Yosemite

Second visit to Yosemite, with Udaya, Sharang, and Krishna

Rented a car after the San Jose event and drove out to Yosemite. Second visit. Udaya, Sharang, and Krishna were with me this time. We stayed in Oakhurst, and the first night's sky is the thing I still think about most from the trip. The sea of stars was so dense it did not look real. That night was the moment stargazing became something I wanted to actually go and do, rather than think about doing.

Spent the next day in the park. Started at Mariposa Grove, walking under the giant sequoias, which are trees that make you rethink your sense of scale in ways nothing else really does. Then swam in the Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls, water cold enough to reset your nervous system in one plunge. Driving back later I stopped at a bridge I had swum under the first time I came, and got in the water again. I saw a guy jump off the bridge. I decided I wanted to too. Stood on the edge and second-guessed everything about it, because a bridge always looks lower until you are on it. Eventually I jumped.

In the evening we drove to Glacier Point for stargazing and ran into some folks from my office who had come out for the same reason. I had never seen stars like that in my life. The Milky Way was visible with the naked eye. I lay down on the stairs at the point and stayed there for a while, just looking up. Drove back to the room in the dark. The car went up on the kerb at one point and I very narrowly did not hit a pole. Breakfast at a cafe in Oakhurst the next morning, and we drove back to the city.