We went in early September and only got permits because I drove up the day before the hike at 4 am and got in line behind some folks sleeping on the porch. I picked up all but 4 of the last permits for LYV. My fallback was going to be HI/Sunrise passthrough.
Then I loafed around the valley all day, the group showed up late afternoon, we stayed in the backpacker campground listening to drunken Norwegians singing until 1 am, and hit the trail around 8 am the next day.
While loafing about in the campground, I also got to watch a couple on horseback riding up the river with their pet cockatoo on the woman's saddlehorn. Once on the dome, we saw a lady in a bikini and flipflops heading for the cables. I did not, however, see the three people who were sleeping on the porch who got LYV permits ahead of me.
I love Yosemite.
The people watching is a lot of the fun.