Yosemite- Friday, July 14, 2006

We awoke in Hayward and were ready to go. I had locked our keys in the van the night before, but AAA paid for itself when we called them to help. Our poor van is taking quite a beating.

We grabbed breakfast at a coffee shop and went on towards the east in order to go to the West. Our first stop, after lunch at a Jack in the Box, was at the state park built around the town of Columbia. Columbia was a gold rush town, built in the 1850s. It was interesting walking up and down the streets, but most of the buildings seem to be housing little private businesses. That's ok, to an extant, but it hurt the atmosphere a little. We did all have a sasparilla (spelling?) in the City Hotel's saloon. Anna enjoyed dipping a candle to make it different colors.

From Columbia, we went on to Yosemite. Julie's nerves were getting frazzled on the roads to the park, but the views were great. When we got to the Yosemite Valley, we were all really impressed with the views. We had a little picnic lunch in view of Bridal Veil Falls, with El Capitan nearby. We searched for a good view of Half Dome. We had arrived late, though, and the sun was going down. As much fun as it was, we had to continue on to look for a hotel. We succumbed to temptation and spent the last few minutes of daylight in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia's. The trees were nice, but less impressive than I expected. I suppose we would have seen more if we had more time to explore the trails. In the end, the girls will probably remember the small deer that came very near to them during our time there.

We went on to find a hotel, and were stuck in a little dive that had cinder block walls, no carpet on the floor, and only a curtain to pull in front of the bathroom. It was clean, though, and was a place to flop.