Oakdale Hotels
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Saturday - our visits to the National Parks begins
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Well, it was rather uneventful picking up the car but interestingly enough, because they did not have the car we had booked, they gave us an upgrade without additional cost. Excellent. At first we were rather concerned about the bigger vehicle because we thought oh phooey, that will mean it will suck gas. However, that being said, we then remembered about the amount of climbing we are going to have to do and indeed, having a more powerful car should actually see us using less petrol since the engine won't need to work as hard.
What did we get? A Nissan Altima - really nice car. We felt a little like a couple of country hicks though at first - the car only needs the remote to open but thereafter, to start the car, you just put your foot on the brake and press a button that says, yeah, you guessed it "Start"! So, we got ourselves into the car - eventually - and pushed the button. Nothing. Tried again. Zip. What the heck. Out we hop and have to go and ask how to start the car. Oooops! Wrong car! Not the red one - the grey one!
So, having organised that and picking up our gear from the hotel, we set out for Yosemite but went via Sausalito. A real roundabout way to go, but actually it was really all about seing Sausalito and of course, getting to drive over the Golden Gate bridge. What a magnificent piece of work it is.
Sausalito was cute - nothing really to rave about and certainly nothing to say that we are so pleased we actually took the time to go there however, the drive over the bridge and beyond was fantastic.
Yosemite was fantastic, and so high too. There is certainly some indication in how hard the car is going to have to work when there is a warning to turn off the air conditioning and at strategic points along the way, there is water stashed for the radiator. Incredible sights and of course, one of the most impressive was El Capitan, a site for which Yosemite is famous. Driving along and coming around the corner, faced with this massive monolith was just enough to take one's breath away.
Unfortunately, because the USA has also been in drought, the waterfalls were nothing more than mere trickles. Nevertheless, it was an incredibly beautiful place.
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