Manteca and San Francisco and Beyond

From Yosemite, we moved on to Manteca California. There is nothing particularly special about Manteca except for great fruit and veggies that are grown there and a very nice campground that we can stay at for free for three weeks (Thousand Trails membership). As I said, the fruit and veggies here are amazing - peaches, nectarines, melons, plums, pluots, all kinds of heirloom tomatoes and so much more. We have eaten our weight in stone fruit and melons. It is so easy here and pretty inexpensive. Definitely the most inexpensive things in California which is incredibly expensive.

We took a drive south along the coast to Point Lobos Nature Preserve. The coast here reminds us so much of New Zealand.

Our first seal sighting in California!

Really strange rock formations!

This so reminds me of Kaikoura, New Zealand.





















After Point Lobos, we stopped at the Basilica of Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo, more commonly known as the Carmel Mission. It was founded in 1770. It was a beautiful stop. Most of the furniture in the parlor are still the original pieces.

See the graves in the distance, the top of each cross has an abalone shell on top and most of the graves are covered (or tiled) with abalone shells.

This is the sign at the base of the cross in the cememtery.

This is a whale vertebrae fossil

A cork tree and the bark really feels like cork!

How would you like to work in this kitchen?

This is the parlor and most of the pieces are original.

This was Father Junipero Serra's cell.

 The other amazing this at the Carmel Mission was the gardens. I couldn't help but take some of these shots of the flowers.

Ernie and I went to San Francisco for a couple of days to figure out the Bart system and get the lay of the land for when Chris gets in town a week later. We went to one of our favorite pizza places in North Beach - Tony's. It was just as good as we remembered it. Took the trolley down to Fisherman's Wharf to see the seals and eat some clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Then onto Chinatown for Dim Sum. We also went to our favorite tapas restaurant the second day in San Francisco.

 Sea Lion colony at Pier 39 (Fishermans Wharf). Male sea lions can reach up to 850 lbs. and 7 feet in length. I think we saw a few of those big guys on these platforms.

This fog came in early afternoon.

Couldn't believe we had a clear view of Alcatraz!




















The day finally came for Chris to arrive. We drove to San Francisco International airport to pick him up and then went through SF to get to Muir Woods. Chris had never been there and never seen the coastal redwood trees. For those of you that know Chris, you know he is not a little man. When we stood in the redwood groves he said it was the first time in his life that he really felt small. It is a humbling experience to stand in the shadow of these trees which can reach up to 370 feet in height. We were really lucky to see this little guy while we were walking through the woods.

Since Ernie & I have gotten hooked on white water rafting and Chris had never had the pleasure of this activity, we went rafting on the American River. While I won't bore you with all the photos, I just wanted to show a couple of them.

This is leading into a class 3 rapid

Chris and Ernie are sitting in the front row of the boat and I am in the middle row. Our guide is at the end of the boat

That was Ernie's paddle. We are all under water and when we popped out of the rapid, both Ernie and Chris had been pushed back of their seat into the bottom of the boat. Thankfully, no one left the boat! That's a good ride!!!!

Considering Chris only had 5 days in town, we managed to walk through Chinatown several times, go to Coit Tower, Fishermans Wharf, ride the cablecars several times, walk the Financial District, go to Pier 41 with all the restaurants, go to Boudin for sourdough, eat at a great Irish Pub/Indian Restaurant, have cioppino at Pier 41, eat dim sum in Chinatown, go to Golden Gate Park, walk the Botanical Gardens, see Haight Ashbury, and wander the North Beach.

Oh, while we were in Chinatown, Chris and I had a Chinese foot massage and we all went to the Chinese doctor and got our prescription to help balance our chi. The Chinese believe in going to the doctor before you are sick to keep from getting sick. They say you don't wait until you are thirsty to dig the well.

This is a great shot that Chris took in the mid-afternoon - Golden Gate bridge in the fog

We stayed at the San Remo Hotel and we all thought we were back in Europe. The rooms were small with no TV. The bathrooms and showers were down the hall and there were sitting areas nestled in the corners of the hallways. All the bathroom plumbing was like this.It was so quaint and cool. We were only 3 blocks from Fishermans Wharf. This is the most inexpensive hotel in all of San Francisco and the nicest people. They will even hold your bags when you check in if your room isn't ready and when you check out and still want to go sightseeing.

This building was a hotel in Chinatown back in the goldrush days. Note the cost of rooms, $1.50 per week with hot and cold water and bath.

This is Ernie's prescription from the  doctor in the herb shop. 17 ingredients and the herbalists were quite impressed with that amount!

This is his medicine. These are packaged in separate paper bags. You put 4 cups of water and the contents of one bag into a kettle, bring to a boil and then simmer for 45 - 60 minutes until the liquid is reduced to one cup. Let cool down to warm and drink. Repeat with the herbs the next day starting out with 3 cups of water. After that, throw it all out and continue with you next bags over the next 3 days. I will tell you the smell is horribly foul and the taste is worse. When we asked how you know if the 'medicine' is working they said you will feel a difference at the end of the 8 day course. If you do feel better, contact them for a refill. We saw her filling someone else's prescription and she was putting in cicada shells. Yes, bug shells! Chris was so hoping that we would have bugs in our bags. No such luck - thank God!

Chris is now back in Austin and taking his Chinese medicine while we are in Still in Manteca taking our medicine. I found that I can get a cup of it down if I hold my noise while drinking it and then have several handfuls of raisins to get rid of the taste. The jury is still out if my chi is getting into balance but I will stay the course and let y'all know.

