SUMMER VACATION :D Day 1 We headed to the airport at the break of dawn in order to leave for Boise, Idaho. Now, whenever we told anyone that we were going to Idaho, we would always get puzzled looks. After all, there's not much to see in Idaho, except for their abundance of potato's (which we honestly didn't see much of...). But after we explained to those people that we were going to see the Yellowstone Nation Forest, most of their expressions changed. Even though I'm not much of a nature person, I was actually quite excited to become one with the trees ;) We reached in about 7 hours, and went to our cousins house, with whom we would go around the park. Nitin uncle and his adorable son, Rohan, accompanied us and made the ride far more entertaining. After driving for about 6 hours, we reached a hotel that we would be spending the night. There was only about 2 hours left for the drive, which we would be finishing tomorrow. Day 2 About 3 hours after we woke, we found ourselves inside Yellowstone, and started our tour with our personal guide. Luckily Nitin uncle had come here a few times before this, so he was familiar with the way the park is laid out. Our first stop was a small river. Although I have seen a few rivers in my life, I have never seen anything like the ones over here. These rivers are the ones you would see on paintings and postcards. Although it was the peak of summer, the water was very cold as the rapids ran between your toes, and nothing to support you but the rocky bottom of the riverbed. We started once again, but we were quickly stopped because of a elk on the side of the road. Then, just like the 20 other people around us, we too got out of the car and clicked a couple shots of the creature. After the elk, we made our way to the first set of geysers. I wasn't really sure what to expect when we got to this part, but I certainly wasn't expecting to be hit right in the face with the horrible smell of rotten eggs. Apparently it was caused because of the abundant amount of sulfur that made the geysers what they were. I haven't had chemistry yet, so I wouldn't know what sulfur smells like. Don't judge. Later in the day, we saw,both, a few bison (including one crossing the road, less than 10 feet from the front of our car) and a black bear cub (we were afraid that the mother would be close by) We also had an amazing view of the sunset, and got to play with ice (practically snow! in the middle of summer!) on the side of the mountain. We ended the day by heading to our temporary housing for the next two days, which happened to be log cabins :) Day 3 I woke up to the crisp Wyoming mountain air, with waves of heat from the nearby fireplace wrapping me like a warm blanket. After we got dressed we went to the breakfast cabin and sat down to eat a meal. I had hotcakes for the first time. At first I though they were the same as pancakes, but they tasted slightly different (slightly better as well ;) One full breakfast later, we headed inside the park. This time our first stop was Osprey point. Apparently there was an osprey nest in the middle of the rock peaks, and if you squinted enough you could make out the outline of the bird. As we walked on a little further, we saw a small group of people setting up telescopes that were set on the osprey. We asked if we could take a look, and what we saw stunned us. Not only was the osprey in the nest, but it looked like it was guarding 3 newborn chicks which would have been impossible to see without the scope. The area we were in gave us a beautiful view of a waterfall as well. Not long after taking a few pictures here, we decided to go to the bottom of the falls. There was quite a long trek to get to the base point and it included about 328 steps. The walk down was a breeze; not to much exretion, and therefor not much complaint. The journey up, on the other hand, was a different matter. A light rain had begun and I wanted to try and get out of there as fast as possible, so I went ahead of the crowd. And after the first couple levels of stairs, I could feel more in my legs and less in my lungs. About 9 minutes later, near the top, the situation was reversed; my lungs were on fire while my legs were completely numb. Wonderful. -_- The others reached about 10 minutes after I got there, and it looked like it was quite a journey for them as well. We were soon back in the car and on our way to the next destination. At this point bison and elk were abundant, and in all honestly, they weren't as exciting anymore. Next we stopped at a place called the mud volcano. It was a bubbling pit of opaque gray liquid. Apparently, it is made out of thermophiles, which react with the sulfur and become acidic. They are then able to break down the rock around them. In the same area was the Dragon's mouth, which were just waves of foul smelling sulfer thrown at us from the inside of a cave. Again, wonderful. -_- On our way to the next place, we made an impromptu stop near the shoreline of the Yellowstone Lake. Since I had shoes on, I had to take them off if I wanted to step in the water. I regretted it soon after. Not only was the water really cold, but the 'sand' was nothing but coarsely broken down rock and it hurt my feet. But the edge of the shore was littered with living ladybugs, and I had quite a nice time finding myself a few :) By this time it was about 5, and we wanted to be at the Old Faithful geyser by about 7, when the sun is just setting. Therefore we decided to go to West Thumb, which was just a walkway near a large lake, that had many hot springs and geysers near it. Finally, we made our way to Old Faithful, which erupts about every hour. We were lucky and we got good seats and the assurance that it was supposed to go off in only about 15 minutes. The eruption was huge; bigger than anything I've seen. We actually stayed for the next one as well because by the time we went to get dinner and ice cream, almost an hour had passed and we decided to might as well wait. Our day was concluded with another dirve back to those amazing log cabins :) Day 4
Day 5 Rising and shining early in the morning, chowing down some wonderful breakfast and hustled out the door as to not miss the flight to California. All very fast. Reaching San Francisco, we took a shuttle to our hotel, and about an hour after check in, we were back out and reach to explore this City by the Bay. We first headed to what was the tourist 'must see' area: Fisherman's Warf and Pier 39. It was bustling with activity, tourists and locals alike. Now, its important to know that if you go to San Fran -- anytime of the year -- bring a jacket. Though it was the middle of summer, I still needed a jacket almost everyday, because of the slicing winds and the minimal hours of sunshine. For lunch we ate at Luigi's pizza, which was just exquisite. I never though I would use that word to describe pizza, but in this situation it was apt. After lunch we were able to meet up with Anurag, who had come over after work. Walking back out through the pier, I couldn't help but climb up the piano steps and lead the others to the big sign that read 'Mirror Maze'. This maze was actually much harder than imagined. The mirrors we at an angle so you didn't know there was one in front of you until it was too late. Even with three people, we still found it very difficult to navigate. Now although we were not able to get on an actual cable car, we were able to manage to get on a trolley, which was basically a completely covered cable car. We got off the trolley near Lombard street, which could be also known as the Crooked Street. And crooked it was indeed. It took quite some time just to get to the top. Believe it or not, people actually live there. I cannot even phantom the price of that real estate. With nothing much of Lombard street except for that one stretch of road, we decided to head down to Chinatown. Although I have never been to China, I felt like I was there. Not only were there Chinese shops, but there were also many Chinese people casually walking the streets. From here we had a warm boba coconut tea (I think I'm getting more used to boba :) We also had dinner in a very authentic Chinese restaurant, and I am proud to say I was able to eat everything on my plate with only a pair of chopsticks. Not even a couple cheats with the fork. *Bows* By the time we were out of the restaurant the sun had set and the stars had made their debut. That also called for chilling winds.We went back to the hotel via a new app, Uber, that we learned of from Anurag. Back in the hotel, I was asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow Day 6 I woke up in a great mood! Why wouldn't I be?? I was in the heart of everybody's favorite city! But not long after I was up, it looked more like I was in Fog city today, because my day didn't look so bright. We had to leave by about 8:30 so everyone had to get ready and eat breakfast before we left. I decided to wear my new white pants, along with a dark blue shirt and my leather jacket. We had gotten ready and went downstairs. I was in the mood for waffles. In this hotel you could make fresh waffles, by just adding some of the pre-made batter into the maker. I filled the cup. I poured about 1/4 of the liquid into the maker. The maker starts to tilt. I try to fix it. I find the top part/lid of the waffle maker is loose. Too late. The top flings shut, completely splashing batter on me. To make matters worse, i get shocked, and drop the cup which has about half the batter still left in that too. I look down and see batter running down my pant leg, shirt, and a large splatter on my jacket. GREAT. It was bound to happen to me. -_- After I changed, we started our drive to Monterey Bay, which is a very scenic area in California. We reach by around noon, so lunch was the only thing on our mind. After hunting around, we found a seafood restaurant called the Fishhopper. A wonderful meal, with a wonderful view. Right below the restaurant was a small beach, with a few large rocks out by the water. It was a photo shoot waiting to happen ;) Unfortunately, when I was trying to be adventurous, I got a cut on the bottom of my foot. This day is wonderful -_- We left the shopping complex to go on a scenic 17 mile drive, which Monterey is famous for. There, after mile or two, there is a stop and something to see. The only thing I saw was my sunglasses -- in 3 pieces. -_- I tried to ignore that and focus on the drive. It truly was remarkable :) Although it was a bit foggy, the stops were still breathtaking. We started our drive back to San Fran, and reached there by the evening. Once again we stopped at Pier 39 and decided to eat dinner from there at a Mexican joint called Mangos. After the dinner we went across the pier to get a cupcake from a cute shop. Believe it or not this is my first time ever going into a cupcake shop; what can I say, there are none in Orlando. Now did I mention that everything over here was extremely expensive? One cupcake was $4.50, our parking space was $15, a bottle of water was $5. As we walked back to our car, we saw a street artist, who was painting San Francisco signs with nothing but spray paint. It was amazing. Day 7 Day 7 started off with a trip up