Sue - goodbye Yosemite, hello Monterey

I loved Yosemite so much! The whole experience was magical. We had an amazing day hiking high in the wilderness (in NZ we would be in the 'bush' or 'mountains', here we are in the 'wilderness') It really does feel like bear country, and I really wished that we had seen one. Perhaps the sight of a bear is unlikely this time of year, so it now still sits on my 'to do' list in life!  We saw so many squirrels (Matt counted over 100 on our hike - a great way to keep him distracted from the steep track ahead of him!) and the kids loved them! Also Stellars Jay birds. We made a camp fire and had marshmallows. We hiked, we oggled at the amazing 'wilderness' and  we were only here for a few days, but we experienced the 'calling' of Yosemite.. please, can I come back!!! The park facilities were incredible - we loved our cabin experience, but there were loads of other options for people, from a hotel, to campgrounds. We brought lots of food for breakfast and lunches with us, but there were also lots of food options available as well. Pizza, Buffet, Mexican Cantina, Coffee shop etc. Showers we hot (hard to get out of them when the air outside is so cold) and great laundry facilities. Thank you Yosemite for the amazing experience!

Our campground at Yosemite

Mirror Lake, Yosemite

A long drive  back to the coast to Monterey - amazing that not long after leaving the Yosemite National Park we were in dry grasslands - the sudden change of terrain was unexpected. We travelled through the valley between the mountains and the sea, the area that has a fantastic climate for growing produce. "Hola"  - I purchased some cherries from a spanish speaking ("no no english")  man at a roadside stall...must have been his rejects because they weren't a match on Cromwell cherries. But have I mentioned Californian Strawberries? SUBLIME!
We arrive in Monterey - the first capital of Spanish and then Mexican California and the west coasts most historic city. It's much smaller than I expected...which is a good thing since we need to drive around and find somewhere to stay. Yes! We see an information centre open and get great help from them. We find a motel around the corner, not far from tomorrows planned trip to the Monterey Aquarium. Order pizza delivery, that is so slow: it would have been quicker to go out for dinner! We're all pretty tired, and I must say, it's nice not to go to bed with 8 layers of clothes on! (I am not kidding about the 8 layers. Perhaps that's being conservative! Yosemite was an amazing experience but not a warm experience!)

Sue - photos - the sun shines in Yosemite!

Overlooking Vernal Falls

Hiking up to Vernal Falls

Somewhere high up in the wilderness at Yosemite! The bears and mountain lions are nearby, but are hiding....perhaps it's for the best that they didn't come out to say hi!!!!

Anna- our last day at Yosemite

After waking up and packing up all our stuff, we left Housekeeping Camp. We did a few short walks- Mirror Lake and Lower Yosemite Falls, before leaving the wilderness and heading for Monterey. When we found a place to stay at in Monterey, we ordered Pizza hut, and watched american idol before heading off to bed. 

Sue - this is it! YOSEMITE!

Breakfast at our cabin

I wake up because my nose is about to drop off. It's just a little bit cold! I do recall getting up in the night, grovelling around desperately trying to find a few more layers to put on. Never mind, we are here! It was such a great feeling getting out of bed and seeing where we were..we are in the Yosemite valley by the Merced River, literally surrounded by these huge granite rock faces. A truly majestic sight! It's a little rainy, so we decide to explore the valley for the day, without venturing too high into the mountains. Since we are wearing every warm layer that we have with us, the thought of getting wet hiking isn't looked on too favourably by any of us! The rain is getting heavier, and by early

Jim in his sleeping attire!

afternoon the snow has started to fall! Being late spring, we always knew that we could encounter all sorts of weather, but the beauty of being here at this time of year, is the waterfalls are really spectacular, and the valley is thundering with the sound of the water. (in summer, Yosemite is a completely difference experience, with waterfalls just a trickle and some even completely dried up)  Loads to do and see on the valley floor....we check out the river and the squirrels, get drenched at Bridalveil falls, explore the information centres and the Indian Museum.

A bit wet from the rain and a LOT wet
from the spray of Bridalveil Falls

The Ahwahneechee lived in the Yosemite area for 4000 before explorers came through in 1833. The greed in the gold rush era has a lot to answer for, and during that time the Ahwahneechee were forced off the land that was their home. Today, we can thank Abraham Lincoln for signing the Yosemite grant in 1964 which eventually turned the Yosemite Valley into a National Park. We fill in the day easily and have had a great introduction to this amazing place.

Kids loved the squirrels! Weren't meant to feed them, but we assumed we weren't meant to feed them our ham sandwiches! Here the kids are feeding them berries.

Looking for squirrels by the Merced River, YOSEMITE

Dinner is at the main dining room where we have a fantastic family buffet for a very resonable price. Its 'thumbs up' from all the kids, so it's definitely a winner. We retreat to a warm lounge ( Matthew calls it "the warming place") to play cards for a bit before heading to our chilly cabin! (We have managed to hire some more blankets so hopefully will sleep a little better!) Tomorrow the sun is going to be shining!

Sue - Goodbye San Fran, hello bear country.

Didn't leave San Francisco until late in the afternoon (too many things to do and places to see) knowing that we had a big drive ahead of us. Hard to fit it all in! We still wanted to get a sneak look at the Redwoods and with Redwood country too far north for this trip, we decided to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge and head to Muir Woods. That's the amazing thing about San Francisco - just a short drive out of the city (12 miles) and you are in a different world - we even saw wild deer on the side of the road. Coastal Redwoods are Earth's tallest living things and exist only on the Californian coast. Muir Woods has it's fair share  - only had time for a short walk, some tree hugging and a few photos. The trees really are spectacular. Plenty of squirrels too - the kids love them!

Muir Woods

Muir Woods

It's a long drive to Yosemite and by the time we get even remotely near, it's already dark. We have already been lost a few times - we came across a sign that says the entry road into the park is closed due to snow, so we need to find another entry route - Doris (GPS) does not like this and keeps trying to take us the way we are not allowed to go!! We know that by the time we reach the national park it will be 10pm ish or even later at this rate and we don't really know what to expect. Will the gates to the National Park be open? Will there be someone at the campground at that time of night to check us in? With no mobile phone coverage and even 'Doris' losing sattelite coverage, we knew we really were in the wilderness. Not ideal to be arriving so late, but hey,
that 's all part of the adventure! I must say that I have a small fear that we would get a flat tyre and would need to unload a full boot in the dark whilst we were looking for the spare, all when bears were lurking nearby!!!!!!! (perhaps I have just been watching too many 'I shouldn't be alive' programmes on TV!) Anyway, we survived! Kids fell asleep, which was ideal so that Jim and I could concentrate on finding our way through these mountains to some form of civilisation! (in the form of a National Park Village) We passed some snow on the ground, some wild deer, but not bears! We made it - 11pm! It is wickedly cold!!!!! Our booked accommodation is a cabin/tent at a place called Housekeeping Camp...check it out, it's pretty cool! www.yosemitepark.com then click on accomodation and scroll down to housekeeping camp. We hired bed packs for us all and went about getting our cabin ready for what would undoubtably be a cold night! (Next time I will be taking a 'down' sleeping bag!) Jim and Holly are pretty happy that they bought ski jackets in San Francisco - they are about to sleep in them. Kids and I are happy that we packed thermal leggings - Jim doesn't have any and is wondering how that vital piece of packing advice got lost in translation!  I purchased a beanie in San Fran and can see that this may well be the best purchase I have ever made! To give you an idea, the cabins have 3 sides of concrete walls and then a roof like a marquee. The fourth side of the cabin is like a big curtain that you just pull over...a bit breezy....and am feeling a bit vulnerable to the possibility of wildlife coming and going while we sleep!

The park has very strick rules about how you store your food, so on arrival we had to sign a document promising that we would not leave any food, food wrappers or any rubbish, as well as toiletries, in our car or in our cabin. Each cabin has a big steel locker outside that can be bolted closed, where we had to store all of our stuff...imagine us...it's now 11.30pm, freezing, dark (thankfully we had a torch) and we are frantically trying to find every single lolly wrapper, food item, toiletry etc (which are spread far and wide throughout our bags and car!) and place it all in the locker...the bears are known for coming into the campground at night, so by this stage we are feeling a bit nervous! (but a little excited about the possible Bear encounter - preferably a distant one!) Beanie on, as well as quite a few layers of clothes, and we're well and truly ready for sleep. Since we arrived in the dark, we are looking forward seeing our surroundings tomorrow!

Jim - San Fran

After a sad farewell from Naples we drove ourselves to Fort Myers airport for our trip to California -  took the rental car back and settled ourselves into the airport. A bit lost trying to get petrol before going to the airport - bloody Doris!!

