Second Day at Yosemite. What a great DAY!! 9/17/2011

Our second day took us on a drive to Glacier Point. This is a 33 mile drive to the most fantastic views of Half Dome, El Capitan and the valley of Yosemite. Once you get to Glacier Point and see the views you know you are glad you did this drive. We really enjoyed this area and had fun looking for mountain climbers on Half Dome. We could see several climbers on top of Half Dome and wish we were 30 years younger and could attempt that climb. You make the climb by using cables to get yourself to the top and you must have no fear of heights:) Half Dome and El Capitan are two mountains that climbers have been doing for years. They are now seeing how fast they can get to the top without any ropes etc.. You can read more about the climbs in the May 20011 issue of National Geographic. Visiting Glacier Point is a must when going to Yosemite.

We took a easy mile hike to Mirror Lake to finish off our visit to Yosemite. It is really not a lake but a small stream:( but still a nice place to see. It very relaxing and you can even put your feet in the water. Ah nice cold water!!

Half Dome

Mirror Lake

More pictures of Vernal Fall!

more steps!

WE made IT!!

Going to Yosemite

The drive from Pleasanton takes your through farm country. They grow peaches, apples, almonds, corn and other crops. This area supplies a lot of food to the rest of the country especially almonds, Blue Diamond. We had a very challenging drive over to Groveland, CA on HWY 120. The duramax had to really work as this highway has some of the steepest inclines that we had run into. The town of Groveland has a population of 1500 and has the Iron Door Saloon, the oldest, started in 1852, continuously operated saloon in California.

The biggest attraction to this area is Yosemite National Park. The park is very large and takes a lot of travel time just to get to certain areas. We had two great days in the park and enjoyed every minute. We visited the park on Friday and Saturday and were very surprised at the number of people visiting the park. All the lodging within the park was taken and all the campgrounds were full. To say there were a lot of people is an understatement The drive starts with a stop at Bridalveil Falls. It is a short hike with a great view of this beautiful fall. Waterfalls are always something I must see and that took us to our next hike. Vernal Fall can been seen from the footbridge but I always want to get closer and talked Suzanne to continue on to the top of the fall. To get to the top you must go up a very steep area which includes 600 steps. This is a very hard climb and going up the steps was difficult. Suzanne almost stopped several times but became determined to make it. She does not like heights and the steps seemed to go on for ever. The spray from the fall also wets the steps and makes them even harder to overcome. This again was a FREE Stress Test!! This is also the fall where 3 campers died this summer. They got to close to the fall and slipped on the rocks. We can see how that if you don't stay within the designated areas this could happen. The view from this fall is spectacular!! The effort to get to the top is worth the time and pain:) The sure power of the water going over the fall is amazing and to hear it hit the bottom is really cool. We did not see many people our age or older doing this hike. So we felt pretty good about ourselves for doing this hike. If you ever get a chance to visit Yosemite make sure you do this hike.

The parking is at a premium so taking the free shuttles is the way to get from place to place. I will give you a tip on parking, when getting to the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center instead of going to the main area, to the right, got to the stop sign and go left. There is a big parking lot right by the store.

Bridalveil Fall

El Capitan

Vernal Fall and we must get to the top:)

steps

not there yet!

Going to the Golden Gate Bridge on 9/13/2011

Well it was a 2 hour trip on the San Francisco transit system to get to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was an experience to make all the connections, but WE did it!! After getting there, guess what?  the fog blocked the top of and some of the Golden Gate Bridge. We never did see the top of the bridge, but we still had a great time. There were a lot of tourists visitng and we decide to walk the entire bridge. It was a nice long walk and was a neat experience even though the fog was blocking the top of the bridge. At least you could see the water and most of the shoreline. We saw a seal and several porpoises on our walk. Another neat thing was watching a helicopter fly under the bridge. It was a nice place to visit, but would have been better on a clear day. Still overall a great day!!

Visiting a Vineyard!!

We took a day off from going to San Francisco and stayed close to the campground. We decided to visit a vineyard and doing a little tasting of wine. The drive out to the vineyards took us to a neat town Livermore. We had a nice lunch sitting outside and it reminded us of Germany with all the people enjoying the outdoor restaurants. We found a nice vineyard, Comcannon that had some great wines to taste. For $5 you could taste 10 different wines if you wanted, which we thought was very reasonable. It was a fun experience and something you must do if you visit California. After this great afternoon we decided we needed to visiit Dave's favorite place, The Cheesecake Factory. The Godiva Cheesecake was fantastic!!!

they cost $1600 each

Going to Fishermans Wharf on 9/11

We took the BART to the Fishermans Wharf area on Sunday 9/11. That in itself is an experience! Downtown San Francisco is really nice and we enjoyed looking at all the highrise buildings. Fishermans Wharf is a big area and we were amazed by the number of tourists. You can also see Alcatraz from the area, I always thought it was a long way from land but its not. The Golden Gate Bridge could be seen from the docks as it was a clear day. Alot of people never get to see the bridge, just like Mt. McKinley, so we were lucky again. We did find out the reason for the number of people in the area, there was a Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival and not to far away was a huge festival in Chinatown. We took the old trolley to Chinatown, which was a lot of fun as Suzanne and I hung off the side of the trolley.

Going to San Francisco on 9/10/2011

It was time to leave the magnificant redwoods and head to San Francisco. We only had about 150 miles to travel and the highways became very crowded. There were lots of vineyards to see and even a double decker bridge to go over. We are staying at the Almeda County Fairground RV Park located in Pleasanton, California. It is a great place to stay with Pleasanton being a great town and there are lots of other neat towns to visit. Plus it is a short distance to the BART, the transportation system to San Francisco. We went to visit the huge mall and found one of Dave's favorite place, The Cheesecake Factory. Boy is the cheesecake great!!  We have visited twice in 4 days:)) To say we are enjoying our stay in the San Francisco is an understatement.