(Gabi) Today was Yosemite national park day and the amount of stunning views was almost overwhelming!

The first thing you see when entering Yosemite Valley is this. Just WOW! The valley just goes on and on and the giant waterfall on the right makes the whole landscape look surreal.

I was truly speechless and we come from a fairly picturesque country. Breathtakingly beautiful.

We went on a couple of short walks, one of them to Mirror Lake.

It’s a very serene little lake with the most amazing vistas.

These stone stacks are something we’ve seen quite often, over here. Just people testing their stone balancing skills.

And this is why the place is called Mirror Lake. Thomie didn’t even notice the insane reflection when he was taking the pic.

A cinnamon roll for lunch because I can’t say no to cinnamon rolls.

And tuna pasta salad for Thomie.

Another accidental shot of a squirrel that had managed to snatch a small piece of crisp Thomie had dropped.

Another waterfall (there are loads of them in the area). They are so much bigger than at home!

We spent some time in the excellent Yosemite visitor center and learned a lot about mountains and wildlife. This is a Yosemite marmot. For some reason, I always thought Marmot’s could only be found in the Alps.

At around 4 pm it started to rain pretty heavily, so we drove back to the hotel (a good 90 minute drive) and blogged for a bit. After that we were off for dinner at the Southgate Brewing Company, which gets incredible reviews on Yelp. They brew loads of different beers and even make their own root beer, which I just had to try.

And the reviews weren’t lying, the food was amazing. Organic, well-sourced and freshly prepared. Thomie ordered fish and chips…

and I got the pulled pork sandwich with (you guessed it) garlic fries. Best pulled pork I’ve ever eaten, in a perfect, not too sweet barbecue sauce. Some onion rings and the coleslaw provided just the right amount of crunch and contrast. The fries were addictive, drizzled in garlic butter. One of our favorite meals on this trip.