Who knew riding in a bus would be my favorite part of the day. (Aug 8)

We said good morning to Erik and Blizzard and I, unfortunately, had to succumb for the first time to using an unflushable toilet... enough said. We rolled up our tent and said goodbye to our new friends and started out to the visitors center. It was a beautiful drive and we enjoyed seeing Half Dome and El Capitan as we made our way through the park. There were people stopping on almost every road we turned onto to try catch a glimpse and a picture of the bald face mountain walls.

The park was so busy that day that they had park rangers directing traffic in the parking lots. Once we got a parking spot we tried to find the Visitors Center. I say tried because the maps that they had up weren't very good. We saw a line to take the shuttle and then a sign that said that the Center was a 10 minute walk. We decided to walk but had trouble figuring out which way we were supposed to go. Eventually we had success and did our usual poking around the gift shop and buying postcards and our souvenir patch. They had a 20 minute video playing on Yosemite in a small theater that Nate and I intended to watch... but instead took a quick nap in the cool, dark, comfy chairs. We did however, learn a little in an exhibit at the Visitor Center. Fun Fact: Ansel Adams interest in photography sparked from a boyhood trip to Yosemite. This was more interesting to Nate as I had no idea who Ansel Adams was. You can tell who is the more cultured individual in our duo. ;) Our next act, inspired more by a fellow tourist and less by the creation, was venturing into the general store to buy a can of Pringles to add to our lunch out of the bear canister of crackers and granola bars.

Not the best picture, but you can see how big this tree is!

We meandered through the heat of the day before hopping on a shuttle bus to Mariposa Grove to see the giant sequoias. I was very happy because it meant twenty minutes of air conditioning. The bus driver announced over the loudspeaker some information about the Grove and different options for hiking trails. We decided to just walk the lower grove instead of both the lower and upper grove for the sake of time and it was really hot. On the lower grove trail there were quite a few neat things to see. The Bachelor and His Three graces was one. It was one really big tree with three not as big but still really big trees behind it. The Grizzly tree was the star of the show with it being the biggest and oldest tree in the forest. Some of the branches on the tree were 6-7 feet in diameter. The tunnel tree was also interesting. It had part of its trunk cut out so it literally was a tunnel. They even had a picture posted of an old fashioned car driving through the tree. We caught the bus back to the parking lot and headed out of the park. We were planning to drive through the night until our next stop: Las Vegas.

Another Lazy Day (Aug 7)

After we checked out of the hotel we made a quick stop to Walmart to replenish our food supply and get some laundry detergent so before we went to the laundry mat. Laundry wasn't as expensive as we expected and even with a week and a half of dirty clothes we got away with doing one load. We picked out our washer and when I went to put in the detergent Nate stopped me and told me that I had gotten fabric softener. I was disappointed and frustrated that I had to buy detergent at the laundry mat after I already bought “detergent.” I did use the fabric softener, our clothes were delightfully soft.

With soft clean clothes packed away we started our drive to Yosemite. We got in late and asked the park ranger at the entrance if he knew of any available campsites. He told us where they would be posted and said that it was last updated at 4:30 pm. The only campground that had sites available was Yosemite Creek. It had 75 campsites, no running water, and was out of the way so we were hopeful that we would find something. We turned onto the road that the camp was on and were irritated by how many bumps were in the road. When I say bumps I mean BuMpS. It was crazy how many potholes and rocks there were. We averaged about 10 miles an hour on a one lane road for a 4 mile journey.

We struggled to find the boards that talked about the campsites and how to pay and reserve one. We grabbed a ticket and started around the grounds to find an open spot. A fellow camper waved us down and told us that the only other site that he knew of that was open was right behind him if we could figure out how to get to it. It was behind and patch of bushes and didn't really look like a site even thought there was a post to mark it, so we decided to take our chances and see if we could find anything better. Before we left Nate asked him if we could share with him if we couldn't find anything else, he agreed. The bumpy ride continued and with no promising potentials we made our way back to our original spot. Nate hopped out of the care and introduced himself to our new friend, Erik, and his dog, Blizzard. After setting up our tent we went over to Erik's campfire and chatted with him. He is also on a three week road trip with his husky that he's had for 2 months. He's in the ski industry and has a degree in marketing at 28 years old. We told him a little bit about ourselves before we both turned in for the night. They had big metal boxes that we had to put all of our food in. Even though most of our food was already in a bear can we decided not to take our chances and put it in. I loved sleeping at Yosemite because the ground was sand! Much better than some of our previous rocky beds.

San Fran (Aug 6)

Raspberry Roll

Nate woke up to move the car and found a bakery that he thought looked good but didn't open until 8. I slept in until 11. We made a trip out to the parking lot down the street where our car was to grab some stuff and on the way we stopped at the Delicieuse Princesse Bakery and had a raspberry ring and coconut roll. YUM! They were both delicious but the coconut roll was my favorite. It was a soft bread with a moist flaky coconut filling (almost like an Almond Joy filling).

