Day 4 - San Fran - Yosemite

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The plan for the day was to pick up the car and then drive to Yosemite.

Shiree and Gary left the kids in the hotel and caught the cable car up to Bush street to pick up the rental car. We had booked a mid size SUV, and they asked us if we wanted to upgrade for an extra $25 a day. We hummed and hawed but said no, thinking we would be fine. Then in the next breath the guy said well we don't have any mid size, so we are giving you a full size SUV upgrade free of charge! So we ended up with a nice new (700 miles on the clock) Dodge Durango. Super flash with all the mod cons including built in GPS (even though they tried to rent one to us as well), voice controls for everything and satellite radio. However on a few occasions the GPS has played up.

Gary drove while Shiree proceeded to have multiple heart attacks over driving a new car, driving on right side of road, driving on unfamiliar roads and not knowing how to navigate, and also coping with busy San Francisco traffic and freeways at peak morning traffic flow times. Gary just chilled as normal of course.

Picked up kids, and first stop was up the freeway (over the Bay Bridge) to San Leandro to a Nike outlet store. Also found a Gap store and a few others here, then cruised a few miles to experience a nearby Walmart. We didn't see too many weird sights at Walmart, disappointingly. A few bargains thrown in the back of the wagon, and after a bite to eat it was easily 2pm before we settled in for the 4 hour drive to Yosemite.

Got to Yosemite safely and stopped at the first view point to read some signs about the fire last year that took out so much of the surrounding area. Tragic, but as we discovered later, fire is a pretty natural (and even necessary) part of the life cycle in these parts. Clears out undergrowth so larger trees can grow.

With about an hours daylight left on paying our park entry ($20 for multiple entry for family for a week) we decided to try and fit in a lap of the valley floor by car. This turned out to be a master stroke...by this time of day all the crowds had departed, and as the weather was perfect we got some great pictures.

Without going on about it, I would recommend everyone see this place at least once. Truly mind blowing scenery. BIG rocks. Really BIG. Note for anyone coming at this time of year...temperature in SF today as we drove here was about 20 degrees C. Up here this afternoon, on the valley floor, it was 5 degrees. So plan ahead...layers people!

Reluctantly left and drove out to El Portal, where we had booked for 2 nights at Cedar Lodge. A bit run down and crummy, but good value and the staff were nice. For some reasons the rooms are very dark in all the hotels. Weird. Also features a lot of carved wooden bears. Hmmm.

We went to the hotel bar and grill for dinner and a beer, and hit the sack.

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Photos

Yosemite Fire Damage Scene
Hundreds of square miles damaged by fire last year is so clearly evident. Caused by arson.