Northern California, 6Yr Anniversary Bucket List Trip

By Michael

In the afternoon we drove down through Wawona, past the old Wawona Hotel, to Mariposa Grove. We walked in among the giant sequoias, saw two deer grazing in the tall grass near one of the trees, and stopped at the Clothespin Tree and the sequoia marked Faithful Couple, a name that lines up with our wedding anniversary; June 14 is the day we were married, six years earlier in 2003. We also walked through the tunnel cut into the base of one of the sequoias, a spot other visitors were posing at too.

By Michael

We left the Corvette at the stable lot and got fitted with helmets before the ride. A wrangler brought out the string of mules and we mounted up and rode out of the valley on a switchback trail cut into the granite, with Half Dome and Liberty Cap rising above us the whole way. The trail climbed high enough to look across at a waterfall pouring down the canyon wall.

We stopped partway up to rest, and ground squirrels came right up onto the rocks looking for food. We fed one by hand while it stood up on its back legs. Stellar's jays worked the same trees. After the rest stop the string turned back down through the switchbacks to the stables.

By Michael

By mid-afternoon we were on Highway 1 into Big Sur, passing grassy coastal hills with cattle grazing above the road. We stopped at a cliff overlook where someone photographed the two of us together with the ocean behind us. A sign for the Los Padres National Forest picnic ground at Willow Creek marked where we were.

In the morning we would continue up the coast toward San Francisco.

By Michael

We spent the day at the California Academy of Sciences, working our way through the aquarium tanks. A moray eel came right up to the glass with its mouth open, and in a reef tank close by, small orange and purple fish moved together over the rock. Further on we found sea stars in orange and pink clinging to the rocks, and a pair of jellyfish drifting side by side, pale and slow.

By Michael

Our last full day in San Francisco started with a ride on the red City Sightseeing double-decker bus, picked up downtown. We rode the open top past the skyscrapers of the Financial District and the dome of City Hall, then got off around Union Square. We walked past Macy's, Barneys, Cole Haan and Tiffany and Co, and one of the golden heart sculptures set up around the city that year.

By Michael

That evening we went out for a Segway tour of our own, along the Embarcadero. Kathy strapped on her helmet a little after seven and we rode the waterfront path together with the Bay Bridge behind us, past a large sculpture at Rincon Park. We kept riding as the sun went down over the bay, until close to twenty to nine, our last evening out before flying home the next morning.