During Christmas holidays we flew to San Francisco for a two week holiday with Caroline, alias Coenie, Anna’s best friend from the Netherlands.
Our week started off with a sightseeing tour of the city on the Hyde and Powell tram, an exhilarating ride up and down steep hills. We were hanging on the side of the tram, and had to hold on tight. All ended well with a warm clam chowder at the wharf.
Via Muir Woods, a national forest with Coastal Redwoods, we drove up to Yosemite NP. Lucky we had rented a 4WD, for it snowed and the roads up in the Sierra Nevada were covered with a slippery white blanket.
In the park we spent a few days hiking through the snow covered pines, vertical black granite walls dooming through low cloud. Fresh footprints of a bear covered the trail and Ali almost bumped into her when she tried climbing down a tree.
The contrast couldn’t have been bigger when we arrived at Monterey Bay just north of the Big Sur coast, where we spent another few days along the sunny coast. We paddled in kayaks down Elkhorn Slough, a marine wildlife reserve, with thousands of waterbirds, where sea otters munch on fresh cockles and seals chill out on the sandbars.
Back to San Francisco for New Years eve. We caught up with Richard, whom we had cycled with before in Alaska, and who was now travelling with Edwer, his fiancee.
It all seemed too quick when Coenie flew off on the 1st of january. Maybe next time with a third bike?
