Great night of sleeping in the tent. Ear plugs and a warm sleeping bag insured sweet dreams.

After a BIG breakfast what to old guys do . . . read the paper and solve the problems of the world!

Interesting how the local fauna have adapted to the 24/7, 365 day a year constant flow of humans. The deer are tame, we saw a coyote saunter across the street in camp . . .

and the squirrels  are constantly running in and out of the buildings looking for handouts. They even know how to open zip lock bags!

This little girl tried to pet this one and it nipped her, probably because didn’t have any food.

Here is a great model of the the valley area of the park showing half dome and El Capitan. Today we would be exploring the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.

But not before heading to the visitor center . . .

. .  for mass with Father Paul.

. . . held in the theater there were about 100 in attendance. Half staff . . . half visitors. Needless to say, our whole group did not attend.

A view from Tunnel Point, on the way to the Grove . . .

On the way to the grove we also stopped at El Capitan to check out those wild and crazy climbers.

The two circles show at least three overnight biveywacked campers we spotted . . .

. . .who hang their bivy bags from ropes. No camp noise  up here!

Fire is a huge part of the parks ecology and there are signs of past fires everywhere . . .

Heading towards the Big Grizzly . . . appropriately named.

. . . the Bachelor and Three Graces. The bachelor is 1,800 years old!

Good things come in small packages. The sequoias cones are about the size of an egg!

One of the tunnel trees from the past . . .

. . . has healed closed some, but still big enough to accommodate the girth of the mbbt representative contingent.

Yeah, these are BIG trees.

The 7th Calvary, stationed at Yosemite all lined up on this fallen tree . . . with their steads!

BIG fire scars.

A  man outstanding in the forest!!!

Greg and TommyH were moving to the other side of the tracks for our second night . . . no photo of the room because by the time I decided to take one, us three ‘free loaders’ had trashed the room too much on our visit!

The famous Auwanee Lodge. Rooms start at $500/night!!!!

Nice common area, cocktails with a man playing the piano . . . .

The formal dining room, ready for hungry visitors.

Greg, TommyH and I dined at the Yosemite Lodge, one step down from the Auwanee dining experience. Greg and I had the pork schnitzel and TommyH had the lamb.

Pork with red cabbage salad, pureed sweet potatoes, light breaded and sautéed pork. Preceded by a Caesar salad and followed by . . .

Crème brulee was had by two. You will need to guess who had the small one . . .

. . . and who had the large one!

I had this . . . flourless chocolate cake. YUMMMMMMM!

We tied up with TommyG and BillyB who had shared a big bowl of chili, with crackers.

Soon it was off to bed for all as we prepared for our last day in Yosemite.