Day Eight of the Cross Country Trip

Day 8 marked exactly one week from the first day. At this point, I have had so many crazy experiences it did not feel like just one week. We woke up and had to pack everything up and climb this awful hill covered in rocks every time. We drove into the park and confirmed what we already suspected, that hiking the Half Dome required a permit. Apparently only 300 people are allowed to go up each day, which is very whack. So we decided we would go to Nevada and Vernal falls instead, as they sounded really cool. The guide told us that they were popular sites, but we had no clue how popular they really were. I drove for a little over an hour to the valley, then sat in traffic for about 45 minutes. After we saw a sign that said we had 8 more miles of this road work, and that wasn't even to the valley, I pulled off. It was our lack of planning that caused us to try to go at peak hours, on a Sunday of all days. I definitely want to go back there again in the future. We walked around the woods and called our parents, then hit the road, with very low morale, to San Francisco. Luckily the drive to San Fran wasn't too bad, Mark managed to truck the whole thing. We bought a huge nice basket of local strawberries on the side of the road, and crushed those in about 10 minutes. On this drive we came across Oracle Arena, the Athletics stadium, and then we crossed the Bay bridge. I'm a huge bridge guy, and this bridge did not disappoint at all. Extremely intricate design, and the view of the city was amazing. The Transamerica Pyramid was the most striking feature, and the Sutro Tower confused us all, as we only were able to see the top above the clouds. We kept driving through the city, and got our first experience with the hills. The blocks of San Francisco were especially beautiful to me due to the fact that all of the buildings are different, in color, design, and exterior structure. We arrived at Connor's Aunt Julie's and were graciously welcomed as family. She had accepted us a day early, as we no longer wished to spend another night at Yosemite, and she still had two bags of groceries ready for us upon our arrival. Her and her husband treated us to Kesar's, their favorite restaurant. It was a very nice place, and I ate a Greek burger because I wanted to try some lamb. Connor's great uncle apparently gets the fish tacos every single time they come, which is almost everyday they said. Overall the food was awesome in San Fran, a huge foodee central hub. After the extremely nice break from fruit and Kroger specials, we walked back to their house. They led us over to their apartment complex, let us take the top floor, and showed us our room for the next 3 nights. It was extremely nice, and a much needed change from the woods and characters such as Shoenice. It was nice to shower and relax in the beds there, and we spent that first night just regaining our energy.