CA Coast & Disneyland! Pics & Video - Update 9/18- Pg. 12 #177 - The End!

[mom2ian]

Hi! Loving the trip report so far. Gorgeous pictures and a great story!

On my first trip to DL when I was about 12, the parents had rented a motorhome and we drove from Oregon to DL. Of course, we went part-way on Hwy 101 to stop at San Fran. We drove across the Golden Gate bridge. Well, my dad, not being familiar with the area, accidently got in the wrong lane and tried to drive the motorhome through on a car lane. Needless to say, the motorhome got stuck at the tollbooth. We must have been "stuck" on the Golden Gate for a good 2 hours, backing up traffic and all. At the time, it was terrible! But, now we can all about it!

My other comment is - I can't wait to see the Yosemite photos. I've never been there but have a trip planned for early September.

 

[Lissete]

Hi! Hopping in a bit late but enjoying our TR. We did a very similar trip around the same time last year and loved it. We weren't in commando mode though!

I absolutely LOVE your photos! What type of camera do you use? I so need to take some photography classes! Can't wait for the rest of your report. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Spartangirl]

We arrive at the lodge!

After our initial views of the valley, we drove for quite some time before reaching the lodge. The Yosemite View Lodge is actually outside of the park. But, we did have the Merced River right outside our door.

The lodge itself was pretty cute, with several buildings scattered all about. It was nice, but we soon learned that the VIEW is what you pay for. All I can say is WOW!

Here is the building where you check-in. Throughout our stay, we came here a few times to look around in the store within the building. There were all sorts of shirts, trinkets, and snacks inside.

Chris shot a short video to show the actual size of this building when compared with the scenery surrounding it.




Here is an outside shot of the building that we stayed in.

Our room was actually quite spacious. It even had some touches of home...we had dishes in the cabinets and a refridgerator!

Best of all, we had a BALCONY! In fact, all of the rooms at the lodge have balconies. The views were amazing! During both nights of our stay, we sat out on the balcony and enjoyed the sights and sounds. As it got dark, we could see many (I couldn't venture to guess how many) bats catching bugs up in the sky.

After getting situated in our room, we decided to go in search of dinner. Now, you have to realize, we were in the middle of nowhere! But, we did have two options for food at the lodge. The first was a nice, moderately-priced sit-down restaurant. We decided we would eat breakfast there in the morning. So for dinner, we opted for choice #2.......a pizza parlor/sandwich shop. We decided to order a Hawaiian pizza and each got a salad from the salad bar. The pizza was fantastic....I guess we weren't expecting much, but it was so good! Now this little restaurant had both indoor and outdoor seating. We opted for the outdoor seating to enjoy the view.

Here's what we looked at while dining...

After dinner, we explored the property for quite some time. We saw the Merced River and even snapped a photo of a hummingbird. The hummingbirds were out in full force! I think we saw 5 chasing each other at a time!!! They are so quick, but fun to watch!

After we explored the property, we decided to head back to our room to sit out on the balcony. On the way, we stopped to talk with a couple of people who informed us that a bear had been spotted one building over from us! Apparently, the bear had been walking along the first floor rooms checking out the garbage cans. I think my heart started to beat a little faster at the thought of a bear...both from fear and excitement. We continued our walk and didn't end up seeing anything. We ended up sitting on the balcony for quite some time, soaking up nature and the beautiful surroundings.

Up Next: We hit the park!!! - Post #69

 

[Spartangirl]

HI LYNNE!
I swear it's like reading myself. We sure have quite a bit in common. This is one of my dream trips. The weather in your pics looks fabulous. I'm a west coast MI girl myself, hoping to move back next year, of course that's every year. Anyways, enough about me. Thanks for posting this TR because I'm soooo interested in going to CA and the places you went. I thought my DH and I were the only young 30's with no kids, any plans?

Welcome to my trippie!!! This trip was also one of my dream trips too! I loved EVERY moment of it and had a hard time coming home.

