Saturday July 31, 2010

Willits, CA to Santa Rosa, CA - Tues 27/7 (Day 47)
Quick note about the overnight stay in Willits: The hotel we stayed at in Willits was themed! It was an Old West Inn and we stayed in the Post Office (we were disappointed not to be in the Barber room which was next door because we were cutting Tim's hair that night!

To to get to Santa Rosa we detoured to US1 which runs along the Californian coast - it offered some gorgeous views of the shoreline, and got us excited for the rest of our time in the state (assuming the weather gets warmer!)

Santa Rosa to Las Vegas - Wed 28/7 (Day 48)
We had received some exciting news earlier in the month... Stacey's cousin Nick recently proposed to his fab girlfriend Loz and he and a few mates (including Stacey's brother, Anthony) were going to Vegas for a bucks show/boys getaway for a few nights. This obviously meant that they would be a lot more geographically convenient than they usually are, so we blew in and out for a night to see them, and it was so fun to be around them!

But of course, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas... (but pool time and drinks go without saying...)

We arrived mid-afternoon on the Wed (and stayed with Anthony in his fab room at the new Aria hotel) and...

Las Vegas to Sacramento - Thurs 29/7 (Day 49)
... returned to Santa Rosa late-arvo on the Thurs (we'll be returning to Vegas in Sept and can likely share more tales then!)

We were both feeling a little sore and sorry for ourselves, so we picked-up the Duke from overnight parking and headed straight for our hotel in Sacramento (it was in an awesome location, right near Capital Park). We got some take away and had an early night so we'd feel refreshed for the next day of activities.

Sacramento to Modesto, CA via California State Fair - Fri 30/7 (Day 50)
Our main objective for going to Sacramento was to visit the California State Fair (although we got a good vibe from the city and it probably would've Been a good place to spend more time). The Fair was just like an Easter show wi rides, sidshows, livestock, carnie food etc, but didn't have any show bags, which was very disappointing, and quite sad really.... Think of the children! We enjoyed the Fair like a couple of adults. Here's a recap of our activities:
- didn't do any rides (the monorail probably doesn't count), although we did pay $1ea to see the World's Smallest Horse (although we saw some pretty tiny horses doing tricks later in the arvo at the Cavalcade of Horses)
- thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at the livestock areas (we even saw a piglet being born, which was awesome and gross all at the same time... There were 13 in the litter, and we only stayed for one!)
- did a Yellow Brick Road-esque activity rough the fruit and vegetable exhibition (collecting stamps at each station so we could get our free piece of fruit and single serve of nuts)
- toured through all of the exhibitions, which included school student art work (interior design, woodwork, photography etc), Bicycles Through The Ages and Digital Animation
- watched the Motocross show (and endured a woman behind us losing her mind over how awesome they were, while her fiancée sat next to her)
- saw a Horseback Gymanstics exhibit, and felt uncomfortable when the two 10y.o. boys did a joint-performance while "Bad Boys" played in the background

After we'd had our fill of Fair fun, we headed off to Modesto, CA which we were using as a base to get to Yosemite National Park. The first hotel we checked into had bed bugs (yes, our skin crawled too) so we promptly packed up and found a new, clean place!

Yosemite National Park - Sat 31/7 (Day 51)
We got up bright and early as we had a bit of a drive to get to Yosemite from Modesto, and we wanted to make sure we saw evereything that the park had to offer... Giant Sequoias, Waterfalls, Domes, Meadows, Lakes.

The night before, we'd planned to do a hike to Cathedral Lakes, the trailhead for which is at Tuolomne Meadows, and it took us 3hrs to drive there (partly because we were staying a while away, but partly because there were so many people at the Park itself - it has definitely been the busiest National Park, which probably has something to do with it's vicinity to major cities like Sacramento and San Fran). The hike we did was quite challenging - about 8miles return with an elevation increase of 1500feet, but like anything, the reward was well worth the effort. We went to lower cathedral lake, and the colour contrast between the granite mountains (with snow sitting in it's lower depressions), and the trees and the blue lake, with the marshy grass surroundings was all really beautiful. We stayed for a while to eat lunch, and wandered over to check out the snow (and throw the obligatory snowball), then headed back to the Duke. Our next stop were the Giant Sequoias which were really massive (so we can confirm that they are appropriately named), but weren't altogether surprising in their size as we'd only seen the Redwoods a few days before, and this was much busier than Redwood NP was (which also meant it was difficult to get the up-close look like we had at the Redwoods). Finally, we went for a drive through Yosemite Valley to check out some water falls and Half Dome. It was a rushed tour, but we managed to tick all the boxes!

As we drove back to the motel, it was magical feeling the warm breeze around us as we drove out of yosemite valley, and smelling the clean piney air - such a happy feeling that we will want to try and remember always. If only we could photograph a feeling like that! And we followed the winding path of the Merced River to the park entrance and beyond, and the mini-falls that were created along the way reminded us of water features that people try and install in their yards - although it's hard to believe that the natural beauty can be recreated.

We returned to Modesto around 9:45pm and were exhausted! We collected In-N-Out Burger for dinner, and it was incredible! No wonder every American boasts about how delicious it is (hopefully it's taste and how much we savoured it wasn't only a reflection on how tired and hungry we were!)