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| French Press directions...why do you mock me?!?! (source) |
One lesson I hope to learn sooner rather than later, is how to make the perfect cup of coffee with my French Press. See, what happens when you camping without hook-ups is you no longer get to enjoy a freshly brewed cup of coffee made by your Keurig. Well, at least not when you wake up at 8 am and your husband sleeps til 11 am. Sure, I could have started the generator anyway, waking him up and risking his wrath, just to savor my cherished cup of Italian Roast {probably with a smirk on my face}. But instead, for 6 mornings I tried my hand at making coffee the old fashioned way. It was not good.
What it reminded me of was "Cowboy Coffee", which may be related to Turkish Coffee {which may be responsible for chin hairs on older, Mediterranean women...I'm Slavic so I can relate}...in that it coats the tongue with a bitterness that is all but impossible to scrape away. It also raises one's heart rate to dangerous levels...at least in my case. But it was coffee...right? {ack}
I'll admit, being surrounded by such magnificence as Yosemite provides, I began to find that I no longer missed the Internet or even my cell phone. I missed a good cup of coffee {a little} but not so much that I wanted to get up early and venture to Camp Curry to pay for a cup of Peet's. The crisp mornings, combined with the sunrise reflecting off of Half Dome and Sentinel Peak, were enough to wake me up.
Between my shitty coffee, the sunrise and the crisp air there was also the scenery and hikes and bike rides to look forward to each day. All 6 days we were graced with beautiful weather, lots of sunshine, and cloudless nights (perfect for looking at the night's sky).
We hiked the Mist Trail to the top of Vernal Falls...
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| Rainbow at Vernal Falls |
It about killed us, but we over came the obstacles...
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| These, quite possibly, were worse climbing down than the were going up... |
We saw some wildlife...
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| Bobcat, Squirrel and Mule Deer |
and of course, we visited all 3 bars...
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| Yosemite Village, Camp Curry and the Ahwahnee...cheers! |
We rode the Yosemite Valley Loop (all 13 miles) on our bikes {twice}, watched climbers on El Capitan, laid in the middle of a meadow in the dark to star gaze and viewed the valley from Glacier Point...nearly 7200 feet in elevation, making life seem so small yet intertwined with nature.
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| Glacier Point marker |
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| View from Glacier Point |
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| Climbers on El Capitan |
Although we spent some time being tourists we made sure to spend most of our time in nature contimplating our wants versus needs and how to make this RV adventure work. Living without electricity (save for that replenished in our deep cycle batteries via the generator), social media outlets and Keurig coffee while marvelling at the natural beauty surrounding us certainly helped put things into perspective.
We have a lot to learn...and not just how to make a good cup of coffee...but we are learning as we go.
~LynnLabels: bicycling, coffee, hiking, nature, Yosemite
