No, not entirely; unfortunately the play part had to wait. It was my fault. The night before I was unnecessarily fiddling with the vent fan. I had switched it to high, and then flicked the fan direction to the opposite. Snap! The fan's internal fuse blew. My first thought: OK, I won't do that again. The fuse that blew was an increasingly difficult to find older style clear glass cylindrical automotive type. The fan is necessary for comfort but I didn't have a replacement fuse. Solution? Temporarily wrap the blown fuse in aluminum foil and avoid any fiddling for the rest of the night. So after sunrise and with playtime on hold, we went on a fuse hunt by van. Luck was with us as we finally found what we were looking for at an auto garage near the fire station. We also used the opportunity to get a bag of ice being that we had the van to quickly tote it home in. A friendly camper we met gave us some good shopping info. during a chat. Don't bring ice back to camp by bus. Apparently it had been more of a melting experience them. :)
With the ice and fuse chores taken care of we took off by foot to explore. We were still getting oriented and if there was one take-away from our fuse run it was that we didn't know our way around. The bus seemed like a good bet and an excellent way to learn the locations of places.
As in other parks, the buses are free and comfortable. The buses in Yosemite even had air conditioning. The parks are attempting to lower traffic congestion and the buses are an excellent method to that end. The park, though, make no secret of the fact that they would prefer to exile all automobiles to locations outside the park. I believe this is logistically impossible considering camping equipment needs and the size of the park.
We got off the bus at the nearest of the four visitor's centers, the Yosemite Valley Visitor's Center. Not part of the visitor's center, although part of the same structure, was an art store. I enjoyed flipping through the photos. Inside the adjacent visitor's center Katrina browsed the souvenir shop for a Yosemite sticker to cover blemishes on the back of the camper and add to the collection we had started at the Grand Canyon. We also picked up Junior Ranger books for each of the children before visiting the the theater behind the visitor's center. I repeatedly leave these park movies hungry for more information concerning the geology of the parks we visit. After all, it's often the geology of our various National Parks that sets them apart in the first place. A full explanation of the processes involved would seem unquestioned. Unfortunately, though, geology currently often takes a back seat to anthropology. Although I enjoy anthropology, I feel that much of the discussions called anthropology are really apologies to the indigenous cultures of the area. Some of that time could be better used in fleshing out the natural world before the eyes of the visitors. Parks like Mesa Verde or Gila are anthropological in nature, but parks like The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Yosemite are geological in nature and I feel a bias toward geological information should be maintained in parks that exist due to their geology.
After the movie, amid huge sugar pines, we wound our way back to the camper. We passed a swimming pool that we could only hear and never see. We could also smell showers which Katrina and I both made mental note of. Although we were not sure if they were available to campers, we thought we might be able to sneak in later. After all, visiting Europeans seemed to be able to break all manner of park rules in the name of cultural ignorance. Perhaps we could get away with a little stupidity of our own. :)
With our bellies full, back at the campsite, we decided to take the park buses to see Yosemite Falls. It is a two tiered water fall but it is difficult to see both at one time. We unwittingly took the trail loop to see the Lower Falls in the wrong direction. That is not to say it is a one-way path, but it is a path better taken in one direction over the other. In short, walk the Lower Falls path in a clockwise direction.
As it was, we walked the loop counter clockwise. Our first photo had a Marti McFly family photo (Back to The Future) feel to it. The falls in the distance behind my one legged oldest son was the Upper Yosemite Falls which we unfortunately could not hike to. The trail required a bit of climbing and my foot wasn't up to it. Katrina and I doubted the kids were capable of it either.
Shortly after starting the hike we took a spur off the main trail that led to where some believe John
Muir built his cabin and saw mill. We were able to enjoy the same views John Muir may have. For the kids the creek he built his cabin near, of course, required exploring. At one point I held Ian's hand as he was stepping from one stone to the next in the water. This required quite a lot of his concentration and when I called to him to smile for a photo he obliged, 
but without fully loosing the look of concern across his face as he tested the walking stones. The resulting photo of worry overlaid with a smile makes me...smile. Lower Yosemite Falls and Elise were both in the distance behind him. Trey, being more adept at sto
ne walking, explored the creek a little deeper. And Elise, on the way out, found a flower that I was required to photograph. She was becoming accustomed to my regular flower stops and growing into quite the helper on the flower hunts.
The trail eventually led us to a lumber bridge that was the vista point for the Lower Falls. We were still a hundred yards from that bridge and in the woods when we began to feel the effects of the falls. The temperature had dropped and a breeze had picked up, but we had no idea the sudden comfort was due to the proximity of the falls. It became apparent once we got to the bridge. Trees were swaying and the air was
heavy with mist. Crowds of people were scampering over the rocks and wading where the rushing water allowed. Farther away some others had made their way over and between the many boulders and gotten much closer to the falls. There must have been hundreds of people but their numbers seemed to be absorbed by the sound, wind, and the largeness of falls, cliffs, boulders and sugar pines.
After a while we were ready for some quiet and moseyed down the tra
il to some rocks that had fallen from the cliffs above. And yes, the kids climbed them. Once the children felt that they had exhausted all the avenues for exploration they scampered back down leaving Ian behind. Like a treed cat, the trek up was a different proposition than the one down or perhaps he knew he would just be carried down to his Mama. :)
As we made our way down the trail we had to keep a constant eye over our shoulders. This is where we realized we had walked the loop in the
wrong direction. From this part of the trail, which was not so much a trail at this point as a boulevard, we could see both Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls. The foliage is kept unnaturally pruned to reveal the two distant falls as one. Nice. There were many benches for comfortable viewing, although Ian preferred stopping where he was and sitting. He was tired and ready for a break.
He got that break in the form of a bus ride home. He loved riding the buses and waiting for them at a bus stop was a simple source of pleasure for
him. Other buses would come and go across the street offering endless enjoyment. Some would tease him by slowly driving by. For Trey and Elise it was more of a "whatever" proposition.
We got home as the sun was setting. It seemed to Katrina and me that, although we lost some of the day to necessities, we would not be able to fit more than two outings in a day. We were developing a feel for the place and timing our tips was getting easier as we got more familiar with the buses.
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