Our California Adventure, Part 3

Here’s the road trip leg of our vacation between Wednesday, June 1 and Sunday, June 5.

THE CALIFORNIA COAST
It was too late to do anything when we got to Monterey Wednesday evening, though we did go out for dessert after checking in to our hotel. I think Ben could have tackled another meal. That’s a teenage appetite for you!

Thursday we decided to check out the beach. We started by driving part of the 17 mile motor trail through Pebble Beach and ate near the lodge. After lunch we exited on the south side at Carmel where we spent some time walking in the sand and dipping our toes in the cold Pacific. Then we decided to drive Highway 1 along the coast down to Big Sur and back. This was one of the best things we did the whole trip as the scenery along that highway is phenomenal! I could go back and drive that again.

This was where I was dubbed “Secret Asian Man” by my family (we had recently heard the old Johnny Rivers song Secret Agent Man while in a restaurant). You see, in San Diego we had rented a red Hyundai Santa Fe, but in San Francisco we got a silver Dodge Grand Caravan. We pulled over at one of the turn outs to take pictures of the scenery along the highway to Big Sur. While there a Chinese family in a red Grand Caravan parked next to us. When we were done snapping pictures I headed for the wrong van. Vicki stopped me before I opened the driver’s door. I think she secretly wishes now she’d let me go because there was the nicest looking Chinese woman sitting in the front passenger’s seat. My family enjoyed teasing me and singing about my new identity.

HOTEL LIVING
While we were in Monetery we played musical beds to give Jenna a break from sleeping on a pullout couch for ten nights. Ben took the couch here and I paired up with Nate. Sleeping with Nate is like sharing a bed with a fish flopping around on a riverbank. Every half hour I woke up to a small earthquake next to me as he flipped and flopped and found a new position. Then I had to find the covers and pull them back over me. Vicki said she got up one time and saw his head at the foot end of the bed. I think I’d take Opie Taylor’s idea of adventure sleeping (an ironing board stretched between two chairs) over that. I’m sure Ben has some tales he could tell as well.

Of course, towels and wash cloths can be a precious commodity in a hotel because we always have to ask for a fifth set each night. That’s why it was such a big deal one evening when Nate took a shower and somehow he dropped not one, not two, but three wash cloths in the toilet.

THEM’S SOME BIG TREES!
On Friday we headed to the Sequoia National Park. We were on the road by 8:00 and got to Three Rivers, the small town just outside the park entrance in time for lunch. The landscape between the coast and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains was simply amazing. We passed through a lot of farmland with strawberry fields larger than entire farms here at home. We saw enough broccoli to send a kid into depression. There were orchards of trees we simply couldn’t identify, though we now know what pistachio trees look like, both male and female. We did recognize orange groves, walnut groves, and vineyards.

Incidentally, California is still experiencing drought conditions. Most grass is brown. Almost every farm has irrigation in place. And in the parks there are dead or dying trees scattered everywhere.

When we got to the park entrance we were already at an elevation of 1700 feet. It took another hour to drive up the General’s Highway and climb roughly 5400 more feet up to the sequoia grove where the General Sherman Tree grows. Our trees at home are pretty tall in their own right, and were were already driving in some tall trees on the way up when we rounded a corner and saw the first sequoia there mixed in with the rest. It’s like driving into another world.

The General Sherman Tree is neither the oldest (though it’s pretty old at an estimated 2000+ years) nor the tallest (though it is taller than a 26 story building), but it is the largest living organism by volume. The trunk, which is some 36 feet in diameter at the base, is huge. And with all the tree’s height above ground the roots never grow much deeper than three (3) feet into the soil. Yes, you read that right, 3 feet.

When we spent most of the afternoon among the sequoias we drove down and to our hotel in Visalia (pronounced with a long “i” sound, not like the credit card) which seems to be a neat little town. This marked the halfway point of our trip.

BEARS
We never saw any bears, but while at Sequoia National Park we watched a film about bear safety. This had Nate a bit concerned, especially when Ben said, “I don’t have to run fast, I just have to outrun you.” Those fears resurfaced a day or two later when we began to tease him after he spilled ketchup on his shirt. If Nate ever survives us to adulthood he may disown us. At least he knows we love him.

YOSEMITE
Saturday morning we were back on the road heading for Oakhurst and the Yosemite National Park. We arrived in Oakhurst around lunchtime and our hotel allowed us to check in early so we dropped off our luggage and then grabbed a quick lunch before heading to the park.

At the park entrance we learned we were too late to drive to the valley and expect to find a parking place and were advised to go to Glacier Point which overlooks the valley. Even then we had to park at a ski area and take a shuttle up there.

The drive in was pretty but did not compare to the vistas we were treated to at Sequoia. Yosemite made up for that when we got to the Glacier Point overlook where the iconic panorama of Half Dome and the surrounding landscape was truly a breathtaking spectacle to behold. The scene looked like a living painting. The falls were flowing at full force and their roar could be heard from across the valley. We took it all in as long as we could before boarding one of the last shuttles down the mountain.

Sunday we headed out at 7:30 am and went back to the park, this time heading to the valley floor. We stopped and hiked to Bridal Veil Fall and Mirror Lake. Between those stops the boys and I hiked to Vernal Fall. The boys got farther up than I did, but we all got at least half way up the side of the waterfall. I stopped before getting drenched. The boys were pretty wet when they got back to me. By the time we did all this it was pretty late in the day. I know we missed other sites but by then we were too tired to care. We called it a day and headed back.

I see now why Yosemite is the crown jewel of our national parks. I hope to get back there some day to see things I missed. Alas, the next morning we had to check out of our hotel and point our van toward San Francisco.

Joe