Top: Sub-Urban Riot | Shorts: Nike | Tank: Lululemon | Jacket Patagonia (similar)

This past weekend my family, Chase, and his friends celebrated his birthday in Yosemite. When I was younger my family and I would visit every year and it was one of my favorite vacations. It's harder to get time off now that everyone works or is in school, so we haven't been in six years. Chase, also had never been to Yosemite and we thought it would be the perfect birthday trip.

When we go to Yosemite we usually always stay in Housekeeping, which is in between a cabin and a tent. In each unit there is a full bed and one bunk bed (can sleep 5 if you get an extra cot). I love this site because it's along the river, so you can hang out by the beach, swim in the river, or take a raft down the river. Also, unlike Camp Curry (now called Half Dome Village) there are fire pits, so you can cook and have a camp fire.

On our first day, we drove into the park and stopped at the tunnel view (one of my favorite views) to take pictures and take in the beauty of the valley. It's such a beautiful view, it almost looks like a backdrop, it's so unreal. Every time I see it, it's like i'm seeing it for the first time. After, we drove to our camp site, unloaded everything and took a bus (Yosemite has free shuttle buses throughout the park) to Yosemite village to explore the Indian village and have lunch. We decided that we wanted to take the rafts down the river, so we went back to camp. Unfortunately the water levels were very low, Yosemite falls wasn't even running :/ We attempted to go down the river but we would hit shallow water about every 200 feet and the water was pretty cold. It was hilarious watching everyone struggle to stay in the rafts and when we had to walk the rafts through the shallow water. In a deeper section, the guys decided to jump in and swim around (they're crazy).

The next day we woke up early and hiked, the four mile trail. It's a 9.6 mile trail, round trip and gain 3200 ft in elevation-- my legs are still sore from it. The view is totally worth it. You can see the entire valley and Half Dome. There is a diving board that you can sit on the edge. We were all taking pictures, enjoying the view and we see my dad standing on it, I couldn't believe it. It was so cool to see him standing there (I also was having a panic attack). After, of course, we all decided to do it. It was pretty scary. I didn't look down while I was climbing to sit on the rock and then I was curious so I looked, it actually didn't scare me as much as I though it would. What scared me more, was looking back where everyone was standing to see how far I was from the ledge. I'm so glad I did it and I probably will not do it again.

After the hike, we were so exhausted, my sisters and I sat in rafts along the river, while the guys played football. That evening, we had s'mores by the campfire and played a game similar to cards against humanity. However, the black card has an accent, and the rest of the group chooses a card that best fits the accent and the judge chooses the best one.

On the last day, my car was leaking gas (of course I had car problems), luckily they have a car shop in Yosemite. As my car was getting fixed we walked along the meadows and saw a deer and her babies feeding. The mom came so close to us and wasn't scared of us at all. I've never seen anything like that.

Every time I visit Yosemite I discover something new. I think it's important to immerse yourself in nature every so often; see, smell, feel everything around you. Every time I come back from Yosemite I feel cleansed; however, on the outside.. thats a different story lol.

I'm so happy I was able to spend Chase's birthday weekend with him, my family, and our friends. It was my last vacation before I start work and I won't be able to go on vacations that often. It was a great end to an amazing summer.

I hope everyone had a great summer. xx