Ole' San Francisco trip

After our trip to Yosemite Park we headed our way to San Francisco to stay for 6 days. We've never been before and really enjoyed it. After traveling Europe for a few months, this is a place that really does have a European flavor to it. But its a bit of a rip off from the real thing, but good to know that I can get some real Italian style coffee a mere 6 hour drive away. Laura and I stayed at a really cool hostel just a few min walk from Union Square. It was filled with Aussies and Kiwi's (people from New Zealand). There was some fun group stuff every night, pool table tournaments, movie night, drink youself silly nigt wich we didn't partake in, but it was all fun. They also had a big pancake breakfast with tea and coffee all day as well that was free. So, good fun there. The first day we traveled we went on this walking tour from a podcast we download called Walks of a Lifetime put out by National Geographic. It's a 5 mile round trip walk which we've become accustomed to, it took us from Union Square to some historic building, in through China town, to some excellent people watching spots, then to the spot where fortune cookes were invented (not in China, but San Francisco oddly enough), they hand made them and let you taste warm ones, they were pretty good. Then we headed into North Beach area that is officially Little Italy, this really brought back some memmories. We visited a bar where a lot of the beat poets, and folks like Bob Dylan got their start called Vesuvius Cafe. Next door is a great spot to get old books and poetry that you'll never find in a normal book store. Then we ventured down streets and alleys and came to the first cafe in San Francisco called Cafe Triesta. Also a good place to people watch and have an excellent cup of coffee. Then a trip to Coit Tower and back home through downtown.

Throughout the rest of the trip was spent wine tasting in Sonoma Valley, hanging out on both sides of the Golden Gate Bridge, Ghiridelli Square, riding the tram car, visiting what's called the Painted Ladies, those famous houses in the park on Full House and So I Married An Axe Murderer, then we retraced out steps back to the coffee shop and got some dessert.

Here are some photo's, more to come when I get my film back.




I love these faces.


Some coffee.


Nice.


China Town.


A typical street.


These faces are a series of weird heads we saw in windows.










The Golden Gate.






Cafe Vesuvius.


China Town.


China food in China town.










The aquarium.


Doing what I do.






Some sunset love.


The trolley train.


This man was writing on this but turns out to be just scribble.




The clouds rolling into the bay.

A trip to Yosemite Park

So this was a pretty amazing trip, well at least the two and a half days we spent there. We woke up about 7:30 am after staying out at an all night party not getting in until 3:45 am. Let me tell you, yikes. But after some strong coffee and a bagel I was ready to hit the road. Then once on the 101 North, I totaly skipped the exit to get to I-5. About an hour or so to late I realized this and had to trek my way back through small highways. This extended our drive for about an extra hour and a half. We show up to Yosemite Park, holy crap is that place gigantic. It litteraly took hours to drive through it. We later realized that Yosemite National Park is about the same size as the state of Rhode Island. We get in late, find our tent, which was excellent, light our candle and fire and slip into bed. We are at this point at about 10,000 feet high and its pretty cold up there. We wake up early the next morning to hike the epic Half Dome. It was a bit of a late start after getting breakfast, and the one hour drive just to the trail head. We figured it would be ok. Half Dome is a 16.5 maybe a 17.5 mile round trip hike. The last three miles you hike an additional 3500 feet in elevation to get to the climing stairs. At the 5.5 mile marker we ran out of water in the hottest part of the day, only to realize that this is typically a 12 hour stay the night kind of hike. We were forced to turn back because of fluids and darkness creeping in. Silly me being a photographer I decided to bring a good amount of my gear with me thinking I was going to get some amazing images from the trip, well a 70 pound pack with two camera's, lenses, and a tripod was a bad choice. I was so sore. Also disappointed from not being able to gaze out upon Yosemite Valley. It is probably on the of the most amazing places I've ever been in my life based on natural beauty alone. We saw bears, rattle snakes feet from our feet on the trail, drank from a raging river, soaked our feet in a ice cold stream that lead to an amazing waterfall, and witnessed a climber 5,000 feet above us reach hit pinacle in darkness only to let out a scream and we had a flashlight conversation with the rest of the climbers. Amazing. Here are a few photo's of this leg of the journey. This trip will definitely be the first of many.


Here was our awesome tent.


Our humble abode.


This would have been us at the top of Half Dome.


Our bear friend.


Here's a nice little dude for our friend Shaddy.


Half dome on the left, the waterfall we crossed on the right.


The amazing Yosemite Valley with Half Dome in the distance.


Here are those climbers camping on the side of a mountain...my next adventure.


A close up of the climbers.


Some giant Sequoia's.


A tribute to Ansel Adams.