Here it is, the blog about our trip to Cali. First and foremost, we had a BLAST! It was cold and I didn’t get a tan, but we saw some amazing sights and definitely had a memorable trip.
I joined Ben in San Francisco on Thursday evening the 2nd–we stayed at the W Hotel; it was very posh, light-up buddha man and all. On Friday, we had lunch at our favorite sandwich place, Boudin, followed by ice cream sundaes at Ghiradelli’s and hit the Golden Gate bridge out of town towards Lake Tahoe. Traffic was very much like you see in the movies–bumper to bumper–so it took us a good 4 hours to get to South Lake Tahoe, the first destination on our Cali tour de force.
We stayed at Secrets Inn in Tahoe, a nice little family run hotel for couples. South Lake Tahoe reminded Ben and I of an upscale version of Houghton Lake for those from Michigan–some touristy areas, but mostly mom and pop owned places and a very local flavor overall. On Saturday, we decided to ride the Heavenly Gondola. This enclosed ski lift takes you up 3,000 feet over 20 minutes time to view all of Lake Tahoe and the surrounding area. On the way up, there is a scenic overlook where you can get out and take pictures–we took a lot of incredible pictures there. We then rode to the top and watched all the activities taking place–skiing, of course, but also tubing, snowshoeing, sledding, zip-cord rides, and most uniquely, an opportunity to rent ski bikes…
After the gondola ride, Ben and I decided to use our rental Jeep Commander and see some more scenery. Since we were staying on the California/Nevada border, we decided we should probably go explore Nevada a little bit…so we headed for Reno. Ben wanted to find the famous arch sign in that city and I thought it would be something to see. Not so much, folks. As I’ve told everyone, Reno is the armpit of America. That sounds harsh–it was harsh to say the least. We were both left feeling disappointed and a bit dirty. The best thing we saw? P.F. Chang’s, and we didn’t even eat there!
Heading back to California, we chose to drive around all of Lake Tahoe. There were many small little towns, each with a bit of charm. The views were incredible as was some of the housing we saw. Our drive led Ben to ponder as to the location of the house the Corleone family stayed in during The Godfather II. We googled the idea and found out that, unfortunately, it is now held in a private estate and can only be located by boat from Lake Tahoe to just catch a glimpse of it. It was way too cold for a boat ride, so no Godfather sightseeing this trip!
On Sunday, we took in brunch at one of the casinos and went back around the lake to see some of our favorite spots again. Lake Tahoe was fun, but there were many places we wanted to go and see that were not open for the season yet–unless you were there to ski, we sadly learned, it is definitely a summer spot to visit. We packed up on Monday morning and journeyed off to Yosemite National Park, our second stop on the Cali tour de force.
The drive to Yosemite was an eye-opener. Not only did I see my first coyote wandering the barren land, but I learned how much snow one can really get in the mountains. At 50 degrees, there was still FEET of snow on the ground–it was really insane! We steadily drove downhill into warmer weather, including green grass and wildflowers! The temperature hit a heat-wave inducing 79 degrees before we went back uphill into the national park. The hills and mountain roads were once again steep and intimidating, but with our nice weather, we really relaxed and enjoyed the spectacular views. We finally arrived at our hotel, the Wawona, around 5pm that day. The Wawona Hotel is one of the oldest hotels in the nation and it boasted the first swimming pool in 1912. The hotel was at the southern end of the park, with the closest off-site dining a whopping 30 miles away! Needless to say, we enjoyed the dining room at our hotel along with the European-styled community bathrooms and lack of technology (no WiFi, TV, radio, etc.) quite a lot. It was a neat experience, one I would recommend to anyone visiting Yosemite.
We spent our one complete day in Yosemite seeing all the sights. We saw Yosemite Valley including Half Moon, El Capitan, the Upper and Lower Falls, Ansel Adams gallery, and museum. We also went to Bridalveil Falls and checked out the non-bear proof canvas tents that Ben had initially wanted us to stay in. (I made the right call on this one–not a good idea!) We took many pictures and began heading back to the hotel around 4:30 pm. We wanted to see the famous sequoia trees, but much like Tahoe, many things were not open yet, including the roads that lead to the sequoia groves. One grove, the Mariposa Grove, had a paved road that led to it that you could hike up and still view the trees–it was a two-mile hike, but a paved one. Ben and I really wanted to see these, but the skies did not look so promising and we are flat out of shape…but we sucked it up and drove to the base of the grove.
