Saturday, July 26, 2014

Woke up at 4 am and caught a plane to Houston.  A couple of hours in the George Bush airport & we were off to San Diego.  Got to SD around 3 pm, picked up Dodge Journey with Avis (I registered for free for Avis Preferred, and it was very fast), and off to the Sand Diego Metro KOA we go.  KOA here is in Chula Vista.  We had pretty high expectations, with trip advisor reviews touting it as one of the best in the United States.  It was far from perfect: crowded, loud, and with traditional Mexican families all around.  These families are the same in Mass as here: grilling meat, drinking beer, having their cars running all day long with loud Latino music.  We set up a tent and left (Anna tried to get some sleep, but we woke her up).  Ate at a nearby Mexican café (Casa Del Taco), food was simple and very tasty. Sasha spilled her drink all over, so we had to go and change her in the car. Our first place in Cali was Coronado: the hotel was made famous by the movie “Some Like It Hot.”  The beach was gorgeous, we swam for a while, watched the sunset and went home.  It was not easy to go to sleep, with cars running right near our tent; but we were so tired at that point that it was impossible to move; so we fell asleep.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Woke up at 5 am because the crows were so loud. Nicolas actually woke up and asked me if he can go outside to check on the bird that screams near our tent, he thought it is sick.  I told him it was just a mating call, and he should not look outside.  At some point the screams, yells and hollering became unbearable, so we all got out, took a shower and left the camp for the nearby breakfast place (Aunt Something Pancakes).  We were there before 7 am.  It was a great place, with really good hushed potatoes.  We then drove to the Zoo and had to wait for a while until it opened.  The good thing is we were first on the tour bus, and had very mild weather for the first couple of ours; loved the zoo, especially the monkeys.  Some cool animals included the “Bonkybonks” (not sure about the spelling), hippos, and a young Rhino with a gigantic “horn,” which made everyone laugh.  The highlight was feeding the giraffe (we got three biscuits, and kids were able to give them to two giraffes).
After the Zoo, we went to the Ocean Beach; swam in the Ocean, body-surfed some waves, pretty awesome time.  Then we walked to the local café to try the famous mahi-mahi fish tacos; once again, the food was excellent (especially Anna’s ceviche).  Then we tried ice-cream and drove to the Sunset Cliffs, a local nature park.  The sunset from the cliffs was gorgeous! 
From there, on to the Wal-Mart to buy camping gear and food, and then back to the KOA for some much needed rest. 23, 000 steps on my fitbit today, and I am sitting in front of the tent with my computer and a local IPA.

Monday, July 28, 2014
Woke up pretty early and went to the Starbucks for breakfast.  On the way to the SeaWorld, Sasha said that she would like to digest her food before heading for the rollercoasters. The SeaWorld itself was only OK: the big ride broke down just as we were about to step on it; and there were no shades anywhere.  Kids loved the shamu and dolphin shows; we got completely soaked at the shamu show, Sasha and Nick even went all the way to the pool and got extra splashes from the whales.  By noon, it was really hot and unbearable; we stepped outside to eat our subway lunch, and then went back inside for another session, but that was really torturous.
In the evening we drove a mile to the Mission Beach, which was gorgeous.  We bought fish tacos at the Lisa’s Mexican café (a hole in the wall, but fantastic food) and ate them at the beach with cider.  We jumped over the waves till the sunset, and spent a lovely evening enjoying California.  A good day and a very memorable evening!