Nope, you're not the only young 30's with no kids! We would actually LOVE to have children, but it just may not be in our cards. To make a long story short, we went through 2 hard, stressful years of testing and no results. We may eventually adopt! But, for now we're enjoying each other, life, and traveling. Any plans for you?

Hi! Loving the trip report so far. Gorgeous pictures and a great story!

On my first trip to DL when I was about 12, the parents had rented a motorhome and we drove from Oregon to DL. Of course, we went part-way on Hwy 101 to stop at San Fran. We drove across the Golden Gate bridge. Well, my dad, not being familiar with the area, accidently got in the wrong lane and tried to drive the motorhome through on a car lane. Needless to say, the motorhome got stuck at the tollbooth. We must have been "stuck" on the Golden Gate for a good 2 hours, backing up traffic and all. At the time, it was terrible! But, now we can all about it!

My other comment is - I can't wait to see the Yosemite photos. I've never been there but have a trip planned for early September.

I'm glad you're on board!!! Thank you so much for the nice comments about my pictures and my TR.

I can just imagine the motorhome getting stuck at the tollbooth!

You will LOVE Yosemite......nature at it's best!

Hi! Hopping in a bit late but enjoying our TR. We did a very similar trip around the same time last year and loved it. We weren't in commando mode though!

I absolutely LOVE your photos! What type of camera do you use? I so need to take some photography classes! Can't wait for the rest of your report. Thanks for sharing!

Welcome and thanks for joining in!!! Isn't California beautiful? We LOVED our trip too! We always seem to be in commando mode.........we always say we're going to be more relaxed, but it just doesn't happen!

Thanks for the compliment on my photos! I use a Nikon D80 and I absolutely love it. I'm self-taught.........I just love taking pictures!

 

[Lynne D.]

This is one of the best trip report I have read. I wish I was taking this trip and now I planned to. Thank you SpartanGirl for a wonderful trip report.

 

[byoung]

Great report and fantastic pictures, thanks.

 

[lovevacations]

Keep it coming!!!! I've been busy planning our trip! We are now starting in San Diego and finishing in San Fran. We will have 17 nights!
San Diego
DLR and Universal Studios
Pismo Beach
Hearst Castle and the elephant seals
Monterey
San Fran

Can't wait to for your next posts!!

 

[Spartangirl]

This is one of the best trip report I have read. I wish I was taking this trip and now I planned to. Thank you SpartanGirl for a wonderful trip report.

Welcome to my TR and thank you for the wonderful compliment! By the way, I spell my name the same way...I never find too many people who spell Lynne with an E at the end.

Great report and fantastic pictures, thanks.

Thanks for jumping on board!!! I appreciate the wonderful compliments!

Keep it coming!!!! I've been busy planning our trip! We are now starting in San Diego and finishing in San Fran. We will have 17 nights!
San Diego
DLR and Universal Studios
Pismo Beach
Hearst Castle and the elephant seals
Monterey
San Fran

Can't wait to for your next posts!!

Yea...I'm so excited to hear that you're planning away! It sounds like a wonderful trip....and 17 nights...WOW! I do hope you write a trip report too!

 

[Spartangirl]

On to Yosemite!!!

We woke up nice, early, and well rested the next morning. We headed to the restaurant at the lodge and enjoyed some fresh coffee and a wonderful breakfast buffet. I was happy to see that there was tons of frest fruit and a wide variety at that. Chris had his eyes on the "hot stuff"....eggs, waffles, pancakes, bacon, and sausage to name a few things. We ate our fill and left the lodge at around 8:30 a.m.

We arrived at the park within a 1/2 hour. We got our bearings and checked in for a morning sight-seeing tour that we planned on taking. Our tour was not scheduled until 10 a.m., so we walked around and did a little bit of exploring.

We stopped and had someone snap our photo in front of a lovely waterfall...we were surprised to see water still streaming down! We had been told that the waterfalls tend to dry up by about mid-June and here we were at the end of June. It was definitely a nice surprise!

This was a litle bird that I happened to snap a picture of. He was very inquisitive.....watching me and "playing a game of hide-and-seek" around the tree.

