Yosemite was busy. And beautiful, but it took us a while to get over the busy-factor, before we could appreciate what we were seeing. To get a campsite in Yosemite during the summer months, you can call for reservations up to 4 months in advance. And apparently you need to call at 7:01 AM on that day, 4 months in advance, because by 7:03, they're all booked. When I tried to make reservations months ago, I made the mistake of calling at 7:05, so we were out of luck. Em found a campground in the Sierra National Forest that was a mile outside of the south entrance of Yosemite, which turned out to be really perfect. There was a bit of a mix up when we tried to check-in, when the camp host told us that someone had already checked in for us, and had already set up the tent. Great, wonderful, we'll just go catch up with the rest of our party! Hmm. After several minutes of confusion, and a few switches of campsites, everything was cleared up, and we found our site at last. We were right next to a burbling creek which ended up serving a dual purpose: sleep machine and free shower!
Probably the biggest bonus to this campground was the lack of bear boxes. It was fine to store stuff in the car, instead of hauling everything with even a slight scent into a metal box the instant you are done using it. Everything means toiletries, lotions, chapstick, food, water jugs, that hand sanitizer from the bottom of your purse, etc. We had to use bear boxes in Sequoia, and as you can imagine, this got old very quickly. The campgrounds in Yosemite had bear boxes, so I think we actually lucked out with our location.
Like all national parks apparently, Yosemite was in the middle of some road construction, so there were some delays. On our first day, we did the Yosemite Valley area. We were all a little thrown off by the sheer volume of people and cars and attempting to use the free shuttle. We also had some time constrictions, because I had to be near cell phone coverage by 4:00 for a job interview (no news yet). The best place for this turned out to be the old cemetery in Yosemite Valley, because it had service, shade, silence, and a seat! That wins as the weirdest job interview I've ever had. All that to say, it was a strange day. But, we saw Yosemite Falls which were beautiful, and walked through the Ansel Adams photo gallery. Em fell in love with a beautiful mobile made out of gorgeous hand-dyed silk leaves. Anything with the words "hand-dyed silk" is clearly beyond our budget, but it was great inspiration, and I foresee some good projects in our future.
On the next couple of days, we drove into areas of the park that are further from Tourist Central (aka The Valley), so we weren't battling throngs of people, which made it all instantly more pleasant. Yosemite was gorgeous, with all the beautiful rock formations. I think we took about 80 pictures of Half Dome from about as many view points. We cooled our feet in Lake Tenaya (while reading of course!), and did a couple short hikes. We saw some pocket gophers sunning on rocks, and learned a lot about John Muir. It was great!
For the last few days, we have been madly hopping on and off buses, exploring San Francisco. Lauren was the only one who'd been to San Francisco before (hence the blog title, a quote from Lor that I think the Winters will appreciate), so she helped us figure out where we wanted to be and all that. We made the usual observations of the city: it is full of hills, the houses are all unique and full of character, and there are lots of good food choices here. Really though, the houses are adorable! They all run into each other and no one has yards or parking, but they're all different and fun. We tried a variety of transportation systems; public buses, cable cars, and hop on/off tour buses. With lots of walking in between them all! And believe it or not (really, I know this may come as a shock), we made lots of movie quotes. Seriously, do you know how many movies have been set here? Just ask, we made a list.
The Golden Gate Bridge was pretty awesome, and just to prove it we walked across both ways. Slight mix up with the tour bus, but we figured it out. It has been pretty cold and incredibly foggy since we got here. Apparently San Francisco is always foggy in the summer, and clear in the winter. Another thing we didn't know - you have to buy tickets to Alcatraz about 2 weeks in advance, so we didn't experience that part of San Francisco. But we did experience the food. Clearly we had clam chowder and fish and chips, and lots of sour dough bread, and Chinese food in Chinatown. And chocolate - we may have made one or two trips through Ghiradelli Square for the free samples. And hot cocoa. We also had to try the ice cream at Norman's, reported to be the best in town.
It's been an enjoyable couple of days here, and I think we will be sorry to move on. Tents are great, and we love camping (no sarcasm here), but its been really nice to have beds and showers and Internet and TV all at our finger tips these last few nights. As we look ahead though, this trip is coming quickly to a finish. Tomorrow we move on to Redwood National Park, and then we drop Lauren off to work on Lake Shasta for a few weeks. Em and I will continue to Crater Lake and the Oregon coast, a quick night on the Olympic Peninsula, and then we'll be home. Wow. This has been such an amazing trip, its hard to think that its almost over. But, there are still a few more adventures to come!
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