4 Wheels 4 Girls

Thursday, May 12, we drove down Highway 1 from San Francisco to our campground 3 hours away in Monterey. We drove through many cool towns, but the big cool one was Santa Cruz. It had a really cool boardwalk with a bunch of rides, including a big white roller coaster. I really wanted to ride it but we had to keep moving to get to our campground. I loved seeing the Pacific Ocean, the palm trees, and all the people as we were cruising through the towns.

Cliffs, beaches, and Ana along Hwy 1

Beautiful flowers, amazing turquoise water, and a cold wind along Hwy 1

After a great ride through California, we arrived in Monterey. It was a pretty little town full of old buildings. It was right along the Pacific. Our campground was at a fairground, not being used at the time but it was still cool.

May 12th, I sat up front with Dad. Jean was gone again so I got to spend more alone time with Dad. Except Ana kept staring over my shoulder. I think she was trying to look at Dad’s phone, which is what I was holding. Dad had asked me to navigate him around the city of San Francisco, and the best navigation system was his phone. Well, Ana just kept staring over my shoulder and it got really annoying. I decided she was trying to stare at the phone because that’s what she does when there’s an electronic device around. She, for some reason, thinks electronics are extremely interesting, which is really strange, because she types on the computer almost every day to do posts, and it’s ESPECIALLY odd that she’d think Dad’s phone was interesting because all it is is a little blue dot that slowly moves down a long purple line… pretty boring. Well anyway, her eyes just stayed glued, and I decided I would have to deal with it. Oh well.

So we drove down the confusing little streets, and when earlier, Dad told us San Francisco was EXTREMELY hilly, I had just thought, ookay…? Every place has hills… But now that I was there, I knew EXACTLY what he meant. Man, that place was hilly… When Dad had said hilly, he’d meant it. We didn’t get any pictures of any of the hills, but… oh, man, I’ll just have to tell you.

We were driving down a not-too-steep hill, although when we had come up on it, I had barely been able to see the bottom, or at ALL where the road went because it was so steep, but still, it was one of the more level roads. That’s crazy, isn’t it? But that’s not the story I’m gonna tell. And for what I’m about to write, please understand that I mean exactly what I say, got it? Alright, here I go…

Okay, so we drove down the not-too-steep hill, and by now I was getting pretty freaked. We had gone up and down horrifying roads and– we got to the bottom of this hill. I sighed, and kind of relaxed. But when I realized what we were gonna have to do… oooh, should I tell you? Maybe I shouldn’t. Okay, The End. No, I’m joking. Alright, here’s the ACTUAL story with no pauses or fake The Ends. Here it is.

When I realized what we were gonna have to do, I tensed up again. ( Hey! Maybe that’s why my neck was hurting a few days after!) Hahaha! Just joking! Okay, so when we got down to the intersection, I was – was – horrified!!! To the left was a hill that went almost STRAIGHT up. I decided we were NOT going on that one… I looked to the right. It was pretty flat, but that was exactly the OPPOSITE of the way we were supposed to be going. Then I looked in front of us, because that was the way we were supposed to go. But I looked and… there was nothing there! Oh wait, maybe there was! Oh, great, there WAS! Oh, no! It was awful! Holy guacamole! Okay, I’ll be quiet now. So anyway, the road in front of us was the steepest I’d seen in the WHOLE TOWN!!! The reason why I said there wasn’t anything there was because it was so incredibly steep that I just couldn’t see anything! To me, it actually looked like the road just ended there. And then I couldn’t believe what was happening. Dad started to drive toward it!!! “Dad, no!” I said it quietly so he wasn’t really listening. I was sooo relieved when a tour bus came from the right. The driver started giving Dad signals that said, Noooo!!! Back up and go left!! Dad asked the two teenage girls standing on the sidewalk if he was clear behind him. They said yes and told him he was fine. So he started backing up. (Hey! Who says he needs to listen to a bus driver and two teenage girls but not his own daughter! Not fair!) So we went to the left ( which was the hill that went straight up, which is a little better than straight down but was horrifying anyway) and we went to look at the Golden Gate Bridge. We did and it was really cool. Dad said it was hung by the red suspension cords on it and that it was the biggest suspension bridge in the U.S.A., maybe even the world. We didn’t go over it yet, we’re saving it for when Jean gets back, but it was pretty cool just to see it, and I’m looking forward to going on it. But for then, we’d just have to enjoy the view. So that was my story. Did you like it? You’ll have to comment to let me know how you feel, and I would also like to know if you have stories about steep hills or anything like that. I’d love to hear them!

