Big trees and HEAT!!

Hey there – hope your 4th was good. We drove to Sequoia Nat’l Park on the third and camped for a couple days with Will and Heather and Greta and Josh.
The park is beautiful and we had great campsites. Luckily, the only bear we saw was from the car. A little hiking and cooling off in a mountain stream – followed by some hot dogs and smores at the campfire with the fam – doesn’t get better than this. We were even out of cell phone range!
Will kept us in firewood by doing some foraging. The afternoon walk through the stand of giant redwoods was awesome – puts things into a new perspective.
The park was even better than expected!


Next we drove to Sparks/Reno and checked into the Nugget Casino. Needless to say we all thoroughly enjoyed a shower and then went down to the casino for a little fun at the tables and slots – even a little karaoke bar. We hope to get back to Lake Tahoe during the next couple days. We’re in a heat wave here – 108 yesterday – 103 expected today – but it’s a dry heat – hehe. Motto for the day is keep hydrating!

San Francisco

Wow what fun! Heather, Will, Bill and I went in to the city early Sunday and started right of with a ride on the cable cars. We got off at Union Square and had breakfast at a great place, Max's, recommended by our hosts. Then we walked through the city on our way to the Giants game. Glorious weather - once again. The game was great fun - Giants won 13 - 0. It was a great opportunity to visit with my sister and Tom and they showed us around the stadium and McCovey Cove etc. The view from the stadium is an awesome view of the bay, so if the game gets a little slow you can just watch the boats etc. Barry disappointed us - but we did see 2 other homers - so we can't complain.
After the game we walked the Embarcadera and Fisherman's wharf - then had dinner in the Marina section. Great day!

Well we didn't have enough so we went back to SF on Monday and rented bikes and biked over the Golden Gate bridge and into Sausalito. Then we took the ferry back. That was really all very cool. For those of you that have been out in these parts - we had an "in and out" burger for lunch - doesn't get better than that! After lunch - more walking to Coit Tower and then home to do dinner with our hosts, the incredibly patient Debbie and Scott.

Tomorrow we head for Sequoia National Park - if the bears don't get us, we promise to continue the blog. Hope all is well with all of you and that you have a very happy Fourth of July!!