There's gold in them thar hills!

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Geo: 37.7792, -122.42

DAY FIVE: There's gold in them thar hills!

We began the day meeting John Muir, portrayed by Lee Stetson, who appeared in The National Parks: America's Best Idea. He looked like Muir and told stories in Muir's own words. He spoke fast and softly, so he was somewhat difficult to understand. One of the stories I liked best was about his one-minute thrill ride down a Yosemite mountain on the top of an avalanche through what he called the "Milky Way of a snowstorm". He wasn't injured and he found it the most exciting of his life's adventures. He also spoke about the time he and Teddy Roosevelt camped out for three nights at Glacier Point, Half Dome and a meadow in the Yosemite Valley. Muir's objective: to plead his case for having the President include Yosemite Valley as part of the new National Park System, rather than leaving it under the protection of the State of California. He was successful, of course.

We then headed out of the park, on the lower road toward Mariposa and Merced. On top, the exit where we entered two days ago, there was a fresh 4" layer of snow, so the other groups that were exiting that way had park troopers escort them out. Sorry I missed those photo ops.

Our group headed toward Merced to catch an Amtrak train to Emeryville. On the way, we made a rest stop at the Mariposa Museum and History Center, a quaint little museum devoted to the Gold Rush. Although we were in Mariposa, unfortunately, the sequoias the area is so famous for were beyond our reach.

In Merced, we were handed box lunches prepared by The Ahwahnee, one of three boxed meals on this trip (sigh!). We boarded the Amtrak train for a three-hour rail journey from the Sierra Nevada Mountains through the Central Valley back to the Bay Area. The train was nice and clean, with electrical plugs, so I was able to complete my blog for Day Four, and prepare a slide show for tonight. The train ran through a number of towns, some of which got their start in Gold Rush days. The bus ride back to the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco from Emeryville was amazingly speedy, considering rain and rush hour, typically deadly time killers.

On Day One, I expressed my own personal concerns about an "Event" Tour, where there are five groups of 30+ who mix and match, and the fact that we are only together for five days. My concerns played out. Although we met many very nice and interesting people, as we always do on Tauck trips, I found that there was not as much bonding as there usually is. So much so that, when Tour Director Nicole passed around the list for folks to submit their emails voluntarily for a group list, only half the group gave up their emails. I usually type the list for most Tauck Tour Directors, and I have never typed a list that wasn't complete. Folks usually want to be able to exchange photos and remembrances down line. A number in our group didn't care to do so.

What is an "event" trip for Tauck? It's a short tour that involves as you might expect an "event". It might be the Rose Bowl, the Kentucky Derby, or it might be something themed by Tauck and created around a "event" like Ken Burns' Jazz. In any case, the appeal is that you get to attend something that would be difficult if not impossible to attend without Tauck. In this case, we attended the 150th anniversary of Yosemite, and the Bracebridge dinner which is a coveted ticket. The tour typically includes lectures and presentations (like by Dayton Duncan and Michael Adams) providing background information and history on the event, and dinners at private locations (like the Legion of Honor and de Young Museum) that are not usually available to the public. It is these features that make Tauck "Event" tours so popular.

What I was not aware of (although I was told it was in the trip materials somewhere) is that there are usually many groups (in our case five) traveling at the same time and sharing in the private events. This is where it breaks down for me (but certainly not for others). At almost every meal, we ate with different people from different groups. It was nice to get to meet more people, but we lost the identity of our own group in doing so.

One last thing, from my perspective only of course, is that as part of the event, there are nightly room gifts. Our gifts this trip included three books, two videos, a set of Ansel Adams notecards and an Ahwahnee Christmas ornament. They were very nice, but I would not have purchased any of them on my own. And then there was the challenge of getting them home in already weight-restricted baggage.

What I loved about this being an Event trip was seeing Yosemite in winter, and the special snow that Tauck arranged. I doubt I would ever have seen the park in this magnificent setting without this offering. And a bonus was the fact that there were so many Tauck home office personnel with us. It was fun to get to meet Robin Tauck, third generation owner, and Jennifer Tombaugh, the current president. We met board members, sales execs and others. It was great to visit with them, learn more about how they plan tours and what's coming next.

The event tonight was at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park (see photo of the black "towered" building from our tour of the park on Day Two). Once inside, I set up a laptop slide show of about 140 of the 1500+ photos I took this week. Participants enjoyed seeing them and many would like copies - which I am happy to share - I just have to figure out a drop box system for getting them to folks who may not have much computer savvy.

We went to the top of the museum tower to take in the views, which were lovely despite the rain. I can't believe it, but I forgot my camera! I was so busy getting the slide show there, I forgot the critical element! Luckily, Patrick had his new iPhone 6 which has a much better camera than my phone, so we did get a few photos.

There was a farewell cocktail reception, followed by a sit-down dinner of steelhead. I thought it was yummy; not everyone did. We bid our farewells to our new acquaintances, hugged and thanked Nicole Kreigenhofer, our Tour Director, and headed back to the hotel to pack and to prepare for our 5 am wake-up call.

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Comments

[Nancy Meyer]

Thanks for the blog. We really enjoy watching your trips! Merry Christmas