17 days , 3000 miles, 3 states, 9 cities in 3 different cars.. This Road trip was a truly amazing experience, because it was my first ever ! And it had a different feel unlike what I had always imagined. Traveling with a kid driving a car all the time , staying at different places, arriving at different destinations at totally odd hours.. It was a tough trip but regardless.. an exciting one. It was an extreme experience in many senses. From staying in a camp in cold near freezing night to a luxury of a 5 star hotel, from driving on buttery highway to driving on a road which could be compared to a hiking trail, from living on fruits to having a colossal dinner and tasting wines.. this road trip was one of a kind. And it was not totally a road trip.. We even pampered ourselves with some luxuries for a couple of days so that we don't return exhausted:)
The journey started with arrival at San-Francisco downtown at 1:00 am on 28th april after picking up the rental car( toyota camry) from the Airport. The "Bay Area" is quite a sight for most of us east coasters habitual of staying in densely populated areas. The Bay, rather most of west and mid of states seems vast because of uneven distribution of population through large areas. So for people like us staying in cities like Boston, New York and others, this area presents a spectacular sight. Ocean front views quite unlike cities I have seen in the east side(except the New-England area), present a vast and stretched portrait of the land form. The "Fisherman's Wharf" in San Francisco is by far the most happening places I have seen. One could practically spend a whole day just walking there.
Nice views of the ocean, street side markets and shows( some were similar to ones I had seen in Quincy, Boston). Lots of dining, mostly sea-food, but all the regular eating chains too are all located very nearby. Driving is not a good decision in the city because we ended up spending half the day on road. A city tour at pier 39 will be just perfect if you want to see the city crudely. It gives a detailed tour of monuments, history, businesses and scenic views. Another attraction is the "Golden gate bridge" which is a historic architectural marvel. Like most big cities in the US there is a Chinatown which is pretty much centrally located in San Francisco. One can go for small shopping or Asian cuisines in here. The good thing is that the operating hours of this place depends upon the demand/supply of visitors !! The city also has a 1017 acres Park called the "Golden gate Park" which is a nice place to visit.
The Alcatraz Island or more famously ..err infamously called "The Rock" is also worth visiting once. The island is around 1.5 miles away from the shore of San Francisco city. An audio tour gives detailed information about its establishments, history, infamous escape attempts etc. The notorious captivity proves its horrendous past when you take a good look at its solitary confinement cells.According to me, the biggest turmoil that would have been faced by the inmates at Alcatraz must have been at some occasion like the Christmas and New Year when they could hear the partying and celebrations from the city just 1.5 miles away and yet they couldn't be a part of it. The feeling of being unwanted and never being able to be free must be quite demeaning. It is said that only one escape attempt was successful from the island, but its predicted that the escapees died when they stayed in ice cold water. An interesting quote that I read over there was " If you break rules, you go to prison.. but if you break prison rules, you go to Alcatraz . " pretty scary. The city tour covers most of attractions. But for me, visiting Sonia and Mayank in San Jose and Shivi and Agam in Mountain view was the best part of my stay at the Bay.
NAPA VALLEY : April 30
BIG SUR : ROUTE 1, May 3
Napa valley is another place to visit if you are planning a trip to Bay area. Its about an hour and a half drive from San Francisco and will be a nice experience for wine lovers. I personally am not very fond of wines, but after this trip I gained a lot of knowledge about the "vine to wine" process and articulately synthesized wines that have really good aromas and flavors. The drive is pretty scenic and comfortable. Valley in the summer season is lush green and beautiful. We particularly visited the famous "Sterling" winery. Most of the wineries here offer a wine tasting tour and also have a collections of some very fine wines. The Sterling Winery is also located in a picturesque little valley.
A trolley takes you up the winery and tour starts with some chardonnay. The process of making wine, right from picking the grapes till aging the wine is explained quite simply with real time illustrations including barrels for storing wine, large fermentation vessels and final storage in wooden barrels. The fine wine collection has wines made from grapes actually picked from different parts of world.
The basic tour ends with couple of red wines such as basic Cabernet.there is an explicit tour where you get to taste some of the different varieties of wines, synthesized with some different ales and herbs along with grapes. We took this tour and got to taste five different kind of wines. I liked the one named Malvasia Bianca. It was very aromatic and floral and smelled of ginger candy, had a sweeter taste so it is good for beginners. After this exquisite tour and having a glass full of the wine I liked we drove back to San Francisco.
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK : May 1 - May 2
Our third destination was the Yosemite National Park. It is a must go for people interested in wildlife photography or capturing Nature's goodness. Its the art of some photographers which brought this place into the travel books and since then it has been an attraction to all ages. I have been to couple of National parks within US, namely :Acadia, Smoky mountains but Yosemite is now topping my charts of most favorite destinations to go.
At a four hours scenic drive from San Francisco(which I did ), Yosemite presents beautiful stretches of granite mountains and water bodies right from its outskirts. The ranges are surrounded by lush green vegetation and topped up with huge granite mountains. I haven't seen such magnanimous natural hard granite structures before. There are few in northern-India somewhere above Nainital, I suppose.The ideal way to see a National Park is to explore it at a slow pace.
We had planned to camp within the park rather than staying in a hotel outside or a lodge for that matter. Our camps were located in "Curry Village" within the park premises. It is a small but beautiful community where hikers and campers stay. It has all basic amenities like a small food court and restaurant, a relaxing area where one can spend time reading or just relaxing on wooden recliners/rocking chairs, eating or just planning any hike. In its scenic backdrop stands the beautiful "Half -Dome" mountain which is a hiker's place to be. There are many more small communities like curry village that provide stay, food and camping facilities for the hikers and visitors.
