West Coast Cool

The morning after a great send-off supper with Deborah and her family, on 11 April Deborah dropped us at Tullamarine airport for our trip to San Francisco. After the short hop to Sydney and yet again enjoying the intimate body search that the US homeland security give you before boarding a flight to the US, we had the pleasure of a 12.5 hour flight.

After arriving at San Francisco we picked up our Buick Rendezvous SUV and then drove for about 5 hours to Wowona in the Yesomite National Park. A struggle to stay awake, but what a place.



We stayed in the Wowona Hotel, which comprises a group of clapperboard buildings with shingle roofs. It dates back to about 1880 and is the oldest of the three hotels in the national park. They have added few modern facilities, so the experience is quite unusual compared to modern hotels, for example the only telephones for public use are a few payphones behind the hotel.

Wowana is located in a valley which is 4,000 ft above sea level. We woke up to discover that it was below freezing point and there was fresh snow on the ground; quite a contrast to our 30+ degrees in Victoria a few days earlier!

After a hearty breakfast of corned beef hash, eggs, “Wowona potatoes” etc, we headed for the Mariposa Grove. This area and the Yosemite valley were the first two sights in the US to be protected, effectively given to the people of America. What a gift!

The Mariposa Grove is home to the giant redwood Sequoia trees, the scale of which is breathtaking. Apparently the Sequoias are the largest living organisms on this planet. I shall let the photos fill out this description.





After a thorough exploration of the grove and a chilly picnic, we returned to Wowona and explored the local area before drinks to the accompaniment of piano and singing from the resident crooner, Tom, who arrived in 1984 and never left! The hotel restaurant is packed every evening as there is no alterative source of food for about 30 miles.

After another sub-zero night we headed for Yosemite valley. Just stunning. It suffers from the fact that its major sights are within a few hundred meters of roads.



Even at this time of the year the place was full of people, but the scenery is spectacular. Again photos will better describe the sheer 1500 m face of El Capitan, which was first scaled only about 50 years ago and is said to be the longest sheer rockface in the world...



...to say nothing of the Yosemite falls...



...and the Half Dome…



We also visited the Ahwahnee Hotel and saw the room where Jack Nicholson sat, in the Shining, repetitively typing “too much work makes Johnny a dull boy”. We had chosen the Wowona Hotel because we thought from the photos on the national park website that the Ahwahnee looked “over the top” and gaudy, but having visited it we have revised our view and will stay there if we visit again.

After exploring the Yosemite valley, we headed for San Francisco. We stayed at a hotel just up from Union Square, the Chancellor. A good location but like many of the hotels in the area, the recent facelift could not disguise the fact that it had been built long ago.

Our first challenge was to get into San Francisco over the Oakland Bridge at Friday rush hour. Then we had to locate the hotel, sort the luggage and then locate the car hire drop-off location. With the usual wrong turns, failure to spot road signs etc, we managed to make it without too much incident.

Susan (who I had met with James in Hobart) and her husband Michael picked us up shortly after we arrived. They are both in the wine business and took us to a great restaurant, Bacar. Michael selected excellent French wine and we had a convivial evening, assisted by the wine, food and a shared interest with Michael of bikes. It was great to arrive to such a welcome and without the hassle of having to find somewhere to eat on a Friday evening.

Saturday saw us visiting many of the places recommended by Susan and Michael. It rained for most of the morning and we became pretty miserable wandering about in the wet, but we gained some protection from our first of many cable car rides that day; very entertaining. You can see why the city has retained this relatively inefficient means of transportation.



Having walked to Mammas for breakfast and been put off by the 20 m queue we wandered down to the water. The various chain eateries at Fisherman’s wharf did not attract, but we stumbled upon Pat’s Café in North Beach, on Taylor, which proved to be a welcome shelter and provided a great breakfast.

Our subsequent wandering took us to the Ferry Building and the Saturday market there, by ferry to Saucaleto and to Washington Square for a late lunch at Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store, which as Michael observed has nothing to do with cigars!

After another entertaining cable car ride back from Hyde, we returned to the hotel before dining at Farallon, another recommendation from Susan and Michael. What a fantastic place. Not only was it just around the corner from our hotel, the food was superb.

The following morning, Sunday 15 April, saw us wandering down Powell to the Bart (Bay area travels together!) station and catching the train to the airport, Chicago bound….