Yosemite

Yosemite is a place that before this last weekend, I had never really considered going to before coming down here a week ago. We got ready until the late hours of the night, and then got up an hour later (like 1:45) to head out, finally arriving at the permit office at around 7, so we could wait 30 minutes until they let us in to get permits. Luckily, there wasn't many people ahead of us in line, so we were able to get a permit to the place we wanted to go, Evelyn lake. Then we headed out, about 10 miles that day, and we climbed to a high of 10,440, and then camped at about 10,340. Really high, in my mind, because I was heaving a lot for breath. Then the next day, Amy and I climbed to the top of Vogelsang Peak, which is about 11,516 ft. It was really cool up there, and we had a great view. I think its the highest I've ever been, besides in a plane. After that, we came down, and then sunday we came back out. I really like the high alpine feel in my nose, despite the dry hurt and sunburn and creaky breathless altitude of it all. Its like the desert, where only the tough survive, and you say to yourself, "well, I'm alive."
Some pictures: