OK so I left off at whether of not we would make it to Yosemite National Park the next day… AND we did!
Yosemite National Park:
Yosemite was interesting… We got there early afternoon and the weather was great the whole drive up but that didn’t last long. We headed down to the valley where most of the trails and waterfalls are and as we drove down the mountain it started to rain. Not too bad right? Who can’t handle a little rain? Well still with a positive attitude we made lunch in the car and headed up a trail to Bridal Veil Falls. As we got closer to the top it started to pour and at the top we couldn’t take any pictures because the rain plus the mist from the falls were so strong. That being said we ran back to the car and continued the drive down. As we kept going we passed a horrible accident where a car had flipped in the middle of the road blocking one lane of traffic and a poor bus was stuck waiting for people to get there and move the car because there wasn’t enough room for them to go around. We finally got to the bottom, it still raining, we got out of the car and walked up to the visitor’s center. There we decided to watch a free video on the park knowing that we weren’t going to be able to see as much as we had hoped. The video was cool and definitely made me want to go back and visit the park in the future… when the weather is good. We did one last hike to the lower falls and got on the bus to head back to the car. As we headed out the weather got worse. Rain turned to hail, which soon turned to an ice/snow mix. Getting stuck in traffic because a bus was sliding off the road and blocked two lanes of traffic we sat and waited for crews to get the bus on the side… and the roads continued to get worse. Once traffic got moving the road were pretty bad and we started to slide on the rod a good bit. Nadeen in the passenger seat was freaking out as I was driving trying to keep my cool knowing that everything would be ok. At one point we were headed off the side of the mountain and at another point I was probably a foot and a half from sliding into another car that had parked on the side of the road. As I try to talk to the fellow driving the vehicle and ask him to pull forward giving me room to make sure I didn’t hit them…of course they didn’t speak English and said I could drive their car if I would like… NO THANKS! I had enough problems as it was. So Nadeen stood outside between my car and theirs just to make sure I was clear and then ran and jumped in the car so I didn’t have to stop and get stuck again. After making it pretty far with no more close calls we were stopped about 9 miles inside the park and told we couldn’t go any farther unless we had four wheel drive or tire chains.. we had neither. Forced to stay the night in Yosemite we got a spot at the hotel where we’d been stopped and paid $110 for a hotel room that was dorm style, meaning we had to share the bathroom with other people staying there, had no TV, and no Internet. In the morning we woke up ate our free breakfast and got outta there. On the bright side the snow was absolutely beautiful and the park was awesome despite all the trouble.
Fresno, CA:
After Yosemite we were Fresno bound for a few days. We had one day before my mom got to town so we took some time to get the little necessities done like an oil change, tire rotation, and of course some laundry. On Friday my mom flew in and I was extremely excited to see her. We were going to be staying with her friends Jodi and Paul that she hadn’t seen in about 30 years and that was exciting for her and for Nadeen and I. They, like all the other people we have stayed with, were awesome! Making us all feel right at home we had a relaxing couple of days before heading out for a busy week. Nadeen got a chance to go to her first baseball game ever thanks to Paul. Paul works for Fresno State University Athletics so we got to tag along with him, get the tour, free entrance to the game, and the details of a sale they were having the next morning with a ton of cheap Nike gear. Thanks again to them for a great visit and Paul I think Nadeen’s offer to be your assistant still stands…
Lake Tahoe, CA:
May 2nd… My Birthday!! On Sunday morning we headed out to Lake Tahoe, one place my mom has always talked about wanting to go. On the way up we passed another waterfall called Bridal Veil Falls that we stopped to take pictures at and then continued up the mountains and into the snow. 1 work to describe Lake Tahoe: BLUE. The lake was gorgeous with the sun hitting it just right. We drove up to what was supposed to be the best viewpoint for pictures and then came back into town for dinner and some time in the casinos. After loosing all of our money and realizing I may have a gambling problem, we headed back to the hotel room for the night and got ready to head out for San Francisco in the morning.
San Francisco, CA:
When we got to San Francisco we went straight into the city. We had a lot on the to do list for the city so we figured we should go ahead and get some of them checked off and learn our way around a little bit. We drove around downtown, followed a cable car because we figured they knew where we wanted to go, ended up driving through Chinatown, and by Nadeen’s navigation made it to Pier 39. Here we walked around a little, did a little shopping/looking, and went to the Aquarium of the Bay (which is not highly recommended). The Aquarium was ok but we’ve definitely been to better ones. We left excited to come back tomorrow for the boat ride to the Golden Gate Bridge. That night we got to meet another relative of Nadeen’s and his family. Motaz and his family were awesome. They gave us everything we could ever need and more. He was too funny.... washing my windshield before we headed out the next day, packing our lunch, and having more food made for us than we could possibly eat. We definitely owe him big time! That next day we did the boat tour of the Bridge and Alcatraz (a prison that was used many years ago for criminals that escaped for the prisons on land or were considered seriously dangerous). We saw the sea lions that hang our at the piers, walked around Fisherman’s Warf, walked to crooked street, and spent some more time at the pier getting ice cream and other treats.
Lassen Volcanic National Park, CA:
Knowing that Lassen Volcanic National Park was mostly closed off due to snow we still had to head that way because we had a reservation that we had to honor. In no hurry to get there we took a detour at the shopping outlets and visited Burney State Park, which was recommended to us by someone that worked at the campground we would be staying at. Burney was like a mini Niagara Falls. After that we headed to the campground and stopped at Lassen on the way. Though most of it was closed off I figured we could stop and see what there was to see since we were passing right by and I’m glad we did! We got a few cool pictures at Reflection Lake and got a good look at the snow-covered mountains that were the reason for the park being closed.
Well I haven't completely caught yall up but its a good start. Until then..
Amanda
No comments:
Post a Comment