California!
John and I have been home from California for a couple of days now, and I decided I really should write about our trip before I forget the details. I'll make it less boring by including photos! The galleries with all the photos (more than posted here) are found at http://johnshanna.com/photos/view/ , at the end of the page.
We kicked off our first real vacation together at the ungodly hour of 3:15am, when the alarm went off on Thursday morning. Unfortunately, neither of us had been able to sleep much in the preceding hours, so we were not pleased with the gleeful tones of the Verizon song "Yummy" waking us up. We left the house at 4:15 and headed to Midway. After a slightly late check-in, we headed through security and to our gate. Our plane was already there, but I did have time to grab a neck pillow (for $17) thanks to SW's new(ish) boarding process. I'm glad I did, because I was able to sleep for most of the flight to Kansas City and, after a brief layover (complete with Asiago Bagel Sandwich), for most of the next flight to Oakland. Since it was only 10:30am in California, we had the whole day ahead of us. We had really only scheduled one day in San Francisco, and this was it, so despite our weariness from travel and messed-up sleep schedules (John hadn't slept at all on the plane), we soldiered on.
San Francisco is ridiculous with the hills. Man. I grew up in CT, so I've lived in the hills before, but this was nuts. We ended up doing a lot of driving, since we wanted to at least pass through the things we wanted to see, although we did get out at Buena Vista Park and China Beach. We saw Chinatown, Haight-Ashbury, China Beach (where they were filming a Cialis commerical), Lombard Street, Fisherman's Wharf, and probably more places that I am forgetting already. On Friday morning we walked around a bit more and then headed down Hwy 1 to get to Santa Cruz. Here are some photos!
It looks so much more steep in person!
(not the actors, just the crew standing in)
We're strange.
I made John take this in front of these flowers, which were ubiquitous there. I love them.
Riding the cable car.
Sourdough animals. I wanted chowder in a bread bowl from this place but it was like 10am.
Sea Lions in Santa Cruz! We saw them in San Francisco too, but apparently there were no good photos.
California was burning. This was the first of many fires we saw.
We drove at it anyway. Because we are dumb.
We ended up having to head back north, almost to San Jose, to get around this fire. It wasn't a big deal, except that we missed out on cityjess and berzi76's rehearsal dinner. Ah well, at least we made it to Fresno eventually. The next set of photos are from their wedding. The ceremony was amazing and beautiful, and I cried the entire time (much more than I cried at my own wedding, to be honest!). It was perfect, and totally them. Everyone, especially Jess, looked great. The reception was lovely and a lot of fun, too. I discovered that I like Tequila Sunrises.
John was so handsome in his suit.
Crossover-front dresses always thwart me. I felt like my left boob was showing all night (see how it doesn't lay right? Grr).
They had "Ye Olde Hozac Photo Booth" were you could dress up with fun props and take guestbook photos. The bride joined in later in the evening. :)
The air conditioning went out for a while, since it was a record-breaking day, heat-wise, in Fresno. People clustered around floor fans.
We took a stroll outside. This is the awesome band, from behind.
The last couple of days were spent in Yosemite. It was great! There were a bunch more fires there, unfortunately. But we still got to see and do all the things we'd hopes. We saw giant sequioas in Mariposa Grove, rafted down the Merced River, took two tiny hikes to Bridalveil Falls and Lower Yosemite Falls (I don't really do strenuous hikes), and went up to Glacier Point for the best views in the park (obscured as they were by smoky haze). The drive there from Fresno was pretty, too.
Due to a huge rockslide (which you can kind of see on the right side of the photo), there was only one lane open at this point, so they had it on a 15 minute or so timer.
This was before the smokiness had taken over.
Giant trees!
Graffiti on the Fallen Monarch.
Huge pinecones, with my foot for scale. Just after touching this cone, a very close dying tree started dropping bark like crazy. It was the Grove Gods, reminding me not to take the damn pine cone (I wasn't going to, I promise!).
After the main touristy area in the Grove, we took the long way back. It was nice; we were alone in the quiet forest for most of the way (except for this dude in the picture).
More fires, as seen from the little mountain town of Mariposa, where we stayed.
This sign says "Climbing and scrambling on rocks and cliffs is dangerous. They are slick wet or dry. Many injuries and fatalities have occurred." They were very specific about your chance of dying, but people DID NOT CARE.