We decided we should head back to check-in for our tour. We were told to be on the vehicle about 15 minutes prior to departure. We boarded our open-air transportation and headed out promptly at 10 a.m. Our guide was fantastic. She is both a ranger in the park and one of their photographers. We enjoyed our morning tour of the scenic Yosemite valley floor. We saw cedar, pine and fir trees, magnificent waterfalls, many types of birds, deer, a bear, and two towering granite monoliths known as Half Dome and El Capitan (I'll point these two out later in my pics! ).

Here are some of my pics from our tour. Rather than ramble on, I'm going to let my pictures do the talking!

This is El Capitan! To me, it looks like a face on the side of the granite. By the way, we were able to see some rock climbers on the side of El Cap. They looked like little ants. Our guide mentioned that it takes 7 days to reach the top!

We were able to hop off the vehicle for a couple of photo opportunities, which I loved...

Note the sign in this pic. The water level was up to the line on the sign...Chris is 6'3". He doesn't seem so tall anymore!

This is one of my favorite shots from the valley floor!

Look at the size of the pinecones!

To be continued...

 

[Spartangirl]

Yosemite Valley Tour continued...

Here are a few more photos from one of our stops. The views were so amazing!

Chris shot a quick video to try to capture the beauty of the park!



We hopped back on our vehicle, got moving, and the views still continued to leave us in awe.

Here is Half Dome!

Our 90 minute tour ended and Chris and I agreed that Yosemite National Park is one of the most beautiful places in the world and that we definitely had to "get out" and explore some of it by foot...

Up Next: We hike and explore the Ahwahnee... - Post #71

 

[Spartangirl]

Hiking and the Ahwahnee

After our morning tour, we were feeling a bit hungry, so we decided to stop for some lunch before attempting a hike in the park. We followed a large crowd to the park's cafeteria. Here we found salads, soups, burgers, pizza, etc, along with LONG lines. We soon filled our bellies and were ready to hit the road again.

We learned that Yosemite National Park has its own bus system to transport people to the different points within the park. This is FREE to visitors. We hopped on the 1st available bus we saw and headed to our destination.

We soon arrived at a point in the park which led to 4-5 different hiking trails, with varying difficulty and length. We wisely chose the "Misty Falls" trail, which was a 1.5 mile hike. Some park rangers had suggested this one since we said that we wanted a "scenic route." In addition, we didn't want to walk TOO FAR because it was quite hot on this day.

The views were spectacular, of course!

The squirrels were so cute! This little guy was following us on the path. He kept standing on his hind legs and walking toward us with his arms outstretched. I felt bad that we didn't have anything to give him.

Here are some of the views we encountered on our hike!!!

When I asked Chris to describe the hike we took he responded with, "Uphill." We always seemed to be moving in an upward direction. It wasn't a very difficult hike, although we saw many people resting at different points along the way. The picture below shows our trail off to the right side of the photo. Note the "tiny people" in the picture.

Hold up that rock!!!

The hike took us about an hour and a half. Could we have finished it sooner? Sure, but we stopped MANY times for photos and just to enjoy the beautiful views.

After hiking, we hopped back on the bus and headed for the Ahwahnee Hotel. We heard that this is "The Place" to stay in Yosemite.

The Ahwahnee was certainly impressive! It was gorgeous both on the inside and the outside. However, we soon learned that the Ahwahnee was quite rustic, stuffy and hot inside. Being an older hotel, there is no air-conditioning. Call me crazy, but I was happy to be staying at the lodge. Maybe I would have enjoyed staying here at a different time of the year, but definitely not in the summer.

From the Ahwahnee, we walked to the Ansel Adams Photography Museum. I LOVE his work, so we spent a little bit of time looking around. We then walked next door to the Yosemite Post Office where we sent postcards back home to our family.

Although we would have liked to stay longer in the park, we were both a little exhausted from a full day. So, we decided to head back to the lodge. As we drove off, we took our final glances of Yosemite.

