California Dreamin’
So gentle reader, it’s time for another travelogue! Can you feel the excitement?
(Sure we can, Bill. Tell us, tell us, tell us!)
OK gang, since you REALLY want to read one, strap on your safety belts and hang on. Here we GO!
It had been a few years since we’d been to California to see my brother Chuck, too long actually, so we got online, bought a couple tickets and waited until the selected date to roll around. Finally it was here and it was time to fly west to the Golden State.
Monday
Our flight was another early, early one – 7 a.m. out of Columbus, so we had to get up basically in the middle of the night. Up at 2 a.m., clean up, finish packing what we needed and then we were off to our standby breakfast place for that time of the morning – good ol’ McDonald’s drive through. Sipping our morning coffee and munching on some breakfast sandwiches we were on our way by 3 heading south. Got to Port Columbus before 5 a.m. and after a smooth check in and an expedited TSA check (still don’t know how they determine expedited) we were sitting at our gate waiting for our bird. On our drive down we noticed the huge moon in the sky. It was one of those times of the year when the moon was quite close to the earth and very noticeable. Very pretty!
At 7 we were in the plane ready to leave when we began watching a drama unfold. A man across the aisle from us was talking animatedly on his cell phone, waving his arms while he talked, and was ignoring the flight attendant who was telling him he had to turn the phone off for takeoff. She told him this several times. He finally called her a “jerk” and continued talking. The attendant went to the senior attendant and told her what was occurring. The plane then stopped its pushback and the senior attendant walked up the man on the phone and sternly said, “Sir. Do you want to continue on this flight or would you like to get off right now?” He looked at her and realized she wasn’t joking around. The phone was immediately turned off and he was as meek as a mouse the rest of the flight. Soon after that unfortunate scene we were taking off and enjoying a comfortable Southwest flight to Las Vegas and then onward to San Jose.
We called my brother upon our arrival who was waiting for us in the cell phone waiting area by the airport. He soon arrived and our luggage was quickly stowed in the trunk of his newer Kia. Since we were quite hungry by then, with the early start and the time change, he stopped at a Vietnamese sandwich shop in downtown San Jose that he liked and we enjoyed our first California food this trip. Then it was onward to Chuck’s place for some cool watermelon chunks, some catching up conversations and some relaxation. After going out for supper we returned and called it an early night. Jet lag was kicking in and we were all starting to nod off.
Tuesday
My brother did a great job with breakfast Tuesday morning with eggs scrambled with sausage, peppers, onions and cheese. Tasty! We then drove over to a Japanese garden in San Jose where we wandered around with the other tourists and took some great pictures. It was a very pretty place. Then off to History Park, which has 32 original and reproduction houses, businesses and landmarks highlighting Santa Clara Valley’s past. We wandered around there for a while checking out all the history and reading the descriptions of what we were seeing. While there we went into the Viet Museum on the grounds. It focused on the Republic of Vietnam and the war, the “boat people” and their quest for freedom and the Vietnamese Americans today. It was quite an interesting visit. Since there is a large population of Vietnamese in the area it was fitting that that museum was placed there.
Chuck took us to the Santa Theresa Golf Club for lunch. He plays there fairly often. Sandwiches and cool drinks were enjoyed on the veranda while we watched the golfers and the deer take turns playing the 9th hole. What a beautiful place.
We returned to the house and welcomed another of Chuck’s friends, Dave, who joined us for a while and then we adjourned to downtown S.J. again for supper. The restaurant Chuck wanted to try was closed – a Mexican place – so we looked around and saw another one directly across the street. Apparently this change in venue was meant to be as the supper was great over there! I had a remarkable “lingua” dish (tongue in Spanish) along with rice and beans. A cold Dos Equis Amber provided the liquid counterpoint to the spicy meal. Then it was back home for more conversation among the four of us and then off to bed.
Wednesday
This was our “drive to Yosemite” day. We ate a quick bite at home then hit the road eastbound. Judy and I had wanted to visit Yosemite on our previous trips but the sojourn never seemed to quite take place. We wanted to make sure it did this time. After a couple hours we were through the Central Valley and stopped at a burger joint in the gold country – Mariposa, which is the “gateway” town to Yosemite. The restaurant had a gigantic menu and it took many minutes to peruse and select our meals. I was wondering what I’d like to drink there when I looked out the window at the misty mountains. It was obvious. Sierra Mist! Then it was onward again. You could tell we were really getting into the Sierra Madre itself, as the road became very hilly with many twists and turns. After a while we passed the gatehouse to Yosemite (we had obtained a senior National Park pass earlier so there was no fee for us) and drove the remaining miles into the park. Soon we were in Yosemite Valley and checking into our accommodations, which were in Curry Village. We’d reserved tents there for our 2-night stay. They were canvas-walled with heaters, cots, a safe, a shelving unit and a chair. Quite spartan actually. Chuck stayed in one and Judy and I took the other. It was a gorgeous place with big trees all around and beyond the trees were the giant rock faces of which Yosemite is so famous.
