July 19

Today was not without its frustrations. Let's just say that some members of our party had less than zero interest in walking around the redwood groves, and said short people decided to make said opinions known (repeatedly. And very loudly. And with accompanying gnashing of teeth and persistent foot-dragging). But we pressed onward anyhow, and wound up having some really nice moments (mixed in with the dicey ones) as we made our roughly 5.5 mile round-trip.

I took a bunch of photos with my phone (after discovering, mid-walk, that something is very wrong with my DSLR... yes, I wanted to scream, but that's for another time). There are some very nice shots of us walking along the trails with the sunlight gently kissing our hair. There are others of the redwoods soaring so high into the sky that you can't really make out their highest branches. There are a few that a very (very!) large group of tourists took for us inside the Plaza Hotel (which is, for anyone not initiated in tree knowledge, a big old Sequoia). But this one is perhaps my favorite. It features my favorite hiking partners (even the whiny ones), and it features Brady making Logan's sign. Because this --despite all of the imperfections we encountered today-- is what matters: being together, enjoying one another's company, and experiencing this life.