Spring break! (1 of 2)

we are back from our 1.5 weeks holiday for spring break! We drove and walked so much during this break, that I was actually quite relieved the holiday was over...I thought the best way to share this holiday is through a chronological order of the days:

day 1 (Wed 21st Mar)
started our day with a delicious breakfast of bagels, then proceeded to collect our rental car (for a week) and drove to the Golden Gate Park in SF city where we spent some time walking around and taking pictures - the weather was perfect!

thereafter we drove to Sausalito, a quaint seaside town north of SF, brimming with artists' lodges and restaurants...it was a pity we didn't have enough time to really explore the place apart from having lunch there and buying 2 drawings from an artist.

Muir woods national park was our next stop, where we spent over an hour walking among gigantic West Coast redwood trees and taking pictures...Ended the day with dinner at Milpitas with my friend, Juliana.

days 2 to 5 (Thurs to Sun 22nd to 25th Mar)
start of Yosemite trip! We drove to Yosemite, a 5 hours drive away from SF. Before reaching Yosemite Valley, we took a short detour to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, the body of water that supplies drinking water to SF and the Bay Area.

We stayed at 2 different hotels during this trip, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, which is right smack in the middle of the Valley, and Wawona Hotel, at the southern entrance to the park.

The beautiful thing about the Park is its wilderness, which is easily accessible to the public (only a $20 entrance fee which is good for 7 days) via walking and easy hiking paths and for those who want a challenge, steep and long hiking trails which lead up to the waterfalls and the many granite monoliths in the Park.

As spring season is just starting, certain trails are still closed, but we were glad we went in spring, as the snow is melting and the waterfalls are awesome! Definitely one of the most pretty sights in the Park!

Well, we managed to do a fair bit during the 4 days there – went hiking and walking, saw Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls (picture shown above), Bridal View Falls and Vernal Falls, also saw 2 of the other landmarks – El Capitan and Half Dome, attended a 2 hour Ansel Adams photography walk and tried snow-shoeing for the 1st time in Badger Pass! Another first, we created a small snowman with the ice on the ground!