We went into San Fransisco for the day. It was a beautiful day for the zoo. The sun was out but on the coast it was cool and breezy. We enjoyed talking to the African bird lady who had a lot of neat information to share about the ibis that she looked after. We also got to see a zookeeper feeding the hungry hungry hippos. As the zookeeper threw heads of lettuce and bok choy the hippo would wade through the water to gobble it up in one bite. His favorite treat at the end was a whole honeydew! The zookeeper walked closer to the hippo he opened his mouth as wide as he could and then the plopped it right on his tongue. He sunk back into the water and as he chopped all the honeydew seeds floated to the surface. We had some recommendations to eat at In-N-Out burger. It lived up to it's expectation s! It was the first burger Nate and I have had that didn't need ketchup. It's fries were fresh cut, and we also enjoyed the cashier's suggestion for a Neapolitan milkshake.

See the smoke to the right oh the mountain?

The Golden Gate Bridge was fantastic. It was chilly on the shore line but weathering the wind was worth the view. In the distance, between Alcatraz and the bridge we saw dark smoke and thought that something must be on fire! When we watched the news later that night we found out that it was a Chevron refinery in Richmond that had some explosions. They expect that it will raise gas prices up to 40 cents. We missed visitors center but still enjoyed exploring some of the trials, before going over the bridge. I know it's just a bridge but there was still something very exciting about driving over something so historic. We parked on the other side to snap some more pictures of the bridge and the city, before heading out for the hotel. On our way we saw another In-N-Out and stopped for a late night snack. That's right! Twice in one day, that good. 

Next stop Yosemite

Avenue of the Giants (Aug 5)

We picked up camp, holding on tight to the tent when we took it down because the wind was still strong! Started out for Redwood National Park. Along our route we saw a giant Paul Bunyan and his ox Babe.

It turned out that the National Park and the State Park were sort of combined into one. We eventually found a visitor center to get our patch and cancellation. The patch turned out to be a little bit of a hassle. At Yellowstone Nate and I became National Park members which gave us an extra 15% off at the visitor centers, you just have to show them a little card. But I had forgotten until after she rang it up. So she had to return it, so she could ring it up again. She made it seem like no big deal, but she had never done a return before so it took a long time. I was really embarrassed.  The park ranger there had a lot of good suggestions for where to see big trees. I was wowed as we drove through the park. The trees were just huge! Not only in height but in girth. Our first stop was Lady Bird Johnson Trail. First thing I saw after we got out of the car was a Banana Slug right in the parking lot. But he looked like he was on his way out so Nate tried to put him back in the wooded area. Not too soon after I found another, more healthy looking one.

There was a box with a pamphlets at the beginning of the trial. Along the path there were posts with numbers that corresponded with a number in the pamphlet that had a blurb about what was on the trial in front of you. It could be anything from a tree that feel over and was growing new plants, how fire is an essential part of growth, or that the trees can grow up to 30 feet in just the first twenty years and grow up to a total of 350 feet tall. 

On our way out of the park we drove down a road that was called the Avenue of the Giants. It had a bunch of interesting stops along the way but Nate especially wanted to go to the Founding Fathers. It was about a half mile loop that had a similar corresponding information in a pamphlet.

We made it to Oakland, a town over from San Fran, where we spent the night in the smallest hotel room. Even. Nate said that his dorm room was bigger than the room we had and I agree with him. But, it was a room, and I was grateful for that. Parking was a pain. We had to park on the side of the road AND we have to move it by 7am to a parking lot that we have to pay for. Thankfully Nate volunteered for that excursion. More eventfulness tomorrow.

It wouldn't be a National Park if it was ugly. (Aug 4)

I was startled awake by the sound of a fire alarm. That's right, the fire alarm went off in our hotel. It reminded me of college when we used to getting woken up because someone burned popcorn in their microwave except this alarm wasn't as loud. My first thought was it's a drill, but then I thought... They don't have fire drills in hotels. I hopped out of bed and was so flustered I didn't know what to do! I made sure Nate was awake before trying to grab my purse. We get down the stairs and almost outside when everyone starts walking in. Confused because the alarm was still going off, but someone clarified and said that a little boy had pulled the alarm in the lobby. I hope that boy got a spanking. Since we were up, we took advantage of the continental breakfast. They had everything! Eggs, sausage, cereal, fruit, bagels, muffins, and my favorite, waffles. Complete with waffle bar. Chocolate chips, blueberries, cinnamon, powdered sugar, you name it they had it. After breakfast we went back up to the room to nap for a little bit longer before heading out for Crater Lake.

