JOMEL Adventures Positivity (def): "Anything other than being in the office."

That Wed we were priveledged to see literally hundreds of sea lions that pull up on a beach right next to the road for a couple months each year to malt. The beach was alive with them flicking sand on themselves, grunting, and flopping around in large groups. We couldn't believe just how many there were.
We had wanted to WWOOF at a place called the Bridge Street Inn at a tiny little holiday town called Cambria, half way between Santa Barbara and Monterey on the Califonia coast. They didn't need any help at the time, but we decided to stay one night there anyway to break up our drive north because we really liked the look of it. I fell in love with Cambria- despite the bitter cold! We could have stayed there a few days to relax and unwind but one night was enough to give us a taste of the beautiful seaside town, boutique shops, wholesome quality food and quaint accommodations.
Next day, Thurs 8th May, it was back to camping and this time in Yosemite National Park. We got to the campground much too late and had to set up in the dark. And once again it was freezing. There was snow on the ground not far from where we camped. And to add to the discomfort we didn't know our campsite number and there were no rangers around, but there were plenty of bear warning signs which were enough to put me on guard and take extra ordinary precautions with our food. So that night we slept in the car in case we were woken during the night and asked to move out of someone else's campsite. We didn't have to move and turned out we randomly picked a site just 2 away from our designated one! But boy was it cold overnight! Below freezing and my sleeping bag was just not up to par. Yosemite is amazing. Unfortunately due to the frequency of us moving around we were not organised enough to do a proper full day or overnight hike while there and that is definitely something I want to go back and do. However we did walk through the giant sequoias at Mariposa Grove Friday morning. These red woods are the biggest trees in the world and can be as old as 5000 years. They were absolutely enormous and very impressive. Friday afternoon we did the lazy tourist thing and drove up some absolutely stunning roads to some gorgeous viewpoints and waterfalls. At one of the stops while looking at half dome (a popular challenge for very adventurous rock climbers) we got talking to an eldery couple who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. They were celebrating it at Yosemite because that's where they went on their honeymoon 50 years earlier. They were the sweetest couple I have ever seen.
Our second night in Yosemite was much more relaxed as we set up camp earlier during daylight and enjoyed the beautiful campsite we had by the creek. Saturday morning we hit the road again, back toward the coast to San Francisco.