Day 8: San Francisco, CA to Yosemite Valley.

We spent the night at Kaitlyn’s beautiful apartment in San Fran, complete with a super cute kitty named Serious according to his tag, but actually called “Tiny”…um, he’s not tiny…oh well. The big fluffball was very friendly and cute.

Falling asleep on the couch was marvelous; I dreamt that I was friends with Russell Wilson and some other Seahawks and we were playing some pickup football for fun. Then some of the roommates arrived at what seemed like an ungodly hour and probably was. You know how people’s regular voices seem super loud when you’ve just woken up? It was like they were talking to their deaf grandpa; I tried to shut it out and return to dreamland, desperate for a good night sleep. Well, returning to dreamland was impossible so may as well wake up my hubby to enjoy sleeplessness with me. I departed comfy couch for bouncy air mattress and only shifted and shuffled for a little while (right hunny?) before mercifully falling asleep.

We ate breaky at a cute little place called Stacks complete with excessively humongous fake flower bouquets in huge pots and evergreen drapings along the ceiling. Then saw my sister-in-law’s design project, a boutique hotel called Hotel Zetta. This hotel has been written up in a number of design magazines for its unique and appealing style as well as its upcycled materials (discarded blown glass, old glasses, vinyl cds, scrap metal) made into neat design features. One of the coolest things is a lounge wall covered in sepia mug shots of famous Alcatraz prisoners as well as a lifesize game of Plinko where you toss squishy soccer balls from the second floor games lounge and watch them plink their way down to the first floor.

Then we were off to the game. Side road route, no traffic, woot! Parking, gasp, $40! We joined the scary teeming crowd of red-clad yelling people into Candlestick park with our silly little clear plastic “NFL approved” baggies of camera and snacks. For a first NFL experience it was a little bit overwhelming, but that’s how it’s supposed to be I guess. I just have never appreciated the gladiator-like aspect of a sports crowd (watched a Canucks game once and was not impressed by the enthusiastic fight-cheering). Anyways, seats up high, great view, yelling swearing old guys behind us reminiscing about “The Catch.” Saw Jerry Rice in a suit sprint up and down the field, still fast, watched the Niners umm…no other way to put it…suck at playing football. The worst thing about a season I find is when there is so much hype and the team falls short leaving all your enthusiasm for ‘the best season ever!’ disappointed. In any case, it was still fun. Luck and the Colts marched down the field making it look easy; Niners could barely get a first down. Granted they have many injured players and apparently no offensive weapons, but defense was not impressive. We had left the yelling old men to sit on the shady side of the stadium so we at least didn’t have to hear their undoubtable angry rants. Heard enough of those on the way back to the car.

Left a bit early, drove to Yosemite, picked up a young Polish hitchhiker bound for Yosemite when we stopped at a gas station (my first hitchhiker ever; please don’t be a stabber/axe murderer! He looked pretty innocuous with his backpack, climbing helmet and hair that hadn’t seen a shower in awhile). It took about 4 hours to get to the Valley in the ever-dimming light. He talked about his hitchhiking and traveling and a bit about finding himself and listening to his intuition by meditation and some New Age things and psychotic drugs. I wanted to tell him about Jesus and how truth is found in our loving God and Savior; how the ‘magic’ of being in nature is really closeness to its Creator; how listening to God’s Spirit in us is more profitable than listening to our own intuition. I told him a little bit about our faith, but it made me realize how much I need to study to have a good answer ready as for why I believe what I do and how God has spoken to me and proven himself real and true and good in my life. May He show Himself true and loving to (Voitik sp?).

By the time we passed El Capitan, lights were visible partway up the face of the climbers who were sleeping roped in to their synthetic platforms on the cliff face (it takes a few days to climb up the face of El Cap, necessitating a couple nights on the face). I applaud them for their ability to sleep thousands of feet off the ground in a harness strapped to the rock; not something I ever aspire to do, but I’m amazed nonetheless.

We didn’t have a campsite reserved, Yosemite was packed, we had to leave for Half Dome at 5am, we were both utterly exhausted and we didn’t really have any options. We left Voitik at Camp 4 to sit in line at 3am for a campsite for the next day and we parked at the trailhead, threw stuff in the front seats and curled up in the back of the car for a semi-sleep sans dinner, too tired to make anything or even eat. 

Right after falling asleep, lights shone in the window, a ranger knocked asking to come out and talk. Bry sleepily got up, explained that we had a permit for Half Dome, got here late, didn’t know what to do. The ranger was understanding, gave us a warning and explained that our license plates would be on a list/tracked in case we ever spent the night not in a registered campsite in a national park again ($275 fine next time) and let us get back to bed. Yet another not-so-sleepful night. I’m thinking to myself, no dinner and no sleep is not a good way to precede a “Extremely Strenuous” hike according to the Yosemite guide…oh well.