Woo Hoo California!
We kicked off our first real vacation together at the ungodly hour of 3:15am, when the alarm went off on Thursday morning. Unfortunately, neither of us had been able to sleep much in the preceding hours, so we were not pleased with the gleeful tones of the Verizon song "Yummy" waking us up. We left the house at 4:15 and headed to Midway. After a slightly late check-in, we headed through security and to our gate. Our plane was already there, but I did have time to grab a neck pillow (for $17) thanks to SW's new(ish) boarding process. I'm glad I did, because I was able to sleep for most of the flight to Kansas City and, after a brief layover (complete with Asiago Bagel Sandwich), for most of the next flight to Oakland. Since it was only 10:30am in California, we had the whole day ahead of us. We had really only scheduled one day in San Francisco, and this was it, so despite our weariness from travel and messed-up sleep schedules (John hadn't slept at all on the plane), we soldiered on.
San Francisco is ridiculous with the hills. Man. I grew up in CT, so I've lived in the hills before, but this was nuts. We ended up doing a lot of driving, since we wanted to at least pass through the things we wanted to see, although we did get out at Buena Vista Park and China Beach. We saw Chinatown, Haight-Ashbury, China Beach (where they were filming a Cialis commerical), Lombard Street, Fisherman's Wharf, and probably more places that I am forgetting already. On Friday morning we walked around a bit more and then headed down Hwy 1 to get to Santa Cruz. Here are some photos!
It looks so much more steep in person!
(not the actors, just the crew standing in)
We're strange.
I made John take this in front of these flowers, which were ubiquitous there. I love them.
Riding the cable car.
Sourdough animals. I wanted chowder in a bread bowl from this place but it was like 10am.
Sea Lions in Santa Cruz! We saw them in San Francisco too, but apparently there were no good photos.
California was burning. This was the first of many fires we saw.
We drove at it anyway. Because we are dumb.
We ended up having to head back north, almost to San Jose, to get around this fire. It wasn't a big deal, except that we missed out on cityjess and berzi76's rehearsal dinner. Ah well, at least we made it to Fresno eventually. The next set of photos are from their wedding. The ceremony was amazing and beautiful, and I cried the entire time (much more than I cried at my own wedding, to be honest!). It was perfect, and totally them. Everyone, especially Jess, looked great. The reception was lovely and a lot of fun, too. I discovered that I like Tequila Sunrises.
John was so handsome in his suit.
Crossover-front dresses always thwart me. I felt like my left boob was showing all night (see how it doesn't lay right? Grr).
They had "Ye Olde Hozac Photo Booth" were you could dress up with fun props and take guestbook photos. The bride joined in later in the evening. :)
The air conditioning went out for a while, since it was a record-breaking day, heat-wise, in Fresno. People clustered around floor fans.
We took a stroll outside. This is the awesome band, from behind.
The last couple of days were spent in Yosemite. It was great! There were a bunch more fires there, unfortunately. But we still got to see and do all the things we'd hopes. We saw giant sequioas in Mariposa Grove, rafted down the Merced River, took two tiny hikes to Bridalveil Falls and Lower Yosemite Falls (I don't really do strenuous hikes), and went up to Glacier Point for the best views in the park (obscured as they were by smoky haze). The drive there from Fresno was pretty, too.
Due to a huge rockslide (which you can kind of see on the right side of the photo), there was only one lane open at this point, so they had it on a 15 minute or so timer.
This was before the smokiness had taken over.
Giant trees!
Graffiti on the Fallen Monarch.
Huge pinecones, with my foot for scale. Just after touching this cone, a very close dying tree started dropping bark like crazy. It was the Grove Gods, reminding me not to take the damn pine cone (I wasn't going to, I promise!).
After the main touristy area in the Grove, we took the long way back. It was nice; we were alone in the quiet forest for most of the way (except for this dude in the picture).
More fires, as seen from the little mountain town of Mariposa, where we stayed.
This sign says "Climbing and scrambling on rocks and cliffs is dangerous. They are slick wet or dry. Many injuries and fatalities have occurred." They were very specific about your chance of dying, but people DID NOT CARE.
Woo Hoo California!