Tuesday, July 29 2014
Woke up in San Diego, went to bed in L.A.!  An eventful day.  In the morning we packed the tent and hit the Starbucks. Goodbye, San Diego KOA. What a weird camp.  From there, we drove to the Torrey Pines State Reserve: a swath of land preserved by a single woman, and which is now an amazing park.  It got really hot while we hiked it, but what an amazing experience.  The views of the ocean from the cliffs were stunning, and the trails really beautiful.  We actually saw two dolphins swimming not far off.  Anna especially liked the Yukka trees. 
From there, we traveled down the Pacific Coast highway to Encognito, where we had an awesome lunch at While Foods (they make much better sushi than in Boston).  A nice beach town. Then off to the Mission St. Juan Capistrano, the oldest Mission in California.  Once again, a beautiful, well preserved Mission with beautiful gardens, great historical details and a pond with lilies.  We learned a lot about the wild Cali past, which, incidentally, included some Russian fur traders. 
Off to the Laguna Beach afterwards, which we just passed in the car as everybody were so tired.  We stopped at the Ruby’s Shake Shack, and had milk shakes with the view of the ocean.  From there, a short drive to Huntington Beach in Newport, the place where they are holding the Surfing US open.  Nick and I found a broken boogey board and surfed the waves. Totally epic.  Anna and Sasha walked the beach, Anna got in front of me in steps (23, 600 steps by the end of the day).
After an 1.5 ride to the L.A., we visited the Griffith park, with its iconic view of the city and the Hollywood sign.  Feels like we are in the movie.  We climbed up to the Observatory and waited in line to see the Saturn rings through the telescope for about an hour.  It was pretty amazing, and it was especially great because we were the last people to go in before they closed the door.  Both Nick and Sasha like the telescope.  We had only 10 minutes in the museum afterwards, wish we had more (lots of science exhibits). Finally, we hiked down to the car in complete darkness and drove to the Reseda Howard Johnson, which offered a civilized respite after several days camping.  More LA tomorrow!

Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Woke up in Howard Johnson’s family suite: I subscribed to be the Wyndham member and they upgraded us for free to have a two room suite for the price of the cheapest room.  We used it well:  used every single outlet to charge our devices before heading out for the National Parks for seven days.  I checked my email and it turns out another guidance coordinator wanted a reference check on our intern: had to call him and give her a recommendation while the kids were using the bathroom.  From HJ, we went to the Getty Cultural Center.  Really interesting architecture, splendid gardens with some weird plants; the art was OK, they had a special exhibit devoted to James Ensner, a Belgian artist who went crazy and painted naked butts.  One of his pictures was actually called “Breaking Wind,” and it was an immediate hit with my 11 year old son Nicolas. We walked the gardens and the Cactus garden, took some great pictures of L.A., had a burrito lunch and left for the Sequoia National Park.  It was kind of sad to leave L.A. without seeing Hollywood and everything else.
We drove for over 4 hours to the Sequoia National Park.  It was an interesting scenery: mix of mountains near L.A., and then a long stretch of flats.  We finished the Grapes of Wrath just recently, and these were the places where the book takes place.  They still had stations with signs “day labor for hire” ad people sitting under them; also, some of the farms had “no jobs” sings. I bought some tomatoes and peache off the road stand: they turned out to be great.
At the end, the road was really winding, taking us up into the mountains (5,000 ft high).  It was really scary to drive; thankfully, they had frequent “turn-offs” where you can let the cars behind you pass.  Some people were going really fast.  We finally arrived at the Stony Brook campground, and it turned out to be lovely.  Kids and I took a swim in the brook, we built an enormous fire and made mac and salmon (I’ve had this one a lot this summer, it never gets old).  We split a bottle of “Seven Sins” Red Zinfandel, lovely. We are now sitting near the campfire, getting ready to sleep and watching the stars.  National Parks tomorrow. 

