We woke up in Oh Ridge campground a little later than normal today, with the air smelling a little sweeter after yesterday’s events. We decided today we would just relax at the campground and do Yosemite tomorrow since we’re here for 3 nights. Since we got in after dark we actually had no idea what this campsite looked like. As soon as we stepped out, it was like we died and woke up in heaven. The campsite has some of the best views I’ve ever seen, with the crystal turquoise blue June lake up against a snow covered mountain range in view of our site. It really was breathtaking. The sacrifice for this beauty was we’re actually a 2 hour drive from yosemite and it’s a dry campsite. No problem – we fired up the generator, made our coffee and sat around gaping at it all.
After coffee, we decided the way we parked last night was not ideal. Our campsites are next to each other, but we parked with the doors facing away from each other. We swapped places, moved some tables around, and made a nice little compound for the group, complete with pine cone table decorations.
Noelle and Jayne went to work on breakfast – eggs and bacon, a classic breakfast to say the mood for some classic camping. After that, Ryan pulled out his bochi ball set and the girls instantly were hooked. We played 3 rounds of that with them, and they played another dozen rounds against each other until a questionable ruling on whose ball was away caused an argument.
Another great thing – our neighbors were headed out and offered us their massive pile of campwood for free. Campers really are one of the nicest groups of people out there. Thanks for the wood!
Ryan took the girls out bike riding again. They ride around the campsite and then down to the beach to check it out. It looks like an amazing place to have lunch, so we make a note of that for later.
As a kid, my dad taught me how to play a card game – gin rummy. I taught Lydia how to play a couple years ago, and she loves it, so she challenged grandpa to a match. She does a lot of speculating, but hung in there against him.
For lunch, the cooks made some sandwiches and we drove down to the lake to have a picnic on one of the tables they had there. Sandwiches were good, and you really can’t beat that view for a meal.
There were actually quite a few of people there at the beach – guess everyone else had the same idea. We liked it down there so much, we decided to turn today into a camping beach day. We drove back to get our camping chairs, the little girls put on their bathing suits, and we stay there by the lake beach drinking some cold beverages and relaxing. The wind was picking up, and was blowing our beach towel around, so I threw myself on top of it and took a nap. The water was too cold for Lydia and Victoria, but they did some beach gymnastics, rock climbing, and played with the wildlife. What a campground!
Ryan’s the certified fire tender in the group and got a nice fire going in our metal fire ring. It had a nice cooking attachment and we threw on some pork chops and had a nice dinner of that with brown sugar gravy with mashed potatoes and green peas. Dad has been saving his monster burrito from yesterday with questionable refrigeration, so we reheated that and he had that for dinner also. There’s still enough left of that for 5-7 more meals depending on the aggressiveness of the fungi in this location.
After dinner, we made s’mores. The boys had one each, and the girls got two. I make my marshmallows the correct way, getting the marshmallow a nice warm and toasty brown and have tried to teach my daughters this technique. They just burn their marshmallows to a crisp because it’s more fun and faster… kids these days. Victoria managed to get half a marshmallow in her hair that she had just washed. I’ll let Noelle take care of that one.
We sat around the fire until dusk turned to night, but it actually had gotten VERY windy at this point, blowing a chair into the fire and shaking the trailer canopy and chilling us a bit, so we battened down the hatches and went to bed. It was a great day – exactly the break we needed with all the action we’ve seen to this point. Tomorrow we’re headed to Yosemite, about 2 hours away through the Tioga pass
