Sat 27 July - Day 1: Yosemite
Word of the day was definitely Wow!
So after our very late night I still woke at 4am but managed to snooze until 6am when others started stirring.
First impressions of the Ahwahnee hotel are that it’s quite old fashioned but quirky. It’s definitely not cheap and is our most expensive holiday of the trip but we knew we weren’t in a Yosemite for long and didn’t want to drive in every day. We were all in one room with the girls sharing a fairly small creaky sofabed. The shower was great, plenty of hot water & really powerful!
At 7.00 we headed to breakfast which is in the amazing dining room- daughters thought it looked like something from Harry Potter! The breakfast buffet was great with loads of choice and unlimited coffee and juice. At $29 dollars its not cheap but the service was great.
After this it was time to actually get out into the park.
My original plan had been to do the valley tour on the Friday and then spend Saturday doing more exploring but obviously our delay scuppered that and when I checked there was no availability for a Saturday tour. (Word to the wise - book ahead!) So instead we walked from the hotel down a trail towards the Yosemite falls. Now I have to confess that earlier in the week I had twisted my ankle walking the dogs so we didn’t walk as much as I had pictured when we planned the trip but what we saw was still amazing and it took forever to get anywhere as we kept stopping to take photos! The beginning of the trail was really quiet but as we got to the falls it got really busy! There were people everywhere- on the rocks, climbing up the edges and even in the water. However they were still amazing. I think we were lucky that the snow had been late this year so they hadn’t dried up so early. The rest of them climbed up the sides to get a closer look and I sat at the bottom soaking in the atmosphere!
After this we headed down to the visitor centre and museum and looked around snd watched an interesting film about the history of the park.
By now it was 1.30 and people were getting hungry (as usual eldest daughter!) so we stopped at Degnan’s Kitchen for some food. The girls and I shared a couple of pizzas & hubbie had a sub. These were all freshly made to order and about $9 each...
By now it was about 38’ and we were flagging so we wandered slowly back to the hotel for a rest. Our intention after this was to walk the 45mins the opposite direction from the hotel to Mirror Lake but in honesty jetlag was catching up with us snd we just wandered the grounds of the hotel and had a cold drink.
One thing I have been impressed with so far is the opportunity for filling water bottles. We all brought water bottles from home and the airport, hotel, restaurant and other public places have all had water points for refilling. The taste of the water does vary but it’s obviously better (& cheaper) than keep buying plastic bottles...
We had dinner booked at 7 in the hotel. Hubbie & eldest had calamari, I had onion soup & youngest had lentil soup. This was followed by swordfish with some kind of garlicky broad beans - very yummy! Hubbie & I both had this, eldest had pasta & youngest had chicken. We then shared a lemon meringue pie between us. By now it was 9pm and we were all shattered so off to bed before our long drive to Vegas tomorrow...
We concluded Yosemite had been an amazing start to the trip and though we were disappointed we hadn’t had longer we were grateful we’d made it and seen some fantastic sights!
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