Tomorrow we leave here and head to Annaheim which means Disnyland, adrenalin rides, Tumecula wine region, the Joshua Tree National Park, cooler days and nights since we will not be in the central valley any longer. I hope to visit and old friend from Austin who returned to California quite a few years back and Ernie will catch up with some old work colleagues.

That's all for now folks!

Final Yosemite Days

So my last posting was a month ago - not as good as the last two postings but far better than previous postings. My excuse is that we've been very busy!

Let me start with a disclaimer - Ernie and I are not responsible for the forest fires that have hit various areas while we were there or soon after we left. As we were recounting our travels to some other campers, they happened to mention a distinct correlation with the forest fires and our being there. Yes, the Colorado Springs Black Forest fire and the Royal Gorge fire both happened while we were camping in Colorado Springs. Yes, the Aspen fire (in the Sequoia National Forest near Fresno) started while we were in Coursegold (also near Fresno). Yes, while we were traveling through Yosemite, across the Tioga Pass, we did spot a fire in the distance in the park. We found a ranger as quickly as we could to report it and they had already received notices about it and were handling it. That was not the current Yosemite Rim fire. Yes, we were in Boise Idaho over July 4th and the fires in Idaho did not start until well over a month after our leaving the state. We are currently in the Manteca/San Francisco area and there are no forest fires here. Let's hope it remains that way. And finally, yes, there are fires all around the LA area but we haven't gotten there yet so we can't be held accountable for them. That said, let me go on with our travels.

Before we left the Yosemite area, we made an overnight trip to the other side of Yosemite and beyond. I am so glad we did because the park changed so much from one side to the other - geologically. We went from groves of giant sequoias and dense vegetation to open meadows and high mountains. We crossed Tioga Pass at 9,943 feet and drove on to Mono Lake to see the tufa rocks. These were caused by calcium rich springs flowing up through the lake bottom. The calcium then bonds to carbonates in the lake water. This is one of the oldest lakes in North America - at least 760,000 years old. This lake has no outlet and for thousands of years streams have carried minerals into the lake and evaporation has removed water from it. Because of this, the mineral content has risen to almost 10%. While no fish can live in these alkaline waters (2.5 times saltier and 100 times as alkaline as the ocean), it is still one of the most productive lakes in the world, supporting millions of brine shrimp, alkali flies and migratory birds.

That's enough of the nature lesson. Check out the photos of the tufa rocks. They look like they come from another planet.

From Mono Lake, we went to Reds Meadow Lodge to view the Devils Postpile National Monument. I'm going to post the photos first and then give you the explanation of how they occured.

This is rock and it looks like straws or something that someone just bent over.

Here's the explanation from the Park Department: Basalt lava erupted two miles upstream from today's postpile fewer than 100,000 years ago. As the lava cooled it contracted and cracked, forming the columns of the postpile. The symmetrical vertical and hexagonal columns formed because the lava cooled slowly and its mineral composition was consistent. Then some 20,000 to 12,000 years ago a glacier flowed down the Middle Fork fork of the San Joaquin River and overrode the fractured mass of lava. The moving ice carved away one side of the postpile exposing a sheer wall of columns 60 feet high. Many columns have fallen since then due to erosion and earthquakes.

I don't know how many other formations like this there are in the world but I do know of one in Ireland - the Giant's Causeway - and we hope to see that next Spring. All I can say it that Mother Nature is amazing!

On the drive back, we stopped to view the earthquake fault which is a fissure that opened 550 to 650 years ago when magma pushed to the surface. When you hike around the fault, you can see how each side fits together - like a piece of broken pottery - except this is rock and goes on for at least 1/4 mile.

We are now heading back to Yosemite through the Tioga Pass and on to Toulumne Meadow to do some hiking. I have to say, as of the middle of August, Yosemite has had over 4 million visitors this year alone. The crowds were really bad as were the drivers from outside the US. Amazingly, folks who have never driven our highways, rent motorhome and drive these big rigs through narrow mountain roads. And those that only rent cars, insist on taking pictures while driving. I know, some of you as saying "what's wrong with that, I do it to." Well the problem is that these roads are only two lane, have no guardrails and the edge of the road drops off for several hundred feet. I just slowed down and kept my distance.

We got to the meadows and stopped to hike and have lunch. It was a beautiful day and the weather has been great. Yes hot in the daytime and cool at night.

Can't believe this bird just sat there. I just wish he had turned to face me. Oh well!

Look how clear the water is. It is also very cold. 

This is Soda Springs in the Toulumne Meadows. There were several areas where the springs surfaced.











The next three shots are from the granite rocks across from Tenaya Lake. In the first photo, you can barely see the rock climbers. They are to the left of the top group of trees - halfway between the trees and the summit.

Ernie couldn't help taking a picture of this cute little duck at Sentinel Beach on the Merced River. I wish you could see all the mica just shimmering in the water.












There was a quote from John Muir posted on one of the hikes. In 1877, he said "in every walk with nature, one received far more than he seeks." I couldn't agree more. We have seen some astounding sights and have felt very small and humble. If you haven't been to this park, I strongly suggest that you make every effort to get here. Stay in the lodge and that way you can take part in the ranger guided walks and programs. During the summer, the park service offers free shuttles throughout the park so you can just get to the park and lock you car until you have to go home.

I'll post more tomorrow about our travels around and in San Francisco. Take care and be good to each other. Oh, go hug a tree!