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Published: June 12th 2017
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Geo: 37.8772, -119.727
We again woke early, but that helped, as we still had some things we wanted to do in San Francisco, before we retrieved our rental car and drove out to Yosemite National Park --- our home for the next two nights. Our sun of the day before was gone, and we had a cold drizzle all morning. We walked a couple blocks to a well-reviewed breakfast joint, only to find a line 10 people or so deep, so we bailed and went elsewhere. Along this walk, we encountered a persistent problem with the city -- an alarmingly high population of homeless. We'd learned the day before that San Francisco has the highest number AND proportion of homeless people of any city in the United States. They cite the mild climate and the city's Bohemian culture as the reasons, but the stereotypical suburbanite in me found it extremely depressing, and it particularly bothered Anna. It left a tinge on the entire city, in my opinion. As it was, and I believe all three of us agree, San Francisco -- while nice and with tons to offer -- really is not a favorite of ours. It did nothing to really grab
us, or make us want to return for a long period. Seattle, conversely, had achieved that in only a few hours last year, so I think we can safely say we'll return there well before we hit San Fran again.
After breakfast, we had to take the requisite cable car ride. We waited in a long line of international tourists at the embarkation point, and then rode the car all the way across the city, clear to Giardelli Square and Pier 39. It was a fun ride, even with the rain. We came back via bus, through Chinatown (for some unfinished shopping...I'm told), and were in our car and on our way back across the Bay Bridge by noon.
As we passed through Oakland, the sun came out, and stayed out. It proved a beautiful drive, through quite varied scenery -- sprawling suburbs, acres and acres of wind turbines, and then incredibly green, rolling hills with hundreds (if not thousands) of dairy cows. Traffic thinned, and we found ourselves alone on the windy road for miles at a time, and then we started to climb steadily. We crossed into Yosemite Park through the south gate, ascending more than 5000 feet, and reached
our hotel -- the Wawona around 4:00pm. The hotel dates back to 1876, and was one of the original in the park when it opened. This was where Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir (the naturalist, and champion for Yosemite, Hetch Hechy, Sequoia, etc.) came after the two camped for a couple days, and Muir convinced Roosevelt to expand the park. You'll see in the pictures that is has vast, wide porches and enjoys an amazing setting. We had a room in one of the cottages that used to be home to the hotel manager. It was "authentic" in that it was primitive, but that was half the charm.
We dropped the bags and quickly drove a few miles to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia trees. We were surprised to find the hiking trail through the grove covered in deep patches of snow -- most of the ground was free of snow, but not here. This would -- as you'll see -- soon change.
After a nice if not short hike (we kept sinking into the deep snow, and weren't properly dressed for such conditions), we drove out of the park about 15 miles (to the nearest town) and had a
fantastic steak dinner. One of our top meals on the trip, and I'm still immensely proud of how Anna cleared away her portion of steak.
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