Supper was in the Curry Village dining hall – a cafeteria-type place with pretty decent food. We enjoyed the dinner and the rustic atmosphere of the place. And of course we enjoyed watching the other people there with us who were a mixture of every kind of tourist you could imagine. I think I heard six languages just waiting in line for our food! Sort of a rustic cosmopolitan if such a thing exists. The fashions that our fellow Curry Village inhabitants wore ran the gamut from business chic (couldn’t figure that one out) to Euro-camper exotic to Oriental hiking clothes and the ever popular short shorts of the German dude. It was fun trying to figure who came from where!
In front of our tents were large, lockable steel boxes. We were informed that ALL food, ALL cosmetics, ALL etc. were to be put in the boxes and NOT left in the tents. This was to stop varmints from trying to get at the good-smelling stuff. One of the varmints they were referring to was bear.
I must talk about bears here for a minute, gentle reader. I knew Yosemite was known as a place where there were LOTS of bears and this fact was heavy on my mind for some weeks before our trip. I don’t know why, but I seemed to be quite apprehensive about bears during that time. And more so when I found out that Yosemite has between 300 and 500 of the rascals living there. So my joy at being at this remarkable park was tinged with some goosebumps about the local furry residents. I must report we did not see any bears and I’m a bit puzzled to report that I’m a bit torn about that. Very relieved that we saw none near our tents, but a bit sad we didn’t see any at all. My bucket list is still missing a large furry carnivore.
Another thing. Yosemite is incredible. You see awesome views almost in every direction and are struck by its beauty a hundred times a day. We were truly blessed to be able to enjoy this wonder.
We hit our cots fairly early this day, as we were tired. It may have been a bit because of the altitude or the long drive, but it was hard to be sure which. The cot felt pretty good and we employed the tent heater both nights, which kept the tent quite comfortable. The only downside was the necessary trek to the bathhouse to use the facilities during the night. This entailed getting at least partly dressed, putting on shoes and using the flashlight on the trail to the restrooms. For us old folks it seemed to be quite a chore. But the upside? No bears hulking in the darkness of the trail to the can!
At least none we saw!
It is supposed to rain tomorrow. Of course.
Thursday
Before leaving home our honorable and revered Congress in Washington was debating whether to shut the government down at the end of September. We were due to visit Yosemite 9/30 and 10/1. This Congressional decision would have closed all national parks including Yosemite. Right in the middle of our trip there. Due to some honorable wangling they decided to keep the government open a bit longer and possibly make the also honorable decision to close it in December.
So Yosemite was open this week. Good for us at least. Who knows about December.
After a decent breakfast in the big dining room we booked a valley tour that was to leave at 11 a.m. It was raining before that time, so the three of us bought rain ponchos for our tour from the local store. We’d seen the tour vehicle, saw that it was basically a flatbed trailer pulled by a truck and knew we’d need raingear.
It would be wet. Of course.
The tour went off as scheduled. Our tour director was a National Parks Ranger named Eric and he outdid himself in humor, intelligence and a vast knowledge of the outdoors, specifically Yosemite. He was asked many questions by the boatload of tourists on this tour and he was NEVER blanked, NEVER stymied. He REALLY knew his stuff! The tour was two hours and the magnificent features of this park kept revealing themselves over and over as we passed in and out of the trees. Eric would describe what we were seeing and fill us in on the history and the physical descriptions of the glory we were viewing. The rain was intermittent, so a lot of the trip wasn’t spent hunching over in the rain although there was a bit of that too.
The rocks and giant formations and cliff faces kept popping up as we rounded each bend in the road, each one more amazing than the previous one. Descriptions and even pictures only do a miserable job of showing off the almost indescribable beauty of the place. First-hand viewing is definitely a must. We saw many deer, a number of ravens and even a coyote nonchalantly walking in front of our tour truck. But no bears.
The two-hour tour seemed to fly by in minutes.
The rain picked up even heavier as we were departing our vehicle and we felt sorry for the 1 o’clock tour, which loaded up right behind us. They were going to get even wetter than we did!
We then adjourned to our tents and took a bit of a nap. Judy woke me later in the afternoon and said the sun was out. I gathered up my brother and we three drove up to Glacier Point. This is a high place overlooking the valley. It’s almost directly above Camp Curry, but the road to get to that place is over 30 miles long! Finally toward the end of the day we were up there on the south wall of the valley, 7,214 feet high and the view was incredible! We could see the big rock faces of El Capitan and Half Dome easily and many more of the huge rock formations. We took pictures and marveled at the sights. I chatted with an older couple who wanted me to take their picture. They saw the sweatshirt I was wearing (it was chilly up there) which had the name of a college in my hometown and asked if I was aware of the light opera that was performed in the summers there. I said I did and had attended 2 or 3 of them just the previous year. They responded by saying their son sang in those operas and had done so for a number of years.
