Travel Adventures By Amanda

Our day began at 3:40 a.m.  Alarms are not my thing.  I often don't use one and when I do, I'm usually awake before it goes off.  Not on this day.  We were boarding at 5:15 a.m and needed enough time to stand in the bag check line.  Checking bags is also not my thing, but because we had our backpacking and hiking gear, we each checked two bags.  Thank you Southwest Airlines for allowing us to do that without charging us $100.  Our flight was MEM to OAK with a layover in MDW.  We were in MDW long enough to enjoy a leisurely Irish breakfast, which was surprisingly good.  I don't have high expectations for airport food or service, but I was pleased with my meal and we had excellent service.  I've never flown through MDW.  I liked it.  Small airport, very clean.  We stopped to enjoy the memorial to the Battle of Midway.  I love that airports now have art and history displays.  This was one of the better ones I've s...

When Easton was 17 months old, we took him to Yosemite for a 6-night camping trip.   To date, it is one of our most memorable family vacations.   We drove, biked, and hiked all over the Valley floor for that week in 2013.   Chris lugged him up to Vernal Falls in the hiking pack.   I can still hear the sound of his giggle as the mist from the Falls peppered his face.   We waded through Mirror Lake    We threw sticks and rocks in the Merced River.   All the while, Half Dome loomed in the distance, calling to me.   May 2013 just wasn’t my time.   Not the right season of my life.   Years passed by.   We had another baby, then we moved out of state, but she was always there, floating around in the back of my mind…. On Sentinel Dome, May 2013... Half Dome in the distance  As 2017 was coming to a close, I mentioned to Chris that I had been thinking about it more and more.   The time was right.   I wanted to fi...