Windy Streets Of San Francisco!

The summer mist, tropical palm trees, salt air and a combination of wind, water and hills - we are in San Francisco! And this is what we have seen so far:

Oakland Bay Bridge (known locally as the Bay Bridge) is a pair of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay of California, in the United States.The toll bridge was conceived as early as the gold rush days, but construction did not begin until 1933. Designed by Charles H. Purcell, it opened for traffic on 12 November 1936, six months before the Golden Gate Bridge. 

Bay Bridge, on an average day 280,000 cars drive its 8.25 mile length.

Driving in SF is a challenging task, but we enjoyed it!

Bay Bridge

Pier 39 is a shopping center and popular tourist attraction built on a pier in San Francisco, California. At Pier 39, there are shops, restaurants, a video arcade, street performances, an interpretive center for the Marine Mammal Center, the Aquarium of the Bay, and views of California sea lions hauled out on docks on Pier 39's marina.

Pier 39 Restaurant, where we met Mark :-)

Pier 39: California Sea Lions

Fisherman's Wharf gets its name and neighborhood characteristics from the city's early days during the Gold Rush where Italian emigre fishermen settled in the area and fished for the Dungeness Crab. From then until present day it remained the home base of San Francisco's fishing fleet. Despite its redevelopment into a tourist attraction during the 1970s and 1980s, the area is still home to many active fishermen and their fleets.

Fisherman's Wharf

The streets of San Francisco!

The most famous streets in SF are:

Lombard Street -  known as the steepest street in San Francisco.  Every day hundreds of tourists come to the street to take pictures of its 40 degree incline and arranged in zigzag. The main attraction of Lombard Street is seeing cars going down the street as if it were a roller-coaster.

Castro Street - The Castro is one of the United States' first and best-known gay neighborhoods, and it is currently the largest. Castro street remains one of the most prominent symbols of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender activism and events.

Market Street - known for San Francisco's world famous cable cars. 

Streets of San Francisco

Streets of San Francisco

Lombard Street is famous for being the crookedest street in the world.

Saints Peter and Paul Church

San Francisco Chinatown - the largest Chinatown outside of Asia and the oldest Chinatown in North America.

SF Chinatown

SF Chinatown

Entry to SF Chinatown

San Francisco's cable cars

Painted Ladies is a term used for Victorian and Edwardian homes in Alamo painted in three or more colors that embellish or enhance their architectural details. 

Painted Ladies: About 48,000 houses in the Victorian and Edwardian styles were built in San Francisco between 1849 and 1915 (with the change from Victorian to Edwardian occurring on the death of Queen Victoria in 1901), and many were painted in bright colors.

Fine Arts Museum

Golden Gate Bridge: one of the world's most beautiful suspension bridges and an engineering marvel. With its tremendous towers, sweeping main cables, signature International Orange color, and Art Deco styling, it is a sensory experience featuring color, light, and sound.

  

Yosemite - The Grandest Of All The Special Temples Of Nature

We spent the most magical day in the Yosemite National Park, world-famous for its impressive and the tallest in North America waterfalls, cliffs and unusual rock formations.

Yosemite's natural beauty can be found in things big and small, from towering granite cliffs and giant sequoias to diminutive wildflowers. Varied conditions in four geographic areas - HIGH SIERRA, GRANITE CLIFFS, SEQUOIA GROVES and VALLEY - make such a diversity possible. 

Sierra Nevada Mountains

Tioga Pass / Yosemite Entrance

Tioga Road offers a 39-mile scenic drive past forests, meadows, lakes, and granite domes. The road's elevation ranges from 6,200 to nearly 10,000 feet.

Tioga Road

Tioga Road

Tioga Road

Kasia on Tioga Road

Yosemite National Park Entrance

Yosemite Valley embraces one of the world's most outstanding concentrations of waterfalls, granite walls, meadows, wildflowers, and trees. The Valley also harbors a rich collection of human stories, from American Indian lore to the birth of the national park movement.

Yosemite Valley is home to massive cliff faces like El Capitan (granite monolith that stands 3,593 feet from base to summit) and Half Dome, plunging waterfalls including the tallest in North America, and attractive meadows.

Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Valley

Iwona in Yosemite Valley

Kasia in Yosemite Valley (she's that small yellow mark)

Yosemite Valley

 Tunnel View

Glacier Point, an overlook with a commanding view of Yosemite Valley, Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, and Yosemite’s high country.

Glacier Point

Half Dome, Yosemite's most distinctive monument, dominates most views in Yosemite Valley.

Half Dome

Glacier Point

Half Dome

Waterfall Bridalveil

Waterfall Bridalveil

Sequoia Groves: Giant sequoias dwarf even the largest pine and fir trees that live among them. They are descendants of an ancient line of trees and can live for over 2,000 years. Their trunk can reach over 25 feet thick. 

