Floss religiously

San Fransisco

Friday

We got started on our big day in the big city around 9am. We looked up some google directions to the visitor's center in downtown San Francisco. It was on Market street. Despite what I'm sure were perfectly fine directions, we didn't ever find the visitor center, and instead wandered around some of the hilly streets.

Not really knowing what we were doing, whenever we saw other people standing around taking pictures, we went ahead and took pictures too. At one point, we found ourselves on some narrow, winding, steep brick road. Since other people were taking pictures, I took a few as well. I think it was called Lombard St or something. As it turns out, it's famous. (I ripped the first picture off wikipedia. The second is mine.)

Then we went to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was... well, it was a bridge that somebody painted red. We parked somewhere to the north and walked across. About half-way across, I told Amber that I thought I wanted 3 or 4 kids in a year or two...... And she threatened to jump. Then I decided on getting a dog instead, and she decided not to call whoever talks to you on the other end of the crisis phones.

The bridge didn't strike me as something particularly special in itself, a surprisingly short span, and remarkably flat for a bridge so storied--the Ravenel bridge in Charleston is certainly more of a challenge to traverse on foot. But the view is something to talk about, and it's quite high above the water below.

From there, we paid the $5 toll to re-enter San Francisco and we went to Fisherman's Wharf, but the parking was horrendous, and we had visions of El Capitan dancing in our heads. So we elected to leave the city and make our way towards the main event: Yosemite National Park.

Traffic was horrible. The radio traffic people routinely used terms like "The Tracy Parking Lot" to describe the less than speedy congestion that appeared to be accepted as normal. Places like that help me understand why anti-lock brakes are essential on modern vehicles. Our 4 hour trip turned into a 6 hour trip, but it gave us plenty of time to soak in the scenery. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like that part of Cali had a lot to show. Mostly just dead grass. Another hill, another curve, and another field of dead grass. My impressions of California are now that they basically build cities in the middle of desert, then harp about the necessity of conservation. No wonder they look like tree-hugging hippies to the rest of the US--conservation is a matter of necessity when you build large cities in the desert.

A few undesirable turns and a supply stop at Walmart lengthened our journey, but we finally found the twisties of the mountain roads.

9pm
At last, we arrived at the park and set up camp, warmed some canned soup for dinner, burrowed into our sleeping bags. Lows were in the 30s the first night, and I thought I was going to freeze, despite a sleeping bag and a jacket.