Jeremy has gone to California for work multiple times this year. I think the count is at three or four, plus a trip to Reno, which is basically California! One of those times, he was bumped from a flight and got a voucher. I reaped the rewards of this. Last week, he had to go out for work again, but we arranged for the kids to go to grandparents (split the time between the sets), and I tagged along.
We flew out early Wednesday morning and arrived by 11:30am. He got to work right away driving to a horse farm. While he was on site, he dropped me off at a park. It was a gorgeous day. I laid on a blanket and read my book while warming myself in the sunshine. These were my views. Such bliss.
We headed for site #2, at least an hour further. I walked around the strip mall while he did his work here. We arrived at the Spyglass Inn at Pismo Beach just in time for sunset. The sunset was beautiful, and the inn was as well.
Much to his delight, there were cycling teams also staying at this inn and a nearby hotel. The Tour de California coincided with this trip, and he was elated! While we didn’t see any of the actual cyclist (at least we didn’t recognize them), we did see all their gear and how they travel.
The next morning we headed for his next site by about 8:30. We wrapped up that and continued south to Santa Barbara. We walked along the beach to get to the starting line. I touched the Pacific Ocean, which was the most time I spent on the beach. It was cool there, and we had little time to linger.
We saw the start of the Tour here. We definitely saw the superstars of cycling here! Mark Cavendish (the one being interviewed) and Peter Sagan (the one signing in… #41) – both of whose names even I recognized from exposure to the Tour de France. (Peter Sagan ended up winning the entire Tour, while Cavendish won the stage we saw the start of.)
They started biking at a “slow” pace to the actual start that happens past all the hoop-la for the on-lookers. While it may have been slow for them, it made me dizzy watching them zip past me!
We were also entertained by this guy…
From there, we went to his fourth and final site. This one was near Fresno, so it was a drive to get there. These are just landscape pictures from our trip while we were driving. (There was a serious storm brewing out my window at one point. There was snow predicted for the mountains near Yosemite, and I wonder if this was it.)
When he wrapped up work near Fresno, we headed to Kings Canyon National Park for the night. We arrived at our hotel around 7pm. But first we stopped to see General Grant – the third largest tree in the world! It is a massive sequoia, and I was excited to see it! Pictures do it little justice, but here it is. (For the record, it was snowing when we took these pictures. In May. In California.)
We headed down the long winding road to our hotel, stopping occasionally for pictures.
The inn was in a perfect setting. The bed was not as luxurious as the previous place, but it was a great place to stay with the basics. After eating what we could find in their grocery store, we turned in for the night.
The next morning, we had a hot breakfast before heading out for Mist Falls. It was about 8-9 miles round-trip, and took about 4-5 hours for us to do. I thought it was the perfect hike.
We got back, stretched a bit, and hopped in the car for Yosemite. We grabbed some more grocery store food, made reservations for the night at Curry Village – in a heated tent! – and hit the road. It took about 4-1/2 hours to get to our camp area. We stopped for a few pictures, but mostly just drove. The tent was not bad, but I personally was glad it had a heater. It was pretty damp and chilly that night. We turned in after grabbing a bite to eat right before the grills shut down.
We woke up around 7am, just in time to beat the morning rush for breakfast. We headed out to the footbridge view of Mist Falls (I know – another one!). The trail, although paved, felt like we were walking straight up a mountain. I was breathing hard, and we rested a number of times.
The first pictures we took of the falls was really just the river; you can see Jeremy posing by himself. After we crossed the bridge, sat and drank some water, and returned, Jeremy saw the falls revealed. See me pointing it out? The view was pretty; we decided we didn’t need to hike to the falls. Instead we would try to get a few more small hikes in.
Next we went to Mirror lake. We took the horse’s trail, which I would recommend over the paved road trail. (However, you can’t cross over the lake, and the other side had the bathroom I would have liked to use!). It was beautiful and aptly named mirror lake because of the awesome reflections.
We looked at the visitor center to connect with John Muir. I learned a lot about the history of the National Parks while we listened to a book on CD for 6 hours; he was influential in getting Yosemite and other areas of land designated as national parks.
Afterwards, we headed on one more short trek to see Lower Yosemite Falls. This was super packed with people because it is basically a flat, paved trail to the base of the falls. It was spectacular though and worth it. Sometime, I would like to either hike to the top of Upper Yosemite or to Glacier Point. Those are both fairly long hikes – it would take most of the day – but they would give you a view from the top of the canyon. It would be well worth the effort, I think.
We walked back through the meadow so we could get a good view of Half Dome, one of the famous mountains here.
And we stopped at to take a picture El Capitan (see that straight edged mountain Jeremy is looking at?) Apparently, people rock climb this beast! Then, we headed to San Francisco.
We detoured slightly to see the famous Tunnel View Point. If you come in on that road, you enter the park through a tunnel which opens to a spectacular view. We were thankful we took the time to see it.
Finally, we made it to our hotel about four hours later. It was a comfortable place to be and near the airport. We ate at a great restaurant on the water called Kincaids. It was delicious!!! We were up by 5am, and on a plane home by 7:30. We picked up the girls at my parents’ house around 8:30. They had prepared a fancy ice cream night snack for us, so we stayed a little later to share that with them. It was good to see them. I think because I was with Jeremy and not by myself, I missed the girls more than I usually do when I am away. It must have felt like some of our family was missing. On the other hand, there is absolutely no way we could have done what we did with them in tow. Too much driving for little ones. We are looking forward to some trips with them this summer though. Hopefully, those will go smoothly.
(This was a loooong post… maybe I should have broken it apart. If you made it to the end, congratulations!)
