Our Awesome Yosemite & Monterey Bay Trip Report ~ 5/2009 ~ Lots of Pics! Completed!

[CoMickey]

Thanks for sharing your trip to Yosemite. Loved your pictures! We are going there for a week starting July 4th and staying in a tent cabin in Curry Village. It will be my first time but my DBF has been there serveral times! He has it all planned - I hope I can keep up!! We are going to do a lot of hiking and we are taking our bikes. I can't wait and your pictures and report made me even more excited!

[disneyfaninaz]

You'll love Yosemite. We saw a lot of people biking around the loop trail. The tent cabins at Curry Camp looked very interesting.



The shuttles were great to use and got us around very easily within the village. Are you going to go up Half Dome?

Have a great time. Looking forward to your trip report after you get back.

[disneyfaninaz]

After lunch we walked and did some shopping around Cannery Row. The “marine layer” was starting to burn off, so we thought it was the perfect time to check out the 17 mile drive.

We passed a public beach and decided to check it out. It didn’t take long for our DD to get her shoes and socks off and start wading into the Pacific. Never mind that the water was probably 50-60 degrees. That little fact didn’t seem to bother her though.



It seemed like it took 17 miles to get there from Cannery Row, but we finally stumbled upon the entrance gate, paid our admission fee, got our guide map and set off on our scenic drive.



We were not disappointed. The drive along the shoreline was absolutely beautiful, not to mention the pristine golf courses and very expensive houses.







We were treated with many sightings of California Sea Lions.



We also enjoyed the vistas at the Lone Cypress.







We then stopped at Pebble Beach for a snack and to take in the breathtaking beauty of the 18th green.





After the drive, we headed back towards Cannery Row for dinner. After dinner we walked down to a small beach and were treated to more Harbor Seals and a wild Sea Otter.







It was then back to our hotel to prepare for our last day on the coast.

Next: Seals, and more seals!

[splash5]

It was wonderful to see all of your pictures. My husband really wanted to go to Yosemite and I was dragging my feet (it looks beautiful). We did plan the trip for next month and we will do San Francisco (3 days), Yosemite, Napa, and Monterey. I am very excited to be there.

Did you find it to be very cold? Trying to decide on what kind of jacket/clothing to take.

Can't wait to see more!!!!

[disneyfaninaz]

I think you will find Yosemite and Napa to be warm this time of year. However, it can get pretty cool in San Fran and Monterey. The best advice I can give is to layer your clothing so you can add or take off as needed.

Otherwise, light jackets and sweat shirts should be sufficient.

Enjoy your trip!

[mkmommy]

Wendy

Your cruise pictures are great, but these are amazing, looks like you had a great time, did your dd have fun also?

Do you have any beautiful pictures of the Grand Canyon? I am trying to convince my husband that we should go to Arizona, but according to DD8 she is "cruise sick and needs to go on a cruise to get better" and does not want to go anywhere else, so I need some good ammunition.

Lisa

[disneyfaninaz]

Hey Lisa, thanks for stopping by. I hope all is well with you.

We had an amazing trip and believe it or not DD had more fun in Yosemite and Monterey than she had on the cruise. Go figure! She really enjoyed the waterfalls and looking for wildlife. We had so much fun that we're now planning a trip to Yellowstone next summer.

Anyway, you would love coming out West and seeing the sights. As a matter of fact, I do have some pictures of the Grand Canyon.









The canyon is breathtaking and my pictures don't do it justice. But, if you're going to come all the way out this way, I highly recommend seeing more of Arizona, Yosemite, Monterey and possibly Disneyland too!

[disneyfaninaz]

Unfortunately, today was our last day in California. We had a 4:20 PM flight home out of San Jose. My DH wanted to go see the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. I wasn’t too thrilled with this idea, but is was on the way. While I was doing research I stumbled across the Winchester Mystery House. I had heard about and seen this house on various Travel Channel and America’s Castle specials. What I didn’t realize was that it was only 4 minutes from the San Jose airport. Now this interested me. My DH wasn’t as keen.

