Merriment with the Folks

Yes, well here I am with the parentals. Sadly the excitement I felt about seeing them has all but evaporated by now... ahh hell.

Friday - Day of Running Around
Friday was the day of much public transport, and the stress of piloting the Turd without my trusty co-pilot. Thankfully the (long) day went without a hitch, but took freaking forever. I left Pleasanton at 1100 (a couple of hours late) and finally made it to Alameda at around 1600.

Hmm.

I had discovered the hard way that buses generally only run once an hour. Fine if you make your connection, but of course I did not, and had about a 45 minute wait for each of my buses. Ahh ripper.

The parentals were already in residence, and seemed to be in good spirits. I also hadn't seen my Aunty and Uncle for many, many years (in fact so many years, I didn't remember when I last saw them). For those who are not asian, you should realise that they aren't technically my aunt or uncle, just everyone is an aunt or uncle.

I also saw their daughter, who I met when I was really little (and she was even more little). Sadly we're both grown up now, and she even has a younger sister (of whom I was not even aware).

Some dinner shenanigans:


Saturday - Muir Woods
Muir Woods are a small remnant of the forest that I imagine used to surround San Francisco. It's more or less pine and redwood (brothers and sisters of the Giant Sequoias we saw at Merced Grove). So I fiddled with some HDR.


Pretty pleased with this next one....


Sunday/Monday - Yosemite Take 2
Well it was really nice to back in Yosemite, and frankly I'm not going to go into all the other crap that went down. Let's just say relations got a bit strained. Woohoo!

This little guy was posing for me in front of our cabin:


The falls were nearly dry:

Amazing when you compare them to just a month or two ago.


The chipmunks had given birth to babies since we were there, so there were lots of little ones running around. The only other thing of note is that I hired a 'Stang to take us there. I'd forgotten what it was like to drive a car that wasn't a total piece of shite.

Today we went to Alcatraz, but I haven't had a chance to get the photos done. Until tomorrow.

xox

PS - If anyone knows how to get in touch with Bonne, please let me know, before I am forced to release the hounds....