Ahh, truly appetizing. Sorry, this photo captures a half-eaten bowl.

Eating at Pier Market -- Delicious!

8:50 PM: There's nothing like warm sourdough clam chowder on a cold Frisco evening. "Pier Market" is voted "Best clam chowder in San Francisco."

Very fresh oysters.

Mr. Fozzie almost crashed the Matrix looking at this advertisement.

San Francisco, CA

6:30 PM: Yellow tram in San Francisco.

4:30 PM: Bye Bye Napa Wine Train.

The "BV" sign was blocked by the "BM".

And, of course, The Robert Mondavi Winery.

After the main course, we walked through to another train car, where we stopped for coffee and an awesome creme brulee. (that's a window, not an oil painting)

The food was perfect.

Napa Valley Wine Train

1:38 PM: Just got seated at our Le Gourmet table for our 3-course luncheon on the wine train.

Day 4 - Napa, CA

We reached Napa late last night. Here's Mrs. Fozzie at the Copia sign.

Mining supply store in Columbia. We thought this was either amusing or frightening. The sign reads, "Trespassers will be SHOT on site. Survivors will be HUNG."

This old Wells Fargo exchanged gold. You can even see the original scale used to weigh the gold the miners would bring in. We looked around for a voice-activated ATM machine--we didn't find one.

Columbia, CA

4:18 PM: Wells, Fargo & Co. (Wells Fargo Bank)

Jamestown, CA

Mrs. Fozzie--thinking she's going to find gold in this mining rock stack in Jamestown (old gold mining town) on Hwy 49. Hey, the gold rush was over more than a century ago... and that's just a fake display for tourists!

2:50 PM: Mr. Fozzie--pointing at one of the famous Chinese Camp buildings still existing on Main St.

Chinese Camp, CA

Chinese Camp on Hwy 120. Many Chinese lived here during the Gold Rush days during mid 1800's. This location marks the first Tong War in California between Sam Yap and Yan Woo (Tong associations, i.e. "mafia").

We can't believe this is a radiator heater. That's Mrs. Fozzie's right foot, contrasting the size of this thing. There are many of these around the sitting rooms.

Inside the Ahwahnee. This is the smaller of the several ENORMOUS fireplace mantles in this hotel. A very nice lady who was reading a children's book to a boy was kind enough to take this picture for us.

The Ahwahnee

12:30 PM: Backside of the Ahwahnee (hotel built 1927).

This world is full of creative people. We were on our way to the Ahwahnee when we saw a man sitting on chair, in the middle of this vast grassland, reading his newspaper. Now-- that's life.

10:00 AM: Our friendly camping neighbor (from Tracy, CA) at site #14 (we're at #12).

Day 3 - "Tax Day"

8:00 AM: This American Robin bird seems to want a share of Mrs. Fozzie's Cup Noodle breakfast.

Mrs. Fozzie looking out for bears at sunset. That's my good girl!

Finally, some food and drinks! Our dinner consisted of grilled chicken steaks, Italian sausages (very, very delicious), extra chunky soup, and more Smirnoff.

This is not just for Shabu Shabu at home. It's great for camping too.

Mirror Lake

Nevada Falls was icy and dangerous, but that didn't mean we couldn't hike to a lake. There's a reason why they call this Mirror Lake.

Mr. Fozzie thought this piece of tree bark looks like the South American continent.

Merced River

The roaring Merced River at the base of the falls.

As always, going down the mountain is much easier. This piece of granite is simply breathtaking.

Only in spring will you see this type of rich color.

Hey, you gotta eat healthy in Yosemite.

Great secret spot for a peaceful lunch (hot dogs that we packed) in the middle of the mountains.

If you look closely, these steps are really icy and slippery (especially carrying 25-lb backpacks). We took more photos and aborted the climb.

We asked another hiking couple to take a photo of us (rare) in front of Vernal Falls (midpoint).

Vernal & Nevada Falls

Today's destination is the top of Nevada Falls.

Our gourmet breakfast included: Cup Noodles by Nissin, instant coffee by Nestle, and rice crackers. You'll never find that at IHOP.

Black Bear tracks

Apparently, we had a 700/800-lb (7 ft tall) black bear come by our tent last night. Perhaps, he wanted to cuddle with us. Black bears in Yosemite National Park are just waking up from their winter hibernation. However, many bears don't even actually go into hibernation. Either way, they're very hungry particularly during this time of year. Lucky us.

Our tent is still there.

Day 2 - Yosemite (Lower Pines)

7:20 AM: Mrs. Fozzie didn't get much sleep the first night. So, she's sleeping in.

We admit. We are eating like pigs. Hey, it was long day.

The Kabob Feast

A man's gotta feed his woman. Our dinner consisted of (each person), 4 beef kabobs, 3 shrimp kabobs, 1 cup of extra chunky steak soup, 1 grilled corn each, 1 Smirnoff Ice drink.

Half Dome View from Sentinel Bridge

Mrs. Fozzie claiming that she climbed the great Half Dome. (she didn't... but next time)

Update: Mrs. Fozzie returned to Yosemite on September 5, 2005, and conquered Half Dome.

Hollowed tree trunk

Home sweet home.

Hallelujah!

11:38 AM: We waited it out inside the car once we got to the Valley. We've just driven out to our site in Lower Pines and have started setting up camp fast, now that the snow has cleared and half a sun is peaking out. The ground is muddy, but it's certainly better than snow. Will this hold up in the cold wind tonight?

Tunnel View

10:36 AM: It's much colder than it looks in this photo. We just passed the Wawona Tunnel (elevation 6200 ft) and stopped for the view (there's thick snow everywhere here). It's currently about 29 degrees here according to our car's thermometer.

Arriving at Yosemite Gate

10:02 AM: On morning arrival at the South entrance (elevation, 5200 ft) via Hwy 41, it is snowing!! The very reliable Weather.com forecasted only 20% rain showers (Hello! I guess the other 80% was SNOW then!). It's WunderGround.com for me now. Okay, so these fairly large "winter" snow flakes are tumbling on our cheezy rental Toyota Matrix (Mr. Fozzie's still driving in his flowery beach shorts). Arrgh. We'll still head up Wawona Rd. toward our destination, the Valley (elevation, 4000 ft) to see if death is there to meet us. After all, we didn't haul around a pair of heavy-duty snow cables and scaper back in the right corner of our trunk for nothing (plus every other imaginable piece of emergency/survival gear). From the entrance, we still have 45 miles of mountain to go (that's about 1.5 hours with the snow falling on us).

Day 1 - Leaving Home

4:30 AM: Okay, so we were on our way by 4:30 AM Wednesday morning (not 3:00 AM as we had so planned for weeks) . Our original plan was to have our breakfast at Fresno, but after an unexpected gusty wind storm near Bakersfield, we were now behind schedule big time. So much for that delicious breakfast--we bit our fingernails instead. Fresno hosted our quick gas stop (btw, gas prices are much cheaper ANYWHERE outside of So. Cal.), and back on the road we went. This photo was actually taken later during the day.