Mom and April came to visit from Tennessee, and I took the week off to play tourist with them. I bragged about how it’s sunny here all the time in the summer; so of course it was overcast and drizzled on us in San Francisco their first full day here. Fortunately, that’s the only bad weather I remember during the trip. During our couple of days in the city, we caught a lot of the popular sites: Telegraph Hill, Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown, Lombard St., the Golden Gate Bridge, etc. One day we took an open top bus tour around the city. It was a good tour, but somewhat chilly outside, and I was too stubborn to ride on the lower level. This probably contributed to me having the sniffles later in the trip. We spent most of the second day in Golden Gate Park, picnicking and traipsing around until we were pooped.
The next day, we went over to Muir Woods and then up into the wine country. We had a late lunch in Sonoma and walked around the town square a bit. Fortunately, Mom and April were limited on luggage space and didn’t subject me to too much shopping at the various shops. We made our way up to Santa Rosa to spend the night. Upon arriving at our hotel, I was a bit nervous about the place, because it had a pink flamingo on top of its sign. However, it turned out to be an ok place. Due to some very large Snoopy and Woodstock figures on display at the hotel, I found out that Charles Schultz, creator of the Peanut comics, was from Santa Rosa. Mom, April, Snoopy, and I shared ice cream and Oreos for dinner that night. The following day, in Napa Valley, we toured a winery that included a chair lift ride, and watched some folks grind wheat into flour using a watermill at a state park. We caught an early dinner in Napa before heading toward Yosemite.
It had been ~6 years since I’d spent time in Yosemite, and I was excited to see the place again. Cris and Nicki drove up from Malibu, and we were able to meet up with them while touring the park. They’d had a lot of snow in the park the weekend before we visited, and several of the roads had been closed. I was concerned that we’d miss out on some of the sights, but we were fortunate that things were back to normal operation while we were there. Plus, the waterfalls were fantastic from the snow melt. We hiked in Mariposa Grove amongst the giant sequoias—these guys make the redwoods in Muir Woods look average sized. We caught some great views of Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point and Taft Point. The hike out to Taft Point had snow covering parts of the trail, but we all managed to stay upright--with some help from Nicki’s walking stick. We saw a couple of bears in the valley, and deer seemed to be everywhere. Mom even saw a squirrel run into the cafeteria to check out the pancakes. With the excellent scenery and wildlife, I thought we were well removed from civilization, but I was very surprised to find that I had cell phone coverage in Yosemite Valley. It was tough leaving the park after three days, but Mom and April had to catch a flight the next day.
Though it may appear so, I promise I didn't post every picture from the trip below. I took over 200 shots myself (pitfalls of having a digital camera), and I had quite a time winnowing down to the group below. We just saw a lot of cool stuff.
