Point Reyes National Seashore. Point Reyes Lighthouse Point. The beaches are ruggedly beautiful even on a calm day but we visited when there were 40 mile an hour winds and higher gusts and a cold ocean wind. They even closed the stairway down to the lighthouse on the point because of high winds. The Coast Guard was out in it. Waves splashed up and over the pilot house to land behind their 50 foot boat as they cruised around the lighthouse point. Neither of us even considered getting our feet wet. We put on all the clothes that we had along in the car and enjoyed the beaches from the cliffs above.
Two grey whales with their calves came close along the shore. Large groups of Stellar, Elephant, and California seals lolled on the beaches with napping disrupted only by spontaneous, seemingly unprovoked bouts of raucous barking. Hilarious to watch and listen to.

We spent the day in Golden Gate Park. We checked out gardens with hundreds of varieties of flowers and just enjoyed the green space. We found their carousel but I was disappointed to find that it was closed. Rats! I just got to peek through the glass and see the carved critters. One other surprise was Wilhelmina’s windmill and tulip garden. The windmill still looks great, much like when we saw it a few years back; but the garden, well it was just perfectly tilled patterns in the soil. Apparently we caught them between plantings or blooming cycles. Not so impressive. We took pics anyway, Mom.

The circus was in town. We watched the elephants and the ponies get their baths, the camels get their supper, and the acrobats and clowns putting on makeup. The ringmaster’s voice and the classic circus music echoed off our motorhome walls. That’s right, we picked the very nights the circus was in town to camp at the county fairgrounds. Then there were the animal rights protesters at the gate. Just another evening in camp! It was certainly not something we would have EVER foreseen but was actually quite entertaining. They packed up and headed out after their Tuesday night show. I watched them take the tent down for a while but it isn’t nearly as fun to see when they use their big rig tractors to take it down rather than the elephants.

The Presidio: a park of hundreds of acres and 40 or 50 miles of trails and filled with towering cypress trees so thick that their branches lace together overhead and the air is just saturated with their aroma. We walked, and walked, and walked because I had read they had a carousel….wrong..or never found it. Kent had a pretty good sense of humor about that. The Palace of Fine Arts: a huge dome and colonnades dating back to 1915 or so and the exposition to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal. The Golden Gate Bridge, pretty amazing engineering and beautiful too.
I didn’t know, the name Golden Gate came from way before the bridge or even gold prospectors, it came from the huge fields of yellow-gold California poppies that were found all along the bay entrance by all who came here. Pretty cool thought. We drove across the bridge today and wandered home the northern route through rolling farm country, national wildlife preserves and numerous marinas scattered along the bay shore. It was a nice drive and luckily for Kent, a lower traffic drive than the route through town that we took yesterday. Still more to see tomorrow.

It is butterfly festival in Mariposa. We went to the parade, tried Danish donuts made by the resident Dane and his friends, watched the kids release butterflies, and toured their great small town museum. I even got a piece of quartz with a big hunk of gold in it from the greeter at the museum (he whispered in my ear, “I painted that on myself you know!”) Great fun. It is a pretty quiet town with very friendly people. They have a great donut shop too. It is called Dazzles and it’s a good thing we are leaving town soon. We have been there 3 times in a week!

Then we washed our house
We have not washed the motorhome for a few months and it looked it. Tomorrow we wax, oh joy! I cleaned house today too. It is nice that it takes just a couple hours.

New bird today, Western Kingbird.

We spent the day over at Hetch Hetchy Valley. That is the sister valley of Yosemite that the folks from San Francisco managed to wrangle a deal to dam the river back around 1920. There are still some hard feelings and an organization whose goal it is to “restore Hetch Hetchy”. It is a shame that the beautiful valley is lost forever. It is also good that some laws have changed since the land was actually a National park at the time but that didn’t protect the river from development. The laws now protect the waterways as well.

The area is still pretty. It is fed by snowmelt that comes into the lake through hanging valleys so there are many waterfalls. We hiked a trail that forded at the feet of smaller falls and had foot bridges across boulder piers at the bottom of the biggest fall. Beautiful and exciting to cross. (it was safe Mom, they had just rebuilt from any Spring damage).

The trailhead was through a 100 yard carved stone tunnel. That was pretty cool in itself. It was even cooler that on our way back a young deer was so curious he started into the tunnel. He listened to the voices coming through it and watched intently before finally heading off up hill. Fun to watch.

We visited the Mariposa Grove of Sequoia trees here in Yosemite. It is too early for the tram so we walked it. I must say, it is a whole lot easier to gaze amazed at these magnificent trees when you are seated than when you are walking. I highly recommended at least part of the grove tour by tram! We enjoyed it just the same. We saw the Grisly Giant and the Three Graces plus the fallen tunnel tree just like Mom and Carol and I did years ago. All are still here and still impressive. I recognized the Wanona Hotel too, the place we stayed at. I was having trouble remembering the name but recognized it when we went by. It still looks about the same.

We cruised on though the Valley and caught the wonderful “Tunnel View” that includes Bridal Veil, El Capitan and Half Dome. We even got to see the late afternoon mistbow on Bridal Veil. The guys who laid that out really knew what they were doing. It is a fantastic view, classic Yosemite. It is worth going out of your way for.

The snow pack has provided spectacular waterfalls wherever you look. The signature falls (Bridal veil, Yosemite upper and lower, Cascades) all have enough water for impressive displays. We hiked to the base of the upper falls. That gave us yet another perspective of these great falls that we can see from all sorts of angles along the valley. It seems like Kent must have taken 100 pictures of falls this past couple days. There were wonderful views of half dome, the Merced River, and the meadows on the valley floor. It made for some tired legs but well worth it.

We had to gawk with everyone else. There were climbers on El Capitan working their way toward the top. Lynn says “no way”. We saw some crazy guy crossing between the peaks above upper Yosemite Falls on a cable. These people are nuts. We heard at least one set of emergency sirens today too. Hmmmmm

A big rock slide on CA 140 into the park has caused two temporary bridges to be set up. It will take a while to remove the hill that slid down onto the road and into the river. I am thinking years, if ever.

We toured the Ahwahnee Lodge. It is a spectacular facility built in 1927 with huge rough hewn beams, stone walls and large windows to let in the panoramic scenery. There is a grand lobby and then a number of quiet, quaint “setting rooms” around the first floor. They have fireplaces. I mean FIREPLACES; they are big enough to walk into. Beautiful. The grand dining room is really impressive with is huge beams and tapestries. We wandered in and took some pics before diner hour. Hiking boots and jeans are not within their dress code….. Overall, it is a magnificent building in a magnificent place. Well done.

Plugged in the Motorhome while visiting Yosemite. 1st time we have been plugged in since March 10. It is kind of nice having 110v power again.