Going home

Our luggage was overweight. After all, we had all of our camping equipment, stove, tent, sleeping bags, driving cds, knives (yes, knives), flashlights, all types of batteries, shoes, screwdriver, a piece of Half Dome rock... you name it, we had it. It took us about 15 minutes to "rearrange" everything at the Southwest counter to distribute the weight in order to make it pass. We were back home in just over an hour. Our good friend Jason picked us up from Ontario Airport and joined us for dinner.

No Chinese food (is that even possible?)

Again, we drove around town, along Broadway and up Stockton looking for a decent Chinese restaurant to serve us a quick late lunch. Sacramento's Chinatown was no more than a two or three building plaza with a label. There was no real Chinese food to be found. We had to return the car to Alamo and catch our 6:30 PM flight. We discovered a Vietnamese Pho noodle house. The bowl was huge, the noodles were excellent, and it was packed with meat... much better than any place in Los Angeles.

Old Sacramento

We spent most of our day in Old Sacramento. But we couldn't help but wonder where the new one was?

No restaurants open

Our "night on the town" consisted of driving across towns looking for lights. Downtown Sacramento, South Natomas, West Sacramento, and back. No restaurants open. Even Starbucks was closed, and it was barely 10 PM! After hours of driving around, we saw these bright red lighted letters that read, "Arigato Sushi" on Howe Ave. I think a tear drop trickled down my left cheek. It was like finding a pool of water in the middle of the Sahara. I had a bowl of tempura udon and Windy a bento box.

In Sacramento by 5:30 PM

We drove to Sacramento to take a Southwest flight back to Los Angeles. We decided to stay one night to "experience" the city. I think we overstayed. The state capitol building must have been the tallest structure in Sacramento. Sorry, Rick, your Sacramento sucks big time. Mr. Fozzie's writing a letter to Arnold tomorrow.

Lunch at the Yosemite Ahwahnee

We had the pleasure of having Denise as our server. It was a delight to learn that she was originally from Long Beach.

- Grilled Portobello Sandwich
- Calamari Starter







- Pasta with Avocado
(it kinda tasted funny)

The Day After Half Dome

Back to the good ol' days of drying clothes.

Notice my clothes are not hanging there. This resulted in my clothes having a strong stench by Sacramento airport. TSA simply skipped my bag.


We both have not yet absorbed the fact that we've made it to the top. But somehow we know we did. We got our "I made it to the top of Half Dome" T-shirt and touristy paraphernalia today. Nevertheless, my knees would undergo some excruciating pain for the next few days. It was now time to relax, heal, make up for those lost calories, and act silly.


Later that evening! Around 7:30 PM, a black bear came into our campground while we were preparing our hearty weiner dinner. I quickly grabbed the camcorder and started chasing after the bear for a good 2 to 3 minutes. Apparently, black bears are camera-shy. Well, I did get it all on tape. But after it was all over, I realized that my knee pain had quadrupled because of the running. That was a stupid Mr. Fozzie.

Mr. #36

This is Rick (on the left). He entertained us with his humor and Maui stories. Before meeting Rick, I didn't know how many blonde jokes there actually were in propagation. (I have a suspicion that he's the one who writes these things up and distributes them for kicks.)
Thanks for the Half Dome place mat.

Late for Dinner with Rick

The downhill was fast, but damaging to the knees. My right knee was damaged (temporary) somewhere coming down the switchbacks from the Half Dome rock. Then, my left knee also gave way half down the JMT. And from Vernal to Happy Isles, we had to slow down because of the stabbing pain in my knees. Surprisingly, Windy had no such knee problems, although her leg muscles had gotten quite sore. My guess is that it has to do with each person's "walking style." Interesting.

We had planned having dinner at 6:30 PM down at Curry Village with our neighbor, Rick. However, due to my knee delays, we didn't get back to camp until 8:00 PM. We were worried that Rick would panic and call the Search and Rescue team and set off a few Amber Alerts on us. But, luckily for...

... The French Couple
Not surprisingly, when we did get back to base camp, we discovered that Rick had actually made new international friends and had been graciously sipping down his exquisite fine California wine all night (with a raised pinky) with our French tent neighbors. What a pal.