Day 6 - San Francisco to Yosemite National Park

Up very early this morning to pick up our rental car from Dollar. I’d walked past the other day and noticed about 20 people all queued down the street waiting for their car and we hoped that by arriving early we’d beat the rush. Turns out it was the best thing to do as we walked straight up to the counter and had no waiting at all. I’d been stressing out a bit before the trip as we had no control over what car we would be allocated. For all our luck we’d end up with a Mercury Grand Marquis (a real nana’s car). But no, lady luck was on our side and we got exactly the car we were hoping for, a Chrysler Pacifica - a mean as black one!!!!

Made the trip back to the Grosvenor without hitting any cable cars (just), grabbed the bags, packed the car and set off on the second leg of our road trip. The Tom Tom finally came into it’s own - and thank God we had it, as navigating the freeways was nothing short of a nightmare. I still don’t quite know how we got out of the city as successfully as we did. The kids were great, sitting very quietly in the back seat whilst Steve and I followed Tom’s very confusing instructions mile after mile - “keep in the left lane, then exit left, staying right…” - far out!!! The other thing we noticed was that everyone drives HUMUNGOUS four wheel drive pickups and SUV’s like Ford 150's.

We passed mile after mile of what we think were almond tree orchards and processing factories and everywhere was really, really dry. We kept commenting how Australian the scenery looked. Anyway, after about 3 hours we started climbing up and up and up. The signs said we were at 4000 feet above sea level and the barren vegetation changed to pine forest. All of a sudden we came around a corner and wham, there was Yosemite down in the valley below - WOW! It’s this long, narrow valley surrounding by enormous, steely grey sheer granite cliffs which must be a mile high on every side. A sight to behold. The camera hasn’t stopped clicking every since we arrived.

We’re staying at the Yosemite Lodge at the Falls - except at this time of year, there ain’t any falls - but one can imagine it would be phenomenal after the snow melt. The accommodations are pretty basic for the price but the views in every direction are to die for. Took a wander along some walking/biking paths into the village for an early dinner of Pizza and salad ($26 total). The kids are having a great time chasing the squirrels, but have to be constantly told to stop trying to pat them!!!

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Part of trip: USA Roadtrip 2008

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