I don’t have much time to compose a post this morning, but I thought I’d post a couple pictures from the vacation so far. It’s amazingly beautiful here. The weather has been great, the travel easy, and we’ve seen an incredible amount of things in just a few days. We were in Yosemite National Park the last couple days and today are back in San Francisco. We’re going to do some things here today (Golden Gate Bridge, etc.). Should be a fun day!

The Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Forest:

The view from our backcountry campsite in Yosemite:

On a random dome in northern Yosemite:

I’m not going to do a big post about the spring break trip – at least not right now – but I did want to post a couple of my favorite photos.

And no, I didn’t get to see any manatees. They must be pretty elusive. We did see plenty of dolphins, gators and other fun fauna. More on that later.

Anyway, one of the best parts of an extended camping trip is having your body adjust to the natural rhythym of sunrise and sunset. It means you get up and see the beauty of the sunrise that you often miss. Briefly, here’s two of my favorite photos from the trip. I didn’t take my Nikon (too afraid to get it wet), so these are all taken with my little point and shoot Canon.

No, Quinzee isn’t a new take on Yahtzee. A quinzee is a type of snow survival shelter – something you could make if you were stranded in the snowy tundra of … say, Dunn Meadow for a few days.

Basically, you make a huge pile of snow – the bigger, the better – let it sit and sinter for a few hours and then dig out the middle, making a sort of igglo/snow cave combination shelter. It was actually quite warm inside, and you probably could have slept three people in the shelter we built. As it was, we had five of us sitting inside fairly comfortably at once.

Anyway, pictures: