Staying in San Francisco

Things have been very hectic at work, plus we’ve had several busy weekends in a row, so it was high time to spend some time at home. The temperatures have risen and the winter coats have well and truly been retired to the wardrobe. They were out for just under two months. In fact, we had lovely weather last Saturday – as nice as many days in summer. After the morning’s chores, we headed out into our neighbourhood, North Beach, and took a stroll up to Coit Tower, then down to Washington Square, where people were sunning themselves and an art show was in full swing. We had lunch on the terrace of our local café, then repaired to a different one for coffee and Italian cakes! On Sunday we went for a run in the morning and a hike in the afternoon, but there was no sun on the coast, so we just did a short one, then returned to (sunny) Sausalito and had tea at a café right by the water, looking across the bay to San Francisco – lovely! In the evening we tried out a restaurant we’ve been wanting to go to for a while: Moose’s on Washington Square. It features in a cheesy film with Reese Witherspoon called Just like Heaven. The starters in particular were excellent: I had a brussels sprouts salad – yummy! (No, I’m not being ironic!).

It’s been another busy week at work, punctuated by a Spanish test on Tuesday night, going to do our taxes on Wednesday night, attending a leaving “do” in the Tenderloin on Thursday night and doing my volunteering stint at Marina Middle School on Friday. It was the first time we’ve had to do our taxes in the U.S. We’re still none the wiser. The system’s so mystic that there was no way we wanted to try doing them on our own, so we availed ourselves of one of the chains of accountant/financial advisor outlets (which don’t exist in the UK) and paid someone to do them. It seems we’ve vastly overpaid, so we’re expecting a big fat cheque from the IRS (equivalent of the Inland Revenue).

Today it’s back to the rainy weather, but at least it’s still fairly warm. Haven’t done much other than shop for food and go to the gym. Jon’s off to New Hampshire for a week tonight (flying to Boston), so I’ll be all on my own :-(. At least I know where New Hampshire is now after repeatedly playing some interactive U.S. geography games on http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm!

Tahoe skiing

I’m going to keep this fairly short as it’s pretty late and I’m feeling ill with a cold. Another one. I don’t know what it is – the fact that I’m not used to American germs or the fact that I ride the bus every day and come into contact with other sick people, but I get everything that’s going!

I had a pretty horrendous week at work last week, but something good has come out of it. When I can (which won’t be for a little while, given my current workload), I’m going to be moving over into a different job more suited to my skills, namely linguistic QA. Amusingly, someone already in that department wants to be a project manager, so we’re going to do a swap!

We went up to Tahoe on Friday night, eager to try out our new boots and skis (the latter were purchased at a 20% off event at Sports Basement on Wednesday night). The trip up was fairly good (no snow on the roads – thank goodness!) and we arrived at our rented cottage at around 11:30 pm. There were five of us in total: me, Jon, Emma, James and Mark (Jon works with James and Mark). A blazing fire was going, which was very welcome!

Next morning we had a rather late start and chose to go up the mountain from Boulder Lodge on the Nevada side, as there’s plenty of parking there. The weather was glorious – as it was today – blue skies and sunshine. Unfortunately, I started to feel ill with my developing cold and had some trouble with my new boots (which resolved itself largely when I removed one of the liners), so it was a struggle for me to get down at the end of the day. However, a (very hot!) session in the hot tub back at the cottage sorted out my aching muscles. We had dinner, then various games were played, but I had an early night to try to stave off the cold...

... Didn’t work, and I still felt dreadful when I woke up. I fully intended to just do a couple of runs, then come down and do my Spanish homework in the afternoon, but remarkably, I felt better than expected on the slopes and really enjoyed skiing. Jon tried a tough black run with lots of moguls while I did the easier blue next to it – the first time I beat him down a slope in years!

We set off back at about 4:30 pm, and bar a few traffic hotspots, had a good journey (4 hours in total). Had the usual experience unpacking all the toiletries – lots of squashed bottles as a result of the changing pressures due to altitude, similar to when you’ve been on a plane! Now I’m about ready to drop and not looking forward to the working week, but I’ve uploaded some photos here: http://public.fotki.com/EllenHardwick/tahoe-skiing-weekend/ (password: moocow)

Yosemite in the snow

Our trip to Yosemite began with a panic. We rented a four-wheel drive, which (stupidly) you can’t rent with snow chains. Jon had borrowed four sets of chains from other people, in the hope that one set would fit. They didn’t. And nowhere in San Francisco that was open early Friday evening had a set that would fit. Not good news when you’re heading to the mountains with lots of snow forecast. We set off anyway and did manage to purchase a set (at great expense) en route. Although it was touch and go, we didn’t have to use them in the end, so it’ll be a case of trying to sell them on eBay now!

We had a pretty good trip, but did arrive very late, just because it takes four hours to get there at the best of times. Saw a couple of coyotes on the way. The road was pretty snowy, but the 4WD coped very well. We checked into our (very cold!) cabin and went to bed.

Next morning we awoke to a beautiful winter wonderland with the granite face of Half Dome towering above us. After a rousing cup of coffee and (slightly uninspiring) instant oatmeal breakfast from the Curry Village Coffee Shop, we rented our snowshoes and set off on the Mirror Lake loop, a trail of approximately 5 miles, heading up Tenaya Canyon. The snow was really fluffy and light, so Jon couldn’t resist making a huge snowman on a flat patch of ground by Tenaya Creek. The snowshoes made us feel invincible – you didn’t have to worry about slipping, as you would with hiking boots, and could simply plant your feet wherever you wanted to. They also came in handy when we completely lost the trail (just after I managed to slide into a creek tributary!) and had to tramp over goodness knows what in search of the bridge that would take us over to the other side. We watched with great amusement later as a hapless pair followed our footprints! We returned via the largely iced over Mirror Lake, and then went to take a look at Yosemite Falls. Unfortunately, the snow had set in by this point and the clouds had come so low, that the much more impressive Upper Yosemite Fall could not be seen.

That evening, we decided to take a look at the super posh Ahwahnee Hotel (the cost for a room is some $600 per night and it’s the only luxury option in the park – or, indeed, for miles around. We had cocktails in the bar and took a look at the amazing lounge with its huge fireplace. We weren’t really dressed for dinner, otherwise we’d have been sorely tempted to eat in the sumptuous dining room. Instead, we had dinner at a bar with a huge firepit in Yosemite Lodge. Stuffed full, we returned to the cabin and tried to play cards, but were too tired to do so for long. The snowshoeing must have taken more out of us than we’d thought!

The snow had been falling from early afternoon without stopping and was still falling when we went to bed and when we woke up. The car was buried under over a foot of snow the next morning. Fortunately, there was a huge plastic food container in our cabin, the lid of which we were able to use to clear the snow! We took a stroll to lovely Bridalveil Fall on our way out of the park, starting each time we had the crunch and boom of a minor avalanche down the rock face.

Our route back to San Francisco – Highway 120 – was closed, so we were obliged to take the longer, but ultimately no slower Highway 140. It was amazing how sudden we emerged from the snow into a valley that reminded me of Wales or Scotland with its dark clouds and unremitting rain. We had a good journey back and crossed the Bay Bridge back into San Fran before nightfall.

It was great to see that wonderful place in a different season, without the crowds. I was disappointed that we didn’t get blue skies and sunshine, of course, but pleased in a way that there will be no drought this year as there was last year.

Photos are available here: http://public.fotki.com/EllenHardwick/yosemite-in-the-snow/ (password: moocow)