Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/schultkl/sets/72157634452254937/
DAY ONE (FRIDAY)
Snack (Jackson, CA): Starbucks yogurt, Guilty Indulgence cupcakes: peanut butter cup, rollo
Dinner (Groveland, CA): Pizza Factory, Hawaiian/Greek half-and-half split, but the Greek seemed much more like veggie?, root beers
Word of the day: Aquackaduct
Synopsis: Left Sacramento around noon. Very hot, so turned on a/c, which strained car engine and decreased acceleration.
We stopped at many random markers to take pictures. Traffic seemed light and the drive seemed pleasant, aside from the heat. Dawn felt anxious at my sudden deaccelerations and relatively risky driving habits to get some of the pictures--I promised I would attempt to drive safer and go from an intermediate safe driver to a first-class safe driver.
Mark twain cabin: just a mile off the main road; surrounded by a gate; looked briefly at a flyer announcing a home for sale
U-Knead-a pizza: we make-a, u bake-a
Pizza Factory: We toss em, they're awesome. Verdict: yum. Combo Hawaiian/greek...which seemed like a traditional veggie. Lots of root beer soda.
Gregarious, inebriated man talking with Amanda, the Yosemite Lakes front-desk clerk. Seemed demanding, to me, but Amanda later mentioned he reminded her of her grandfather. Grandfather or no, he started talking to Dawn and I felt like I wanted to protect her from unwanted advances. He said he wanted to go to Sawtooth Mountain Road, for some reason...Amanda said it was just a quarter-mile up the road, when it was really several miles. We requested site T-52, the upper tent site, but she initially gave us the gate code for the lower tent sites. The lower sites looked close to the river, but crowded, so we investigated the upper campground options. To my surprise, hardly anyone was around at the end of the camp sites, and so we successfully settled into site T52. (later, when I heard people yelling to each other in the bottom campground, and babies crying, I felt more relieved). I think Dawn might have preferred the lower tent sites, though...so perhaps it the future we will stay there. The front office had shuffleboard sticks, putt-putt golf equipment, a volleyball...but it was so hot I didn't think anyone would take them.
We went into Groveland and ate at Pizza Factory. On the way there, they have a signal which forces only one lane open at a time, while they have green rebar in place to repair a bridge.
We went into Yosemite Valley, a 30-45 minute one-way trip from Yosemite Lakes campground. We initially parked at Housekeeping Camp and went to the La Conte Memorial, where we heard an interactive John Muir presentation. Not the same John Muir as the Lee Stinson performance, I think, since this person had a fake beard. During the performance, a woman named Brook arrived and began exclaiming various reactions to the actor's stories. "My name is Brook; I'm named after a babbling Brook." She apparently had seen John Muir and couldn't help herself and needed to "see him." Eventually, she left, whether told to leave or not, I'm not sure. Another late-comer sat next to me and also interjected with many comments...but she seemed to have a bit more awareness of respecting the actors preference to speak.
After the performance, we parked at Camp Curry and walked around, looking at the Pizza Deck (Pizza Patio?), took a photo with the bear, used the bathroom, and explored the outside of the building, near the pool. A lot of people were milling about, some of them unaware of us in their presence, so Dawn and I felt a bit irritated. After this, we walked back to our car and drove to camp and fell asleep. We parked near the bathrooms and brushed our teeth and cleaned up, then drove down to our camp site. We stayed in the car with the parking lights on, planning out our next moves so as not to have to talk out in the open. Both of these worked pretty well, minimizing the stress of coordinating things in the dark. The air mattresses I had inflated didn't feel very full, but I didn't think to re-inflate them until much later. We used a small LED flashlight to light our quick change into pajamas. Then, we fell asleep under the brilliant stars. I heard a rustling noise the first night, a scrtch-scrtch-scrtch...it sounded like a small animal making a nest or eating something. Later that night, I heard two squirrels squeaking at each other. Otherwise, very quiet.
