68

Lake Tahoe morning.

We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel (for free) and I had beef flavoured Top Ramen noodles!! :) The helper guy there started hitting on me, telling me how to make the Top Ramen. At first I thought he was just being friendly, but he kept coming to where I was sitting and asking if I was ok. It was really funny! :D

After we'd satisfied our abdomenal halves, we went kayaking on the lake. It was VERY hot, and we all felt the sun burn into our skin, but it was good fun. Ashlene and Gapa went on the double kayak and I went on the single kayak. They were going all over the place, but by the end of the hour, they were fairly coordinated. (I remembered my first ocean kayaking experience in the Andamans - on the double kayak and I got so annoyed :P) We got quite wet too, at first the water was icy cold on the skin, but we got used to it after a while. We met a few ducks that were swimming gracefully on the water, and they went onto the shore so easily! I just stopped rowing and stared at them for the longest time. Two laps we did, and I raced Ashlene and Gapa on a half-lap when we "competed" hehe. The last half-lap though, I just chilled out and looked at the beautiful view. No pictures of kayaking - I didn't take the camera because I was afraid it would get wet! We didn't go jet skiing in the end though, because it was too expensive and we were running out of time (check out - 11am).

We went back, checked out, ate some food and then left for Yosemite at a little after 12pm.

Yosemite (more like, Mammoth).

The roads were LOVELY and the views were simply breathtaking along the drive. We passed a serene lake, and it was so beautiful, I have no words! I ended up going to sleep part way though, because I was tired from all the rowing. We drove for about 4 hours, and reached our hotel at 4pm. The place was FANCY! The Village Lodge it was called. It was in a place called Mammoth, just outside Yosemite. The room was like our corporate guest house apartment - there was a kitchen, fancy bathroom, a fireplace, a balcony and a really fancy hall again. We were hungry after the drive, and the first thing we saw were chocolates laid out nicely on the kitchen range. CHARGEABLE. And the bathroom had some really nice body wash and shampoo. CHARGEABLE. And there were extra pillows, towels and bath robes in the cupboard in the room. CHARGEABLE! (What's wrong with the place, right?) Evil, to tempt us like that and charge us exorbitantly for everything! :(

We were too late to go into the Yosemite national park area and do any sightseeing in the evening, so we decided to go with the events list that the hotel had. Since it was the eve if 4th July, there were going to be fireworks. Also some movie screening and a concert, it said. Since the restaurant was fancy, it had these extensions into restaurants and basically a tourist village where all these events were happening.

First things first, we showered, planned the next day somewhat, and then headed out to eat. The place was quite crowded, and we had to wait to get a table. I ate a LOT of food, and we got some draft beer that was really really good!

When we finished eating, we started walking around, and happened to walk into a concert (only later realising that it was the concert listed in our events list). The band playing was called the Boneshakers, and they were good! Very groovy blues-jzzz-swing type music. I enjoyed it and wanted to buy their CD, but they had fireworks after, and the place was really packed, so I ended up not buying it.

After the concert, we all went to this bar and drank a little. It was good fun, sitting at the bar and talking to the bartender. Felt very movie-ish :) It was fun, and we went back feeling happy!

Made sleeping arrangements and slept.