  At Toronto airport I had my first taste of this when we were trying to get some breakfast with our $8 voucher from Air Canada instead of a hotel room (how good of them), and I had carefully chosen what I wanted so it came to as near $8 as possible, obviously fogetting the tax thing.  Really irritating, but fortunately the woman behind the desk took pity on me and let me off the rest.  The other thing I can’t really get to grips with is the tipping system, which seems equally as absurd.  And I still don’t know all the coins and how much each is. Fortunately Aaron seems to know more and is dealing with most of the money, while I keep mine firmly in my purse (moths will fly out when I get home).

My bikini got its first wearing today which was exciting – went for a quick dip in the ‘pool’ (pond) at the motel after dinner this evening.  It’s so hot in the evenings too, so lovely.

Anyway, Death Valley tomorrow should be cool (or hot) and we’re looking forward to Las Vegas for something completely different and not quite so naturally spectacular.  (well, I’m looking forward to a posh hotel and a lie-in!!)