Half Dome is even more gorgeous, when covered in snow
It’s Monday and boy everyone seems tired. We just came back from a three-day-weekend snowboarding and skiing trip at Badger pass. We met at the Girl Scout house at 6 PM sharp and boarded the bus. Our bus driver hauled the truck into drive and instead of the five hour ride it was suppose to take it only took three. Yay! No one likes 5 hour bus rides. Well unless it was like the most awesome-limo with trampoline floors and candy and a movie theater now that would be my dream car/bus/ thing to ride five hours to anywhere in. The next three hours went down like this: iPods, movies, blabbing, taking photos and screaming-excuse me singing popular songs.
When we finally entered Yosemite they told us it was closed because of all the snow! So instead of bunking in Curry Village which we all know and love, we drove to a Best Western in a nearby town. We met up with the girl scouts who left early Friday morning in two other buses. We unpacked and “home-y-fied” our rooms, and gorged ourselves on the pizza left from the early-arriving-girls dinner. And in the morning, as it is typical of hotel chains, we had the world’s worst continental breakfast of our lives, well my life. The eggs were cold, cereal was soggy, and the toast was bland. Nothing was the consistency it should have been. Although I give that Best Western props for buying good hot coco packets, and for staying chill and vacant for like 150 unscheduled girl scouts (and Space Cookies) arriving on their doorstep. At breakfast we found out that Badger Pass was closed today because of all the snow. But we learned Yosemite was open so we headed up to our rooms to pack our bags and load onto the bus. And by mid morning we were off driving to Yosemite.
After 3 hours of driving through striking scenes of snowy cliffs and frosted trees and of course taking pictures the whole time, we entered Yosemite we were redirected from what we thought was open, Curry Village, to the amazing spectacular honeymoon-worthy Ahwahnee Hotel. Which if your reaction was like “Wait, you mean the Wawona right?” like mine was, you should know, “It’s a hotel built in the valley of Yosemite. It’s truly beautiful and it was built by the first settlers of the valley.” When the adults heard we got to stay in it, they were thrilled. Most people don’t stay there because of the sheer expense. Apparently, a one night stay in the most rundown room is approximately $500. Well, the adults were right it’s stunning and breathtaking, it’s surrounded by all the landmarks that Yosemite’s known for, like Half Dome, which we could see-very well I might add- from our room! Also I know I sound like such a teenager but instead of the swipe keys like most hotels have these days, the Ahwahnee has like legit keys from like the early days. It’s so historic. The hotel was furbished like it would have been in the old days yet it was still completely sanitary, safe and functional to the 21st centuries standards. They did some maintenance of utilities ex: plumbing, electrical, and heating, but surprisingly everything else stayed intact. After we moved our bags up to our rooms we were given the rest of the afternoon to do as we please. At 4pm the girl scouts were able to schedule ice skating for later at Curry Village.
OMG Seals... ahh man it's just Elizabeth and Isabelle having *wink wink* too much fun in the snow, they're not at all stuck in it. 
We went around hiking in Yosemite with our ski pants on so that we could play in the snow, after getting completely lost because we failed to ask for directions we ended up hiking the long way. Whoops. But it was fun to see all the beautiful sights in Yosemite. We made snow angels, drew faces in the snow, and took pictures of the scenery. After hiking for about 2 hours we decided to play in the snow. We had a snow-fluff fight and attempted a snowball fight that was pitiful. During a snow fight Isabelle and I got stuck deep in the snow. Then we sledded for another 15 minutes and before we knew it, time for dinner. We got on the bus, went to our hotel, changed into formal, or as formal as we can get in skiing clothes, and ate very yummy food.
After dinner, we got on the buses to Curry Village ice rink, and skated! After a few hours of skating, drinking, talking, and of course falling, we left the rink to head back to the Ahwahnee Hotel to “sleep”. Our troop went down to the piano player and drank soda as we listened to our requests being played on the piano. The pianist said “you made my night” and he was really happy we came. His shift was over at 10pm and we had to sleep at a reasonable hour, we were hoping that the slopes would be open tomorrow and that we could wake up early and go! So we trudged off to bed.
The next morning, after eating a delicious breakfast we found out the slopes were open. We went back up to our rooms changed into our ski clothes and packed our bags we were loading the buses for the last time. And within 30 minutes we were off driving to Badger pass. Most of the bus ride was spent taking pictures of the beautiful scenery. I mean it was gorgeous.
The Space Cookies and a member of my Girl Scout troop 173, yay Troop ELI, Ice skate in Curry Village! From left to right: Sakura (Troop ELI/not a Space Cookie), Isabelle (Troop ELI), Julia, and Annie.
After about an hour we arrived at Badger, and those of us with lessons quickly got out rental gear and suited up. Those of us who fail epically at skiing, chose to try snowboarding and thus we got lessons, those lucky few who don’t have a tendency to cross their feet skied.
The day started out great, and this being my second time snowboarding I can now “escape from a serial-killer if we were on a mountain, and if I magically had a snowboard” (because you know that situation happens often) as I said to Christina speaking about my confidence in my snowboarding abilities at the end of the day, and successfully making it down the mountain three times without falling or losing balance or colliding into anyone! Hazzah that my friends is the definition of success.
Space Cookie Conga Line on the Ice. PARTAY!!!
Those of us in lessons were rushed to leave at 2:30pm before our lesson was over at 3pm because some girls had to be home by 9pm, so we ended up boarding the buses at 2:50pm after packing and getting unsuited. and we drove off at ~3pm. and then we drove home it took us 5 and 1/2 hours (including the pit stop the drivers took to eat at Jack and the Box/Starbucks that a few of us lucked out because I know a few minutes before I was saying how a shake would be really good right now, and we debated who had the best shakes and I said “Jack in the Box’s Oreo shake!” Guess what I was able to buy? Yep. You guessed it—Starbucks. No I’m just kidding, I got my shake and the rest of my troop got an assortment of different shakes, with the most common choice being Oreo because of my advertising. 
We arrived home at 8:30pm to find our parents outside waiting. We each got home and went straight to bed. It was a great ending to a splendid weekend adventure of spifiliciousness.
Elizabeth
“Bee Happy”
