Yosemite

Another great day on this trip! Dad pulled us out of San Francisco around 7:00am and the girls got ready for the horseback ride through Yosemite Park and up to Vernal Falls. Mom took over driving in the park with the elevation increase and hairpin turns. The views were stunning! We arrived at Yosemite Stables in our best horse riding clothes. We had a 4 hour your and it was just us and two guides, Taylor and Ashley. Kevin rode Henry the awesome mule, Mom rode her main mule Isaac, Kayla had the beautiful white Uno, Callen had to slow and steady Buzzard and Colbie fell head over heals for a special mule named Jethro. We watched our safety video, saddled up and started on our ride. We rode through the hundreds of tent campers that seem to be in any available spot that would hold a tent, over bridges and near streams. Right when it was getting boring it got a little scary. We now appreciated our sure fitted mules as they were slipping on the rocks and jumping down the steep steps and taking the switchbacks up 1500 ft at their own pace. Not gonna lie, it was a little scary. We arrived at the top and realized the falls was another 700' up or so. Although we were carried up on mules, our legs were a little stiff and behinds a little sore. We set out to climb to the top of the falls. Daddy, Kayla and Callen went higher but Colbie could only make it about halfway so she and mom stayed back. They were steep, rocky stairs on the edge of the cliff so I didn't push her! We came back down, filled our water bottles and returned to our mule friends. We went back down the same way and it was just as scary. Mine headed off the cliff at one point and slipped and got spooked at another time but other than that it was fairly uneventful. The girls loved it, especially Colbie who cried and kissed Jethro goodbye when it was time to leave. After our ride, we stopped in the village for some pizza and saw a quick walk to Lower Yosemite Falls. We were supposed to drive 11 hours to the Grand Canyon but at 4:30 we know that wasn't happening so we vowed to quickly walk to the falls. When we reached Yosemite Falls there were giant rocks and boulders covering the base like they had been tossed there. Callen of course saw it as an awesome climbing opportunity. Off she went. Just one more mom until she was a small dot against the falls and rocks. Of course Colbie followed Callen, Kayla followed Colbie and I made Kevin follow all three. I hung back a bit to hold phones and take pictures. I still ended up climbing half way or so only falling in the freezing water once. We finally got them off the rocks and realized we were in trouble as it was now getting dark and we were still in Yosemite. Mom drove us out of the park and dad drove a bit after that. Mom took the night shift and we finally stopped at 3:00am and slept at a Loves truck stop. Good times.












































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Location:I-40 W,Flagstaff,United States

Good bye San Fran

Well we made the most of our last day in San Francisco. We got up and took Über to the North Vista of the Golden gate Bridge. We walked the 2.1 miles across the bridge which was really cool to most of us, a little scary to Kayla. When we got off the bridge, we had a little trouble getting over to find us but the second car finally did. He took us to Dragon gate in Chinatown via a quick drive down Lombard Street which was cool and pepped up our tired tourists. We arrived at Dragon Gate in Chinatown and we're ready for some food. The streets were strung with lanterns, the older men gathered around an exciting game of chess in the park and shops everywhere. It was especially exciting to go into a shop and have the lady say she had more purses downstairs. We walked downstairs and another lady moved some shelves and opened the door to lead us in to be fake purses. We all shopped successfully then remembered we were hungry. We walked a few blocks to an awesome Chinese restaurant. After lunch, we decided to start moms walking tour. We took a slight detour to the Golden gate fortune cookie company that was pretty cool. There were two ladies making the fortune cookies right there in front of you. You could put your message on a piece of paper and they put it in a fortune cookie for you. Enjoy the pictures, they cost two dollars to take!! We left Chinatown with purses, fortunes and full bellies and headed towards Nob Hill. We passed the cafe where Francis Coppala wrote the Godfather Screenplay then climbed to Telegraph Hill. We went all the way to Coit Tower via the Steps of Greenwich and were thoroughly winded. The streets of San Francisco are STEEP! It was about a 2.5 mile walk. We started walking back to Union square to end our day shopping and one of us was simply too tired. We had to call Über for the last mile. We finally made it to all of the shopping and stayed into the evening. We got our last Uber ride back and the reaction from the drivers when they find out we've come from Florida in an RV never gets old. They just can't believe it!
San Francisco is a beautiful city and we have enjoyed our time here.







































































-l Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Gilman Ave,San Francisco,United States

San Fran Day 1

We were up and atem pretty early but not as early as the rest of the city. Über picked us up and took us to market in Powell to get the streetcar down to the piers. The line was wrapped around the corner for the streetcar and we soon realized we weren't going to make our 12:00 Alcatraz Tour if we stayed. We glanced around at all the shopping and vowed to return later. We took a different cable car down to market and arrived with plenty of time for our tour. It was very crowded but we got on the boat to Alcatraz. It was very interesting to learn about the history of the prison and see it pretty close to how it was left. After our tour we walked along the water and visited the various piers. We found a nice restaurant on the water, but were disappointed to see one lone sea lion basking in the sun at Pier 39. For little guy, we didn't know if he got left or chose to stay! After the sea lion and the girls rode the carousel and found an aqua massage place on Pier 39. We decided to try and get the cable car back up since we missed it this morning and found the turnaround at the bottom. Dad waited in line while we went and found the candy store. Dad makes friends everywhere he goes! We made it onto the cable car and went back up to where we were that morning. The line wasn't that bad so we decided to ride it back down and check out Lombard Street. The sun was setting so we decided to call it a day and grab some pizza and burgers before calling our friend Uber to take us back to the RV.























































































- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Gilman Ave,San Francisco,United States