Christine was over at San Jose for work and extended her trip for a holiday with her brother and friends. They decided to make a day trip to Yosemite National Park and kindly invited me to join them. The pleasure was all mine!
They rented a Dodge Grand Caravan for the whole trip and it came in handy for the day trip. The vehicle was a huge 6-seater mini van. Just ideal for the 6 of us and has spare room for luggage.
We started the trip early in the morning at 6 a.m. Christine, Ian (her brother) and I were the designated drivers and Ian took the first shift. After picking up Jean (Christine's coworker who was with her here for work too) at Powell, we headed towards the Bay Bridge to get across to the east bay.
Despite having a GPS onboard, driving around with the it was not really a piece of cake. We missed a couple of crucial exits on the highway and ended up going back and forth the Bay Bridge! However, we finally got the hang of it and it was much smoother right after.
We made pit stops along the way for various reasons. Toilet breaks, topping up the gas and getting some food. Over at one of the stops, we bought a huge box of strawberries and cherries. They were really good and sweet. I was happily devouring them and probably had like 20 strawberries for the whole trip.
After a 4-hour drive and meandering around the mountain ranges, we finally arrived at our destination: Yosemite! The scenery was just breathtaking and immensely huge. Way too big and grandeur for my puny Canon IXUS 70 to capture in full glory. Moments like these made me wish I had a DSLR or a camera with more controls and sophistication. That did not stop me from trying.
Mountain ranges, waterfalls, streams, cliffs, bridges... Yosemite has it all.
Most people would do a camping trip here. It was a pity that we could not do that. Christine and gang had to head to Los Angeles for the second leg of their trip. Although we only had time to explore a couple of trails, we did cover quite a few scenic locations in Yosemite.
Towering mountains, clear blue skies and streaming rivers, they have a soothing effect on you. It is an escape from the urban world, a real-life Narnia for the city dwellers.
It was korean food and soju for dinner at Dan Sung Sa at Oakland. I had a big craving for the spicy rice cakes and strawberry soju. Even though they are probably just instant noodles, I just love the noodles that came with the rice cakes.
After satisfying our growling stomachs, we made our way back to San Francisco. The finale was a stop by the Coit Tower and a drive down the famous Lombard Street. I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the driving up along mountain ranges. Many thanks to Christine and her friends for inviting me to this day trip!