Viva Las Vegas - After Jim took me to Death Valley

When I last wrote, we were in Bakersfield for the night and headed on of the hottest places in the US, but for some reason Jim has always wanted to (he is just plan weird sometimes). So off we went with 6 people and luggage in a minivan, me always in the very back.

I thought there would be more places with just sand, but I guess even the some of the hottest places have life. We are just starting into the Valley

Jim was giving us constant readings of the temp. Then we all tried to remember how to convert to Celsius because we had no cell reception (most of the trip we have had no cell reception).

The Visitors Center at Death Valley. As the girls said, "Dad, Mom doesn't look to happy to be there!"

I stood at the sign and then walked out to the sand in the back groun. Crazy people were walking for 1/2 a mile out into the basin.

Besides being hot, Death Valley is the Earth's lowest place. It is 282 ft below sea level. 

Can you see the sign about 1/3 of the way down the picutre here. It says Sea Level, that is how low the Badwater Basin is! Also one of the few places on earth where there isn't a line to the women's bathroom!  And Italians didn't know what out houses were, the girls were looking for the button to push to flush!

Well we survived Death Valley and then it was onto Viva Las Vegas. It was fun to watch someone experiencing Vegas for the first time.

We see the New York Skyline again, Vegas style

The Botanical Gardens at the Bellagio were amazing

Real flowers make up the turtle shell

Free show at Circus Circus! She was balancing 4 umbrellas with one foot while twirling another umbrella with the other foot. 

Won $20


After Las Vegas we were off to the many Canyons.  That will be in the next post.  WE ARE ALMOST HOME!!!

Fermata! Fermata!

We reached Bakersfield Friday after about 11 hours of driving and stopping, the trip was supposed to only take 6 hours.  For those of you who know my husband, this was a new concept for him. He gets in the car and would drive for 10 hours straight if we didn't need gas.

We stopped for fresh fruit, big trees, even bigger trees, a picnic in Sequoia National Park and to see the General Sherman tree.  The ride down the moutain was a series of switchbacks, it took a hour to go 25 miles, but the views were unbelievable.

Italians are very big about sitting at the table to eat each meal, wether breakfast, lunch or dinner.  We set the table, arranges the food and prepared to eat. This was our last meal at our Airbnb in Lafayette, outside San Francisco. Notice the Jif. Jim introduced the girls to peanut butter when he was 10 and they were 12.  They all love it, so we had peanut butter on the table for dinner each night.

Rock grafitti in Sequoia National Forest

Giant Sequoias

Jim and Emanuela

Notice Eugenia and Gianni at the bottom of this Giant Sequoia. This was one of our many stops.

This is a panoramic of the base of General Sherman tree. 

This is fire damage at the bottom of one of the Twins.  It will survive if it can heal enough before another fire, hopefully there won't be anymore.

I think this one is General Sherman. There were so many big trees, we had a hard time figuring out which one it was, until we saw the sign!

This is what you do when you are tired and waiting on the shuttle.

We left Bakerfield Saturday moring and headed to Las Vegas via Death Valley, but that is for another  installment. I am needing coffee.

Wind, Walking, and Where are we going

Let me catch you up on the past few days.
We visited Alcatraz and Pier 39 on Wednesday.  The wind was unbelievable.  You could hardly stand up as it blew in off the ocean. We walked and walked and walkd somemore.  Got on trams and off and right back on again.

I could hardly keep my eyes open, it was blowing so hard.

Alcatraz gave me the creeps. The audio tour uses former guards and immates to narrate, helping you step back in time to when it was full of prisoners. I couldn't get in a cell, too small and the thought of being locked up in one of those was too much for me.  

A replica of what one of the escapees used to fool the guards.

 Cell could only hold a cot. Table and stool attached to the wall.

We also got to see the sea lions at Pier 39.  They love to play "King of the Hill", notice the two that are darker on the first dock.  They kept pushing each other off the dock.

On Thursday, 5/31, we drove to Yosemite. We were up early and it was a beautiful day. Yosemite did not disappoint.  El Capitan, Half Dome, and the Falls were breath taking. 

As promised in my last post, a few Cable Car pictures. When we rode the car was so packed you couldn't move to take picture. so we got some after we stopped.  The Italians couldn't believe the car stopped in the middle of an intersection to pick up people.

We have Arrived

Jim and I left Reno, Nevada early Monday moring because we weren't used to Mountain Time yet.  Since we were ready so early we decided to take the longer route to San Francisco via Lake Tahoe and south.  I am so glad we did.  We got to see breath taking views of Lake Tahoe as we drove south of Reno.

I even had to do a short video of the Lake

 After Lake Tahoe, we started heading up in the mountains.  As Adalyn would say, we went to the snowy mountains.  Again, spectacular views. Though I am disappointed I didn't a picture of the frequently spotted Cow Crossing signs.  We still can't figure out what it meant becasue we didn't see any cows in the mountains. Here are some "snowy mountain" shots.

 After a few hours of up up up and then down, we were in the valley that was full of wineries and cherries.  We didn't stop for either if you can believe that, only because the wineries weren't open at 10 am.

Everyone arrived safely from Italy and we ending the day catching up and refreshing our Italian and English.

Today we headed into San Francisco via the BART.  The only one who doesn't speak fluent Italian has to make sure everyone gets the correct amount on their Clipper card and then gets through the turnstiles, while trying to make the train that arrives in 4 minutes.  It was close, but we made it.

It was a beautiful day in San Franciso. We rode one of the double decker buses called a Hop On Hop Off. 

Can you see I scratched my chin in my sleep last night, weird!

The Italians enjoying San Francisco 

We were able to visit the Painted Ladies

Then it was off to the Golden Gate Bridge and Lombard Street. Yes, we walked from Van Ness all the way up Lombard street so we could see the crooked part of it.

There are two more hills after this one!

We rode the Cable Car back to Powell Street to catch the BART back to the Airbnb. I will post those pictures tomorrow when I get them off of Jim's phone.  We are taking the BART, Metro and Ferry to visit Alcatraz tomorrow so wish me luck in getting all the cards loaded.