San Francisco & Yosemite

The Jackson Browns are back from California and had another fantastic trip! We are now counting down until the start of school (August 8th here in Mississippi), but let me tell you the highlights of what might be our best family vacation ever:

Day 1: Arrive in San Francisco; check in to the Tuscan Inn at Fisherman's Wharf (a great hotel with an Italian theme which can't help but strike you as funny as Asian bellmen are dressed as Italian gondoliers!) First activity: eating tomato soup out of sourdough bread bowls at Boudin bakery and then walking over the Golden Gate Bridge.
Day 2: Take a cable car to Union Square and eat at Sears Famous Pancake House. Visit the Women Impressionist Exhibit at the Legion of Honor and end the day with a sunset tour of Alcatraz.
Day 3: Drive to Muir Woods and see the redwoods. Continue drive on Highway One to Point Reyes, a beautiful isolated national park where cows graze, deer roam, all beside the rocky cliffs of the Pacific. We first visited it during our honeymoon 14 years ago and enjoyed hiking to the Point Reyes lighthouse with the boys.
Day 4: Departed San Francisco and drove the 3 and a 1/2 hours to Tenaya Lodge located at the entrance of Yosemite. Beautiful resort with two pools, hot tubs, excellent restaurants, a game room--a good alternative if you prefer visiting national parks in comfort like I do. (Not a camper!)
Day 5: First day in the park. We take a tour and I immediately meet a young woman who has graduated from Duke and we buddy up. We see all the highlights of the park: El Capitan, Glacier Point, Half Dome, and all the waterfalls--Yosemite Falls, Bridalveil Falls, Nevada Falls, Vernal Falls--all spectacular! Highlight of the day: a rattlesnake eating a baby squirrel (literally had it in his mouth! a true National Geographic moment!)
Day 6: Go back into the park on our own and hike to different waterfalls. Have another great day exploring the park.
Day 7: Back to San Francisco and spend the night at the Westin St.Francis in Union Square, site of the marathon last October. Eat at Puccini & Pinetti, site of celebratory dinner after the marathon. Good, good memories.
Day 8: Back home to Jackson.
Lus will post photos later this week!