When planning our trip to the USA, Dave's only ask was if we could go to Yosemite National Park. After much research we decided to book an overnight bus tour to Yosemite from San Francisco. The day tours only saw you be at the national park for a few hours as most of the day was traveling to and from. The overnight tours only allow you to take one bag, so Allie originally thought we would be paying for a night at a hotel just to store luggage. After researching the hotels that the tour picks up from, Allie found the Chancellor Hotel on Union Square which will hold your luggage in storage while you are on this tour. This was incredibly handy and saved us paying for an extra night we did not need.
We checked out in the early hours of the morning to meet our van pick up out front of the hotel and then we were on our way to Yosemite National Park. We stopped twice along the way for restroom breaks and to buy food for lunch. Once we arrived, we parked near the walk to see the Giant Sequoia Trees and ate our pre-purchased lunch. After we were nourished, we left for the walk to see the Giant Trees. Within a few minutes, we were seeing wildlife on our hike and then towards the end of the path, we got to the Sequoia's.
Afterwards, we were driven to the tunnel view look out for half dome. This view is well known by Mac users, as it is the standard Mac wallpaper.
At this point, we were dropped off at the Yosemite Valley Lodge, our hotel for the night. We were lucky the tour guide was with us to ensure smooth check-in as the hotel was having trouble finding our reservation. We were given the afternoon to ourselves to explore on our own with the option of meeting up with the group for dinner (at own expense). We had decided to meet up for dinner, so the tour guide advised us to go off and explore and she would have sorted out by dinner.
Allie really wanted to see a waterfall, the tour guide suggested we go to Vernal Falls as that should still have some water and not be dried up yet, but she did warn us that it was a bit of a hike. Allie has a 5k and 10k run coming up later on in the trip so she was keen for the training...that is until we were half way through and she proclaimed that she was dying. Dave (the ever sweet and caring boyfriend) offered to turn back around, however, Allie was insistent that this is a once in a lifetime experience and continued to push herself to reach the top of the falls. Once at the top, Dave and Allie had a rest break and enjoyed a little picnic. Dave ate some potato chips and Allie had a KitKat bar and was quoting the TV ad 'have a break, have a kitkat'. After our rest, Allie was feeling re-energised and wanted to continue on the path to Nevada Falls, but luckily Dave pointed out that we didn't have enough time and needed to meet the group for dinner, so we had to start heading back down the trail.
At dinner, there was a huge line for Pizza, so we went to the lesser line as neither of us really wanted to stand any longer than necessary. Allie got catfish, mash potatoes and a pecan pie. She had never had catfish or pecan pie before and was expanding her horizons, she would not get either again. Dave got soup and some kind of stew?? We really can't remember.
The next day, we met the van and were driven up to Glacier Point to check out the views. We were then given the option to either hike down Four Mile Trail or take the van back down and explore around town. We decided to do the hike and take in the magnificent views of nature at its finest. It was a long hike down, but the views were absolutely breathtaking. We also managed to see a waterfall off in the distance. Allie was glad to be walking down the trail instead of up.
After a couple hours, we got to the bottom and headed back to Yosemite Lodge to get some lunch. Allie got a pizza and Dave got some beef, veggies and a fruit salad. We then went and browsed the gift store, this is where Dave learnt what a pressed penny was and had to get one. We then awaited our pick-up to head back to San Francisco.
On the drive back, we again made a few pit-stops and Dave caught up on some sleep. The stops consisted of a little shop that had MacCaws that Dave just had to check out. A dinner stop was then had, where we went to In-N-Out burger. We both got burgers, Dave's was protein style due to his gluten allergy. We then stopped just outside of the city on Treasure Island to see the nightview.
https://www.viator.com
https://www.yosemite.com/
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