For our anniversary, I took Bubbey and Martin to the mountains of Yosemite. I’d found a Living Social dealio of course, so we got two nights at the Yosemite View Lodge, right outside the park. My friend T had recommended the place before for its location right on the Merced River, so when I saw the deal, I figured I could get it without conducting my usual thorough due diligence. The great thing also, was that Martin was able to come along. He hasn’t really been left alone overnight since Remy passed, so…

Anyway, the Lodge was a huge complex with multiple buildings and an entire campus, but the size was nice enough that we were tucked away in the corner and you know, pretty much just left alone. We drove up after work on Friday and stopped in at a local restaurant/diner in Merced. Bubbey got one of his favs: chicken fried steak. I don’t remember what I got: the food was greasy and tasty. The weather was pretty chilly though. When we checked in, the front desk apologized for the rain and snow (say what??). I guess the end of April is still kinda winter season or whatever, but we didn’t mind. There was some dusting on the ground Saturday morning, but we appreciated the park being less crowded. We drove through the park, checked out the swanky Ahwahnee Hotel for the first time. So nice, although lunch was just so-so. For our special anniversary dinner that night, we ordered take out pizza from the hotel pizza shop and cracked open a bottle of wine. Haha, we’re easy.

On Sunday, we got up early and did a nice, long hike to Mirror Lake. Yeah, like 5 miles round trip. We have a lot of hiker friends, so we knew we couldn’t hit Yosemite without clocking in a legit hike. Yup, check it off the list, baby. Oh and the day before, we saw a bobcat on the trail to Lower Yosemite Falls. He kept walking on the wooden path, so we had no choice but to follow (like real dumbasses). It was pretty cool to encounter wildlife up close. Check out our pics. Full set on Flickr. Yosemite is gorgeous!!

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