Giants in the snow

In planning our trip, we had been disappointed to find that all of our options for seeing giant sequoias were inaccessible due to snow, so it was very excting to learn that the road to the mariposa grove had been cleared and opened just in time for our designated big tree day. We packed up, said goodbye to the river tumbling past our balcony and drove into Yosemite for the last time. After a brief stop at the lookout above Bridal Falls to say goodbye to the valley, we drove through a tunnel in the mountain to the road leading to the Mariposa Grove in the south of the park. The drive took us up to 6000ft, past the Badger ski area. There was a surprising amount of snow about, and it was obvious that the road had only just been cleared. We drove into the Grove and spent a lovely morning walking among the giant sequoias. Another day of saying 'wow'.   

The snow made the forest quite magic. Thomas thought that it would make a perfect Christmas card, if you added robins and deleted some of the burnt trees (Sequoias need to germinate through fire - very familiar). We heard woodpeckers in the distance and saw spotted squirrels. After an impromptu picnic lunch in the car park we drove down out of the park and out of the mountains on to the flat farmland of the San Joaquim valley. We spent the afternoon driving towards Bakersville. We had a very American moment in Fresno when we stopped at a Starbucks to stretch our legs, only to find that it was a drive through. Never mind, this is the US, so there was another Starbucks three blocks away. We arrived in Bakersfield in the evening and had dinner in the diner next door. There was pie. It was good. Returning to civilisation meant a return to wifi, and thus some extensive catch up blogging. Apologies for the delay!

Sun and Snow

When we arrived back in the valley today we found that the rain which had fallen on us had fallen as snow high up, so the Half Dome was quite a spectacular sight.

We headed off up the steep ascent to Columbia Rock, a walk up the side of the valley's Northern wall which involves 60 switchback turns and a grueling combination of steps and sandy ground. Thomas impressed us again with his staying power, getting all the way to the lookout and then continuing on to a view of the Upper Yosemite Falls.  

Once we returned to gound level we walked around to the base of the Lower Yosemite Falls before following the valley wall around to the village for more hot chocolate and souvenir buying. While we were in the visitor centre we noticed that the road to the Mariposa grove of sequoias (which had been closed the previous day) had been cleared of snow and opened that morning, which made us rethink our plans for tomorrow.

Feeling recharged, we caught the bus to the Eastern end of the valley and wandered around the mirror lake meadow, spotting deer and squirrels among the mossy rocks. We had dinner at Yosemite Lodge before driving back up to the lookout above Bridal Falls to catch the alpen glow as the sun went down. 

Yosemite!

What a day of rivers, cliffs and waterfalls!

After driving into the valley and saying wow a few times we wandered up to our first waterfall (Bridal Falls) and said wow a few more times. Apparently the flow is about one third of a normal year, but as Canberrans it still seems like a lot of water.

We then stopped in at the visitor's center before catching the shuttle bus around to the start of a walk up the end of the valley to see Vernal and then Nevada falls. Thomas was great - walking up zigs and zags all the way to a lookout 1400 feet above the valley floor. We walked  through snow for part of the way, which made it quite slippery, but the sun was out. We saw plenty of squirrels but thankfully no hungry bears or mountain lions. As we came down the weather changed and it started to rain a little. We were all pretty tired afterwards and enjoyed a hot chocolate back down in the valley.

Across California (on the wrong side of the road)

A slightly sad start to the day as we packed up and waved goodbye to Emma, Eve and Nathaniel. We picked up supplies at the local Trader Joe's supermarket (including our first Twinky for morning tea)...

...and headed West across the mountains. We drove through farmland and orchards, past a pick up truck with its load on fire (!) and through a steep mountain pass to the San Luis reservoir, where we stopped for sandwiches. The reservoir was really low - California is in drought. Thomas was thrilled to discover that there were rattlesnakes in the area, but sadly we couldn't find one. We drove on through the amazingly flat San Joaquin Valley, past nut and fruit trees and wheat fields until the Sierra Nevada mountains began to loom on the horizon. We twisted through the mountains to El Portal and checked into our hotel, which sits overlooking the Merced River. We had a splash in the heated pool, pizza for dinner and went to sleep to the sound of the rapids flowing with snow melt.  

Santa Cruz

We started slower this morning playing and reading at home for a while. Helen and Robert had a chance to try out Emma's Google Glass which was interesting - though not compelling enough for us to order one straight away. Then we packed ourselves into Emma's car again and let her phone guide us over the hills and down to the beach at Santa Cruz.

We started out digging holes, making sand castles and filling our nappies with sand, and then headed for the boardwalk fun fair. Thomas had his first ride on a roller coaster and couldn't stop smiling/whooping afterwards.

After lunch we walked out along the wharf to see the sea lions and seals. We were lucky to see a sea lion leap out of the water onto one of the wharfs lower cross members. We also saw a large group of seals just floating about together at the end of the wharf.

That night we had a picnic dinner in the local park and the kids had a good play on the equipment.

Attack on San Francisco (part two)

Over night the rain continued and the next day was intermittently sunny and wet. Once again we packed everyone into the car and Emma piloted us into San Francisco to catch the cable car from the centre of town to the Fisherman's Wharf. The terrain is amazing - hills so steep you hold your breath in case the car suddenly runs backward, then plunging down the other side like a cautious roller coaster. We wandered along the wharves, stopping to watch bakers  making sour dough bread animals behind a large window. The head baker gave us bread turtles, which kept Nathaniel, Thomas and Eve happily occupied until we found the local sea lion colony basking on pontoons by the wharf. We had fish and chips overlooking the sea lions and ice cream on the wharf before hopping on the V-line street car to return to the city just as the rain came down again.     

Attack on San Francisco (part one)

We headed into San Francisco for the day and started by driving over the bridge. The view here is of us being blown around with the city centre barely visable in the background.

Our next stop was the California Acadamy - which is a science museum with avary and aquarium. They had some HUGE fish, but they asked you not to take photos of them, so this is Eve and Nathanial having lunch instead.

Everyone was pretty tired traveling home, so we put on a Play School CD and some people fell asleep.