It's a fun game for me, not knowing what any of these places will look like. I never know what to expect and am never disappointed by all of the different combinations that can be made with mountains, trees, and water. This one was my favorite. However, once we got into the park driving was frustrating. There was no shoulder at all, just two lanes and then a cliff. I almost felt like I was driving a course on Mario Kart... except it was real life and there would be no turtle in a magical cloud with a fishing pole to pull me out if I drove off the cliff. Nevertheless, we made it to the visitors center, got our cancellation for the passport and pressed a penny but decided to wait on the patch because it was really boring and we're hoping to find a better one online. One of the workers told us that the gift shop with the good patches was closed which was disappointing. We took a walk to an exhibit nearby to learn more about Crater Lake. First thing we learned is that Crater Lake did not get it's name from a crater, but it was actually a volcano that blew it's top and then collapsed to form the caldera. The water came from rain and snow and was a beautiful blue. We drove around the top of the lake stopping at various points to take pictures.

Around sunset we ended up back by the visitors center and listened to a guy play the guitar and sing. He introduced himself as Stan Pollmann and said that he was one of Compassion International's independent artists. He was fun to talk to and get to know even though the mosquitos were out and as pesky as ever.

We wanted to get a little closer to Redwood National Park so we drove to Mt. Ashland in Klamoth National Forest to camp for the night. It was hard to find and we didn't have any idea what we were looking for. But once we got there we found that the wind was horrendous! If we didn't have a hold on the tent it would have blown off the mountain.

Habituated Mountain Goats (Aug 3)

Woke up, packed up the tent and drove to Olympic National Park's visitors center. When we first got to Olympic I wasn't very impressed by the scenery, probably because it was dark and all I could see was that there were trees. By the time we had driven to the top of the mountain I understood why it was a national park. It was a beautiful view. You could even see the snow on top of the mountains. There was a funny notification posted at the visitors center that talked about how the mountain goats were starting to become habituated and would follow people around and wait for them to urinate because they enjoy tasting salty things. I'm glad that didn't happen to us. But, if it did I would know to make lots of noise and scare it away and hope that it didn't charge us. We left the park and drove down the coastal highway which I also wasn't very impressed by at first until we started driving closer to the shore. There was so must fog on the water but it was still gorgeous to take peeks at through the trees as we whizzed by.

It was a long trip from Olympic but we wanted to see the sea lion cave before it closed so we didn't make any stops along the way except for dinner. We made it just in time, I was a little surprised that there were people behind us yet. Because it was evening most of the sea lions were outside the cave on the rocks. It was so neat to listen to them roar! Inside the cave there was a few rolling around on a rock and I liked watching them on the TV that they had connected to a camera zoomed in on them. They had a lot of good information about how the cave was discovered in the 1800s and sea lions in general. There was also a light house that was under renovation so we were not able to see it.

We weren't sure where we were going to sleep that night, and Nate said that he was tired and just wanted to get a hotel, and I wasn't about to complain! Priceline has been great for giving us good deals and didn't let us down this time. We got a Marriott Renaisance business suite. So it had the normal bedroom and bathroom of a hotel, plus a kitchen and living room. We enjoyed relaxing on the couch watching the Olympics with the rest of the world before going to bed.

Nothing but Blue Skies (Aug 2)

Not much exciting today. We both had a great night's sleep at the hotel. While we got up and ready we watched the Olympics, worked on our game plan for the next few days, packed up and headed out for lunch at Jack in the Box. Today we are working our way to Olympic National Park. Washington has some amazing scenery. So amazing that Nate has had me develop a new skill of hanging out the car window going 65 miles an hour and getting a decent shot. Like this...  

This is what it looks like going the other way.

We got caught in Seattle rush hour traffic but we did get to drive in the HOV lane. Garmin played a nasty trick on us and included taking the ferry as part of it's instructions. We drove up to the ferry in it's directions. We were confused and said, “Is this right?” I hopped out and talked with a crossing guard and found out that we did indeed need to take the ferry. She told us this ferry was full and the next one was at 7:40. She gave us directions to the ticket booth but there was a detour so we had trouble finding it. Eventually everything worked out and we drove onto the ferry, turned off the car, and walked up to the observation deck. It was freezing so I had to go back to the car to get a jacket. But all things considered it was fun to explore the ship. Most of the people were obviously locals, they stayed in their cars playing on the smart phones, taking a nap, or tweezing their chin. There was even one guy who had a lawn chair with him and set it out at the back of the ship to read. Besides our license plate, we must have stuck out like a sore thumb with the smile of excitement on my face. We followed the line of cars off the ferry and stopped at a grocery store for some fresh apples and peaches. We made it into the park after dark but easily found ourselves a campsite and pitched the tent. I was happy that they had flush-able toilets.