We finally find a service station and I am in there trying to make sure there is the right amount of money to fill the car with petrol - you pay first and fill later.  I am asking the girl behind the counter the way to the airport - she interrupts me and goes "oh my gawd!  You got one blue eye and one green eye!"  my response -  yes you are right - so I go out of the driveway right and then turn left?

Quick flight to Atlanta - Georgia -  apparently the worlds busiest airport these days! The screens have hundreds of flights!!!  We are in one of many terminals but thankfully do not need to go far for our departure gate -  we have a while to kill so get something to eat - Asian - and have a look around.

The flight through to San Fran is uneventful -  long enough but not too long. Views of mountains and canyons and farms makes it varied and interesting. First view of snow for a while!

We arrive San Fran airport and pick up the car - a white beast Cheverolette Malibu-  bit bigger than the nice Volvo  in Florida. We do not have too far to go but already I can feel the roads are a lot busier -  we are staying the first night at an airport Hotel (motel really) the Howard Johnsons - or HoJo as they are called.  It really is quite a run down old place but it is only one night -  have a beautiful view of the motorway. Breakfast in the morning we fill up on bagels and cereals - so all is not too bad.

It's off to experience San Fran -  just got to get out of the Hotel, across the busy road and get on the highway!

Travel Snippets

Snakes  in Florida? You bet! They may be in your garden and apparently there are approximately 3,000 recorded snake bites a year, but only 3 people die.

Being struck by lightning is a risk in Florida! Lightning kills more people than the Alligators do. Interesting, where Paul and Sue live (Naples), when the storm is coming and lightning is a risk, the city sirens are triggered, warning people to move to somewhere safe.

There are more than 1 million Alligators in Florida and in Naples (and possibly elsewhere?) there are people whose job is to search all the waterways in the city (there are plenty of them), find the the Alligators that are on the loose and transport them elsewhere. (I expect back to the wild, out of the city)

Alligators travel at a top speed of 18 kph. They rarely chase anything (but I wouldn't trust that theory!) and are more stalkers. (Mothers protecting their young though, can be quite aggressive) In saying that, a friend of my brothers was chased on the golf course by one...luckily that Alligator only had 3 legs!!!!!

Learning to drive on the right side of the road is one thing (however Jim had that pretty mastered) but learning a few of their minor road rules is another challenge! You can take a free turn right on a red light! (in NZ this rule would equate to being able to take a free turn left on a red light) That was the rule in Florida anyway and we never did discover whether that rule actually applied in California as well, but we did it anyway!!!! Another thing, is weirdly there is no give way rule at intersections where their are no lights. The rule is 'first there gets the right of way'. Well that did create some confusion for us Kiwis...too much if, but and maybe....and always thinking " who has the right of way" so there was much hovering at intersections!

People say that New Zealand has lots of weird words to pronounce and a whole slang language of our own...and we do! All countries do I am sure...and America has it's fair share...we were fascinated. How about  Whooperwill Lane, Sour Puckeroon Gummies  and Cotton Candy?!

Californian strawberries are the best! The best! THE BEST! I have never tasted strawberries this good! They are in a league all of their own!

But in saying that, the best and crunchiest apples I tasted were the ones in NZ before we left, and the ones in NZ on our return. Nothing on our travels came close.

Never really got used to the whole tipping thing. It was recommended that we tip 20%, but couldn't get used to having to tip when the service was only average. Isn't the whole idea to tip for good service? But we felt like we would be tight travellers if we didn't tip, so you feel kinda 'stuck between a rock and a hard place'!

1 cent coins! They should be banned! You just end up with so many of them! Everything you buy is 'plus tax' so your drink at the shop would be advertised as $3.00 plus tax. I think the NZ system is much better, with having the GST already added on and included in the retail price. Maybe it's just what you are used to......

Such silly things I remember - America has great natural almonds..they are so fresh. I am sure it has something to do with their superb packaging. They come in a container that is like a tin (with cardboard sides) rather than a plastic packet.

Starbucks - They are everywhere. Must say though, the iced 'coconut mocha frappuccino' was so damn good! And I don't normally even drink coffee. Granny, you would love it  - a variation of your iced coffee!

Carls Jnr wasn't so hot! Tried my first Carls Jnr Green Burrito... and it will definitely be my last!

'Say whaaaaaaaaaaat?'

They really do chew gum......