Back at the lodge, we decided to sit by "one of the many" pools. We saw at least 5 pools on the property, each with a hot tub to accompany it.

We then decided to eat at the "pizza parlor" restaurant again. Only this time, we tried the turkey sandwiches. They were delish!!! We sat for awhile, relaxing and talking about our wonderful trip so far. Finally, we headed back to our room to enjoy sitting on the balcony for one last night...


Up Next: Carmel, 17-mile drive, Seal Beach, Lone Cypress, and Pebble Beach golf course! - Post #74

 

[Lynne D.]

Lynne, your posts are very informative to anyone planning a similiar trip. Thank you for all the information. I have a friend who is traveling to San Francisco and to Yosemite next week and I have mentioned your thread to her for thoughts and ideas. Thank you for posting.

I am traveling myself through your words and pictures. Beautiful!

 

[Spartangirl]

Lynne, your posts are very informative to anyone planning a similiar trip. Thank you for all the information. I have a friend who is traveling to San Francisco and to Yosemite next week and I have mentioned your thread to her for thoughts and ideas. Thank you for posting.

I am traveling myself through your words and pictures. Beautiful!

Thanks for following my thread and for passing it along!!! I also appreciate the words of encouragement. There is more to come!

 

[Spartangirl]

Carmel, 17-mile drive, Seal Beach, Lone Cypress, and Pebble Beach!!!

We woke up bright and early the next morning and headed down to the lodge restaurant for some breakfast. Once again, we had the breakfast buffet since it had been so good the day before. It did not disappoint!!!

We headed out from the lodge at about 7:30 a.m. We had to get an early start because we had a few stops that we wanted to make on our way to Monterey. Our journey began by heading west past the San Luis Reservoir, which was part of the California irrigation project.

After some time, we reached the town of Carmel by the Sea. This was a cute, artsy town. It had a charming downtown filled with shops, galleries, and outdoor cafes. I believe we were told that the "cheapest" home in Carmel costs between 1 and 2 million dollars.

We explored the town a bit and then walked toward the beach. Although it was a bit chilly outside, there were some brave people swimming in the cool water.

As we were standing on the beach, Chris noticed that we could see Pebble Beach Golf Course across the water.

We stayed in Carmel for about 1 1/2 hours and then headed off to our next stop. As we were leaving the town, I snapped a picture of the Carmel Mission.

We continued on our journey until we reached 17-mile drive, which was about 5 minutes from the town. It was $9.00, just to drive along 17-mile drive. Honestly, we were quite surprised to find out that there was a cost involved to travel along that stretch of road.....but, we wanted to see what all of the hype was about! The coastal drive was lined with palatial homes and delightful natural wonders! We even saw the home where Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" was filmed.

Our first stop was Seal Beach where we were able to view the harbor seals.

We then continued on until we reached the Lone Cypress. This "tree" is the logo for Pebble Beach Golf Course.

Finally, we reached Pebble Beach!!! Note "Lone Cypress" on the sign.

We enjoyed looking around the pricy shops.

Then we headed down to take a video of the clubhouse.



We walked over and stood about 20 yards from the 18th hole. We figured that it was better for us to "look around," rather than play golf because one round of golf costs $475.

Up Next: We reach Monterey! - Post #80

 

[Angrypenguin]

Hey Spartangirl, I'm really enjoying your trip report! I'm another west coast Michigander (do we still use that term?) out here in LA; I'm originally from Rochester Hills Michigan. You name aside, (I'm a Wolverine, class of '04 ) I'm loving the pictures of San Fransisco and along the coast. You're hitting places I hope to go to in the near future!

Anyways, keep up the great report!

 

[karin6996]

Hi Spartangirl! I as well as Angrypenguin am a former Michiganian, now living in Orlando. However, I made the right decision just as you did, to attend the best University in the state, MSU!

What a fabulous trip you had! Your pictures are a beautiful illustration of your words. I will be making a trip to DL and San Fran in just 24 day. I am so much more excited after reading your report! Thanks for sharing!

