5/24/14 -- San Francisco!

Dear Meghan,

Hello from San Francisco! Today has been quite an adventure in a completely new part of the country! Aidan and I are nearing the end of our road trip in the southwest, so we decided to come out of the woods and spend a day in the city. Aidan has been here a number of times before but it is my first time. I wanted to write you a letter because my only knowledge of San Francisco is from you.

San Francisco skyline in the distance!

This morning Aidan and I left Yosemite National Park or the forest near there where we had set up camp. We ate granola for breakfast because by this point I was sick of the oatmeal, packed up our camp, and continued west like the gold miners. When we got near San Francisco, the traffic got terrible! There were so many turns; states with more than three highways are confusing! Thankfully Aidan is a pro-navigator and got us into the city no problem! We came in over the San Mateo Bridge. We decided to take the BART into the city to avoid driving downtown. We grabbed a couple carrots and dashed for the train. We both have a good bit of experience navigating the subway system in Boston so we figured San Francisco would be no problem. Little did we know that you had to pay per stop. Thankfully we had enough nickels to reach our destination (there is a song in Boston about a man named Charlie who didn’t have enough nickels to get off the train so he had to ride it for ever and ever, and that’s why the subway ticket is called a Charlie card – I’ll show you sometime when you come to Boston). We were actually quite impressed by the luxurious BART system; the wide trains and forward facing seats were a nice change Boston’s rickety old system that makes me carsick. Dutifully, the BART dropped us off right in the center of town.

We got off at the UN/Civic Center and walked around the block to see city hall. Lots of people were out enjoying the sun and taking naps in the grass. Our plan was to walk down Market Street until we hit the water, but the carrots wore off too quickly so we decided to stop for lunch. We ate delicious hamburgers at the Super Duper Burger place and continued to the water where we joined throngs of tourists mulling about the market.

City Hall

The sun came out in the late afternoon and we spent most of the day by the water, which provided fantastic views of the bridges and city skyline. A few piers down we found the Exploratorium! There were lots of hands-on sciency activities, which clearly I would love and so we did all of them. There were wheels demonstrating the characteristics of sediments of varying clast sizes in the bay and model bridges that showed how San Francisco managed to build the world’s longest suspension bridge of the time. My favorite was an Aeolian harp humming in the wind. From there we continued walking and found Pier 39 with crowds and crowds of people. We skipped 39 and walked down 40 where we could observe the sea lions and tourists and Alcatraz from a distance.

Forever a child at heart...

How gravel moves through water

The cement block in this suspension bridge essentially separates
the bridge into two smaller suspension bridges, which allows
the bridge to withstand stronger wind and earthquakes as the
maximum amplitude of movement is decreased, making the
bridge more sturdy and safer to travel on!

A pretty skyline of the city

LOVE THIS

An Aeolian harp.  The wind vibrates the strings and the
disks amplify the sound!

A human sundial.  It actually was 2:30!

Sea lions on Pier 39

Alcatraz

After walking around the water, Aidan told me that he wanted to show me some bread so we went to a giant bread company that made lots of goofy looking sourdough bread. After that we went to the real store of interest: the Ghiradeli factory. Aidan and I got a cookie crumble sundae to go (I just made up that name) and then waited in line eating free chocolate samples for half an hour. Eventually we got our obscenely sized sundae and walked down to a park by the water to eat it.

The fancy Sourdough Bread company

Chocolate... yum.

I don't think he could actually fit it in his mouth...

By now it was nearing dinnertime, though both of us were thoroughly full of ice cream so we decided to walk up to Lombard Street and watch all the crazy cars drive down. From there we continued to Telegraph Hill to look at the Coit Tower and the scenic surrounding San Francisco area. We then came down the hill for a culture walk down Grant Street. We started in North Beach with all the cute little Italian tratorias and boutiques and then continued south through China town. I kept my eyes open for the giant bags of flat fortune cookies you always bring home, but unfortunately did not find any. We did find some interesting items including a kite store, fireworks, and tights that were 3 for $10, but didn’t purchase anything.

Lombard Street

The Golden Gate Bridge!

Coit Tower

A view of the city

Chinatown!

A really cool map.  Though missing the most important state!

Anxious to get closer to the train stop before dark and with our tummies still full of ice cream we continued down Grant Street until we were just a few blocks from the station. There we found a restaurant called New Delhi with delicious Indian food. They had a sign outside talking about how they made their special bread. They slapped the dough right on the oven and if we asked we could see a demonstration. Of course we asked, but unfortunately they were busy and unable to let us see. Regardless, we still had a delicious meal and enjoyed an evening with real food and no dishes to clean by a campfire.

After dinner, we hopped back on the BART and caught the shuttle to our hotel. After a week and a half since our last showers in the Grand Canyon, Aidan was really stinky! The showers at the hotel were much anticipated and enjoyed. I am now ready to fall in bed exhausted. Tomorrow we are planning to drive a third of the way across the country, all the way to Salt Lake City. Hopefully there are some good radio stations on the way. We really enjoyed the day in San Francisco and already have a list of things to do if we ever go back.

I hope you are enjoying your summer and that I’ll get to see you sometime at home. Take care and God bless.

