more driving, more sightseeing

the next leg of our journey involved a bit more driving. it was kind of cool to see the sights along the way, like the windmills:

cool bridges:

herds of moo cows:

open roads:

even a really pretty lake that we found in the middle of nowhere. 

my new favorite city name:

i mean, come ON...say it out loud. how can you not grin at the sound of "copperopolis" coming out of your mouth?

and then, as i always do, i dozed off for a chunk of time. when i woke up, we were paying the entrance fee here:

as one would expect, it was beautiful up here. 

we'd managed to score a reservation at the only hotel located inside the park - the gorgeous, historic ahwahnee. 

this sign told us to get all of our edibles out of the car, or else. 

someone was particularly happy to get out and stretch her legs a bit after a couple of hours in the car. 

and then she was even more excited when she came across a couple of deer just kicking it in the field, grabbing some dinner and hanging out. 

okay, i thought it was pretty cool too. 

gotta love the kind of place that still hands you a real metal key for your room. 

partial family photo. 

we were excited for the change of scenery...and the lovely weather, too. 

even the elevator was pretty. 

the room was nice too.

and there was this little guy waiting for us. 

with the dining room completely booked (and we didn't have the proper attire to be seated there anyway), we settled for some room service dinner before passing out in the comfy beds. 

the adventure continues!