Leaving Yosemite was so difficult. I didn’t get to spend nearly enough time in this magnificent place.  On the 2-hour bus ride back to the Fresno airport, my teammates and I exchanged digital photos and made a pact to come back next year, whether it was for Hike for Discovery or not.  In fact, what about an overnight backpacking trip to Half Dome?

At the airport, my friend Katie and I parted ways with our teammates, picked up our snazzy rental car, then drove 3 hours to San Francisco. Just outside of Livermore, we passed a really cool windfarm. I slowed down so Katie could take some pictures. (Check out my pictures here.) It was really foggy (of course) on the way in. We checked into the W Hotel in SoMa, just in time for our well deserved pedicures! While it was not the best pedicure I’ve ever had, it was nice to have pretty un-calloused feet again.  (I had resisted getting a pedicure the whole time I was training for the hike to reduce the chance of getting blisters. I was chided by my pedicurist for not taking better care of my feet!)

This was Katie’s first trip to San Fran so I took her to my favorite tapas bar/microbrewery, the Thirstybear, conveniently located just across the street.  We had some yummy tapas (is there any other kind?), sampled the vanilla bean-infused ale, and watched Flamenco dancers.  We turned in early since we had been up so late the night before. We also wanted to get an early start the next morning.