Yosemite National Park...

Yosemite or Yosi-Might as Oscar calls it, was just what the doctor ordered after the assault on the mind that was San Francisco. A simple, natural place but jaw dropping in its scale and grandeur. For the most part I'm going to let the pictures speak as nothing can describe the sheer size of the scenery. As we joked yesterday that even the landscape is super-sized here. This was a panacea for all ills and the nickname of God's Back Yard is well deserved. If I were a deity, this is what I would create.

We stood under waterfalls (Oscar got soaked) and witnessed vertigo inspiring drops (coincidentally we all suffer from it to a greater or lesser degree), hiked up a mountaintop (ok so we drove up as far as we could first but we still hiked the remaining bit) and threw snowballs. At me. Yes, in 28 degrees of heat we threw snowballs.

For lunch we decided to commune with nature and take a packed lunch and go picnic by a river. Now, remember that we are 4 pasty-faced poker players with overly large eyes from long periods spent in dim rooms, peering at cards. The great outdoors isn’t exactly our natural habit. The only river we generally see is after the turn.

However, we were intent on getting back to nature so we bravely trek down a beaten track following two other hikers along the river. Its quite marshy so we decide to jog along to avoid the mosquitoes. All of a sudden its very marshy, the hikers have disappeared and our attempts to take a short cut land us further in the marsh. The mosquitoes have called for backup and having launched a full-scale assault are crawling all over us. End result, 4 poker players comically sprinting, slapping and waving their way through the bog with all thought of decorum (not to mention any ideas of picnicing) firmly abandoned. I write this covered in Cortizone cream with over 25 bites. Oscar, has none. Swedes taste crap apparently. And the brand new runners I spoke of in my first entry, well, the less said the better. What’s worse is I don't have a spare pair.

So much for bloody nature. Bah humbug! But I wouldn’t have changed a minute of yesterday. Perhaps fewer bites.

Next stop, Breakfast in Death Valley.