finding what we've lost

From last Friday (June 10) to today (June 13), my family and I were on a trip in Yosemite.

It was…

Complicated, to say the least.

But also shockingly and amazingly fun.

This trip to Yosemite was ESPECIALLY special to me because there were two other families with us. And those two families and their kids I had known since I was 3 because we used to be neighbors. One family, however, had moved to Texas 5 or 6 years ago, so we hadn’t grouped together in a long, long time.

What was *cough* complicated about the trip was that our car broke down in the parking lot of the place we were staying at and we couldn’t leave or do anything. Yep.

I should probably backtrack…

So on Friday, we arrived at our campsite at around 5. It’s a place called Autocamp–I definitely recommend going there if you’re planning on going to Yosemite–where you get to live in these trailer-ish big box things (I know, such great vocabulary) instead of a stupid camping tent.

I’m really sorry to whoever loves camping in the tent, but it’s just uncomfortable and stinky to me. So it was great to have a sort of mini-hotel with a toilet and a shower and a table and a kitchen sink and a real-life bed (though I didn’t get to sleep on that–my parents got that luxury while my sister and I slept on the sofa couch, which was still a thousand times better than a sleeping bag).

However, the Texas family had to fly from Texas to a place 3 hours away from Yosemite, then drive there, so they had to arrive super late that day. So it was just us and the other family for that night, when we ate barbecue.

THAT part wasn’t fun. They had two kids that I had known for a long time. One was a girl in the same grade as my sister. And then there was the brother, two grades above me.

After we finished eating, he immediately slipped into the room and stayed on his phone for the rest of the night while I was half bored to death outside.

It’s not his fault, I suppose. He’s just super introverted and warms up to people slowly. And I’m an introvert (well, ambivert, but closer to introvert) too, so I had no one to hang out with.

The next day we woke up at 5:30–FIVE THIRTY–to go hiking at the National Park since there was supposed to be a super long line there and we had to get there early. Autocamp was like an hour’s drive away from the actual park.

And AGAIN the Texas family wasn’t with us because they had gotten to the camp at like midnight last night and they couldn’t wake up.

So I endured ANOTHER half-day of being bored and just walking around until lunch. The Texas family arrived then with their two kids (finally). One was a girl in my grade and the other was a boy a year younger than my sister.

We had lunch together really quickly, then the Texas family went off to hike since they had missed the morning and the other family and us headed home.

I proceeded to spend the next 3 hours doing absolutely nothing and playing games on my iPad while the Texas family slept due to exhaustion (it was like 100 degrees out there or something).

So it wasn’t until 6 or 7, around dinner, when things finally started looking up.

The girl in my grade from Texas and I, along with the help of some parents, forced the slightly older boy to play Exploding Kittens with us and the younger siblings at a separate table, and our mission succeeded. He started warming up and the three of us got much closer that night and had plenty of good times and laughter together, just like when we were 4 and no one cared about the age gap or genders. I was super excited for tomorrow when we could hike with both families.

It all came crashing down the next morning when our car wouldn’t start.

I still don’t know what’s the problem. It was just dying and spluttering and being an IDIOTIC CAR. The other two families had left already so their phones had no signal and we had no way of contacting them until they had already arrived at the park.

So my sister and I were cooped up in the trailer moaning and shouting and sobbing.

Then, like 3 hours later, we had a brilliant idea that we should’ve come up with sooner:

RIDE THE BUS.

So that’s what we did, even though it took us like an extra half an hour compared to driving. By that time it was time for lunch and one of the families had finished hiking already (the Texas family went on to hike a harder part of the mountain). So we ate a burger and some fries, then set out to hike in the afternoon.

We rode the bus back again and arrived only a little later than the other families, who had gone biking and walking around or something.

That night we had LOTS of fun playing games and eating. It was an amazing experience. We were playing Among Us in real life, but it was too late by then and we decided to play the next day–but we couldn’t.

There was the whole problem about the car, cause we couldn’t drive it back to our house the next day, and the solution was to rent a car the next day morning or something. So luckily, we got to stay for the night as we had planned. But, we had to leave at 8 in the morning so that my dad could go get the rented car in one of the family’s car, and then drive it back. That family wouldn’t be coming back.

Even if we woke up at 7, we wouldn’t have much time.

So the next morning I woke up glum and frustrated and sad that I would have to say goodbye to my friends this early.

BUT THE CAR MAGICALLY FIXED ITSELF!!

Or something! Hooray!

I was shocked and confused, but that meant we could stay until like, 9:30, so I gobbled down my breakfast and we herded the younger kids toward our meeting spot to play Among Us.

It was epic.

Yosemite was epic.

LIFE IS EPIC, PEOPLE!