What a Wonderful World

* What a Wonderful World - Eva Cassidy - Wonderful World Album

5:15 am Alarm goes off

5:17 am Roxie wakes up

5:19 am Roxie gets out of Bed

5:30 am Roxie walks to the “meeting point”

Ok so I had to walk through the army base in pitch black at this time of the morning… and then wait on some random corner hoping that the “bus” would know it was me… problem… there are 4 corners to a crossroads. 2^nd problem… San Fransisco has a lot of homeless people – (apparentley this is illegal in some states! But San Fran offer free meals and showers) which isn’t a problem unless you’re a female waiting alone on a corner at 6am… it was ok though… they just drove their trolley past as I held my breath.

6:00 am the bus picks me up…

And the journey to Yosemite begins.

The trip is 4 hours there and 4 hours back with about 6 hours spent in the national park. The journey there was quite exciting and it was a great way to see a bit more of America. We passed a wind power valley which has over 7500 windmills… it was amazing to see them scattered all over the hills. We then drove through the San Joaquin Valley – this apparently provides approx 50% of all America’s produce… as well as being the home of the Almond producing over 80% of the worlds almonds!

We then stopped in Oakdale – a town of approx 20,000 people that named themselves ‘The Cowboy Capital of the World’ because once a year they have a rodeo… anyways – there was this GIANT supermarket complex (I don’t know how they sustain this) where we stopped to pick up lunch etc… The other thing about Oakdale is that they had like a zillion churches like no kidding I saw at least 20! and that was just the main road. The guide said that he thought there were more seats in the churches then people that populated Oakdale... 


To Yosemite. The park was cool – not quite as spectacular as I expected but still massive and awe inspiring. The park features a giant Sequoia grove (redwood trees for the unlearned) which we couldn’t see as it was too high up and was snowed out. Several giant waterfalls (one is the 4^th highest in the world?) huge granite rock faces as well as an amazing national park filled with wildlife… Black Bears included. The bears were all in hibernation however I did see a couple of deer and a million squirrels.

The rock faces were pretty impressive, apparently it has the largest concentration of granite in the world. The waterfalls only form in the winter/spring as the snow melts but dry up in the summer.

The weather was incredible. I packed a bag with boots, thermals, extra scarfs, hat and jumper… and ended up walking round the park in a tshirt with my jeans rolled up (kiwi). But that golden sun… wao California Baby!

\Probably the best part was our guide... Rick. He was Brazilian and had the most legit accent. He sounded mexican and reminded me of rob schnider maybe? i could just imagine him saying coco loco? He was just generally hilarious and talked and talked and made the funniest jokes and was just "crazy" as he kept telling us. At the end of the tour he said - you will never forget me i will always be a part of your life... genuinely a legend!


Driving home through Oakland... (Full House reference... the one where they think they are going to Oakland and they end up in Auckland New Zealand - this episode holds a special place in my heart!)

We finished off the trip with a view of San Fran at night from the other side of the Bay Bridge...

Shame about the iPhones capacity to take night photos :(