Wow it’s been a long time since I last blogged…and I have a lot to say..hmmm well for starters we went to Yosemite national forest two weeks ago and I had a great time! I’ve never been one to go cross country though in a car and I am claustrophobic so it was a good thing I didn’t get any sleep before we left. I ended up sleeping in the car 80% of the time… the rest of the time I was looking out the window admiring the nice sunny California landscape… it was an 8 hour trip to Yosemite and we drove through Los Angeles, Delano, Fresno, Sacramento, the San Fernando valley, Tejon ranch and a lot of other towns and cities on the way to Yosemite. I had the chance to admire the vineyards in Delano and it was a treat for me…I’ve always wanted to go to France or Italy to see the vineyards but now I don’t have to 
it also happened that they were picking grapes at that time. I got to see the breweries too (is that what you call those facilities where they make wine?).of course the fun part was stopping to eat at the towns…you get to see different people and see how they live..you know most people think of California in terms of Los Angeles and Hollywood but the thing is it’s not all that…well we have the beaches here, which are pretty famous, we also have the mountainous regions..I swear I see mountains all the time wherever I go and it makes for a pretty picture… we also have diverse races coming together to live here..it’s pretty cool coz everyone’s so racially different and it does make for interesting small talk…and then we have the farms…we have vineyards, strawberries, oranges and cattle too..so it’s not all about glamour…ok I think I have digressed enough…
Anyway, the mountains in Yosemite are pretty cool…their tops are white which is pretty different..the streams were really picturesque and it was like walking into a postcard with the meadows and the pine trees.. it was really pretty…. The giant rocks were also pretty awesome..i had a great time…
We had to come home early though coz the camping sites were fully booked! That’s a total of 16 hours of driving in one day…My god!
The next day, the day after we went to Yosemite we decided to go camping in Anaheim Lake..it was nice..it was my birthday also and I have to say that it was the most different birthday celebration I’ve ever had…:D
Of course it may have something to do with the fact that I’ve never gone camping my entire life…the idea of peeing in the bushes and having my blood sucked out of me by giant mosquitoes isn’t my idea of a good time but I am an optimistic person and I know how to make the best of every situation so I enjoyed myself! Here’s a list of what happened:
1. When we tried to put up the tent, my parents had positioned it upside down..it was discovered an hour after they’ve been struggling with it (I discovered that ) After another hour of trying to understand the manual ( My dad brought only one lantern with him. No flashlights. No firewood. Yes I know.) we all finally gave up. My dad got his tool box and proceeded to put a stake through the ends of the tent to make it stand. Well it worked.
2. On to the airbeds! My sister, Mae and I were in charge of this and we had a little problem..it took us 2 hours to inflate ONE airbed..sigh..my dad bought the manual pump to save money…..it was frustrating and gave me back problems….and there were FOUR of us…. So that’s one down and three to go..Mae and I gave up and told our parents that at this rate we would be pumping airbeds till dawn so we did only two. So that’s 4 hours on the airbeds alone….now to dinner!
3. The people at the lake, bless their hearts sold firewood among other things and my dad was nice enough to buy some…duh he should! so we went to make dinner..my dad bought marinated beef for the barbeque and marshmallows…wow…. They didn’t bring rice so we ate corn instead….its a weird meal..plus they bought ice cream..hmm I’m sure after what happened they learned that ice cream and camping don’t go together so that’s what we ate corn, steak, marshmallows and ice cream soup ..
4. The next day I was awakened by the sun shining right in my face and the sound of ducks in our site. Apparently, our tent is see through, my parents didn’t think to put up the tent cover. Also something like 20 huge ducks were quacking outside rummaging through our food from the previous night… what a wake up call..can you imagine 20 ducks quacking at the same time?! yes if I had a gun I would have made lunch out of all of them hehehe the poor dears were scared to see us up…they promptly left to torture the next campsite
5. We checked on dad’s fishing line and guess what..no fish…the lake had only catfish and dad brought his hook for trout..needless to say the catfish had a grand time eating live shrimps ..and we didn’t catch a single darn one.
And that’s the end of my camping experience…yes Murphy must be out there laughing his ass off at our misfortune….but I had a good time nevertheless…
P.S. This one wins most number of smileys!
