Summerdale! (week 501)

After missing last year (a tragedy), we finally made it back to Summerdale and our annual trip to Yosemite this past week.  It was a little later in the year so the water was a little lower and a little warmer than usual, but the crawdads and the trout were biting and we had an amazing time in the great outdoors.

We got to spend time with Grandpa John and Grammy for the 2nd time in just seven days, as they broke camp a day ahead of our arrival to sites 25 and 26 on the most prime real estate in Summerdale on the corner just above the first bend in the creek.  Chris and I were super excited to leave before sunrise to beat the traffic out of Los Angeles on a Tuesday morning.  Dad carried us from our beds to the truck to give us a few extra hours of rest, but we were too excited to sleep.

This year, we spent the days damn building, swimming, rafting down the Merced River, hiking to Mirror Lake, and playing with my new Go Pro camera that I spent all my savings to buy.  We fished every morning and night with Grandpa and hunted crawdads during the day. We printed out the words to our favorite acoustic songs to sing around the campfire and made S'mores.  It was definitely a big year for firsts and Sophie and Eli joined us on Thursday and we went under the Summerdale waterfall for the first time, rafted down the Merced River for the first time, cleaned our first fish, and learned to saw wood.  It was also a big year for packing our own bags and helping to clean out the truck at the end of the trip (for the first time).

On our way home to Long Beach, we stopped in San Luis Obispo to spend a night with Grandma Paula and Grandpa Mike while Dad and Mom attended the 20th Reunion for San Luis Obispo High School Class fo 1996.  They had a great time as evidenced by the facebook pictures, but we had to get back to Long Beach for the start of a week back to work.

After spending a week in the mountains camping at Summerdale and floating down the Merced River in Yosemite, Chris and I both spent the week at different camps in Long Beach.  As in past years, I spent the week at Dirtbag Baseball Camp on the CSULB campus (for the 6th straight year), while Chris tried out the Arts Camp at Stearns Park put on by our Parks, Recreation & Marine Department.  We both had an awesome time--I came home with another Dirtbag of the Week Award and Christopher came home with a number new camp songs that are driving everyone crazy!