Curry Village also provides some recreational sports like river rafting and many more for the more adventurous hikers. Camping was a terrific experience!! The national park administration has set up their own camps/tents withing the park premises for those who dont want to carry camping gear and also for those who dont have camping partners, because this a group thing.
The camps are pretty reasonable and have decent sleeping space, but no food is allowed inside the camp or even the cars parked nearby because it attracts the Wild Bears. A few sightings have been made on and off and the reason always came out to be food. So the rules were pretty stringent. They had provided metal containers outside where we can store food and other scent carrying belongings. These had latches which wild animals cannot open. The camps are located in an area where bears generally don't wander but for precautions the rules are very strictly applied. So, we had approximately 2 days of camping in Yosemite. The park has a 12 hrs free bus service and the visitors/hikers can go to different places within the park through these. Bike rentals are also provided for the same.
The first day we visited "The Mirror Lake" which is around 2 miles walk from the place where the bus drops. This lake is formed after the winter seasons with plenty of rainfall and melting glacier ice. The very famous "Half dome" mountain is right above this lake and in the twilight the lake gives a clear and beautiful mirror image of the Half-Dome which explains its nomenclature. Surrounded by beautiful giant sequoia trees and wild flowers shrubs, the view presented is beyond comprehension. Its probably one of the most beautiful and romantic places I have ever been too. Later in the day we visited the upper and lower yosemite waterfalls. In addition to being the highest of the waterfalls in California these are the hightest falls in US. Again, the falls are very scenic and are actually made up in three parts. The full view of the falls is amazing. After doing almost 8 miles of walking/hiking we returned to the camp at around 8:00 pm and strolled around the camps after dinner. The camping area is a no-noise zone after 10 pm at night, so we tucked ourselves in early. But we never knew how cold it would get at night. The temperatures were near freezing and all we had were simple blankets. By midnight we actually started shivering and had to wear our sweaters, jackets and even socks to sleep. It was good that I had already got a furry blanket for little Anusha just for precautions sake. In the silence of the woods I could actually hear the waterfalls and that sound was very soothing. It was a different feel altogether, it was like sleeping in nature's lap. But this whole situation was provoking me to go out of the camp and have a look at the woods. I waited, but around 3:00 am when Deepak and Anusha were fast asleep, I sneaked out of the camp and walked some distance to get a good view at the "Half-Dome". I don't know, if it was my luck or sheer coincidene, that day was a full moon. What I was looking at, left me speechless.. and I could not blink my eyes.
Breathtaking view of the full moon above the half-dome decorated by some conical sequoia trees. The color of the sky around the moon was actually dark blue because the moonlight mixed with the night's black color. The view was awesome and unforgettable. I returned to the camp in 15 minutes because I didn't wanted to be found out by a wild bear ;)
The next day we went to see a hiking place called "Happy Isles" and "Sentinel Bridge". The views were spectacular and the hiking was a very wet one because of the water gushing down. So, with Anusha sleeping we dropped that idea. But the hike is said to be pretty okay even for new hikers. One can hike for around 2-3 miles till they reach another hike point where they can start their hike for the half-dome. The Sentinel Bridge presents very picturesque views of half-dome and the yosemite falls. Its like a central location to have a full view of the scenic attractions around.
It is definitely very scenic and a very favorite place of photographers for sunset and natural photography. In terms of natural beauty I personally liked it a lot. There is not much wildlife around because cars keep crossing nearby and there are lot of photographers around, but one can still get a good look at some species of birds.check out this link Sentinel Bridge views.
After returning to the camp at 9:00 pm we spend sometime in the relaxing area after dinner with a cup of coffee and admired the half-dome shining under the full moon. This area is very wisely decorated with dim lights so that it doesn't shadow the beauty of the natural things around. The lights were so dim that one could not take pictures without a flash. But it really appreciated the beauty of the place and increased it on a romantic factor ;)
I was very tired to go out on an adventure lookout at night again so we slept warm till morning. There are many more places to see in Yosemite like : The Glacier point, Wawona and Mariposa Grove,crane and Toulumne grove(meadows), Tuolumne Meadows and Tioga Road etc. but time constraints made us drop those plans. I would definitely visit these places in my next trip to yosemite and would also camp again but this time in heated tents ;)
Early morning we started out for the drive to Los Angeles through a very famous and scenic route called "Route 1" in the Big Surr area.
It adds another 3-4 hours extra to the normal drive to Los-Angeles via the Interstate 5S or 101S which takes just six and a half hours to LA.
This route runs totally along the pacific ocean displaying beautiful views of mountains with low settling clouds on one side and ocean on the other. Some small beaches and light greenish blue colored ocean. Although we tried to start early so that we could make most of the drive in sunlight but we were couple of hours late on our schedule.
After watching the sunset at one of the points and having a nice Italian dinner we started the drive in dark again at around 9:00 pm. The views of ocean in the dark are also one of its kind. Since it had been just a day after full moon, we were lucky enough to see its beauty as a reflection over the mighty ocean. The ocean was again in the shades of dark blue where the reflection of moon was and the rest of it was black but shiny somewhere near the waves.
One could see distant cruise-ships decorated in glittery lights in this dark background in the moonlight and believe me, it was a scene worth painting. But we were unlucky that the camera battery went out and we could not capture those views.That is why I am trying to find the most appropriate words to comprehend that beauty. Frankly speaking, I was going nuts over the views and was feeling bad about the camera but on the contrary Deepak was a little worried(probably scared ;) ) because we were driving late at night and gas tank was low. Well, that said, we finally joined the 101S and found gas station.We arrived at Los Angeles at around 2:00 am at night in a nifty motel.
Please stay tuned for LA,Vegas, Irwine and Grand Canyon in the next post !!
