Before breakfast we decided it was prudent to do a last laundry load before home, and with a late checkout (12pm) it was ideal. Then down to breakfast - waffles no less! - and packed up the car ready to head to SF. We arrived at our motel on Lombard St early morning. Luckily our room was ready, so we could dump our stuff and head out for lunch. A nice couple gave us their two "all day transport passes" as we checked in - funnily enough it was a girl that Karina had tried to photograph on the way down Van Ness Ave - they'd obviously dressed up for the race (see below). We found a deli nearby before heading off on a "self-guided tour" that Karina had transcribed from the net. The weather was ... read more

We were peeved to find that we had to put our name down and wait 15 mins to get a seat at breakfast. Breakfast itself was quite decent, albeit with limited options. We'd planned two hikes today. The 1st, Mariposa Groves to look at the giant sequoia trees. It's only a short drive from the Wawona Hotel and we arrived shortly after 9am. Armed with our $0.50 map, we head off to check out the main attractions. The trees are pretty damn big. Not quite as high as I'd imagined, but very thick trunks. Amazingly thick trunks. You'd have a hell of a time digging one of them out of your back yard! The grove is full of bloody big trees, and there's a bit of a hike between them. In all, we climbed 1000 ft ... read more

No breakfast option at this motel, and we're out of breakfast bars so it's off to the supermarket. Breakfast in the car park - ordinarily not very pleasant but we had views of snow-capped mountains not too far away! Karina had spied a Polo Ralph Loren factory outlet across the road from the motel, so we headed there. About an hour and 5 tops later, she's done. She assures me that she got "an absolute bargain" but I'm sure I saw them cheaper in Bangkok!?! A quick trip to the visitor's centre to confirm that Tioga Pass is still closed and ask for directions around Yosemite. A nice Ranger lady highlights our map and tells us it's about 5 hours to Mariposa, just outside the park. I wish it were only 5 hours! We started out ... read more

Shopping day today! After another forgettable Holiday Inn Express breakfast we packed our bags and headed out to the Las Vegas outlet store. I've _never_ seen a bigger shopping centre in all my life! I literally couldn't walk the length of it! Seriously! Karina was in heaven and bagged a few bargains - so she tells me - including some stuff from Tommy Hilfeggar? I found a cool music shop that sold all sorts of music, video & TV stuff, and spent about 1/2 hour looking through it while Karina was clothes shopping. I _almost_ bought a Donkey Kong Jenga game - that is a cool collector's item. Finally, after about 134 hours of clothes shopping, Karina was ready to go. Next stop - Fry's Electronics. Wow - that's a _big_ computer store. I bought another ... read more

Up at 8am on the dot and showered ready - hopefully - for our ride. Karina rang the office at 8:45 to book the 1/2 day morning ride. They were only running afternoon rides and told us just to turn up at 12:30pm for the 1pm ride. After a couple of breakfast bars and an orange juice for breakfast the first order of business was seeing about getting the slow leak in the tyre fixed. We suspected it had been flat since we hired it, as the handbrake warning light had always been on - until the tyre was flat enough for me to notice and I pumped it up. No warning light! By now I had put air in twice, and noticing a large car service centre at Bryce, we decided to get it fixed. ... read more