Wedding Blog

The next day, after the luxury of the night before, we woke up early and headed down to the dining room for breakfast, having heard it was to die for. It was! Mr. Plumeria is excited…

… to eat this!

Mine: Ahwahnee Thick Apple Crepe. Somehow that “thick” just adds so much to the yum factor.

Yeah, I know the last one’s not food, but… we’re married!

Afterwards, having practically stuffed ourselves, we rolled out to the valley to do some hiking. Yosemite is fairly easy to get around, due to trams that circuit a numbered route all throughout the day. We rode it to the head of the Mist Trail and set off for a brisk hike, during which we saw many many of these:

… as well as gorgeous, far-off views.

… and at the midpoint of the trail, where it came to a bridge with a pounding river running underneath it, we were rewarded with this, a glimpse of Vernal falls:

Mr. Plumeria got his hands dirty on the bridge, so he rinsed off in the river…

The trail goes past the point where we stopped and turned back, but as both of us had been up to the higher lookout point before, we decided to forego that part of the hike so we could spend the afternoon this way:

We rode around the valley from lunch until afternoon, on bikes rented from the stand near one of the lodges. In retrospect, Mr. Plumeria and I heartily agree that this was the part of our honeymoon that was the most fun. We both hadn’t ridden a bike in years, and there were a lot of laughs as we pedaled our way down the bike trails. We stopped several times to take pictures of the scenery…

Sometime during the trip, Mr. Plumeria started collecting pressed pennies to keep as souvenirs. Here’s the copper version of Yosemite’s namesake waterfall, alongside the real thing:

A flood marker, with years to indicate when the water level had risen to that height… a little scary!

Then, we headed back to the Ahwahnee and explored the outside of the hotel a little bit. It’s set against the side of the mountain, so its backdrop is a vast expanse of gray stone. The recognizable Yosemite landmark, Half Dome, is visible from the grounds.

The gate you see as you drive into the Ahwahnee:

Engraved letters on the first placed cornerstone of the hotel, which we found near the front lobby at the very base of the lefthand wall:

The beautiful grounds outside the hotel…

Dogwood blossoms, found in abundance all over the valley:

The afternoon was peaceful, and the time flashed past until it was time to get ready for our dinner in the Ahwahnee dining room. (Recognize the dress? ) They placed us at an intimate table lit with a candle, inside the very edge of the large bay window at the back of the restaurant. Again delicious… and again, a beautiful end to our day!