Rachael in California!

Rachael finally made her pilgramage out to California last week with her roommate, Erin. Unfortunately, instead of being "Sunny CA", we are in the middle of a rainy season the likes of which have not been seen in 100 years. We had 2 days where it didnt rain the entire time: the day they arrived and the day before they left. Thats it. But we still managed to have a good time.

Day 1: Rachael and Erin arrive into the SFO airport. Unfortunately Amanda is feeling sick, so I pick up the girls by myself. Their plane arrives on time, but Erin's luggage doesn't arrive!! We are leaving for Yosemite this next morning at 6am, so after waiting an hour in line we tell the attendant we need the luggage delivered TONIGHT, and he says "We'll do what we can". After grabbing a quick bite to eat at the airport, we take off to see some sights (since this is the only clear day I was counting on). I take the girls to Twin Peaks, drive down Lombard street, drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, go up into the Marin Headlands, and finally drive back home. We have a low-key dinner at home, as I know they are tired and head to bed. Erin's luggage finally arrives at 12:30am.

Day 2: Yosemite, here we come! Amanda does not join us as she is still feeling bad, and we get on the road about 8am. The girls sleep the entire drive there. When we finally arrive, its cloudy, but the cloud ceiling is high enough to be able to see the Valley pretty well. Not as nice as when there is a blue sky, but the snow was pretty and the waterfalls were all running. We checked into our (heated) tent at Curry Village and set off on our first hike. We ended up hiking the length of the Valley from the base of Lower Yosemite Falls to the now full Mirror Lake at the base of Half Dome, stopping to admire the Ahwahnee. But around 5:00 the heavy rain started and we were pretty much stuck in our tent the rest of the night.

Day 3: Now for our big Yosemite hike. We check out of our tent by 8:30 and get moving. Unfortunately, it lightly rains ALL DAY. But we all have on waterproof cloting for the most part, so we really don't notice. We end up hiking to Nevada Falls via the Mist Trail (VERY Misty with all the water going over Vernal Falls) and then returned via Clark Point. The snow was about 2-3 feet deep, and made for an interesting decent.

We finished our hike and headed on home. Unfortunately, the park had other plans for us. While trying to leave, I hit a huge hidden pothole that destroyed the sidewalls of one of my tires. Absolutely no way to fix it and there are no replacement tires in the park. We ended up having to drive (very carefully) 70 miles to Merced in the rain through the mountains to find the nearest tire store. What fun!

Day 4: This day was a total washout. Not just rain, heavy rain all day long. The girls wanted to see wine country, so we drove up to Sonoma and hit 3 wineries (Gunlauch-Buncsh, Sabastiani, and Valley of the Moon). They ended up enjoying it much more than I thought they would!

Day 5: More rain! This time I decided to try and find a hole in the storm, so we drove south to Carmel-by-the-Sea. My plan worked for a little while, as we were able to do the 17 mile drive to see some Seals and Sea otters as well as some pretty coastline. We then had lunch sitting on the beach in Carmel (take-out sandwiches from the Pebble Beach market) with some hints of blue sky. Then the rain came down hard. The girls wandered around Carmel on their own, while I hunkered down in a coffee shop. We couldnt do Big Sur by this time because it was too foggy/rainy, so we headed home.

Day 6: Finally!! A Beautiful Day! I'm glad they got to see at least one typical day. In fact, it was a much better than usual day in San Francisco, so thats where we headed. After bundling up in coats all week, we donned the short-sleeved shirts and managed to get a sunburn. We took the train into the city (BART) and started off with the Ferry Building. We then grabbed the F-line over to Pier 39 for some exploration and grabbed a quick lunch. I had purchased some Alcatraz tickets earlier in the week, so we then did the tour there. Afterwards, we walked along Fishermans wharf, grabbed a Sundae at Ghiredelli Square, visited the Cable Car Museum, and walked through China Town on our way to meet up with Amanda in her office in the Financial District. From there we went over to Union Square for some shopping and dinner.

And thats pretty much it. Rachael and Erin grabbed their flights the next morning.