 

[cherokeemamma]

Hi Lynne,

I absolutely loved your latest installment.
Oh my goodness...Yosemite is beautiful. When I saw Half Dome I instantly thought of Ansel Adams. I am sure the exhibit of his work was outstanding. I have always admired his work very much. Your photos are wonderful as well. The couple shots of the bird and squirrel were great...I have to tell you though, I have a hidden fear of squirrels. They just terrify me. Not really sure why.
It looks like you and your DH were having a wonderful time.
Looking forward to more....

TTFN
Darlene

One quick question: How much time would you recommend spending here?

 

[spongemommie05]

i am loving your tr i have never been to yosemite it is so beautiful i am excited to hear about monterey i have been there wow $475 for one round of golf. i would just stand next to the 18th whole too

 

[Angrypenguin]

Hi Spartangirl! I as well as Angrypenguin am a former Michiganian, now living in Orlando. However, I made the right decision just as you did, to attend the best University in the state, MSU!

*sigh* it's a shame that some minds are deluded to think MSU is the best. Or even comparale. Just kidding! I love all Michiganders. Well, most anyway.

 

[Spartangirl]

Monterey!!!

We continued on our journey and found ourselves in Monterey. We were staying at the Portola Plaza on the wharf. This hotel was quite upscale and very beautiful! Check-in was a breeze....before heading to our room, we were presented with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. That was a nice surprise!

Our room was very cute with nice decor. After walking around and checking out our new digs, I noticed that the bathroom was fully stocked with Bath and Body Works products. And....they were in my favorite scent...Coconut Lime Verbena. I could tell that I was going to like this place already.

We noticed that our room was a bit stuffy and warm. Chris went over to the thermostat to turn on the air. HEAT started blowing out!!! We couldn't seem to get the air to work, so we headed down to the front desk. A nice lady at the counter informed us that there is NO air-conditioning at the hotel, or at MOST of the hotels in Monterey because the weather is usually on the cool side. The woman offered to send a fan up to our room, but we decided we would just open up some windows. So, we headed back to our room and did just that! There was nice breeze blowing and we got some fresh air in our room. It really was no big deal without the air. We were just surprised.

Since this was going to be our only night in Monterey, we wanted to head out and explore as much as we could. We walked out of our hotel and found a nice courtyard area with some specialty stores. We looked around and took a few pictures.

We continued on our walk and literally reached the Fisherman's Wharf in about 2 minutes. The Portola Plaza definitely has a prime location on the wharf.

The wharf was a fun, little area. It was much smaller than San Francisco's wharf, but it still had many shops and restaurants. We walked in and out of many of the shops and purchased a few shirts and small items. We then continued our journey. We followed a smooth path along the water and took a couple of neat pictures along the way.

We walked for about 10-15 minutes until we reached a colorful fishing section of town called Cannery Row.

We continued up and down the streets of the town, just taking everything in. We even found the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Although I've heard many good things about it, we didn't have time to stop to see it.

We began feeling a bit hungry, seeing as though we hadn't eaten for awhile and had been out and about for quite some time. We decided that we would head back to our hotel to check out one of the restaurants. As we began walking, we noticed a streetcar stop. We decided we would catch the streetcar back to the plaza because it was FREE!!! Within a couple of short minutes, we were back at our hotel and on our way to eat at Jacks.

Jacks was an upscale steakhouse that had a nautical theme throughout the restaurant. I didn't take a picture of the interior because it just didn't seem appropriate........I really did want to though.

We both ordered the filet mignon. It was so good it melted in our mouths.

After quite the meal, we decided we needed to walk. We had pretty full bellies. So, we headed back to the wharf. Night was drawing near, and the wharf was quite a sight. It seemed to come alive, the darker it got. We took a few pictures.......wish I would have had my tripod. But, we enjoyed the sights none-the-less.

We shopped, took photos, people watched, and enjoyed each others company for a little while. Then, we decided to call it a night and head back to our room. The next morning would be another early one, with much to see, of course!

Up Next: Big Sur and Hearst Castle! - Post #85