Fun in Sequoia

[Chernabog]

Originally Posted by JWBear

But I'm afraid that at my age, camping would need to involve an RV with indoor plumbing and an innerspring mattress.

And feather boas and a sequinned Liza outfit?

At Dorst they had indoor plumbing... the public showers were at a different campground, but there was the freezing cold stream and the not so cold Lake Hume...

I slept on an air matress the first nite and a military style cot the second nite... defnitely the cot was more comfortable.

[MouseWife]

If you notice my name, I do not like bears. I am quite happy that I haven't met one...yet.

I would love to stay at the Ahwahnee but not with all of the kids. Sorry kids. We have enjoyed staying at Camp Curry {2 double WITH bathroom}, the loft room {anyone ever stay in this one? It has two doubles on the bottom and a double on a loft, soooo cool} and the family room at the Yosemite Lodge.

We have stayed one night at the Housekeeping camp. Um. Ah. It was very basic. We had the food locker and well, it would have been a lot more fun if the people we were in such close contact with were other people we knew, ya know? And still, no bears.

Tell me about the Ahwahnee...ever stay in a cottage?

The only giant sequoias I've seen were outside of Yosemite.

{I notice how GC picked up on Grants circumference. }

[Alex]

I don't really think I'm camping unless I'm sleeping on the ground with only a sleeping back between us. There are no electrical outlets within many, many miles and the nearest shower and flushing toilet is even farther away.

Growing up our main camping was to drive not into the lava flows of southeast Oregon which is mostly federal grazing land. Drive through a couple of the cattle ranches until we were 30 miles or so from the nearest house and then just drop a tent on the first flat spot we found without a anthill in it. 15 degrees over night, 115 degrees midday. That was camping.

Unfortunatley, haven't been able to do much of that as an adult. Everybody we know won't go if if it will involve hauling a cooler farther than 10 feet from the car to the provided picnic table. It isn't camping when there is a higher population density than a Manhattan city block.

That isn't to say it still can't be fun, but it isn't really camping, in my opinion.

[Chernabog]

Originally Posted by MouseWife

Tell me about the Ahwahnee...ever stay in a cottage?

{I notice how GC picked up on Grants circumference. }

No, when we stayed there in Yosemite it was in a regular hotel room. Wasn't a huge room as I recall. I do recall it was very lovely though, and the restaurant was good too. It's been years since I was there -- I went for a bar mitzvah of all things. And I remember I was four days into quitting smoking. And I was staying with my parents. It was... interesting.

Yeah the whole sleeping on the ground thing I am SO not gonna do. I have enough sleeping troubles. LOL Alex your idea of camping sounds like you have to be as absolutely miserable as possible. Just doing what we did was definitely a LOT of work, but left enough time for the fun stuff. It was camping. It was in a campground, and we slept in tents outside. I washed in a freezing cold creek. That was enough "camp" for me.

Oh yeah GD, the bear thing. We heard of someone doing exactly the same thing, and ended up being fined $150 for leaving and not latching his bear box properly. See, the bears only get aggressive when they know they can get food (i.e. if people intentionally start feeding them, or the bear box isn't latched, etc.) That's when the rangers have to start shooting them. Otherwise they are pretty docile and will get very scared of you very easily if you make noise. Not that I'd go up and try to pet one, of course.

But yeah my next vacation will be in a hotel (at WDW, actually). As I said before, I like MORE amenities, not LESS. But it was a new experience and I am always up for new experiences. There's gotta be SOMETHING about the whole camping thing that people enjoy doing, after all!! It's sort of like a "make your own adventure" or "exploration" sort of thing.

Like any vacation, the most important thing is who you're spending it with.