San Francisco Day 4

Up early today as we had to be at the Ferry Building at 7am for our trip to Yosemite.  We all boarded a shuttle bus which took us to the Amtrak station at Emeryville (in between Berkley and Oakton) to catch the train.  The platforms are level with the ground so you have to step up into the train.  The carriages are two levels with the lower levels being for elderly or disabled passengers.  There are toilets on both levels and also a dining car.  Half the seats are plain seating and the rest have two pairs of seats facing each other with a table in between.  There is also a power point so you can recharge your devices.

We hadn't had breakfast so we took turns at going to the dining car. When I got there the power had just gone off so no hot food.  I had cereal with a fruit cup and bought a sandwich for lunch.  When we stopped at the next station we lost all power.  They called a mechanic and also another train.  When the other train arrived we all got off and boarded the new train.  We lost about an hour and a half.  The journey continued past Stockton, Modesto and other towns through agricultural country.  The train trip took 3.5 hours plus the delay.

We got off at Merced and were met by the tour guide and shuttle bus.  He explained that there are often problems with the trains and they have to rejig the tour.  Most of the group had booked a tram tour through the park (not us as it is an open tram and is very hot) and as the trip to the park was 2hrs 15 mins they would have missed that so he rebooked them for the 3pm tour and arranged for a bus to come from Oakton to pick us up at Merced as we would miss the train.  He said that we would probably get home earlier than if we had caught the train.

The drive to Yosemite was not very exciting, the country was very dry and brown.  You could see the Sierra Nevada mountains.   It changed to be greener when we got to the national park and it could have been Australian ountryside that we were driving through.  There are lots of landslides in the park and a very big one had covered the road so there is a temporary road around the slide.  Then we saw the mountains and they were spectacular.  We drove to the lodge where we had some free time for food and restrooms (no toilet on the bus!).  Then those that were going on the tram ride left and Annamaree got a personal tour of the park in the shuttle bus.  It is a big loop around the valley floor with places you can stop for the views.  We saw giant Sequoia groves, granite cliffs and amazing wilderness.  We stopped at places to photograph El Capitan, the Bridal Falls, the Half Dome, the natural corridor and much more.

As there was only two of us on the bus tour we finished early and went back to the lodge and checked out the souvenir shops and food hall.  While we ate outside a possum and bird were fighting over who could be in the space.  Very cute!  Then it was time to go, we looked desperately to see a bear on the way out but no luck.  I got a little bit of sleep on the way to Merced but not much as it wasn't very comfortable.  When we got to Merced the second bus hadn't arrived so we got to stretch our legs and use the restrooms. 

When the bus arrived we all piled on for the 2.5 hour trip back to San Francisco.  This bus was even less comfortable and I had the air con right on me so I didn't get any sleep.  Union Square was the lastt drop off and by the time we walked the 3 blocks to our motel (in a freezing wind) it was 11:45pm.  It was the first time we were pleased to get to our motel.

Till tomorrow.
Roz