DAY TWO (SATURDAY)
Breakfast (Yosemite Village, CA): The Ahwahnee (splurge)--Dawn: apple flapjack with raspberry syrup and cooked apples underneath, decaf coffee; Kevin: breakfast buffet, orange juice
Lunch (Yosemite Village, CA): endless root beer float (after our float)
Dinner (Groveland, CA): Two Guy's Pizza (veggie), waters
Synopsis: Unlike previous visits, our neighbors on the first night were very quiet. They left with nary a noise before we even got up. Bliss. The day became bright around 5:00 a.m.. Birds began squawking right on the picnic table next to our tent. We arose around 8:30 a.m., showered, and got out of the camp site around 9:00 a.m., arriving at the Ahwahnee for breakfast around 9:45 a.m., right before it closed for breakfast at 10:00 a.m.. Dawn got an apple flapjack with raspberry sause; I opted for the breakfast buffet. We both enjoyed our choices--I had two plates, with belgian waffles, silver dollar pancakes, mushy "crispy" hashbrowns, eggs benedict, biscuit and gravy, cheesy eggs, and orange juice. We sat at table #54, near the window. Our hostess remarked all window seats ending in "4" seem to be near the window. Our server, Paul, waited on us with great attention. Our second server, Sara, remarked that she and her husband, who teaches rock-climbing in the Valley, live in Groveland and eat at Two Guys' Pizza, behind PJ's pizza. She's never tried PJ's, strangly enough, even though she works in the Valley during the week and lives in Groveland on the weekends. We spotted another friendly face, David, who Paul called an even older dinosaur than himself. : o ) After breakfast, we used the restrooms and walked around the Ahwahnee, taking some pictures and visiting the gift shop.
From the Ahwahnee, we parked at Camp Curry and walked back to the Raft Rental. We rented a raft after filling out the liability waiver, waited through an orientation, then hauled our raft to the water and began our float, which lasted from around 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Several boats had water canons, and they sprayed us successfully a few times before I returned fire with water spray from my oar. We floated past many people enjoying the beaches of the Merced River. A number of people swung from a rope into the water--one had a GoPro helmet cam. We saw a coyote cross the river in front of us. A baby duck nibbled on Dawn's toe, which impressed her greatly. We briefly anchored in the shade and I felt tired from the heat, so I attempted to take a nap, but it proved impossible. The underside of one of the bridges was covered in a multi-colored chalk drawing. The float cost $60 or so, $30 per person along with a $5.50 shuttle return service...I think this was refunded if we returned our life jackets. We saw one young boy struggling with the current before his older caretakers rescued him. Dawn and I saw one man standing in his navy blue underwear (it looked like briefs?) along with his girlfriend, who wore a bikini. We briefly beached the raft and took pictures. Whenever Half Dome or Yosemite Falls came into view, we took pictures. It's just a really nice way to see the Valley. Dawn remarked several times we should live next to a river so she could raft down it more often. : o ) We both paddled fairly randomly; I paddled more strongly on my side, as Dawn's side hurt. So, navigating the raft proved a struggle, but we managed to move relatively efficiently when we both put our oars to it. We're both novices, but improving. We saw fish floating by under the water a few times, just as we had in 2007. Dawn and I both took our shos off and we dipped our feet into the water. This, unfortunately, exposed unprotected areas of skin to direct sunlight for multiple hours, which led to lobster-red burns on Dawn's skin above the knees and the top of her feet. : o ( Lesson learned.
The shuttle bus took a while to arrive, so we listened to the raft return assistant's musical choice: Pearl Jam's album Ten. When the shuttle bus returned, we boarded, then watched her beep her horn at multiple cars going in the wrong direction. Eventually, everything got straightened out (in one case, a park ranger assisted).
After the raft float, we walked to the Peet's Coffee at Camp Curry cafeteria and had a root beer float. We gorged. We then took more pictures with the stuffed bear. On the way to Yosemite Village store, we passed a ground squirrel chirping. We walked to the store, taking more pictures of half dome, and walking right next to a feeding female deer. We purchased a gift for Lanna (pine needle and pine cone earrings), used the restrooms, bought a Tuolumne Meadows and Wawona map, then walked back to the Ahwahneed and purchased a gold leaf necklace charm for Dawn. We took the shuttle back to Camp Curry, drove to Groveland, ate a veggie pizza and watched AFL football (San Jose Sabercats beat Utah Blaze), then returned to camp. We had new adjacent campers, a couple of men who liked to talk.... They, for the most part, seemed respectful, but they got up around 7:00 a.m. and talked as though we couldn't hear them. Dawn and I walked in the dark with a flashlight to the bathrooms to brush our teeth. This evening, it sounded as though a group of some people were yelling about something like a soccer match, perhaps. Strange. As with the previous night, we found it hard to sleep oun our sides, but we managed.
