mybigadventures.com

Dani woke up early and had a bath before waking me up. It was gone 8:30 AM and, with breakfast ending in half an hour, we hotfooted it across to the breakfast room. We stood in the queue for waffles before giving up as it was taking far too long (maybe tomorrow?). Instead we had some toast and I had a cold boiled egg, and then we had a couple of pastries. We also sorted ourselves out with a couple of teas. After breakfast, we gathered our things and headed off in the car to Yosemite National Park. It took longer than we expected to get to the park and we arrived at the parking for the main visitor centre after about an hour and a half.

We were given a map at the entrance and another at the car park information, and, after catching a bus from the car park to the visitor centre, we got a third. It wasn’t very clear where to start even with all the maps and having asked for information at the car park. Dani asked about the Yosemite waterfalls, but due to the dry weather both the main falls were apparently pretty dry. When we asked again at the visitor centre, the man was a little more helpful, directing us towards the Vernal Falls which involved hikes of different lengths depending on how far you wanted to go up.

It first involved catching one of the shuttle buses that run around the park. The shuttles take you to the main trail heads around Yosemite village. We caught the shuttle to stop 16 and when we got there we thought we better eat the crisps we were carrying, having read warnings about carrying food (due to bears). We also bought some chocolate cookies from the food kiosk and filled the water bottle from the water fountain. Finally, we got going on what turned out to be a much more strenuous walk than we had anticipated! It took about an hour and a half, walking uphill all the way, with a few stops for water and to catch our breath. We saw a little lizard darting about and a pretty impressive butterfly, and lots of little squirrels. Close to the top, when we were having a rest, a boy came past on his way down and cheerfully told as it wasn’t much further - we must have looked like we were on the verge of giving up (we were)!

And he was right! Minutes later, we arrived at the bridge and enjoyed the view of the waterfall, taking a few obligatory “we were here” photos. We sat around under the trees by the bridge for a while to recover before setting off back. We filled up our water bottle again and started the journey back, past a squirrel that was splattered on a rock looking knackered. It looked how I felt.

The walk down wasn’t too bad; certainly easier than going up. Once at the bottom, we joined the queue for the shuttle bus. There were loads of people waiting at the bus stop, as it seemed late, then three came at once: you know what they say about buses. So, we caught the bus back to the visitor centre. We got off at ‘Curry Village’, having spotted some deer from the bus. We took some pictures before heading to the gifts and grocery store where we bought Burt the bear, some Pepsi, a fridge magnet, a sew-on badge and a postcard.

We’d already decided that we wanted to go to Glacier Point next, via Tunnel Viewpoint. This involved a drive. And a much longer one than we expected, as it turned out! We stopped a couple of times along the way, including at Tunnel View, which offered fantastic views across the park. The car park at Tunnel View filled up shortly after we arrived, with a number of coach parties and we left just before we got blocked in by another coach. The drive to Glacier Point took much longer than expected, due to the slow winding roads, but we did see a wolf by the road on the way, which was fantastic. We stopped at a viewpoint shortly before Glacier Point which was pretty busy. Somebody offered to take a photo of us sitting on a rock against the panorama, which was nice. We also saw some more of the blue birds we’d seen earlier and took some more pictures before heading back along the winding roads.

From Glacier Point, our next stop was due to be Mariposa Grove, home to the huge Sequoia trees. Time was already marching on and we started to get concerned whether we would make it in daylight. Again, it turned out to be a really long drive (the park is massive); it took about an hour and a half and it was gone 7:30 PM when we arrived. The light had already started to fade so much that Dani had already taken a picture of the sunset just before we arrived. The trees were incredible, and absolutely massive. Disappointingly, they were fenced off to protect the roots, so you couldn’t get too close. We had a bit of a wander, and it was dark before we left to head back to Mariposa.

It took about another hour and a half to get back along winding hill roads. We went straight to a restaurant in town called the Charles Street Dinner house. It was very nice; I had fettuccine and steak and Dani had honey barbecue baby back ribs. Again, the meal came with a side salad and also some very nice garlic bread. It was all very nice and cost $75, including tip. Back at the hotel, we had a quick look at photos, but the Internet was going too slowly to be any use, so we went to bed, ready for our road trip to LA tomorrow.

So not much of a lie in; we woke up, around 7 AM, ready to start the day. Despite the early wake-up we didn’t leave the hotel until 9.30 AM. We decided today that we would do a walking tour of San Francisco, to check out some of the main sites. We started by heading over to Union Square. It’s about a mile from the hotel, so it took about 20 minutes. We both wore jeans today as it was pretty cool out and I was wearing a jumper, and Dani, a coat. At Union Square, we headed into Macy’s department store to get some breakfast from the in-store Starbucks. I had a cup of tea and a chocolatine and Dani had a cinnamon roll with a vanilla latte. It was $11, which we thought was okay. After breakfast, we had a look at the cheesecake factory on the top floor (Rhi had told us about this). We didn’t have any cheesecake, but we had a look out from the balcony over Union Square and took some pictures. We didn’t spend much time looking in the shops, but we did see a flat pop-out tram (the pieces pop out and slot together to make 3-D model). We didn’t get it but thought it might make a good present for someone.

