Our second morning started a little bit later and we knew from the start that we had an appointment in San Francisco at 6:45pm. So it was slightly quicker morning routine and after a al la carte breakfast (Oatmeal for Celia, French Toast for me) we checked that all our stuff was in the bags and headed for the car.
We reordered the bags for this trip, which allowed us to only have 1 bag on the back seat, with the other 4 in the boot and we set off from the hotel, the first stage was to the village, as we had not seen many places to stop for lunch and with a fixed time for dinner that evening we decided to grab some sandwiches for the trip, along with water and some snacks.
Leaving the valley the first plan was to stop at the Tioga road, where there is a small grove of Giant Sequoia trees. So after 45 mins we finally made it to the small car park with a rustic loo (a cabin around a hole in the ground) and locked up for the walk down to the trees.
Around the first bend we came across a group of deer which were the largest animals we had seen since we arrived in Yosemite.
We continued down to the grove, which was another good mile walk and although it was a gentile downhill we did understand that the walk back was going to be a bit harder. The early morning air (it was around 9:30am) along with the shade from the trees made the walk very pleasant and the downhill part was done in just over 20 mins.
Again the scale of these trees was so impressive, and you know that these are around 1000 years old and there are only 12 of them around this grove, but you can only see a couple of them, and they are awe inspiring.
Just to put some context on this photo, I am 6 foot 6, and around the same reach.
This last tree had a gash in it, which was large enough to walk into but seemed to be a healthy tree.
After 20 mins or so, we knew it was time for the walk back, it took 30 mins (10 mins more than the walk down) to give an idea of the slope. Back at the car we emptied our bladders and go into our mustang for the drive back.
The drive back was much more of a chore than the way out as there was nothing new to see, we made it back to Oakdale by lunchtime, stopping at the Raley's for a pit stop and to get some fresh water, we then ate the sandwiches we had brought from Yosemite in the car and refreshed on we continued. We took a slightly different route then diverting onto the 108 towards Modesto, but then heading north again on the 99 back to Manteca where we rejoined the main freeway.
As we knew that this second leg would be more motorways we had left the roof up and just hammered it back to San Francisco, the main fun was trying to work out if we had enough fuel to make it without having to re-fuel.
We crossed over the Bay Bridge with 30 miles to spare on the fuel gauge and we made it to Hotel Vertigo by 4pm, but there was no bell hop, so we had to empty the car ourselves and leave it on the road whilst we checked in. Leaving Celia safely in the room, I headed off to grab some gas and return the car. Slight mistake.
Now my GPS has gas station as a Point of Interest so I though no problem I will just go to the nearest one and fill up and then back to the avis office on Post Street. BUT that was a slight mistake as both the first and second gas stations in the GPS didn't exist. I was just about to give up on the third when I saw it on the right side of the road, but I was in the left lane and this was one of the on roads to the Bay Bridge, but with a lot of pushing and hoping I made it across I was at the 76 on 1st and Harrison and the women inside the cabin, obviously didn't have to deal with Englishmen trying to return a hire car before. If you are returning a car full, you need to fill a tank, but you have no idea how much petrol this will take and as you don't have a ZIPcode for any credit card you have to prepay. But the women would not let me pre-pay $100, just $50 so I took the 50 and still needed more so got another $50 and then got a refund of 36. But at least the car was full and I managed to not end up back on the bay bridge and was soon pulling into the Avis garage, with the decision that the next hire we will take the full tank option.
Car returned I walked back the 2 blocks to Hotel Vertigo, expecting Celia to have showered and freshen up, only to find that the sink in the room had a leak and she was waiting for a plumber who arrived just after me and he was only here for a moment until he worked out what he needed and headed off to get it, so Celia showered, he did arrive back and fixed the issue whilst she was in the shower which was slightly weird, but soon we had both scrubbed up and the sink was fixed and with an hour to spare before dinner we decided to walk to Union square in the hope that it would be easier to find a cab.
On the way into Union Square, Celia saw a Sketchers shoe shop and I saw a cash point and I knew that we were getting low on cash, so Celia went to look at shoes whilst I drew some funds. The joint account card failed, but I did get some from my own account. I borrowed Celia joint account card and that did work. Ah so we were 1 card down on this trip now, as Barclay's then texted to try and confirm if I was trying to use my card, but as I was in the USA and they use a UK text number they could not handle the Yes I texted back.
But cash and shoes got, we went into Union square to grab a cab, they were a bit low in numbers, but one did stop to drop someone off, and he put his available light on, so we went to get in saying where we wanted to go, to be told NO, he wasn't going there. I have never had this before in any city, but he was certain so we got out and headed around the square trying to find another option.
We managed to sneak into the queue at the Westin hotel and the nice doorman there grabbed us a cab and we were off to Atelier Crenn.
We arrived and were seated and when we saw the tasting menu we knew this would be an interesting evening, as the menu did not give away much.
- Spring has come with its cool breeze
- Where the broad ocean leans against the Spanish land.
- The glowing ocean and light ecume de mer
- A gentle smell, oceanic, of yummy feeling
- Mellow serenades of colors licorice and orange
- the half moon, silky and smoky
- Woody and stone
- Nature rejoice, chasing childhood memories
- Walking deep in the woods, as the snow might have something to spare
- Birth which gives its morning mystery
- Spring....Where birds sing and are causing ripples in the nearby water
- Dotting the fragrant flora
- Spring has come and full of sweet surprises
for me this was accompanied with 2 beers served as wine, small amount in a large wine glass and very strong. Celia went with a Rose wine. This was probably our favourite meal of the trip the food was wonderful and we met Ms Crenn about 3/4 of the way through the meal, which allowed us to let her know how great the meal had been so far.
The Strange point was the Asian couple on the next table who arrived as we were almost done, as he did not eat anything green, and we both thought then why are you here if your not prepared to try. Now Celia has some food intolerances but this green issue seemed to be a want rather than a need and you could see that even the Waiter was confused as to what to do. For the first course which is all we saw before we left he was picking the small amount of garnish out of the dish as that was green.....
The meal over they called us and cab and we headed back to our 3rd hotel. Tomorrow was going to be a shopping day and a chance to get Celia's present as Tiffany's was on Union Square.
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