Yosemite

Went to Yosemite National Park a while back. Couple observations.
1. Change Yosemite very slightly and you get this: Yo Semite.
2. When I was there, there was no obvious or overt Jewishness.
3. There were, however, tons of Germans. Ponder that one for a while.
4. You can always tell Europeans by their shoes. It's like that urban legend about kidnappers at Cedar Point. You know the one where they drug the kids and then change their clothes in the bathroom, but don't have time to change their shoes so the cops tell the parents to go to the exit and look for their shoes. Spotting European tourists is kind of like that.
5. Germans are good climbers. I was on a trail with about a million people, but as we got higher the vast majority of the people had turned around. At the bottom of the trail there were a good number of Germans, maybe not quite half of the people, but as we got higher, it seemed like every single person I passed was speaking German. I have no way of explaining this, I'm just making an observation. Now for the pictures.



Here I am with the Yosemite Valley behind me. In the far off distance is Half Dome Rock, a sort of landmark in the park.

Here's Half Dome Rock up close.

Waterfalls and streams like this one are everywhere in Yosemite. It obviously gets more prominent in the spring as the snow melts.


Here I am on the hike. Had a really nice time. I also spent a few minutes of the hike on the John Muir Trail, kind of the West's version of the Appalachian Trail. I've always wanted to hike it so a few minutes on that day was pretty cool.