I saw a bear.

a real. live. walking. brown. bear!

I've lived in North America for almost 10 years now and it took me that long to see a bear.  When I lived in Canada, and went to such places like Banff, Whistler the Muskoka etc, I really expected that I would see one.  I mean on tv, they show up all the time...  I even dragged Bryce to the dump one time in Ontario just to see if we could see any bears...

Last weekend we took Bryce's mum, Cathy to Yosemite, as she had NEVER been!  It was my 4th time and each time it never fails to surprise me.

The pictures just don't do it justice - you just have to see it for yourself.

Bryce and his mum

Mirror Lake had water in it this time, and the weather was perfect.

Ta da!  Cathy, Bryce and Mabel

Bryce, Mabel and me

Mabel trying out her water shoes in the lake.

Who needs pants or shoes anyway...

On the bus

 We camped at Camp Curry,

in those infamous tents...

and they were awesome!

We ate dinner at the fancy place

 where Mabel perfected her birthday candle blowing skills

 Oh look, a bear!

 Just kidding...  we really did see a bear.

We saw a small crowd of people looking and pointing across a field as we were walking back to our tent, and then I looked over and saw a flash of brown.  I was so excited I wasn't scared at all...  Bryce and I, and 2 other guys started walking over and following him.  Not too closely (obviously) but enough so I could grab a few pictures.  He knew we were there, but wasn't really interested.  We watched him gathering food from branches and he just toddled along.  It was amazing to see such a huge creature in the wild!  

and we lived to tell the tale :)

What's your favourite part of Yosemite?

A walk around the Saguaro Hotel in Palm Springs

When Hannah invited Mabel and I to Palm Springs for a girls getaway, I started a board on Pinterest of things to do and see there.  While pinning I came across this photo and thought wow!  I mean rainbows and palm trees - what more could you want!?

So, when we stumbled upon this sign

while on our walk one evening I knew we had to go in to check it out.

Pronounced suh-warh-oh, and named after the cactus (like this one here), the Saguaro underwent a make-over in 2011.  Architects Peter Stamberg and Paul Aferiat, known for their bold use of colour drew from 14 vibrant tones found in native desert wildflowers.  You can read all about it here.

But for now, sit back and enjoy the colourful tour from my perspective.  As soon as you step in the door the colours just jump out at you.

 then, walking through the lobby and out into the courtyard the colours just kept coming.

we walked around the perimeter of the courtyard and every angle brought a new colour combination.

 Hannah was a good sport and indulged me the 3 billion photographs I took :)

 Here's what it looks like inside.   I imagine waking up here would instantly make you happy! {unless of course you are hungover, and then I think it might make you nauseous}