We hadn’t been to Yosemite yet this year, and it was August already -- that just wasn’t right.

As was necessary because of the high demand for campsites in the Valley, we had dutifully woken early on March 15 to prepare ourselves for our multi-computer assault on Recreation.gov, which began at 7:00 am PST, to obtain hopefully two of the highly coveted campsites. Two sites, because I love to spend time with the boys, and Yosemite always seems to make them want to spend more time with me.

I forgot that August in the Valley is not optimal time for rock climbing because of the heat, and that is the primary reason they come here. However, they still humored me and said they would join us for the weekend.

One of the reasons Herb was making a big push to go at this time was that he has been wanting for a very long time to hike up to the “diving board” of Half Dome to take a photo from the same spot where Ansel Adams took his famous “Monolith, Face of Half Dome” shot in 1927, during a full moon. Well guess what. It was going to be a full moon on our second night here. Having had the good fortune to first of all get a campsite, and then unknowingly have it overlap with a full moon, seemed like destiny.

Herb will explain more about his adventures getting to and from the Diving Board when I put him in charge of the writing on Day 3.