What a small world this is!
We got back to Camp Curry just before dark and the rains started up again even heavier. Pizza was the main course for dinner and then it was back through the rainy night to our tents, crank up the heaters and relax. The night went by quickly.
Sometime during the dark hours Judy made the trip to the showerhouse. She almost kicked a raccoon, which was passing by right below the steps to our tent! Don’t know which one of them was the most startled!
A side note. It hadn’t rained in Yosemite since July. Figures.
Friday
I went to the showerhouse not long after sunrise and almost walked up to a deer, which was placidly chewing on a pine bough right in my path. The doe slowly moved out of my path when I was about 4 feet from her. I looked up at the rock face directly above the showerhouse and marveled at the gleaming morning light, which blazed on the rocks overhead while I was down in the trees and the shadows.
A magical place Yosemite.
We grabbed some pastries from the camp store after our chilly showers that morning and started our drive back home. We drove the remembered twisty road back to Mariposa where we had a more formidable breakfast, then the long drive from there across the green and tan fields of the Central Valley and back to San Jose. Almost 430 miles were driven on this trip.
Supper was prime rib at a restaurant that Chuck likes, then another early bedtime. Old folks are just the worst, eh?
Saturday
Scrambled egg and sausage burritos were just the ticket for breakfast Saturday and we applauded my brother who was the cook. We spent most of the morning chatting amongst ourselves and then adjourned to the home of some other friends of Chuck’s – Steve and Jill. After reintroducing ourselves to the couple we piled into Jill’s car and she drove us “over the hill” (it’s what they call the coastal mountains) to Mott’s Landing on the coast. We ate at a well-known place called “The Whole Enchilada”, a nice Mexican place. Our meals were tasty and quite filling. As a side note I don’t think I had a single moment of hunger all this week that wasn’t immediately sated!
After the lunch she drove us a little ways to a beach they knew. I walked along the beach for a while, but not too long as it was quite windy and chilly and the surf was very heavy. (I was baptized by the Pacific when an unexpected big wave soaked me to the ankles. I always seem to get a bit wet on my California trips, on purpose or not.) Took some pictures and saw a dead seal on the sand – a truly unexpected sight.
Jill then drove us to Gizdich Apple Ranch for some dessert, which was Dutch Apple pie for this traveler! Mmmm, good! Then on the way back to S.J. we stopped at Solis Winery for some wine tasting. This was NOT an unfamiliar spot for Steve, Jill and Chuck as I later figured out. We tasted five wines, all decent, and Steve bought a bottle of the one we liked the best to take home. I’m not a big wine drinker, but they were all quite tasty. Apparently this is a big wine area there in the Central Coast area, perhaps you may call it a little Napa, and there are over 20 wineries close by.
We took our bottle of wine and headed back to Steve and Jill’s place. We proceeded to drink the wine and some beer that seemed to appear whenever someone was thirsty. Another friend from Chuck’s group named Randy showed up around then and joined the impromptu party that was going on. He was a genial guy of an entrepreneurial bent and was a big fan of Longboard beer. He provided his own brew too. We all gabbed and laughed for a number of hours.
My brother let me drive home as he had imbibed a bit too much to allow him on the California roads. Soon we were home and heading toward our beds to dream of beaches, tasty Mexican food and miles of wine grapes growing in the bright California sunshine.
Sunday
A nice breakfast at a busy place called “Just Breakfast”. Omelets with the locals. We went to the movies later that morning to see “The Martian” and enjoyed it a lot. Boston Market for supper and a quiet night watching TV with my wife and brother.
Monday
French Toast from the hands of Chuck was on the menu this morning along with some sausages. A bit later we drove up Highway 101 to a place called the Hiller Aviation Museum near Redwood City, about halfway to San Francisco. Randy (from Saturday night you might remember) and his wife Flo met us there and we wandered among the old planes for a while, chatting about our lives and experiences flying. We ended up in the nose of a 747 exhibit sitting in the old seats there and chatted with one of the docents at the museum. The old fellow told some flying stories and we all chatted about this and that for a while. It was a pleasant time. Soon Randy and Flo had to skedaddle to check in on one of their businesses and we three headed back to S.J.
Chuck made spaghetti that night and we all ate well. Judy and I packed that night and began getting ready for the flights back home on Tuesday.
Tuesday
A quick breakfast and off to the airport by 9:30 to catch a 12 noon flight. Our layover this direction was Phoenix where we sat around for several hours before the last leg back to Columbus. Finally, shortly before midnight Eastern Time we arrived back in Port Columbus. Then the long drive home through the deep Ohio night.
And so another fine trip is in the record books.