Thursday, July 31, 2014
Woke up really early (7 am) to a rather cold weather.  Had a breakfast at the site and headed off to the Kings Canyon NP.  Our first stop was at the ranger station, where I checked my itinerary with the ranger: he nixed some of my points, as they got cars stuck on the dirt roads recently.  I got all my stops from the Lonely Planet guide, and I have to say it provided better advice than the dedicated NP book I hauled with me to Cali.  We hiked a short trail to the General Grant tree; absolutely stunning to see the giant sequoias, hard to believe they are real.  We walked through a tree that served as a home for early settlers, and then caught a ranger-led tour through the growth.  The ranger looked like Santa Claus and gave an awesome presentation.  He particularly liked Sasha, and was singling her out continually:  asked her to count the number of people on the tour, then asked her many other questions.  She was happy.  Nicolas love the trees, but he was a bit miserable, sneezing and running a bit of a fever (probably allergies).  His quote about the Grant Tree: “Its pretty tall, man.”  I think it is the size of a football field.  Next, we drove to the panoramic point and walked up a short hike to a stunning vista of the Kings Canyon.  Nick was definitely sick by that point.  We then drove down the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway, a twisting and turning mountain road that climbed and descended steeply with wonderful views all around us. A young bear crossed the road at one point. Our stop on the road was Kings Canyon Lodge, where we got lunch in a pretty authentic setting, which included multiple stuffed animals (bears, wolves, etc) and the oldest operating gas pump in the United States (circa 1928).  They also had great hummingbirds.  Nick says: “pretty good place for the middle of nowhere.  Loved the bear skins.”  As we were waiting for our lunch, a real-life cowboy walked in, and mentioned that he works at the “Horse Pack.” We decided to go to that pack and get us some horses.  The pack is located at the Cedar Grove Visitor Center, which is almost at the end of the Scenic Byway.
The dudes at the pack were really relaxed, did not even require any of us to wear helmets: I insisted on helmets for the kids.  We each got our own horse (even Sasha) and traveled for well over an hour around the Canyon: an unbelievable experience.  Lots of dust, stunning vistas of the mountains, a brook running below us, totally awesome! The kids got really tired by the end, and we had a scary moment when Sasha’s horse started running and jumped over a fallen cedar tree.  Sasha almost fell down but hung on… We were breathless for a second.  Anna’s horse (Bandit) was totally idiosyncratic, veering of the trail constantly, and stopping to poop. She then ran fast to catch on, scaring Anna quite a bit.  We were all completely exhausted when we got back, and drove to the visitors center to buy some treats for kids (and a Sophia Coppola Claret for later on: great wine!). 
From there, we hiked to the Roaring River Falls (awesome, should’ve jumped in if I weren’t so tired), and then to the Muir Rock.  The rock is really a platform for jumping into the river, Nick and I had an awesome time jumping in.  Sasha and Anna had a grand time relaxing and swimming at a nearby beach; I actually got Sasha to jump from another rock further down the field (had to tread the freezing water for about 10 minutes while talking her into jumping; drugged her down by the arm in the end).  Meanwhile, Anna made friends with a large family from Texas, all very beautiful people.  They gave us some tips for tomorrow’s Sequoia Park.
A gorgeous drive back (Anna was driving, so I got to enjoy the scenery), including a brief stop at the Junction Point lookout. Got some cheese at a camp store, made dinner by the fire and consumed some claret.  Some young deer came right to our campsite. We are now enjoying the fire in complete darkness.  Nicolas says he is very happy.  Anna is asking me when I will finish the blog, I guess I have to go to participate.

Friday, August 1, 2014

Woke up in the middle of the night because Nicolas was muttering , “I can’t sleep next to this pig, it is snoring so much…” The problem is, he forgot that Anna and I switched places, so he said that to his mom.  That was a point of lots of jokes between us throughout the day. 
I made up the itinerary in the morning, but when we checked it with the ranger at the Sequoia NP, he suggested we scrap most of it and do the all-day hiking trip instead.  We followed her suggestion, bought the map, loaded the backpack, and trekked almost 10 miles during the day.
We started at the Sherman tree (the largest in the world!), and then moved down the congress trail, meeting many giant trees along the way.  It was hard to believe that these trees actually exist.  Then we took the Trail of the Sequoias, loosing most of the people along the way.  Sasha and Nicolas did pretty well along the long trail, Nick climbed every fallen sequoia he could find.  It was also fun to see The President sequoia, Nicolas has a picture of it on the wall in his room. From there, we hiked to the Eagle View (beautiful), then down to the Log and Crescent Meadows.  We were so tired by then that we took the Shuttle to the Moro Rock.  Moro Rock was rather strenuous, too, lots of stairs up the steep rock to see the views of the entire valley.  It was a great hike, we were happy we did it.
In the afternoon, we spent some time at the Lodgepole center, eating ice cream and pizza, and then drove to our campsite where we took a dip in the creek.  Pretty good dinner in the evening, except for Nicolas stepped on the baked potato (I dropped it on the floor because it was so hot, and he promptly stepped on it).  Lots of screaming at Nick at first, then we were laughing. And remembering his morning note about sleeping near the pigs!