DAY THREE (SUNDAY)
Breakfast (Groveland, CA): Country Store gas station--Dawn: bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit; Kevin: foccacia with braised veggies and raspberry vinaigrette, rice krispie bar (breakfast of champions)
Lunch (Tuolumne, CA): Tuolumne Meadows Grill: Dawn: chicken sandwich; Kevin: grilled cheese, veggie chili, split fries with Dawn (veggie chili was to die for)
Dinner (Wawona, CA): Wawona Hotel pre-dinner cocktails--Dawn: Polka Dot Sweet Riesling; Kevin: Paul Dolan organic chardonnay; dinner--Wawona’s House Made “Locally Raised’ Turkey Meatloaf, Garlic Smashed Potatoes, Grilled Onion Gravy (split), Merlot, St. Francis, Sonoma
Synopsis: We slept in a bit longer, broke our tent and put away our gear, then drove up to the bathrooms and showered. This worked out pretty well (showering after taking down the tent). We ate breakfast at the County Store gas station near our campground: foccachia and braised veggie sandwich with balsemic vinnegrete for me, and a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit for Dawn. We also split a Rice Krispie treat bar. I cleaned off the windows of the car, which had streaks and had proved troublesome from the day before when driving into direct sunlight. We drove straight to Tuolumne Meadows, a breathtaking drive full of granite and pines, ascending to 8,000+ feet. We eleced not to take the shuttle bus from Olmstead Point, and it turned out fine. At Tenaya Lake, we stopped and I swam, while Dawn waded. We built a tiny cairn, skipped stones, and took pictures of Dawn with purple lupins. As I had soaked my cotton shorts, I swiched out to my swimming trunks (heh) and put the shorts in the back window of the car to dry...which they did quite efficiently. We continued to the Tuolumne Meadows visitors center, using the restrooms, refilling water bottles, and looking at a yellow-bellied Marmot plush which Dawn liked. We then headed farther east to the Tuolumne Lodge, which did not really have much of interest to us. We drove back to the Mountaineering shop, wher Dawn found a gold and rust colored pullover (North Face?). She liked it, but the Men's Medium did not fit well...too big. We then parked at the Visitor's Center again and walked to Soda Springs. No mosquitos this time! I tasted a small bit of the water from a tiny bubbler. It tastes almost like normal water, but it has just a bit of mineral taste to it. We walked into the Parson's Lodge, which has connections to a man named Parsons who has connections to the earliest days of the Sierra Club and John Muir. We used binoculars to spy on a ground squirrel or two, including baby ground squirrels. A very pleasant experience...much different than the mosquito-infested fall day from about ten years ago. We returned to the car, drove to the Tuolumne Grill and ate: grilled cheese, veggie chili, and fries (me); chicken sandwich and brownie (Dawn). As we ate on the outside, shaded picnic tables, we overheard a Pacific Crest Trail through-hiker describing how she had lost 10 pounds in the desert during the first week and was struggling to eat enough (she said maybe 3,500 calories per day). She mentioned she had some heavy carries (water?) through some of those days, and had walked for a few weeks with blistered feet. Her neck looked blistered and raw from sunburns. The people she talked with seemed shocked at her cavalierness, especially when she said she planned to get through Oregon with nine 50+ mile days. After hearing their incredulity, she hedged a bit. We shared a table with a guy who was waiting for the YARTS shuttle...his friend came out and gave him some IPA (yuck) while his friend had chosen a Coors for himself. The first guy teased him by saying he should go back in and make a better choice (instead of the Coors, hehe). Dawn and I then left Tuolumne Meadows and drove a long two hours or so to Wawona, stopping briefly at Tunnel View to take photos.
