Lev Lazinskiy

German Mini Van

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I booked a mini van

Get hyped

I got this message from my friend tzeejay after he invited us to visit Yosemite with him over the Thanksgiving break. I was looking forward to the trip all week since I have not seen him in a while and I’ve never been to Yosemite.

Wednesday evening comes around, and he pulls up to our apartment in a huge white Cadillac Escalade. At first I assumed that mini van in German was slang for “huge SUV”, but then he said “They were out of mini vans.”

We made our way toward the central valley on 580, stopping in Dublin so that I could pick up a pair of boots and grabbing dinner at In-N-Out burger. We arrived in the evening at the Courtyard in Merced and spent the night there before leaving early Thursday morning toward Yosemite.

The biggest challenge with traveling during a massive national holiday is that there is a lack of places that are open to get meals. We went through Mariposa, CA on the way to the mountain and every single restaurant and diner in the entire city was closed. Luckily there was a gas station deli that was open so we stopped there to grab some food. They had some delicious fatty and cheesy double sausage breakfast sandwiches and mediocre gas station coffee.

We finally got to Yosemite National Park. I was surprised at how many people were there during a holiday. I can’t imagine what it must be like there during a weekend in the summer.

I’ve seen a lot of beauty during my travels, but I think that Yosemite Valley is the most beautiful place on earth.