This year for spring break we headed out to California. We spent the first part of the week in Yosemite National Park and the second half in San Francisco. The travel day getting there was very long – we left our house around 6AM and didn’t get to our AirBNB until about 9PM California time, but we made it work and were able to spend four good days in the park. We were also surprised to drive into a snow storm about 30 minutes after we got into the park. By the time we got to our house about 90 minutes later there was about two feet of snow on the ground. Not what we expected, but we rolled with it – though it would have be nice to have a few warmer pieces of clothing.

The first hike we took was to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, which was amazing. Because of the weather there weren’t many people, which made it that much better. In general, we were a few weeks ahead of the big crowds, which was great. We definitely had a chance to enjoy the hikes more.

Over the next two days we did a few different hikes, including to the base of El Capitan (Dave and Sophie were brave and ventured a little further than Lauren and me), Yosemite Falls, and around the Merced River and Coulterville.

After Yosemite we headed back San Francisco for a few days. We rented a house that was right off the Pacific Coast Highway and overlooked the ocean, which was beautiful. Unfortunately, we didn’t have great weather – it was chilly and rained a bit – but we forged ahead and still did everything we had planned.

We spent some time in the intertidal zone looking for cool things that emerge during low tide, and did a few light hikes to different areas overlooking the water. One day we headed into the city and checked all of the touristy boxes like Pier 39, Chinatown, and Lombard Street.

On our last day we went to the Muir Woods in a complete downpour. While I wish we could have spent more time there, what we saw was still completely amazing.

Our last stop before heading out was the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, which is across the bridge from San Francisco. It’s a huge facility that nurses back to health any stranded marine animal, which when we were there was mostly sea lions. We also got to watch a dolphin dissection, which was both gross and cool.

Looking forward to the next time we can get out there – especially Yosemite!