the rising and winding roads of Muir Woods. The forest is located high in the mountains and it was quite a drive (and detour) to get up there, especially when there were sharp turns often, and the fog was so thick that you could barely see 20 feet it front of you. Kudos to dad's driving skills :) The woods were gorgeous if not a slightly bit intimidating, just considering the size of those redwood trees We had to be back in the city by 2:30 so we left there right before noon. We actually got to the pier a bit earlier and we stopped at a road with a lot of food vendors. There we decided to eat tamales (first time). I chose the goat cheese tamale, and although I liked it, I felt like it was a tad bit bland and didn't really suit my taste. But I'm also quite sure that tamales are supposed to be quite spicy, and this stall didn't sell any of their items with spice. At around 2:40, we started to board the ferry to the infamous jail, Alcatraz. Once we reached The Rock, we were able to tour the jail compound with a self guided audio tour. Everything inside was preserved and in the same state it was in in 1963. I also noticed that the Alcatraz island had wifi, but it was secured ;) We were off the island by dinner time so we walked over to Ghirardelli Square, and decided to grab a bite to eat from there. There was this really cozy place, Lori's Diner, that we ate from. This was the first time I had been to a retro diner, and I loved it. Not only was the atmosphere something I dreamed about, but the food, for me a veggie burger with fries, felt great after a long day. After dinner, we headed across the plaza to the actual Ghirardelli shop, and the minute we entered it felt like we had entered another world. The smell of chocolate warmed your body, and you could see all the different flavors lining the shelves. We ordered a classic Banana Split, with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, which was perfect for three people. The bowl was empty in a matter of minutes, and we were out of the sweet paradise and back out on the cold, frigid streets. We called it a day over there, and had a cab sent over to take us home. One more day, a success. Day 8 On this day, we were out of the hotel by around 9:15 because we had to drive about an hour to get to the University of Berkeley. We had booked a tour of the campus today and I was actually quite excited. When we got there the tour had just started and the tour leader was explaining what each building was and the history behind them. What I found the most interesting was the fact of Athena's head. There is a myth that say, the head of Athena (which rests above the main library door) gives you knowledge and power as you go into the library and stay with you as you study. But then, as you come out of those doors, she takes all that knowledge away from you. Some of the superstitious students would go through the main door but come out a back door or an underground tunnel. Just a fun fact from Berkeley :) After the college tour, we started to make our way to Napa Valley, the vineyards of California. When we nearly got there, we stopped at a roadside burger joint to eat lunch. Napa was very different than San Fran, weather wise. I felt like I was back in Florida, that's how hot it was. In fact, it was so hot, that someone who was standing right in front of us actually fainted. It was quite the scene. All in all, the vineyards were beautiful and we were also able to go see a castle in a place called Castello di Amorosa, that reminded me of the Medieval times. Now, since the vine tasting over there had finished, and since my mom was determined to get to taste wine, we went to a few other places to see if we could. After we found one, I was disappointed to hear that they barely had two sips of two different wines that they actually tasted. It was around 6, so figured we could make it to see the Golden gate just at sunset time. We got to the bridge by 7:30 and we got a great spot to view it. The only problem? It was so foggy, there was no sun to see. But that didn't stop us from stepping out into the chilling and extremely windy weather outside and take pictures. :) Since we were done with the bridge, we went to an ice cream shop called Smitten's. This shop made fresh batched per order, and they use liquid nitrogen to make it as cold and creamy as possible. In fact, this was the first thing I ate in hours, and I was only able to eat one small scoop before I was really full. Now I also knew that the Full House house is nearby, so my obvious reaction would be to go see it. Although dad really didn't want to go up and down the steep hills of Lombard street over and over again, he gave in and we went to the address, only to fine that they were renovating an the house does not look the same anymore. Thanks -_- Last but not least, we went back to the pier in order to get some souvenirs, because today was our last day there. Originally, we were supposed to leave tomorrow, but since we had covered almost everything there was really no need to stay. We got cute magnets/key chains for people back home, and then got a pizza like crepe for dinner, though no one was that hungry. But as everything was starting to come to an end I would have to say it was a fun and successful trip :)) I woke up the next morning with a tingling in the back of my throat. By the time we were on the plane I could definitely feel a sore throat coming along.
On that note, I was glad we left that day, instead of the next. I would have been sick, and traveling would have been a pain.
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