Well, two days ago Alex and I returned from our AMAZING camping trip in June Lake and Yosemite!  I’ve been so busy the past few days, however, that I only just this evening got around to sorting through our pictures, resizing them, and uploading them to Flickr.  But I’m done now!  You can check out the new set in my travel gallery here.  There were probably hundreds of amazing photos that we took between the two of us, so it was REALLY hard to pick the “gems” to put in that album.

It really was an amazing trip though, one I will never forget.  Yosemite is so awesome that I can’t wait to go back, hopefully next spring.  I’ve figured out that I’m the most content and relaxed when I’m out in nature, and I just LOVE all the little creatures we ran into on our hiking trails.  We saw little squirrel/chipmunk things, a bigger furry animal (maybe a possum or a badger or something), a deer family (2 big ones and a baby), and even a super tiny snake!  It was so much fun, especially the deer.  We actually saw deer twice on our trip, the first night near June Lake and also on our 7 hour hike on the Glen Aulin Trail to Tuolumne Falls.  They’re SO sweet and beautiful!  They didn’t mind our presence even though we kept following them deeper into the woods to take pictures of them.  Awesome.  Yosemite (and actually the entire Eastern Sierras) is so freakin awesome.

My next trip (in a week) is to Las Vegas.  I don’t think these two trips could be any more different LOL.

Yesterday evening I accompanied a friend of mine to a nearby Jeep dealership because, after taking a ride in mine, she had her heart set on her own Jeep Patriot. We found the perfect sparkley black one with all the features she wanted, so we were stoked. However, after getting her fully-loaded, top-of-the-line 2003 Pathfinder appraised, all hell broke loose, lol. Her car is now only worth approximately $9,500 and she still owes around $14k. She bought the car less than 2 years ago for $21k. I cannot believe how much it decreased in value, and for a Nissan too no doubt. It really goes to show you how the market is right now, especially for a mid-sized SUV like the Pathfinder. No one, including her, wants a car with 14 average mpg anymore. Now she’s completely stuck with a car that costs her $90 to fill up, and there really is no way for her to get rid of it.

My sister went through this recently as well with her 2005 Escape. She ended up trading it in for a brand new Nissan Versa, but it sure did cost her because she owed a few grand more than the Escape was worth. She didn’t care though because she just wanted to get rid of it. Now she really loves spending only $40/week on gas. My car gets an average of about 24 mpg, which is pretty damn good for a small SUV that isn’t a hybrid. And since it doesn’t cost much to fill up (even with rising gas prices), I feel alright about it for now.

I am so in love with my Patriot, but still, I cannot WAIT until gas cars are completely behind us. The environment is practically begging for it. This article talks about the transformation from gas to hydrogen fuel, and while it is so obviously necessary, it requires so much funding that I’m afraid a lot of people are not going to get on board with.

I could make this post longer, but I’m running late for my chiropractor appointment.

Also, I just upgraded to Wordpress 2.6. So far I haven’t noticed a single difference, but I guess I feel good that I’m now running on a “stable” release. It’s entirely psychological, of course.