On May 11th we drove Mommy to the airport. We got there at night and I was fast asleep. All of a sudden, a huge noise woke me up. Be quiet, I thought. I was so, so, so mad at that airplane. Then I fell fast asleep. Guess what happened! Another dumb airplane woke me up again. I was fast asleep when uhhh there were so many airplanes. I don’t think you will want to hear me telling you the same thing over and over again.

Noisy airplanes are not good

In the morning my mom got packed up and left. I cried and then Daddy came and cheered me up a little and I hopped out of bed and ate breakfast. Stella helped Daddy navigate us to a place were we got our oil changed. When we got there they made us get out and go to the waiting room. Greta brought Uno so we played a couple of rounds and then they told us that the RV was ready. After that we went to San Francisco.

May 10 we were camping right next to the Pacific Ocean. It was very blue and had large waves. It sounded like the wind. We saw an animal in the Pacific Ocean. I thought it was a dolphin. Daddy and Stella thought it was a sea lion. It was black and it had a big fin.

We went on a very cold bike ride. It was very hard to bike in the wind. We rode our bikes to the beach. I did not get wet like the day before. I did get a lot sandy. It was hard to push my bike in the sand.

Then we rode our bikes to a pizza restaurant. We were really cold when we got there. My sisters didn’t know we were going to get pizza. I knew, but I kept the secret. It was a nice surprise for my sisters.

Warm pizza on a cold night

We got a cheese pizza and a pizza with cheese, canadian bacon, and pineapple. They were good. Cheese pizza was my favorite. I liked it because it was warm and it had good crust. We also got a salad. I didn’t like the salad because it was too cheesy and the croutons tasted icky.

Then we rode our bikes back home. The ride home was more cold. I was so tired that I did not have a very good surprise because we had to go uphill to get to our campground.

Done.

May 9, we came into San Francisco. As we kept driving down the street, the Pacific Ocean came into view. It was bluish green and really, really big. It was so big that when I looked out on it I could see the curve of the earth, and when it seemed that the ocean ended I couldn’t tell the ocean from the sky. I could hear the waves crashing into the sandy shoreline, even through the windows.

We drove along the beach for a couple minutes, then pulled into a parking lot to go check it out. When I got out, (and I was first AGAIN!) I was kinda cold because I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and flip-flops, but I had purposely worn Summer clothing. I wore such little clothing so I would get such little clothing wet. I was planning to splash around and play in the enormous waves for a while. When I stepped onto the warm black sand, I slipped my shoes off and bolted for the green-blue waters. Ellie, Greta, Ana and I played, “outrun the waves” while Jean and Dad watched from far back. Once, Jean stepped up too close and the waves drenched her ankles and feet before she could even try to outrun it.

My sisters and I kept having a blast. We would try to jump up onto this big, long pole that went out into the water before the water could snatch us in. Greta decided she’d start taking pictures so she told us to line up on the pole, and when a big wave came, to jump in. She got ready to take a picture and then a huge wave came. I was about to jump in but when I saw what happened to Ana after she jumped in, I decided I’d better not. Ana had jumped in and fallen over onto her side. Here’s the picture Greta took when Ana was in mid-air. Doesn’t it look pretty cool, though?

Our first encounter with the Pacific Ocean. It took us almost three months to get here!

She wasn’t hurt, just soaked, but Jean and Dad said we had to go back to the RV. What a ruin of fun.

The view from our RV

That night we found a campground, and it’s the one I’m at now. It’s pretty much an extremely nice parking lot, (with really nice bathrooms) and our slot that we’re supposed to be spending two nights in is about ten feet from the edge of a drop-off. There’s a sign right in front of the RV that I’ll write for you: WARNING!!!!! SHARP DROP-OFF SUBJECT TO EROSION! PROHIBITED AREA! San Francisco RV Resort. Isn’t that kind of a severe sign? I’d think so.

Sunset on the Pacific Ocean

Anyway, we had a lot of fun at the beach. I really hope we can go again!

On May 8th we left Yosemite and headed west to Merced, CA to visit some of our favorite relatives. It had been several years since I had seen Mike, Judy, Rebecca, and Pam, and it was great to see them again, to introduce them to our family members they had not met yet (and vice versa), and to get the chance to catch up. I had forgotten what a beautiful place they have, nestled below the Sierras. Ellie was very excited to discover that they have horses. Ana was very excited to pet the very friendly neighborhood cat.