We had breakfast, checked out, loaded the car and headed up the PCH 1 to Santa Cruz. While the boardwalk has free admission, we had to pay $10 to park.





The day was kind of gloomy and cool with the marine layer and we arrived before anything was really open. They were having a Beach Soccer tournament going on so there were a lot of kids running around in soccer outfits. We walked the entire boardwalk out to the beach near the pier when we spotted seals in the water and started hearing “Orf, orf, orfs”.



After closer inspection we discovered there to be many California Sea Lions hanging out under the pier on platforms within the water.



We walked to the pier and investigated. The seals were taking siestas on the platforms, some in huge piles with one on top of the other and if one moved or another seal came up on the platform and rocked the "boat" they all would put up a ruckus as if to say, "Hey, I'm trying to sleep here!"









We were also intrigued by the various sea creatures living on the pylons of the pier.



I have to admit, watching the seals at this close range was more exciting than the Boardwalk and made the whole side trip worth it. It’s fun to see sea animals at the zoo or in aquariums, but it is something else to see them in their “natural” environment.

After we got our fill of Sea Lions, the Boardwalk opened and there were noticeably more people milling about.





However, we had our fill and were ready to move on. It was too early to go to the airport, so I pitched the Mystery House again. This time DH said ‘Why not?”

We arrived at the house just about 12:00 PM.



The guided tours of the mansion last 65 minutes. Fortunately, the Winchester Mystery House mansion tours start every 15 minutes, so we got on the 12:45 tour which would get us through by 2:00 PM. While we waited for our tour to begin we grabbed some lunch at the very over priced food counter at the mansion. The food wasn’t bad, just expensive. The sodas were $4.00 alone.

The tour started out with a little history, which I won’t bore you with here, except to say that Mrs. Winchester had a lot of money and was a little eccentric. She was told by a medium to purchase a house and keep building on it to appease the spirits of all the people killed by the Winchester Rifle. So that, in a nutshell, is what she did, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 30 some odd years. For those of you not familiar with the house, it is huge, with doors that open to walls, staircases that end at ceilings and cabinets and cupboards that are only deep enough to hold a piece of paper and that’s about it.





My DD loved it. My favorite part was all of the stained glass windows. Mrs. Winchester had them shipped in from Tiffany’s of New York and they were gorgeous. Mrs. Winchester was very superstitious and her favorite number was 13, so you see that motif a lot throughout the house.





We finished the tour, literally ran through the garden







and left just in time to return our rental car and check in at the airport for our flight home. Thus, ending our "Awesome" trip to Central California.

Thanks for reading along. I hoped you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

[ScooterL]

Thanks for posting it - I really enjoyed reading it! I hadn't realized how much the DCA Paradise Pier area looks like the Santa Cruz Boardwalk until I saw the right side of that one picture (the last one before the Mystery House). Looks like California Screamin' and the Maliboomer! :-)

[disneyfaninaz]

You're right! I never even thought of California Adventure.

[mkmommy]

Wendy

Thanks for the pictures of the Grand Canyon, they are beautiful and we will have to make it out that way one of these days.

The girls have 1 more week of school then off for 2 months and they are looking forward to it.

Enjoy the rest of your summer as it sounds like you have been off for awhile all ready.

Lisa

[Judy from Boise]

thanks for your great report

[sharon78]

Thanks for the report, really enjoyed reading it, your pic's are fab! Makes me go all excited about our 1st Californian trip next year.
We're starting in San Fran then driving south to LA over a 2 week holiday

[disneyfaninaz]

Originally Posted by Judy from Boise

thanks for your great report

You're welcome. Thanks for reading!

Originally Posted by sharon78

Thanks for the report, really enjoyed reading it, your pic's are fab! Makes me go all excited about our 1st Californian trip next year.
We're starting in San Fran then driving south to LA over a 2 week holiday

You're welcome and thanks for the kind words. I hope you have a wonderful trip to California.

[Judy from Boise]

you captured our day at the aquairum too...... so now that I am back I will say "ditto"