Saturday, August 2, 2014
Transition day: woke up in Sequoia, went to bed in Yosemite. 
Our first order of the day was to take showers for the first time in several days; we stopped at the nearby lodge, but Sasha deemed the showers too dirty for her and refused to wash.  The rest of the crew had an awesome time at what seemed to be a really cheap rate of $4 per 10 minutes.  We left Sequoia and got into Fresno, where we did ate at a Mexican restaurant while Anna did the laundry.  Stopped at the fruit stand, where I dropped the watermelon and we had to eat it on the spot (delicious). By the time we got to Yosemite, it was already 5 pm, so we just parked in the Yosemite Valley and walked to the Visitor Center.  Everything was closed, but random people told us it has been a really hot summer and all the waterfalls have dried up.  Bummer.  We could not believe the number of people in the valley.  Really insane after the sparse crowds in the Kings Canyon.
Next, we drove to the Stanislaus National Forest to our campground, Diamond-O.  Really pretty drive, great campground so far.  Russian family next to us, Sasha is playing with their seven year old daughter. Overall, a good transition day, showers and laundry.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Woke up late (7 am) and got a machete from the Russian next site over.  Loved chopping the wood; took some selfies with machete awesome. Then we drove for two hours through the Tuolumne Meadows of the Yosemite NP.  It is a more remote destination than Yosemite valley, so  there were fewer people.  The Medows are in the midst of the mountains, so temperatures there dropped significantly, sometime to 45F.  The highest point we drove at was 9, 945 ft.  You can feel the difference in the air! 
First, we looked at the wild fires that are raging in Yosemite… really strange sites.  Then we stopped at the Olmsted Point; Nick and Sasha found really nice hiking trail around it, and we enjoyed the scenery, which included the view of the Half Dome.  Afterwards, we drove to the Pothole Dome, and hiked for an hour to the top of the rather steep granite (probably 200 ft vertical).  Beautiful views.  Our next stop was at the Soda Springs, a unique place where the water bobbles up in the orange soil.  We tried the water, and it tasted like mineral water (Sasha says it tasted metallic & then like soda, Nick is “just saying” he was the first one to try it).  Afterwards, we continued on our way through the Tioga Pass into the Lee Vining.  We ate lunch at the Mobil station, which was supposed to be the gourmet restaurant in this town, recommended by Lonely Planet.  It was way overpriced and moderately good.  However, they suggested that we drive to the South Tufa National Park, on the shore of the Mono lake.  
Mono Lake was awesome .  Felt like we were on another planet.  There were hordes of flied that migrated under feet (Nick and Sasha played with them for a while), strange looking tufas (underwater formations that became visible with the lake level descending); and afterwards Anna and I swam in the lake (Navy beach); the lake is 10% mineral, so it was very buoyant and really pretty, too.
Afterwards, we drove for two hours back to our camp, bought the local wine and consumed it with the local corn and tomatoes.

Monday, August 4, 2014
Woke up at 7 am and took a dip in the nearby brook, a blissful experience.  Love the Diamond O campsite!  By the time family woke up, I had plenty of wood for burning and 2K steps on my FitBit. 
We drove into the Yosemite Valley and decided to park in the visitor parking and take a shuttle.  Our first trail was the Mist Trail, which is probably one of the most popular in the Valley.  We hiked with hordes of people up to the Vernal Waterfalls, but then decided to continue to the top of the falls, which was a pretty high elevation gain.  Kids did really well, Sasha was running in front of us.  The falls were amazing; we ate lunch near the lake that precedes the waterfalls,  took a short nap in the sun, and then Nick and I ran down the mountain.  Sasha and Anya took their time coming down, so we waited for them sleeping on a bench.  We then took a shuttle to the store (ice cream for kids, coffee for A. beer for me), spent some time in the museum, got Sasha her Jr. Ranger badge (awesome book for Jr. Rangers, she loved completing it).  
Afterwards, we traveled to the Tunnel View point, and then to the Glacier point.  The Glacier point was simply incredible.  Really hard to describe the beauty.  I’d say this is the highlight of the park.  We were right in front of the half Dome, on the level with it, with the whole valley in front of us…. Really beautiful!
Drove back to the campsite and burned all the remaining wood we had over mac and salmon and local wine.  A great day, our last day of camping! San Francisco tomorrow.  No more Big Agnes tent  for a while. 

Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Woke up at 7, gathered up the camp and drove to Hetch Hetchy, the most remote area of the Yosemite. It was awesome, again.  Especially for Nick and I, since we just saw the “Dawn of the Planet of Apes,” which included scenes shot in the park.  Nick and Sasha roamed around pretending they are Apes, and we had fun hiking around the reservoir, which actually serves as San Francisco’s main water source.  Fittingly, we then drove off to SF.  Stopped at the fruit stand in the town of Oakdale , the guy told us they have the best ever deli (Ferrarese’s Deli) for lunch.  We waited for half an hour for our sandwiches, but they were truly incredible!  Esp. the grilled mushroom melt on the sourdough bread.
We got to SF around 4:30, checked into our hotel and went out for a stroll around the town.  It is so different to live in a luxury (read: take a shower and stay in a hotel) after so many days camping.  We took the tram to the Fisherman’s Wharf (Sasha and Nicolas were hanging on the standing seats), bought the sourdough bread at the Boudin’s bakery, bought a crab from the street vendor at the wharf, and then proceeded to a well-reviewed sushi place, which tuned out to be OK.  At around 9:30, we walked a mile to our hotel, which was quite hard for kids(& adults), we had a really long day!

Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Drove to the Golden Gate Bridge outlook and took some great pictures with the bridge behind us.  Then toured Muir Woods, a beautiful hike among tall redwoods.  Saw a Banana Slug and an Owl.  Then drove along a really winding road to the top of Mt. Tamalais (Mt. Tam); Anna got really car sick from riding in the passenger seat, and stayed in the car while I hiked to the top with the kids.  Unfortunately, Sasha fell on the way down, and scratched her hand and side.  Lots of crying, asked mom to ride with her in the back seat on the way down from the mountain…which made mom even more car sick, to the point where she had to stay in the car while we explored the Stinson beach.  I made a stop at the local fire station, where Sasha’s bruises were taken care of by several bored firemen (she loved it). Unfortunately, I forgot the swimming clothes, so we could not swim.  But we went to a nice beach shack for some fish tacos and carne asadas, and later on Anna joined us for lunch. We planned to go home afterwards, but the hostess talked us into going to Point Reyes National Seashore, and we were glad we went.  The light house was covered by fog, which swept in from the sea as if it was alive… but the Chimney trail (2 miles round trip) was magnificent, with views that are unforgettable. On the way back home, we stopped at the Marine Headlands, but the for was so bad we could not see anything.  So we drove back to the hotel, ordered some Thai food and went to bed at around 10:30.  Kids are still trying to fall asleep. 

Thursday, August 7, 2014
Went to walk on the Golden Gate Bridge in the morning; tried to go to Marin Headlands again, but it was foggy all over.  So we parked the car back at the hotel and walked through the SF: saw the “crooked street,” went up to the Coit tower, then down to the wharfs and into the Exploratorium.  It was an expensive but excellent museum, we had fun trying all the exhibits.  Had dinner at Pier 23, pretty good, then walked to the Ghirardelli Factory (not good, there is no factory, only ice-cream), took the bus home and went to bed late at night. Alcatraz tomorrow.

Friday, August 8, 2014
Woke pretty early to catch the tram to Pier 33.  Alcatraz was awesome, the audio tour was really informative.  We stayed for the ranger presentation about the escape of 1962, really exciting staff.  Have to watch “Escape from Alcatraz” when we get back home.   From there, we were ferried off to the Angel Island, where we had a tram tour.  It was a beautiful place, but the winds were really strong and we were really cold.  Great views of SF and the bridge; I was glad we got the tour that took us to both islands.
When we came back, we walked to the Pampanito Submarine and toured the impressive WWII boat.  Pretty cool, never toured the submarine before. Next, we went to the Musee Mecanique, basically an arcade consisting of the historical machines from the past century.  We had fun playing the pinball and watching the old Marilyn Monroe reels. 
Then we took the bus to the Chinatown and walked around in search of a perfect Vietnamese place (Imperial Sun), which we found.  Pretty incredible food, nothing like this in Boston. Then walked to our Boutique hotel, Beresford Arms, where Sasha proved that their boutique bathrooms are not a match for our needs.  Ready to sleep now.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Packed our bags and went to the Ferry Building to check out the San Francisco Farmer’s market.  Had awesome local food: ten oysters, smoked salmon sandwiches, Mexian Char Tamales and Crispy Beef Tacos, strawberries, ice cream, raspberry hard cider; Anna also waited for half an hour for the Blue Bottle Coffee, which turned out to be nothing special.  Walked back to the hotel, got the car and drove to Stanford.  Checked out the Rodin garden, the buildings and the museum.  Then on to the airport, and off to Boston we go.  Two weeks went by really fast, but it was awesome!