September 2010
California
We bracketed our visit to Yosemite National Park with two days on either end in the San Francisco area. Staying the first two days with Amy, Joel, and Brenda Kassiola, we watched a Pacific sunset, toured Alcatraz, had lunch at Namu, an inspired new Korean restaurant near Golden Gate Park, toured some of the de Young Museum exhibits, and ate dinner at a neighborhood favorite. After trekking in Yosemite, we drove to the Sonoma area and had a wonderful tour of the Redwood Hill Farm Creamery in Sebastopol. The family has produced goat cheeses and yogurts for more than 40 years. We spent the next two days with Julie and Howard Graves and Julie’s Mother, Hattie Baller, and visited the Berkeley campus. Before our flight home, we went to the Asian Art Museum and the Martin Luther King Memorial, then had a small meal at Sushi Bistro, just next to Namu on Balboa Street.
Coming into Yosemite, we stopped at the Tuolumne Grove of sequoias. The first full day we hiked the Four-MIle Trail to Glacier Point (an increase of 3,200 feet in elevation), after which we followed the Panorama Trail back down to the Valley. Along the Panorama Trail we were followed by a mother black bear (don’t let the name fool you--these bears were cinnamon-colored) and her two cubs. Too startled to take any photos, we hurried down the path, while the bears, more interested in food then in us, climbed through some berry bushes. The trails and access roads to them totaled about 16 miles, so the next day we relaxed with slow, flat walks on the valley floor. The third day we drove the windy road to the high country, where we hiked along the John Muir Trail to Cathedral Lake, with Cathedral Peak looming above. This was a round-trip of about 8 miles and 1,000 feet of elevation change, taking us to 9,588 feet.
Please click on the links (or photos) on the left for more photos!
