Day 13: Yosemite

Welcome to the best group THE SNEEZYS!!!

Even though we haven't won any competitions yet, we are still on top! Update: We won the rap battle!! Had yet another 5:30 wake up call from Dallas in the windy city of “San Fran” (you can tell we are not locals).

11 states in!

Kennedy taking in the view

Andrew and Toby having a nice slumber

Addison and Kennedy sleeping

Fisher so tall he takes up two seats

cooks stocking up

Dopeys working hard

Scotty found his cuties

On the road again

Liz waking up bryce from his beauty sleep

Bryce sleeping to escape the car full of girls

Finn dreaming about lunch

Snooze ya lose

Sarah sleeping away

Our lovely new Liberty bell

Hannah Cali in charge of Sleepy for today

We followed getting ready with the day by indulging in a 5 star breakfast featuring great value honey buns and apple sauce, we made our way to the YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK!!! It was quite the drive consisting of many snores and stops like Walmart and CVS. With those snores, Morgan was caught sleeping with her eyes WIDE open!!! (It was a weird sight). We also made one of our frequent Walmart stops and our new cooks, the Dopeys made their round for the next few meals.

Lily smiling big

All smiles for Grizzly giant

quick selfie pic

Emma smiling big

Grizzly giant so big it doesn't fit in the picture

Zack and Luke 

Addie loves trees

Best friends Finn and Addie

Hannah Cali + Cj = BFFs

so many smiles

We arrived at Yosemite in the early afternoon after taking over an hour and a half to travel 18 miles, traffic felt longer than our drive across Texas. Once we reached Yosemite, we walked down a scenic trail through the Mariposa Grove forest. We hiked a mile to gaze upon one of the largest trees, the Grizzly Giant. It was so tall even Bigfoot couldn't climb it. After a short drive we reached the jaw dropping tunnel view where we did research, saw Bridal Veil falls, and admiring the natural beauty that is Yosemite... it felt like stepping into the prettiest dream you never knew you could have.

Little crammed in the bus

Evan repping the Yosemite Blue bear merch

Evan and Dexter soaking up the view

Emma Kate did amazing presenting Bridal vail falls!

Also Zack with the inspiration point

Kate too!

If you look close enough you can see a waterfall

The best bus driver Sean!!

Pretty smiles

Hannah Cali and Jack!

Pretty girls, Pretty views

Outstanding waterfall view

We followed Tunnel View with a scenic drive through the Yosemite basin we admired El Capitan, (we could've sworn we saw Alex Honald climbing), wondered where the other half of the dome went, and enjoyed the clear picturesque day. We made a quick pit stop at the Yosemite Village Store and grabbed some snacks and gifts to bring home. After shopping and hitting the bathrooms, we headed onto Lake Mono, where we'd be spending the night.

Such a cinematic drive

Settling down for the night

Scotty and Ben indulging in a few animal crackers

grilled cheesing it up

Dopeys made an amazing dinner

Soup masters at work

"slay queens"

We arrived at the Mono Vista RV Park around 7:45, (don’t worry we won’t catch a case). We laid out our tarps and felt the cool summer breeze while we were waiting for our dinner from the wonderful Dopeys. After snacking all day, we attempt to prepare our stomachs for the Dopey’s first official sit down meal consisting of warm grilled cheese, some comforting tomato soup and chicken noodle soup, and animal crackers (Scotty had an entire plate of them!). We enjoyed our meal with a sunset and a mountain view with a few fuzz balls flying through the air that made us reconsider our washing routine.

SEEEE YAAA from the Sneezy’s! Sent with love ❤️ - Jackson, Morgan, Charlotte, Caroline, Corinna, Ruby, Parker, Addie, Finn, Emma Kate, Lauren, Evan, Madyson, and Zack 

Day 12-San Francisco

Day 12: San Francisco

As we woke up a little later than usual at 7:15, which felt so luxurious, we were then pleasantly surprised by the delicious smell of nutella and croissants. Before we knew it, breakfast was basically over and we were cheerfully urged to put a pep in our step. We poured onto the vehicles with our croissants in mouth and headed for a short stop to Sutro Bath. BUT of course, we had to celebrate the birthday girl, CAROLINE STACEY!!!!!  We celebrated with an off tempo singing (as usual) of happy birthday by the cliffs :)

Our foggy drive up the windy streets ended at a parking lot, to then us being informed that we might need our hiking shoes. While the wind picked up, so did our pace as we quickly headed down to see the breathtaking view of the Sutro Baths where the ocean meets the rocky shore. As Caleb led us down the hidden cave path, telling us to trust him, we quickly understood why the journey was worth the while as the view transported us to a new world. Caleb proposed a challenge, he offered to pay for the dinner of  the first person to make it up the hill. Davis was quick to take on the challenge and took first place, (little did he know TWB would offer to pay for all of our dinners anyways.)

An amazing tourist attraction that we got to visit today was Pier 39 and the Fishermans Wharf. The view led straight to the prison on Alcatraz and we could almost hear the screams of the prisoners calling for help (not really, don’t worry parents). Then we tasted the world famous bread bowls from Boudins and feasted on clam chowder and other soups. We visited many of the shops and Hannah Cali had an oreo churro that she thought was great. 

     

 When we got set free from the grasps of our counselors and got to hit the city. We threw money at everything we saw and will be back with a looootttt of souvenirs. We saw the beautiful Ghirardelli Square and tried the best chocolate. While all the locals laughed at our matching outfits, we even got asked if we were UCLA students. We learned that we needed to figure out how to read maps, and were successful in finding our way to our group dinner.

 We were overjoyed to get to share some real food as we gathered at a Far East Cafe, a restaurant in Chinatown. We made new friends as the counselors counted us off to sit at dinner and got to have our meal family style.The food food food . The way we ate had an interesting buffet style of food, we didn't know what we were eating before, and sometimes we didn't know what we were eating even after we were staring at it… it was very new to us… afterward we used our new map reading navigating skills to make our way back to the bus and luckily none of us needed to use the help line this time. Everyone was sad to be leaving but afterward we took a walk of friendship on the Golden Gate Bridge and held hands to cement our friendship for the rest of our lives. We were told a story about two friends solidifying their bond with holding hands for 23 steps, and we too did the same. 

Unfortunately the sleepy’s are signing off from the blogging community. That concludes our time as bloggers. With love - Abby, Isabella, Hannah-Cali, Margot, Caleb, Annie, Bridgett, Maddy, Bekah, Rhianna, Jake, Morgan, Jack, and our amazing group leader Tobias Carter Brink.

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*The photos are a bit out of order, they will be organized later when we have better service!