Yosemite National Park

On Thursday night, I had dinner with my boss's boss (the big boss), who came here on a business trip from Japan. He wanted me to drive to Yosemite National Park with him on the weekend, because he had never been there. I am not good at driving, so I asked one of my staff to help.

I was supposed to meet with my staff member at 5:40am. When he called me at 5:45am, surprisingly I was still in bed. I got ready in ten minutes and we set off for the hotel where the big boss was staying. We picked him up at 6:15am and headed to Yosemite.

When we were headed towards Yosemite, the big boss wanted to drive. There are three routes to get to Yosemite. We took Highway 120, the northbound route.

We went there directly except for one stop when we had some snacks. At about 11:30, we arrived at the entrance of Yosemite National Park.





We walked around the foot of El Capitan, a 3000-foot vertical rock. I remembered that I came here with my former big boss last year. It seems like the big bosses like Yosemite.





Then we went to the Yosemite Falls. We could walk under the falls. As there was a lot of water in the falls, it was a grandiose view. We took many pictures.









While we were walking back to our car, the big boss found a sign which lead to Mirror Lake. I said "NO!" repeatedly in my mind because it was a hot day and we didn't have any water. However, the big boss spontaneously decided to hike this trail.
















We walked about two hours, struggling with thirst while we stepped over horse manure.






When we reached Mirror Lake, I was almost dehydrated. However, it was so beautiful.






This was the first time I had seen the Half Dome up close. We rested and took a lot of pictures.

After a forty-minute rest, we started to walk on the paved road. On the way, we found a sign of a bus stop and this bus was free of charge. I told the big boss that we should have researched in advance and used this bus in the beginning. He laughed and replied that our jobs had always been just like this. As I understood it, this meant we could always find a better way to do our projects in retrospect. I realized that he was not known as the big boss for nothing.

The bus stopped at Yosemite Village where there were some shops. We had a late lunch. I bought a liter of water and a bucket of ice cream.









Then we went to the parking lot by the free bus. We started to drive home with great satisfaction.