Our favorite relatives in Merced, CA

On May 8th we woke up and it was Mothers’ Day. Happy Mothers’ Day, Mommy. I love you so much.

When I got out of bed I got paper, markers, and color pencils. I wrote a card. Then we went for a walk into Yosemite Village. We went to the Yosemite Cemetery and we searched for some people that we needed to find out some things about them for our junior ranger badges. It was so boring. We went to Caleb Clarke’s grave and saw that he had planted giant sequoia trees around his own grave. We also learned that there were two girls that were best friends. There names were Florence and Effie. Florence died at age 17 and Effie died at age 14. They died a month apart.

After that we went to the to the Curry Village to go get breakfast. When we got there we asked a lady where the buffet was and she said it was closed so we went to the store and got bread and milk. Then we went back to the RV and made french toast.

After that we got out and went on a walk back to Yosemite Village. Daddy did not come on the walk with us, he stayed home. We went to the store and got Stella two bear key chains and got Ana a pencil case. We went to the museum.

Ana and John Muir. Dad says they are contemplating the Sierras, but I think Ana is just posing for the picture.

In Yosemite Valley, we saw waterfalls everywhere. They were pouring down and you could hear them very clearly. They sprayed water everywhere. Sometimes it sounded like huge boulders coming crashing down. When you got some mist on you it felt like needles raining down. It hurt a little. My favorite waterfall was called horsetail. I think there were 100 waterfalls in that park. I had so much fun there.

After Ranger Karen’s great talk about bears, we decided to take a hike to see Vernal Falls, a great waterfall that roars the most in the spring, hence the name. It was a 4.2 mile hike, and we were prepared for it… at least I was. We started up the trail, which was unfortunately a steep uphill all the way, but hey, we had a long downhill to look forward to on the way back. After hiking about 0.8 miles, we could see the falls, but at about 1.2 was when it started to get really wet. I had brought an extra shirt and a sweatshirt, but Dad was the unlucky one; he told us all to bring an extra shirt and of course he forgot his own. Silly old bear/Dad, whichever one you like. So anyway the trail got super duper steep and slippery and cold and wet. Water from the falls was spraying on us at full force and it was all sloshy, so my feet got all wet despite my good hiking shoes. When we finally reached the top of the waterfall, we ate a big handfull of trail mix and enjoyed the fabulous view of the falls. Here’s a great picture of Vernal Falls:

It's absolutely gorgeous, am I right? The tiny dots next to the top of the falls are people.

We changed out of our wet shirts and then started on our way back. This time we would be taking a different route, the John Muir Trail, which went up over a ridge and back down to the valley floor. It added on almost another mile to the trip but no one cared since it was so beautiful. We got a great view of another waterfall, Nevada Falls, on the way:

Which one do you think is more amazing, Vernal or Nevada Falls? I can't decide!

You can see in the photo how much water comes down from the snowcaps in the spring; even our trail is a stream. The John Muir trail gave a great view of Yosemite Valley. The only quirk was that the path was still covered in snow! At some parts we had to climb down the wall and skip part of the trail ’cause it was too snowy.

Despite the snow, the trail was SO pretty. To think that only four days earlier we were sweating in Death Valley!

The rest of the hike back down was a breeze because of the downhill. We finished off the trail mix when we were almost done with the hike.

It was quite a long hike, but it was well worth it! We were sure hungry for dinner… 😉

On May 7th, we went to a ranger program at Yosemite National Park. It was the Bear Walk. It was a walk with a ranger about bears. We learned about the bear traps, where a bag of fish guts is hung inside and the trap door closes when a bear tries to get them. One bear learned how to stick his leg out when he gets the fish so the door can’t shut and lock.

The ranger told us about a bear called Orange-5. She would go into campgrounds to find human food, and the rangers would chase her away. She would sneak back five sites down and try again, and they would chase her all night long. The rangers would yell at her, “Drop it, bear!” and then they would chase her.

We learned that bears would break into cars and RVs. They learned how to open the doors using the handles. So, don’t forget to lock your car every time you go to Yosemite and other places with bears, too.

We learned that bears like apples and apple blossoms. They climb up into apple trees to eat them. So, don’t forget to not park under an apple tree where bears like to eat the apples. The ranger told us that there was a nice car parked under an apple tree with a bear in it, and the bear pooped on his car and then hopped down onto his trunk when he was ready to leave.

In a bear trap, a ranger was fixing it and the door slammed shut and he was trapped. He had no radio with him. The ranger called for help when people walked by.

The ranger told us where the bears are usually at. They are usually at a fen, which is really a lake.