At Wawona, we checked in. The lobby front-desk employees wore soaked hand towels to stay cool. We asked about upgrades and were told none existed. Later, they sold out. We checked into our room, #219, in the main building. Got ice. Headed downstairs and got two glasses of wine: a Riesling for Dawn and a Chardonnay for me (Paul Dolan?). We read a bit of Garrison Keilior's "Tales from Lake Wobegon", then headed outside for a bit of a walk. In the Annex building, a wedding party was blasting Gangnam Style and Def Leppard. We came back to the Main Building and decided to split a dinner of Turkey Meatloaf with a glass of Merlot. The little bread and onion breads tasted delicious, and we ...I ate two baskets of them. The meal was great, though we stuffed ourselves and I later had to go get Dawn some Sprite from the front lobby. The room #219 had a single queen bed and a dresser and an adjustable mirror over it. The ceiling fan at full speed helped cool things a bit, but not so great. No A/C, no phone, no sink or bathroom. The bathroom/showers are just down the hall, look quite new, smell of fresh paint, and have new shower fixtures. The staff all performed quite amicably given the heat. The person refilling our bread and water said his grandfather told him to always give 120% in whatever you do. After eating, we retired to our room and attempted to relax from stuffing ourselves silly, while beating the heat by keeping our window open and letting in the cool night air. Pretty much keep the heavy curtains open.... They have wifi, only in the Annex over the golf pro shop. Walking barefoot alone along the veranda in the cool night air is a pleasant memory. I did not find the walls as paper-thin as I had expected...but having the windows open really kills most expectations of privacy. The bed and pillows are comfy, especially compared to a tent experience. The front desk night staff member went out of her way to get a Sprite, even though she couldn't sell anything and the bar was locked. THey shut down the front water fountain after dark. Sitting on a veranda with a drink seems about as nice as it sounds. It's a very unique experience here, and it has its charms (and its creakiness). Dawn seemed happy. Stayed up lote capturing thoughts and notes from the first few days...before they get away permanently. : o )
DAY FOUR (MONDAY)
Breakfast (Wawona, CA): Wawona Hotel dining room--Dawn: pancakes with blueberries, defaf coffee; Kevin: french toast with nuts and powdered sugar, fruit compote, fried, cubed potatoes, orange juice, regular coffee
Lunch (Wawona, CA): Wawona General Store--Dawn: Snickers bar; Kevin: strawberry trail mix, Butterfinger ice cream bar
Dinner (Groveland, CA): PJ's pizza and cafe--ranch chicken with one-half substituting black olives for the chicken, root beer
Clinking of bottles around midnight as Wawona staff collected the recyclables. A delivery truck beeped into position around 6:00 a.m., ignoring the sign to consider guests and not arrive until later in the morning. I decided to take a shower again, to shave and put my hair back into place, as it explodes into all sorts of unruly tufts each evening. We went down for breakfast around 8:00 a.m. and the host informed us of a 15-30 minute wait, handing us a wireless notification device. We walked out onto the veranda and relaxed in a wicker love seat. When seated in the dining room, our waitress Ilene let us know she came from the Minneapolis area. She noticed our "magic" breakfast coupon, which we received as part of our room package. She seemed to take a liking to us, and gave us a free fruit compote, and did not charge us for a side of potatoes I ordered...which was good, snice the deep-fried, fast-food smelling cubes tasted awful and I had hoped for hashbrowns. Dawn had pankcakes with blueberries, while I had french toast with nuts and powdered sugar and orange juice. We both took coffee--Dawn decaffeinated and regular for me. After breakfast, we gathered our things and checked out, using our $250 in gift certificates. The total cost, including the previous evening's cocktails and meal, the room, and the morning breakfast, came out to $270...so we only ended up paying $20! After checking out, we strolled over to the artists cabin, just to the north of the main fountain. A number of National Park Service carpenters were sawing wood and working on scaffolding, though I'm not sure exactly what they planned to do. Inside, we saw a number of reproductions of Mr. Hill's paintings, including one enormous painting covering the entire wall (including the frame). I noticed a book of illustrated wildflowers for $100 (normally $125). I also noticed a book on people who had died in Yosemite. In the adjacent room, I noticed a utility closet door ajar, and so I peeked inside. On the circuit breaker box, I saw a weathered note explaining that staff should throw breakers "7, 9, and 