HIKING TO HALF DOME
OUR "INSPIRATION"- OUR JAPANESE FRIENDS
We were young, naive, full of promise. "Let's get out of this crappy Utah weather and go to sunny California! We'll do a road trip through Yosemite, Monterey, San Fran. We'll come home with a suntan!".
Weather Check Day 1: Cali 70, Utah 27
It was day two trying to find an open entrance to Yosemite that should have served as warning. The ultimate optimists, we drove around the perimeter of the whole park to finally get in 5 hours later--other entrances closed due to snow. We should have given up the next morning when the sleet came down and the only people brave enough to try hiking were the 2 dozen Japanese tourists huddled in their bright yellow rain ponchos. "Hey, the waterfalls will be GREAT with all this rain!." We trudged on...until we hit 9,000 feet and it started to snow horizontal (thought: Uh-Oh. Honda. No snow tires.) We did a brisk 3 mile jog down the mountain, through the mud, and made it to the hotel on snow-packed roads.
Weather Check Day 3: Yosemite 25, Utah 70
The ultimate optimists, we socked in for the night with a fire and a rousing round of Scrabble. We awoke to 12 inches of snow, no entrance to the park, and no plan. "Hey, I'll bet it's nice in Monterey. Let's go golfing!". Mother nature thought it sounded like so much fun, she tagged along and followed us. Kevin got a round of golf in just as the downpour started!
Weather Check Day 5: Cali 45, Utah 55
In short, it rained on and off the rest of the trip. We adapted each time. We came. We saw. We conquered. Pebble Beach. 17 mile drive. Fresh seared Ahi on the pier. Seaspray and seals on the beach. Tennis. Hikes to waterfalls. Early morning breakfast of steel cut oatmeal with dried cherries, brown sugar and cream while overlooking the 14th hole. Banana Republic outlet store (!!)
Bottom line--here's my beef: This whole commercial with Arnold Schwarzenegger and his cronies talking about sunny California while laughing and sipping Sangria on the beach? False adverstising at it's finest. You should be ashamed Arnold.
And in the cruelest form of irony. The day we get home: Cali 60, Utah 37
2 comments:
So sorry we couldn't have done a better job with the weather for you. Yosemite this year will probably always be cold, but the rest of the state should have cooperated! :) Just to make you feel better, though, our temps are back up to the 70's this week.
Next time...come on out to the Midwest! It's a regular mid 70'5 day-in and day-out now. Glad to hear you kept a "sunny" (yes - pun intended) outlook the whole time.
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