Day 8 - Two Nights in the Valley

It feels like we have been in San Francisco for ages, and I mean that in a good way. I find with most cities that the more you are prepared to explore the more they reveal themselves. All the districts we visited had their own particular feel and each had something different to offer. The city also has some obvious issues, with homelessness being a major one. Homelessness is an aspect of most major cities but here they are everywhere and on quite a few streets there are rows of tents in makeshift camps hugging the sidewalks. Why there are so many may be due to the pull of the city and what it stands for. It is a liberal and free thinking city where the American dream is attainable. The city has vibrant immigrant communities, is welcoming to the LGBT community and has an ability to reinvent itself, whether it's after a devastating earthquake or as the vanguard of the internet revolution. Unfortunately, the dream is just that for many others too. As this is the first major city we have visited in the US I can't compare it with others but I get the feeling that there won't be many places like this.

With San Francisco in our rear view mirror we were leaving the big city for the great outdoors. Yosemite National Park was next and it was a four hour drive away. We swapped driving duties halfway and the terrain gradually changed from endless turnoffs for suburbs to twisting mountains and endless trees. On reaching our lodge in the pleasant Yosemite Valley it was starting to get dark and so we decided to have dinner and turn in for an early night. We had two tours booked for tomorrow and so we took it easy with an evening of reality TV.

Song of the Day:
The Mamas and The Papas - California Dreamin'Read more