11" ... apparently throwing the others runs the risk of turning on the Halon fire suppression system! Wow. We exited the artist's studio and felt the 10:00 a.m. heat already quite unpleasant. A sign near the front of Wawona had noted a high of 100 F for the day. After some discussion, we decided to head to the Mariposa Grove and look at the giant sequoia trees. We parked initially at the general store and purchased more Aloe Up lotion for Dawn's feet, which looked even more red than the day before. We then attempted to drive up to the parking lot. As we approached the Wawona golf course, a number of saddled horses and riders crossed the road, momentarily halting traffic. I stopped in the shade well before the horses, putting on my hazard lights; another car, possibly thinking I was stalled, began to go around me, then saw the horses and swerved back into my lane. This semeed to trigger Dawn's protective instincts and she exclaimed, "There's horses!" to the driver behind us. After the last horse crossed, we continued to the southern gate of Yosemite Park, where a number of NPS staff turned us around, telling us the lot at the Grove was full. We returned to Wawona, about four miles, and parked in overflow parking near the Wawona horse stables. Taking plenty of water, we attempted to pet the horses--one cooperated, one mildly bucked it's head when Dawn attempted to stroke its nose. We found a dollar bill on the ground near the entrance to the corral on the other side of the horse barn, leaving it in the gate for the woman caring for the horses. The smell of hay reminded me of the hay loft on the farm where I grew up. We walked through the historical park, eventually reaching the shuttle stop. The bus appeared momentarily and we had a quiet ride to the top. We visited the Grove's gift shop, noting they sold a Sequoia National Forest tee, strangly enough. We walked slowly in the heat to the Grizzly Giant, bypassing a number of the tourist attractions which we had seen a number of times before. At the Grizzly Giant, we turned and followed a sign assuring us a 0.6 mile walk to the Faithful Couple tree. After a not-unpleasant but unexpected 0.7 mile walk, we discovered ourselves still 0.4 miles from the Faithful Couple tree. Weird. We finally reached it and took a follow-up picture of us to match our picture from 2007. Per Dawn's feet and the heat, we proceeded back down the asphalt road to the entrance. While walking, we had the pleasure to hear a number of thunder rumblings in the distance. Near the entrance, we also heard the somewhat unsettling noise of a redwood tree crashing, somewhere out-of-sight but close. The trip back to Wawona on the shuttle bus was relatively uneventful, with the bus driver attempting to get the front and back of the bus to engage him in trivia, to mixed results.
Dawn and I continued north to Yosemite Valley. About halfway, we encountered a Monaco motorhome spewing noxious black smoke from its tailpipe. It refused to yield in pullout lanes, even after horn beeps and light flashes. Eventually we gave up and pulled back...it pulled over, finally, near Chinquapin.
We reached Tunnel View and traded pictures with another couple...I felt nervous asking for a picture, but screwed up my courage and asked and everything worked out great. Feeling excited about the small win, I decided to retake my 2007 picture in the meadows on the valley floor. Not quite remembering the exact location, we ended up parking about a half-mile away, which, given the traffic on the exits to the valley, probably turned out relatively for the best. After getting the picture, we drove our way past hordes of tourists and headed north out of the Park for the last time.
We ate pizza at PJ's pizza and Cafe in Groveland, ordering a ranch chicken pizza with a substitution of black olives for chicken on one side of the pizza. This completed our pizza trifecta: Pizza Factory, Two Guy's, and PJ's. Of the three, while Dawn admits it hard to compare due to different pizzas each night, she liked Two Guy's veggie pesto veggie with artichoke hearts, followed by Pizza Factory's hawaiian, followed by PJ's ranch chicken. I liked Pizza Factory the best, followed by PJ's, followed by Two Guy's (I thought the Two Guy's pizza tasted great, but it seemed much more pedestrian and a bit boring).
We retraced our route on the way home, taking the New Priest Grade road, seeing all the markers we had stopped at just a few days earlier. We looked for the frog statue we had seen years before, but could not find it. One winery (?) we passed exclaimed, "Wine available--Finally!" A barbeque joint called Doc's Texas BBQ & Burgers in Sonora proclaimed itself the "best barbeque in California." The sunset looked magnificent. We arrived back in Sacramento around 9:30 p.m.
Kevin's word of the trip: hantavirus
Dawn's word of the trip: fluffy
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