In June 2012, to celebrate Antonio’s graduation with his Master’s from BYU, we planned a trip to California. He had never been to San Francisco or seen the
Redwoods. Neither of us had been to Yosemite National Park so we made
arrangements to include all these destinations in our travels. Our original
trip included a jaunt up to Crater Lake, Oregon and then a drive down through Redwood
National Forest so Antonio could see “Endor”. Unfortunately, one of Antonio’s
immigration appointments came up right in the middle of our planned trip so we
had to cut off the beginning of our journey. At least we were still going to
San Francisco and then camping for three days in Yosemite. By some miracle we
got a coveted camp site in the Yosemite Valley.
After Antonio’s appointment, we started the long drive to
San Fran. We drove across Utah through the famous Bonneville Salt Flats. We ate
at the Salt Flats Café. It had good reviews but it was so busy that we had to
sit at the lunch counter and our order took over 45 minutes to come, the café is
not breaking any speed records any time soon. We continued our drive across
Nevada and stayed the night in Reno. It was fun to see lights at night and we
took a little stroll over to Circus Circus to see some acrobatic performances.
Antonio even won a Hello Kitty Doll for Katrina with one of those grabbing
crane machines. He has mad skills.
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| Salt Flats, UT |
The next morning before heading out we got a call from our Realtor in Virginia. We had started looking at some homes at the beginning of
June. We even put down a few offers but nothing had gone through. Our realtor
called to say that our most recent offer had been accepted. When had 10 days
for a home inspection to be performed. We thought it would be a good idea to
see the home we planned to purchase in person. Next we made arrangements to fly
to Virginia the following week. This new development meant that we had to
cancel some of our time in Yosemite. Boo
L
We continued on our way to San Francisco. We stop in
Oakland, California to attend the LDS Oakland Temple. The building has a unique
design and a beautiful view of the valley. One of Katrina’s former coworkers
and dear friend (Laura) lives outside of San Francisco with her husband (Adam).
We had arranged in advance to stay with them for a few days. Laura and Adam
were very welcoming. We had dinner that evening in a Greek restaurant near
their home. The next morning we went to a local favorite, Millbrae Pancake
House. After a huge breakfast Laura became our tour guide of the city.
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| Tonio is thinking "I love to see the temple" |
We started out driving to the top of Twin Peaks to have a
view of the city. There were hundreds of people attending the Pink Triangle
Walk. Nancy Pelosi was speaking at it. We learned that the pink triangle was
used by the Nazis to identify homosexuals during WWII. This group was now using
it as a symbol of pride and strength. We just happened to be in San Fran during
Gay Pride Week. We enjoyed the view of the city and also our new found
knowledge of human rights.
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| Pink Pelosi |
After that we went to Cliff House which has a long history
of residents but it is now a restaurant overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Our next
stop was LucasFilm where we hoped to find the famous Yoda statue. Laura helped
us find it. Antonio was in heaven. He
even tried to talk his way into LucasFilm but alas, the Force was not strong with
him. Instead, we went to the
Palace of Fine Arts
. It is a beautiful building with arches and surrounded by water and fountains.
It was such a gorgeous day outside and the parking lot was extremely crowed.
Laura was kind enough to drop us off and circle around while we took pictures.
After that, we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. I wanted to walk across it
but again, there were so many people we just had to admire the view.
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| At the Cliff House |
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| We meet again, at last! |
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| Powerful you have become, master Tonio! |
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| Palace of Fine Arts...so pretty! |
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| Pure awesomeness! |
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| Lombard Street |
You can’t go to San Francisco and not drive down
Lombard
Street. Lombard Street is the most winding street in the city. It used to
be straight but it was so steep that it was redesigned with 8 hair-pin turns to
cut the slope. Going down the street is fun but you have to go very slowly
because of the traffic and the turns. The scariest part of the street is the
drive to the top of the decline. We were proud and terrified that our car made
it up all of the steep inclines. San Francisco is not a city for stick shifts.
Katrina’s nerves couldn't take it. We parked at the bottom and then walked back
up on the sidewalk. The homes on the street are enormous and very unique.
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| Ralph, the butterfly, who lives on a hydrangea on Lombard Street |
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| Blue Tudor heaven on Lombard Street |
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| Cable Car |
As we drove back to Laura’s house we stopped at Coit Tower.
This tower was a present to the city from a lady who wanted to give something
beautiful as a legacy. We saw the murals
inside which represent the history of the West including San Francisco. However, we were too tired and too stingy to
pay to go the top.
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| I can see my house from up here! |
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| Far away view of Lombard Street from Coit Tower |
The next day we went to church. Afterwards we met with Tonio’s friends Dario
and Merella who had just moved to the area the week before and were still apartment
hunting. We went to Muir Woods just outside the city to admire the
Redwoods. Needless to say it was
breathtaking. We were all in awe as we
hiked through these giants of nature. It
was humbling to realize that many of those trees have been along for thousands
of years. Antonio loved them so much he
even got a seed to plant in our new house. Oh that guy!
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| Kat, Merella, and Dario at Muir Woods |
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| Redwood Tree-huger |
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| Katrina pushed it over! |
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| They are so freaking tall! |
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| Here is where the UN was born |
Later on that day we had a BBQ with Laura and Adam and
enjoyed some delicious grilled chicken and taught them to play two of Katrina’s
all-time favorite games: Zilch and Canasta (she calls it canasty)
On Monday we went to Pier 39 to say hi to the Seal
Lions. We were a bit disappointed when we
only found four when normally there are hundreds of them basking in the sun. I
guess they were also on vacation. At least we had a nice view of Alcatraz but
that was as close as we got since tickets were all sold out. We will have to
come back next time and bring the kids. As a consolation prize we enjoyed some sour
dough breadbowls of clam chowder by Fisherman’s Wharf. We rushed to China Town to see the Fortune
Cookie factory. As we could not find a
spot to legally park our car we had to take turns to see the factory while the other
person drove around. The “factory” is
just a hole in the wall that does not allow to take any pictures unless you pay
$.50 per shot. However, we bought some
cookies for the road. In the evening we went with Laura to watch the movie “Brave”. It was really cute and fun.
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| Alcatraz, The Rock! |
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| The Golden Gate Bridge |
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| Aurgh, Aurgh! Translation "I'm working on my bikini body,.OK?" |
On Tuesday we went to Yosemite. However, since our plans for camping were
dashed, we had to resort to a drive through experience of the Park. We hit the highlights: El Capitan, Half Dome,
some waterfalls, and Yosemite Valley. We decided that next time we will be back
with the kids.
We drove that night to a town in the middle of nowhere in
Nevada and stayed at the last room available in the Ramada Inn. Our “nonsmoking room” had the amazing feature
of sucking all the smoke from the casino downstairs through the AC. We complained but we were told that there
were no more rooms in the Inn. The next
morning we drove the rest of the way to Provo and then to SLC to catch a flight
to Virginia that night to see our future home.
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| Half Dome |
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| Tonio "Ansel Adams" Uriarte shot |
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| The sky is always bluer on op of the windshield |
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| "El Capitan" |
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| I can see the moon! |
