From Yosemite to Nevada City

It has been a few days since my last update on our trip, just busy with traveling and thrifting :)

So on Thursday morning we drove to Yosemite Valley, which is pretty much the center of Yosemite National Park. Apparently there was a huge fire 3 years ago, the drought of several years had made the trees week against bugs and fires. Luckily this year it has rained a lot and the Waterfalls were very full, so full that it is expected to fall all Summer long which is unusual.

Further in the Park it was not burned but we came across thousands of burned or dried trees, here is hoping for some more good rainy Winters!

The shapes of the mountains were amazing, so were the waterfalls, it was like a piece of heaven.

So this amount of water is unusual, but everything was lush and fresh near the water.

We walked very near one of the waterfalls, and it was falling down so hard that we got totally soaked :) It was cold but super fun, a bit like our crazy Golden Gate bridge ride :)

This was the very wet one, well all waterfalls are wet but this one made us wet too :)

It was like walking under heavy rain, luckily the weather was warm so we were okay, and we had our clothes in the car. Some visitors clearly knew what they were doing and came with raincoats and such but most people were like us, totally not aware what was about to happen.

Some parts reminded me of The Sound of Music, there was still some snow on some of the mountains.

We love trees and nature so it was a very worthwhile drive.

After the park we went to Sutter Creek, to go towards Lake Tahoe and Nevada City we got some thrift stores along the way (checked Google and added the addresses to the GPS, we had a lot planned). All in all I drove more than 7 hours that day.

Sutter Creek was a cute little town.

The next morning we were planning to go towards Lake Tahoe but it was going to be way too late as we had planned to visit my friend Juliette on Thursday at Nevada City. We did visit about 10 (lost count) thrift stores on our way and it was again a lot of driving but we had loads of fun.

We have been staying at Juliette (a fellow Etsy seller) this weekend and will be here till Monday (tomorrow) where we will be going to Lake Tahoe and to yet another Etsy friend at Reno.

This weekend we went to Grass Valley, Nevada City and Rough & Ready which are all next to each other and all cute little historic places.

We also went to 3 estate sales, which are quite the experience, this one below also had a huge barn, you just walk around the entire property and pick up what you want to buy, very interesting experience and you can find some really cool stuff.

Hope to have another post soon with Lake Tahoe (where we will also enjoy a whole bunch of Thrift stores again beside the beautiful lake :)

From San Francisco to Yosemite and some in between

We had a great time in San Francisco. The city felt so right, friendly, familiar and laid back. Our hotel, the Plaza, just at the China town gate, was really nice and we were very happy.
Funny enough, San Francisco seemed to be located in China, a lot people we saw, starting at the airport, were Chinese.

Then we crossed the Bay Bridge to Oakland and the ethnicity changed, all Hispanic there. We visited the local flea market where we could haggle the prices in Spanish and went on to Modesto, where we spent two nights. It may seem weird to stay in a place totally void of sights worth seeing, but don't forget, this is a holiday with thrifting as a theme, and thrifting we did in Modesto!
It is a perfectly fine and pleasant town, Modesto, we did 11 thrift stores, a flea market and a huge Hobby Lobby :)) and got a taste of a standard American town.
Believe me, serious thrifting is not for sissies, we are sore all over :).

Today we left Modesto and drove towards Yosemite National Park. The road we took, was very calm and narrow so we could enjoy the surroundings and make some stops in between.

This is such a large country that you can easily end up at places where no one or hardly anyone is, it is kind of refreshing actually the quietness and rural places.

We passed tiny places where the 'Saloons' were the highlight of town :)

Tiny post offices with not a single customer (no waiting!!).

We ate at a diner, exactly like in the movies, even the music :)

The road to our cute B&B, very close to Yosemite Park.

Today's route, although we did drive around at Yosemite Park too.

Our view from our room's door is very cute and whimsical.

Tomorrow we will be going through Yosemite park towards Lake Tahoe :)

San Francisco, Sausalito and all in between

Yesterday was our last day at San Francisco, and we went for another bus tour, this time also over the Golden Gate Bridge to the little town called Sausalito, where a house can easily sell for 12 million dollars, not cheap to say the least, but pretty. It actually reminded us of our own home town where you can buy 10 houses with that money ;)

It did make for some very pretty views and pictures.

On our way to Sausalito we were on a normal bus, on the way back we were on a double decker with open roof. Great for pictures and in San Francisco these buses were perfect to enjoy the city, however as soon as we went towards the bridge a freezing wind, super hard and cold, almost blew as all off our socks. It was so funny, we were all holding ears, hair, hats and trying to take pictures without having camera's, phones and such fly away. It was like we were on a roller-coaster at sixflags, very exciting and a bit scary but mostly so cold :D

We are now both red as tomatoes of the combo of that cold wind and the sun, we are calling it the Golden Gate facial, great for clearing pores and have a crazy hair do :)

This morning we left San Francisco for Oakland first to visit a flea market, scored some cool stuff, and then Modesto for yet another flea market which was closing by the time we got there so we'll visit it again tomorrow and also a whole bunch of Thriftstores too as apparently there are plenty of those in this town. We decided to stay an extra night here before heading to Yosemite National Park, still lots of places to go :)