Up at 6 to start our journey west. 2 hours to Heathrow (with Jack fast asleep on the back seat) in the morning rush hour but easily checked in then grabbed some breakfast. Boarding was a breeze and we quickly settled in for our 10 and a half hour flight to San Francisco. The cabin in the BA 747 looked a bit tired; not at all like the Emirates A380, but our stewardess was really friendly and the food, even for airplane food, was pretty good.
Arrived safely in SF; immigration wasn't as difficult as we'd been led to believe and the officer was friendly and chatty. Collected our bags and off to the car rental on the Airtrain. Huge queue at the checkin desk but there were automated checkin points, great I thought, and entered all the info it required only to be booted out as we had hired the car for 35 days and the maximum the automated system could deal with was 30 days!! Thinking up my assault on the management when the manager appeared, took my papers over to his desk and checked us in, Phew! Apparently, in California car hire companies are only allowed a maximum of 30 days otherwise it becomes a lease. Obviously, the car rental company found a way around this, and we were on our way.
The drive was diabolical, so much traffic, even with four or five lane highways. It took us 7 hours to drive the 200 miles to Yosemite, so we arrived
at 8 o'clock in the morning, UK time, some 25 hours after we left home. More than a little tired, perhaps we should have stayed in SF overnight to drive against the flow of traffic the next morning. Hindsight's a wonderful thing eh?
We did stop at a sort of farmers' market along the way, in a little town called Livermore, which was charming, the people very friendly and helpful and the quality of their produce excellent.
The condo is very comfortable, set in the forest at about 6,000 feet above sea level, to the south of Yosemite Valley, about 30 minute slow drive away. There are two bathrooms, so no competition for the shower........
