Great American Road Trip - Day 8 (6/1) - San Fran and Glacier Point

Judy's friend Kimberly came to the hotel to meet her for coffee around 9:00 AM.  While they did that, Galen and I wandered around some shops nearby, getting me a smoothie and him a fresh shirt and some dog toys.  We headed back to the hotel to meet up with Judy around 10:00, then the three of us drove across the Bay Bridge into San Francisco.  We stopped by a fine spirits shop so Galen could pick up a gift for his host for the night, then we drove to Burma Superstar in Richmond to meet some friends at 11:15 (though we were all late, and the parking situation did not help) for lunch: Jocelyn, Nate and Solana, and Galen's college buddy Braxton, along with his wife Ashley and their two kids.

We ended the lunch gathering around 2:00, and said our goodbyes.  Galen left with Braxton, while Judy and I began a drive toward Yosemite with her at the wheel.  We made it to the park in around 3 hours, but had another hour to drive to get to Washburn Point and then Glacier Point to catch the sunset.  After that, we headed toward our hostel, the Yosemite Bug, which was a bit more than an hour away.  By this time it was dark, and we did not have cell reception to give us directions.  Luckily, the hostel is on CA 140, one of the main roads into the park, so we just followed the signs and Judy took us ably through the winding roads.

We arrived at the hostel around 10:00 and checked in.  When we walked over to the building with our room, the lights were out and there were (it turned out) 3 people already asleep inside.  Fortunately, Judy thoughtfully packed flashlights, which we used to stow our gear and get ready for bed as quietly as possible...which was really not all that quietly, but at least we tried.