As we began the hike, it was in the 40’s and lightly misting–no big deal, we were dressed warm and felt okay. The road was all uphill, though, which had Ben and I winded early in the hike and wondering if we were capable of this trek. We persevered, only for the mist to turn into rain. Now we are still going uphill, getting a little more wet, when we hear thunder. Oh yes, thunder. At this point, we roughly estimate we are halfway up the hill and a mile into this climb–we can do it. It gets better–while the thunder continues, we are now apparently at an elevation where the rain turns to sleet. As the sleet eventually turns to snow showers, we are cursing our way up the hills with no idea how far away these damn sequoia trees are while we watch everyone steadily go down the hill to the safety of their cars. When almost all hope was lost, we rounded a corner and saw the first sequoia. It was really something to see–we shared a high five and started snapping pictures. The thunder has now ceased, but the snow is slowly picking up. Once into the park, we spot a sign telling us that we have seen some sequoias, but the really famous ones are another two miles down a snow-covered trail (I’m wearing tennis shoes, fyi). We shared some more curse words and turned back to head for dry ground. As we exited the park and began down the hills, the snow went from pretty to hell-bent on soaking us–it was quickly becoming a snow storm. We had blindly ignored the Winter Weather Advisory posted on the hotel bulletin board that morning, figuring two chumps from Michigan can handle a little snow. We were SOAKED–to the point that the entire trip to the grove was becoming comedic. We made it down the hill in half the time it had taken us to get up, only to start cleaning off the car with our coats (no snow scraper in the rental from San Francisco, right?). As we were relishing the thought of heated seats and hot air pouring on our soaked heads and feet, a young couple approached us and asked for a ride back to the Wawona if we were heading that way. I recognized them from breakfast that morning and we gave them a lift. As it turns out, they were from England and had not realized when they booked their trip to Yosemite that he would not be old enough in America to rent a car (the age is 26–he was 20), so they had walked from our hotel to the groves and did not want to have to walk back in the snow. They had already walked 15 miles that day just to see the groves. 15 MILES! And I thought we were out of shape…they put us to shame.
We thoroughly enjoyed our hot showers and warm meals upon our arrival at the Wawona Hotel…mainly, we were happy to be out of the snow and cold. We slept like babies and awoke to snow everywhere–there had been a real snowfall the night before, and we watched the snow continue to come down at a fast pace throughout breakfast. Most of the guests planning to leave that day were panicking–to get down the mountain, you had to have a 4×4 vehicle at minimum and carrying chains to be permitted down the mountain roads. We had the 4×4, but no chains, and we didn’t want to have to buy them and/or put them on. We were advised to try to get down without them, but if the park personnel told us we had to have them, we’d have to go get them. We checked out, found our English pals (they needed a lift to Yosemite Valley to pick up their Amtrak train), and headed down the snow-covered mountain road. It was treacherous, I could not imagine driving in those conditions on a daily basis, or if I had never driven in the snow before. We watched a motorhome come within inches of spinning out and going over the edge of the road into steep forest below–we could now see why roads were still closed in April and chains were required.
The rest of our drive back to San Francisco to fly home was uneventful compared to the snowy travel that morning. We ate some Chili’s, returned our Jeep, and hung out at SFO for our red eye flight home. We were early, no doubt, and so was the strange pedophile man who gave Ben and I the creeps and kept trying to become our friend. He was obviously flying alone and was desperate for companionship, but he was creepy. He was the kind-of needy creepy that told you his life story in the first five minutes you chatted without your asking any questions…you get my drift here. I finally got us away by whining that I needed headache medicine and we had to go find a store to buy some before all the stores closed (I did have a migraine by the way). When we returned to the gate, he had latched onto someone else, not before we saw him start talking with a little girl and her mom…which is how he became pedophile man.
The strangest thing we discovered about California was their aversion to using guardrails on their highways. They’re everywhere in Michigan–ten foot drop-off to a ravine? Guardrail. Crossing a creek? Guardrail. Train tracks twenty feet off the highway? Guardrail. Steep mountainous terrain with staggering drop-offs? In Cali, NO guardrail. 45 degree drops on both sides of the highway? NO guardrail. Huge valley looming below, lined with a forest of trees? NO guardrail. They had guardrails in so few places, we started noting where they were so we could try to discover a pattern! There was no rhyme or reason as to their locale, and it was totally a California thing because there were guardrails all over the place in Nevada. If anyone knows the answer to this practice, we’d love to hear it. One local told us California considers the trees their guardrail system–I’m just curious if that’s actually the answer.
We think we’d go back to California and these places again, especially if it were the summer. I highly recommend the places we stayed and the things we saw, we just wished we’d been able to see more and had it be a little bit warmer–you know, no rain-to-snow events like the Mariposa Grove incident. Check out Ben’s flickr page for more pictures if you’re interested: www.flickr.com/photos/benrapin