Our third day was a whirlwind at Yosemite. We squeezed in three major points of interest: the tunnel view, Mariposa Grove, and Glacier Point. The tunnel view is just that; traveling east towards Yosemite Valley you go through a tunnel and get a perfectly framed view of the famous landmarks of Half Dome, Bridalveil Falls, and El Capitan.
Next stop was the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias
Massive trunks
It is hard to believe a tree this humongous started from something this tiny:
Our third stop was Glacier Point:
You can see the Yosemite Valley below from here:
A drive back down from Glacier Point through the valley and some last minute photo ops:
We departed Yosemite on June 29 for Anthony Chabot Regional Family Campground in the East Bay area. Our first trip into San Francisco was a couple days later. We took the BART to the city and disembarked at Powell St.
What an experience! We had to take an elevator to from the platform to the concourse. While waiting we saw this unfortunate guy:
Jamaal Charles fallen on hard times, urinating onto the tracks. Then we get on the elevator and a guy is sitting on a stool inside sobbing with his head down. He has a walkie-talkie and a clipboard. Don't know why he's sobbing and we get off the foul smelling conveyance and find our way to street level via another elevator. A lady is in this one and she also has the same equipment. Obviously the elevators are manned to prevent shenanigans on board.
Now we make it to Market St. A melting pot of all types: tourists, locals, hippies, panhandlers, dope slingers, tweakers, and homeless. We work our way over to Powell and the famous cable cars.
They are not handicap accessible so we hoof it up the hill.
We finally get to the top, Nob Hill and are greeted by Mr. Tony Bennett.
His sculpture is in front of the Fairmont Hotel where he first performed I Left My Heart in San Francisco
Next we made our way down to Chinatown for some lunch.
While at lunch Doreen texted her cousin who lives nearby and she popped in to see us. We chatted for a while and took a walk through the Italian section.
She walked us back to the BART station and we made plans to get together on the 5'th for dinner.
Thursday the 5'th we go back on BART and get off at Civic Center Station. We have to walk a few blocks to city hall and catch a bus there.
We have to transfer to another bus on Lombard St. to get to the Golden Gate Bridge. We arrive and we take in the sights.
Time is running short because we need to meet Doreen's cousin at the ferry building across town at 5:30. I make the decision to take a Golden Gate bus instead of the MUNI we took up here because they don't make as many stops.
That will be the end of the San Francisco visit. (See: This Road Trip is Dangerous post)
We are lucky to able to leave the next day for Morgan Hill. Doreen's injuries could have been much worse. I have two appointments scheduled for July 9; I have to take the truck in the morning for an oil change and to replace a burned out headlight and my surgery in the afternoon in Monterey.
We leave on the 10'th for San Benito and a two week stay here. I can get my power jack fixed, do laundry, and fix the darn clothes rod in the closet that keeps breaking. Some roads are so bad that the constant bouncing and potholes crack the plastic brackets that holds the rod or rips the screws out of the wall.
Finally we get out to do some sightseeing and shopping. We have to drive to Hollister for groceries and fuel, about a 15 mile drive but there is a winery nearby so we check that out.
De Rose winery was nice. They had an outdoor area but it was too hot to be out there. We tasted wine inside and talked to other wine tasters and met a couple from Hollister. They overheard us mention we were from Pennsylvania and found out she was from Factoryville and he was from Clarks Summit originally. We reminisced about pierogies, kielbasa, and Old Forge pizza.
The vineyards are everywhere along with orchards of almonds. California produces 70 percent of US agriculture and every acre is cultivated. We have seen the garlic capital, almond capital, cherry capital, olive capital, etc.
We laid low most of the time and just relaxed until the 18'th when we went for my stitches to be removed. A few days later we took a day trip to Carmel and Pebble Beach.
First we stop at Carmel and grab some lunch. Carmel is a small town with more tourists than it needs.
We have a $60 lunch and stop at a wine tasting then we drive Carmel's Scenic Dr.
We enter the 17 Mile Drive at the Carmel gate which is the end so we are going backwards. First stop is Pebble Beach, the Mecca of public golf courses.
The visitors center was partially closed for renovations, probably in anticipation of the US Open being held there next year.
The Lodge overlooks the finishing hole.
You can walk down to the 18'th green and watch golfers finish their round.
We continued our drive and stopped at the Lone Cypress, the symbol and logo of Pebble Beach.
A rock shared by birds and sea lions.
Lot's of great scenery.
We finished up the drive and stopped in Monterey for dinner.
A few days later we went to Pinnacle National Park which was only a short drive from the campground. Not one of the well known parks but we weren't going too far out of way.
Pinnacles was a national monument and was promoted to a national park in 2013.
The sun was blazing and harsh to the lens.
We were out of there an hour later.
One final stop in California at The Parkway RV Resort in Orland. Not really a resort. Just a campground off the interstate. We took a ride to New Clairvaux Winery in Corning.
The Trappist Monks are the proprietors of the property and lease the vineyards to the vintner.
The church for the monks is the oldest structure west of the Mississippi.
Corning is the olive capital. Somebody find me a martini glass.
One last trip in California, this one to the town of Chico about 20 miles west of Orland and the closest movie theater. We saw The Equalizer 2. We found another wine bar and had a tasting and bought more wine. Then we found the Sierra Nevada Brewery.
We had some beer and food. I had a great pizza and sampled three different brews.
That is it for California. Six weeks, four days. Now it is off to Oregon and Crater Lake. But first we have to deal with a wildfire that started a week ago Monday west of Redding. The fire is out of control and two fatalities are attributed to it. It has become known as the Carr Fire.
This fire and others will be a factor in our travels.
