{Dog-Friendly} Yosemite National Park

A few weeks ago, we took a much-anticipated trip out to Yosemite National Park! 

We left pretty late on Friday evening so that we could head into the park first thing on Saturday. If you're not staying in the park, it's a good hour+ drive to Yosemite Village. Along the way, we stopped at Tunnel View to get the iconic views of the valley.

After a quick drive to Yosemite Village, we parked our car and started the walk to Lower Yosemite Falls. It was a quick hour walk from the parking lots to the Falls. Dogs are allowed anywhere that has paved paths in Yosemite, so there were lots of places to explore with him in the Valley.

Since we went in the fall, Lower Yosemite Falls was barely trickling water, so we definitely need to return in the Spring to see it in all it's glory!

Afterwards, we walked Cook's Meadow Loop which took us all around the valley floor. We got up close with a few deer (that were interested in Indy, but didn't run away!), got some great views of Half Dome, and led us back to Yosemite Village for lunch.

On our way out, we stopped at El Capitan and watched the rock climbers for a good hour or so. It was crazy to see because you could barely see them! It looked like they barely moved, but you know they were making some serious headway on that rock.

After, we made the quick hike to Bridal Veil Falls and stopped again at Tunnel View before we went back to our hotel in Oakhurst for the evening.

The next morning, we drove into the park again. This time, we made our way to Glacier Point (with a few stops along the way). This side of the park is magical and we really want to come back and hike to Vernal and Nevada Falls (which are visible to the right of Half Dome). 

After an hour or so walking around, we jumped back in the car to start the drive back. We drove out via the main entrance into the park and WOW, it was so beautiful! You follow along the river for the drive and you have two gigantic cliffs with periodic waterfalls on either side.  

On the way back, we stopped in Livermore for a wine tasting and then finished the drive home. We had a fantastic time bringing the pup to Yosemite and we wanted to treat him a bit before he went into surgery the next week. No worries - he's doing just fine. The vet was being extra cautious and wanted to remove a few fatty lumps, but he got a clean bill of health!

For our next visit, I think we'll head there without him to hike some of the more interesting trails.

Up Next: We're heading to Singapore and Thailand in less than a month to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary!

4 Days in Maui

Well it's been a while and I realized I never recapped our quick trip to Maui! As soon as Southwest started selling tickets, we jumped on the crazy low fares and booked a nonstop flight from San Jose to Maui! We've been to Maui and few times, but honestly, there's so much to see (and re-see)!

We watch Stranger Things on the flight and arrived 6 hours later! I had also found a great price on a convertible a few days before we left that ended up being cheaper than a regular car, so this was extra fun.

We stopped at Costco (of course) for wine, poke, and water, and we set off to our AirBnb in Lahaina. I had to grab a shave ice that first night (at Local Boys), we saw a great sunset, had a quick dinner and then went to bed.

The next morning, we woke up super early because of the jetlag and went off to get some Malasadas (Hawaiian donuts) before leaving for the Road to Hana. Ok, so this is actually our THIRD time doing this, but we still found lots to explore! 

We stopped to get a pineapple juice and check out the views, stopped at the rainbow Eucalyptus trees, and had some fabulous BBQ in the first few hours.

Next, we drove to the Red Sand Beach in Hana (one of our favorite beaches ever!), climbed 2 hours through the bamboo forests to get to the waterfalls in Haleakaka National Park, and ate some FABULOUS pineapple banana bread along the way.

That evening, we made our way back to Lahaina and had dinner at Lahaina Fish Company. It was a long day of driving and hiking, so we called it a night!

Our last full day, we grabbed some breakfast and drove north to drive along West Maui's "rugged shores". We stopped at Nahalele's blowhole, saw the heart rocks, and held our breath as the roads were indeed rugged and narrow.

After we made our way around the to top the island, we had lunch at Da Kitchen. Spam Musubi is my new obsession - SO GOOD!!!

Once we got back to Lahaina, we decided to head to the beach to catch some sun. Baby Beach ended up being PERFECT! Our AirBnb provided towels and an umbrella, so we brought those and some wine and relaxed in the calm shores for probably 6 hours.

For dinner, we had a fabulous pizza at Lahaina Pizza Company and went to bed. The next morning, we went back to Baby Beach for a few hours before we had to head to the airport to catch our flight home.

Now that we're living on the West Coast, we've decided that Hawaii is too easy to NOT do every year. Next time, we're thinking Kauai (once SWA starts their nonstops) and Kona is probably in our near future as well.

Mahalo Hawaii - we'll be back!