thewhitelily | Travels in the USA: Day 6

Today at least half the snow we saw yesterday was gone; instead there were semi-green fields - beautiful, and almost like a completely different park again from yesterday. But there was still enough snow left to build a giant snowman!

It was amazing how much snow had melted even on the way back to the hostel yesterday evening. It was by no means gone this morning, but previously where there had been white expanses of untouched snow, there were bare patches, things poking through, and general patchiness. It’s easy to see how if we’d arrived even a few days later, we would have seen a completely different park. With the snow fading fast, our first stop of the morning was to remedy the situation from yesterday with the embarrassingly small snowman that had been all we had been able to build without the assistance of gloves. With Penski’s new snow gloves in action, however, a plan was made to build a new snowman. A bigger snowman. In fact, a snowman that would be taller than at least me, and possibly all of us. I suspect their manly pride had been dented by the fact that I had done nearly all the work including grazing the skin off my knuckles on the snow itself.

It became clear quite quickly that it would be far too much work to build a traditionally shaped snowman of sufficient height. Instead, the boys (I stayed out of the whole thing, having had quite enough fun the previous day, and collected items for the face, which explains the evil look in his eyes) took turns with the gloves and managed to build a giant ~~penis~~ snowman that fulfilled all of their boyish fantasies. Well, all but one. And that one was easily fulfilled once it was finished.

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Snowman completed and disposed of, we proceeded to the Mirror Lake walk, and decided to eat our packed lunch beforehand rather than afterwards, which was fine, and also that it had warmed up somewhat and we could leave our big jackets in the car, which was also fine. It turned out that the nearby toilets which I’d been relying on being there since before the snowman construction had begun were closed, which put me within inches of trying to find a snowy bush to hide behind. But apparently there were toilets ahead on the trail we were going to, and so I decided I could make it another kilometre and a half. A pair of unisex toilets found with their doors facing along the trail, I headed immediately in while Hubby went for the other one and, a little concerned that the pushbutton lock didn’t appear to stay pressed in but reassured that the door seemed to be holding firm against my attempts to jiggle it, and under serious pressure from my bladder, I decided to go for it.

Five seconds later, a kid of about ten years old opened the door, freaked out, and ran for it. “Could you at least close the door?” I yelled after him/her (it was difficult to tell in all the snow gear) since the toilet seat was way out of range of maybe swinging the door shut with a foot or something, and besides, the door opened out, but he/she was not stopping for anything, let alone the modesty of some crazy lady on the toilet with the door swung wide for all the well-populated trail to see and incidentally the icy gale to blow in. Perhaps he/she just didn’t want anyone else to make the same mistake he/she had again. At point I’d essentially given in, buried my head in my hands, and started hopelessly giggling as I imagined trying to build enough of a dress out of toilet paper to allow me to stand up and get out the door to the handle without exposing more than I already had to the trail at large. I didn’t even have my jacket to wrap around me Fortunately, Penski heard my plea for help and managed come around from the side of the building to get the door closed without dying of embarrassment, otherwise I might have had to wait for Hubby to finish up next door before anyone actually tried to help me. Still, possibly not my favourite holiday moment so far.

Mirror Lake was good, although for the most part significantly less mirror-y than I’d been imagining—I guess I’ve been spoiled by Tasmania—and significantly more crowded. Still, like everywhere in Yosemite, it was gorgeous, if slightly aggravatingly (for the non-owners of waterproof shoes) slushy. Socks and shoes dry out, anyway, and it was definitely warmer, at least, than the previous day, so at least our poor little toes didn’t feel like they may have been literally frozen inside our shoes.

After Mirror Lake, it was back to the hostel for washing and then dinner in the nearby town of Mariposa. Before we left, I offered to be designated driver for any such excursions, given I’m not allowed to drink in any case, but this was the first time I’ve been taken up on the offer. In fact, it was the first time I’ve ever driven in the USA, on the opposite side of the road. We decided I should drive both there and back, both so I’d be more familiar with the road on the way back in the dark, and because if it turned out I didn’t want to drive back after all, Hubby could drink more lightly and drive. It was scary, of course, but not too bad with Hubby sitting there reminding me of “loose left, tight right” whenever appropriate, Usually, he’s a dreadful backseat driver and so I refuse to drive when he’s in the car, but in this situation it was actually helpful. In any case, we got home in one piece, but with Hubby such a bundle of nerves from his concerted backseat driving that I’m not sure I’ll be taken up on the offer of designating again. What a shame. :)

In any case dinner made it all worthwhile—I’m convinced anew of the wisdom of looking up some kind of reviews before ever attempting to eat, ever. It’s always rewarded. And even though The Butterfly Cafe were out of the first two things I ordered off the menu, my Caesar salad (despite the apparent fact that the Americans, or at least that place, appear to serve with sundried tomatoes and without bacon, egg, or anchovies, at which point I would ask if it could really still be described as a Caesar salad? Oh well, it was nonetheless yummy, and even Agatha approved. We definitely both approved of the chocolate brownie cake which was about four times too big for a normal human being to consume but was dense and moist and just plain heavenly.