The Boondocker

I have been terribly negligent for the last month in keeping up with the trip here. So here is the catch up. After picking up Mom at the airport we headed west to Death Valley National Park. For it being so late in the season we got lucky with the weather being only in the 80’s. YAY for cold fronts. The wild flowers were still blooming and gorgeous. The drive out of the park heading west was something of a surprise. I have never been so happy to have the power stroke diesel under the hood, now that was a climb!  Then we spent a few very pleasant days boondocking along the Kern River.

Next up was Sequoia National Park. Due to a late spring snow storm before our arrival, hiking was pretty much out of the question. We did manage some trips to see the trees and I have to say that the sequoias are amazing. We loved the park, ultimately though, we opted not to visit Kings Canyon National Park on this trip as planned as it was similarly snowed in.  So from there we headed on around to Yosemite National park. Luck was on our side and we were able to change our reservations and spend several nights in the park at the Wawona campground. It was an hours drive from the campground into the valley, but having seen how busy the valley was already this early in the year, we were satisfied to enjoy the relative peace of where were camped. Yosemite was beautiful to be sure and the Valley was stunning. My main disappointment (as with all of CA) was the omnipresent haze. They say the haze is ozone. Whatever it is, it puts a damper on the visuals. But that aside the Yosemite was spectacular.

Leaving Yosemite we then aimed for the Pacific Ocean. We spent two nights at Sonoma Coast State Park near Bodega Bay. From what they charge for non-electric sites California is very, very, very proud of their campgrounds. We had a tremendous time on the coast, and I suspect I will be going back, perhaps even with a bike. We drove up highway 1, and visited the Korbel vineyard which, surprisingly to me, turned out to be great fun. The next day we headed for San Francisco. Having no desire to navigate the city with my pickup, we opted to ride the ferry over. I have to say, I was impressed with the price and quality of service- two thumbs up! We were lucky enough to get tickets for Alcatraz and had a great time visiting the old prison. Once back in the city, we walked up to China Town and wandered into a restraint. Having never had pigeon we decided to give it a whirl. The fried rice was unlike any I had had before; it had a kind of smoky flavor that was really quite pleasant. To my surprise, the pigeon had a distinctive liver-like flavor. I don’t think mom was particularly thrilled that they brought out the severed head along with the rest of the bird, but so it goes. It was a great meal. Having feed our bodies it was time to wander the docks. There was plenty to see, but not really being city goers it didn’t take long until we had seen enough. With evening approaching, we hoped a street car (again two thumbs up!) back to the ferry docks.

After one more day, sadly, it was time for Mom to head back home. As always it was a treat to have her along as she is great fun and an enthusiastic traveler.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.