We headed out from Macy’s to start our walking tour. First, it took us through Chinatown. It was really colourful; there were people playing traditional Chinese music and at one point, a van pulled up full of watermelons, which was quickly surrounded by lots of people. Next, we headed up to Lombard Street (the most crooked street in San Francisco). I think it’s because the incline is much too steep to be straight, so it wiggles all over the place. It looked really colourful, with big hydrangea plants planted all the way up. There were lots of people taking photos - including the people in the cars, driving down! There was also an amazingly vivid pink bougainvillea growing up a striking blue house, which was stunning.

We trekked up the 250 odd steps and admired the views for a while. From there, we headed to Fisherman’s Wharf. We had a wander among the historic ships and then went to Pompeii’s Grotto for lunch. I had a clam chowder in a sourdough bowl and Ben had a BLT with fries - with a local beer each, called Anchor Steam. It was really nice - about $35. It was starting to get sunnier as we had lunch and the mist seemed to have cleared.

We carried on walking along the wharf, stopping off at Pier 39 to look at the local sea lion populace. We then headed up to Goit Tower, up a great many steps - we had to ask two different people how to find our way up, as it wasn’t marked. So, exhausted and hot, we admired the views when we got to the top, although it took us a while to recover from the climb! We decided not to go up in the tower itself - the queues were epic and the observation level seem to be enclosed in glass, so we weren’t bothered. Wandering around the outside, we saw a hummingbird - quite exciting!

From there, we headed back towards Union Square. We were going to get an ice-cream on the way, but didn’t see anywhere. We were getting very weary and were keen to find somewhere to sit! On the way up to Starbucks in Macy’s, we had a look at the pop-out tram, but it was $14 which seemed quite expensive (it’s by some designer). Once in Starbucks, we discovered it was packed - no seats and people standing. We tried a couple more Starbucks that were nearby(they are quite literally on every corner!) before settling in an Irish pub. We had a couple of drinks, which were surprisingly expensive ($7 for a pint!)

We had a look in our tourist booklet for places to eat, and settled on Lori’s Diner, which was nearby. It looked like a proper American diner, complete with a cut out car on the front! We sat at the counter next to some other Brits. You could see the food being cooked as we waited. Dani had a Lori ‘signature’ burger and I had a Big Bopper (bacon cheeseburger). We also had onion rings to share, and a couple of cokes. As it turned out, the portions were massive! I finished my burger, but Dani didn’t, and there were lots of onion rings left. It cost $40 with a $5 tip. From there, we headed back to the hotel, feeling shattered. We watched a bit of TV and looked at some photos before nodding off. Alcatraz tomorrow!

For our last day in Quebec, we had decided to explore the old town a bit more. Although we had already been to the citadelle, we hadn't had much time to look around the rest of town so we once we were up and ready we started heading up hill. We went to Tim Horton's first for some breakfast, geting an egg and bacon muffin with a hash brown - nice. We then made our way to St John gate which we climbed up to take in the view. Whilst up there, we saw some people in period costume below saying something was happening in 10 minutes. They turned out to work for the Artilary museum which is just by the gate, and were there to do a black powder demonstration. We stuck around to watch, taking a few photos of the gun shot whilst there, and then afterwards decided to check out the museum.

The museum was quite intersting with lots of information about the original fortifications that made up the city and later the work that was made to make the city more attractive. To improve the local economy the city started celebrating it's history as a fortified city early in the 19th century and it remains the only fortified city in North America, becoming a world heritage site in 1985. Leaving the main museum, we visited the separate site nearby that houses the old barracks. The barracks are currently undergoing restoration work, but there are 3 floors of rooms to explore inside. It was all quite interesting, and we found ourselves back outside just as they were about to perform the black powder demonstration again. After watching for a second time, we headed back up the ramparts and continued walking along eventually ending up back at ther Dufferin Terrace. 

On the terrace, we decided to have a look at the remains of the foundations of the old chatau which are underneath the terrace. Tickets were only $4 each so we headed on down. There is information boards explaining the different areas of the ruins and cases containing some of the archeological finds, again was quite interesting taking about 40 minutes to work our way through. Back up on the terrace we tooks some photos and grabbed a drink in the Starbucks. By coincidence, whilst getting the drink the starbucks, the barista asked if it was my last night and mentioned that there was going to be a fireworks show that you could watch from the terrace! After our drinks we headed back down to the hotel for bit before tea. We had tea at Buffet de L'Antiquaire, the place we had previously visited for breakfast. This time we had club sandwiches each with chips - there was a lot of it, but it was very nice, and good value. 

Later in the evening, we headed back up to the terrace for the fireworks, they were due to start at 10, and when we headed up just after 9 it was already really busy, we'd looked them up online back at the hotel and apparently they are watched by as many as 700,000 people. We had a great view of the fireworks, it was a great way to end our last night here! Got back to the hotel a bit before 11 and packed up our stuff ready for Boston tomorrow!