To Yosemite and Beyond!

After we visited the California Caverns we started our drive to Yosemite. The drive was uneventful, and we reached Yosemite close to dinner time, so we thought we'd enter the park, grab dinner, and go for a hike. Silly us.

We first took the free bus around to a restaurant in the park. Now on foot, we find that the first restaurant was closed--the quick sandwiches from a refrigerator we were hoping to grab were locked up and beyond reach. We thought we were lucky, though, because upstairs was a pizza restaurant; not ideal, but, well, we were hungry so we stood in line. For. A. Long. Time.

We weren't prepared for how slow it would be. It turns out that they were training new staff that night. Or I should say that one manager was training the entire staff. Each group in line took 5-6 minutes to place an order. About 9 orders and 50 minutes later, we finally reached the counter. Needless to say the food took a while as well.

By the time we finally managed to eat our food, the two hours we had alloted to spend at Yosemite were gone, it was getting dark, and it was time to move on--no hike for us, and $20 of park-entry-fee paid for a quick look at Half Dome, a couple glimpses of waterfalls, and access to a restaurant with terrible service. It would have been faster for us to have driven out of the park to a nearby town, eat there at a sit-down restaurant, and return. Live and learn.

Leaving Hotel California...slowly...

The first morning we woke up and started packing for our road trip to Colorado. The plan was to pack, finish what we needed to do, and then leave between 10am and 2pm, get a good start on the road, see the California Caverns, and then head on down toward Yosemite and stay somewhere down in that direction.

Well, we got up this morning and starting packing. And packing. And packing. There were a few errands we were going to run, but they have all been postponed to my next trip out west. To say that we underestimated how much work it would take to pack up a month's worth of camp-out-in-our-new-house supplies, ship most of it off in boxes, and then fit the rest in the car to drive with us...well, you get the idea.

By 5:30pm we were finally waving goodbye to our neighbors and friends in Pleasant Hill, and we hit the road...almost. First a quick stop for sandwiches, and then we really hit the road.

After a couple hours of driving, we were ready to find somewhere to stop. We did in fact make it close to the caverns, so we were ready to achieve our first goal...a day late.

The B&B we found to stay in was wonderful. The Robin's Nest is run by an ex-technology guru who is well skilled in the culinary arts--breakfast was truly exceptional. The decoration and quality were excellent throughout, and it was a short drive to the California Caverns--so if anyone feels like visiting a 53 degree hole in the ground in the middle of summer, I heartily recommend this B&B as a place to stay. The caverns were nice too.