Your friend,
Emily

5/23/14 -- Yosemite Valley

Dear Alex,

I hope that you are enjoying Europe with your family or with Salim. I don’t remember if you are still travelling in Europe or if you’re on your way to places further east. Emily and I have been greatly enjoying our trip west. We are nearing the end. After tomorrow in San Francisco, we will head back east towards Colorado. I think we are both about ready for a break from living out of the trunk.

This morning, Emily woke up before me and cooked breakfast for us. It was kinda nice to have breakfast made for me for a change. We packed up a still wet tent from the rain last night, hopeful for an opportunity to dry it later. Leaving Wawona, we headed north within the park towards Yosemite Valley. This was a rather curvy drive so Emily took the wheel. I only get to drive the fun roads if Emily is asleep otherwise she has a tendency to turn a little green. I try to avoid that. We stopped in a packed parking lot just after the tunnel to take in the view of the valley from above. It was worth the hassle.

Yosemite Valley

Our first stop was Bridalveil Falls. Again, the parking lot was full of tourists, but we weren’t lucky enough to find a spot so we parked a little ways down the road. The falls is on the southeast so the lighting wasn’t ideal for pictures. The best spot was looking through a gap in the trees. So many people in the park have equipment that matches your dad’s or might even make him jealous. We don’t. Neither did the hundreds of middle schoolers. They also lacked hiking manners.

Bridalveil falls

We then drove to the visitor center. The entire valley is stunning. It was just about time for lunch so we picnicked in the shade. An inquisitive crow had apparently become trained that the throwing motion usually preceded loud noises and danger. All I had to do was bluff and he would flutter back a few yards. We put the food back in the trunk, hoping that any bears in the area would be scared away by the constant flow of people. Our car was not damaged. Emily walked very determinedly away from the way to the visitor center. After a few yards, I asked her where she was going. Her response was that she didn’t know, “the visitor center?” I got her turned around and we walked directly to the visitor center. I don’t know what she’d do without me. Probably take a lot longer to get places.

On the drive to the visitor venter

Yosemite Falls (I think)

Half Dome in the distance

We took the shuttle to the Happy Isles stop to hike to Vernal Falls. Even though we both were still a bit tired from our time on Whitney, we passed a bunch of tourists on the way up. We also saw a couple more falls in the distance. The Mist Trail is the way to Vernal Falls, but it also continues to the cables route up Half Dome. This is probably one of the most popular hikes in the park and requires a permit. We couldn’t get one. The Mist Trail is also the start of the John Muir Trail, which ends on the summit of Mount Whitney. We didn’t go that far this time.

This would be a great future trip!

Vernal Falls was well worth the climb up 600ish granite steps. It is wider than I expected. The mist off the falls reminded me of Rivendale (I threw that in for Ryan, but it really did). I’m not sure we needed to hike to the top of the falls. We were greeted by a Stellar’s Jay that was quite interested in our snack; not nearly as interesting as the man who assured us that “I’m not taking a pic of you. There is this really cool bird behind you.” Emily took a pic while I threw a rock at a squirrel. The dumb mammal thought the rock was food even after I hit it on the back…

On the hike up

A pretty (but dangerous) river

Below Vernal Falls! 

A Steller's Jay

The river is falling!

Emerald Pool

Going down

We managed to rest long enough to fall behind the middle schoolers who raced past us about 20 steps down. It was far safer to let them slip and slide down in front of us than behind us. At the bottom we hiked over to Mirror Lake by a little travelled trail. On the trail to the lake, we ended up behind a group of French students. One girl didn’t have a problem stepping in horse droppings. “It’s only ‘orse.” “Vell it is still ‘orse shit!” She wasn’t fazed.

I’m not sure we ever found the actual Mirror Lake. It has been filing in with silt recently and is now more of a pond. Wading across the sandy-bottomed stream was refreshing at first but quite cold by the time we had crossed. The hike offered awesome views of Half Dome. We tried to use the binoculars to see some climbers but weren’t successful.

Looking up at Half Dome

Crossing the "lake"

Half Dome

A beautiful reflection

Lupine

Surprisingly exhausted, we drove out of the valley as the sun was dipping lower. Emily drove the winding road to the Big Oak Flat entrance. We were stopped on the way out to show our pass. We thought it was locked in the glove box so we shut off the car to open it. The ranger let us get away with just knowing that the pass cost $80.

Heading out of the park

Highway 120 leads out of the park towards Groveland. It runs through a burn area with a ton of standing dead trees. Emily took this road to the campground. Our campground still had standing, living trees. We thought this was a blessing but it meant there were mosquitoes and poison oak.

The last campsite!

Compared with last night, starting a fire was simple. It lit itself! All I did was put some pine needles and small sticks in the fire ring. A few minutes into dinner, it was smoking. It leapt into flames not long after. Dinner of grilled Swiss cheese sandwiches and chicken sausage gumbo with shrimp ramen and green beans was followed by campfire brownies. Half a box of Ghiradeli brownie mix was too much. They may not have looked like “ ’orse shit,” but they had a strong resemblance to some kind of excrement. Thankfully, they tasted delicious.

Dessert!

Well, the mosquitoes are bad and the fire is dying. I should close. Enjoy your adventures further east. Try to avoid mosquitoes in the Philippines and the heat in the UAE.

Take care,
Aidan