The Grizzly Giant is a giant sequoia in Mariposa Grove (2,700 years old), located in Yosemite National Park.

On the way to Stockton and San Francisco!

Yosemite Park, ta najpiekniejsza dolina swiata, znajduje sie w Polnocnej Kalifornii w Gorach Sierra Nevada. W jej krajobrazie dominuja wyniosle gory z fantastycznymi urwiskami, pionowymi scianami granitu, wodnymi kaskadami, sosnowymi lasami, ktore sa domem dla niedzwiedzi, kojotow, pum i mulakow.
W ten gorski swiat stworzony przez wypietrzenia i lodowce wkroczyly z czasem bory, w ktorych dominuja obecnie mamutowce olbrzymie zwane sekwojami. Najstarszy okaz mamutowca rosnacy w parku Yosemite - Grizzly Giant - ma ponad 2700 lat.
Sercem parku jest dolina Yosemite (Yosemite Valley), ktora uznawana jest za najpiekniejsza polodowcowa doline swiata. Jedna z jej pierwszych atrakcji jest Bridalveil Fall - wodospad opadajacy ponad 190 metrow z tzw. wiszacej doliny. Po przeciwnej stronie widac jeden z najwiekszych na swiecie monolitow swiata - granitowy El Capitan. Ta jasna ponadkilometrowej wysokosci pionowa sciana jest jedna z najtrudniejszych drog wspinaczkowych na swiecie.
Kolejnym niezwyklym miejscem sa okolice kaskad Yosemite Falls, ktorych wody spadaja lacznie z wysokosci 739 metrow. Jest to najwyzszy wodospad w Stanach.
Na koniec Naszej wyprawy dotarlysmy do slynnych punktow widokowych zwanych Glacier Point i Tunnel View. Z Glacier Point moglysmy podziwiac trzeci co do wielkosci monolit Half Dome wysoki na 1445 metrow.
Dolina pozostawia niezapomniane wrazenia i obie z Kasia stwierdzilysmy iz jest to idealne miejsce na wakacje dla Naszych rodzicow, gdzie mozna lowic pstragi w bystrych strumieniach, wdychac zapach lasow sosnowych, podziwiac zasniezone szczyty monumantalnych gor Sierra Nevada i spacerowac godzinami po najbardziej malowniczych i nianaruszonych od czasow lodowcow szlakach krajobrazowych.
Poznym popoludniem wyruszylysmy kretymi drogami w kierunku Stocton, miasteczka ktore jest juz tylko godzine drogi od San Francisko.

It's Hot In Death Valley!

Dead Valley National Park is the driest, hottest, and lowest place in North America. We experienced the hottest temperatures in the country. In this place mobile phone & GPS won't work and you may not know where you are. The only thing you can hear is the ringing in your ears.

But none of that would stop us from exploring this amazing piece of land!

On July 13, 1913 Death Valley recorded a temperature of 57 deg. C.

Zabriskie Point in Death Valley

Zabriskie Point: Surrounded by a maze of wildly eroded and vibrantly colored badlands, this spectacular view is one of the park's most famous. Zabriskie Point is a popular sunrise and sunset viewing location. The viewpoint is a short walk uphill from the parking area.

Kasia in Golden Canyon

Devil's Golf Course in Death Valley

Devil's Golf Course: Immense area of rock salt eroded by wind and rain into jagged spires. So incredibly serrated that "only the devil could play golf on such rough links". The unpaved road leading to it is a bit scary!
Jagged pinnacles of salt formations originated from a 2000 year-old lake that once covered this region. Flowing water washes dissolved materials into the valley that crystalise into salty peaks.

Badwater: Lowest point in North America, Badwater Basin is a surreal of vast salt flats. A temporary lake may form here after heavy rainstorms. We had to limit time on hot salt flats and drink plenty of water!

85.5 meters below sea level.

Badwater Basin in Death Valley.

Salt, not snow covers the floor of Badwater Basin. The high salt content makes plantlife impossible in the area, and gives the area an unearthly landscape.

Artist Drive: Scenic loop drive through multi-colored volcanic and sedimentary hills. Artist's Palette is especially photogenic in late afternoon light. The 9-mile (14.5km) paved road is one-way.

Artistic Drive

Artistic Drive

Artistic Drive

Artistic Drive

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes: Undulating dunes move in waves across a vast sea of sand at Death Valley's Mesquite Flat. Wind shapes and reshapes the surface of the land continuously- first piling up, then blowing away the loose dust and sand.

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.

Dolina Smierci zwana rezerwatem piekielnego zaru jest domem wypalonych sloncem pustkowi, nagich skal, wedrujacych wydm i wszechobecnej soli. To najgoretsze, najsuchsze i najnizej polozone miejsce w Ameryce Polnocnej - 85,5 mtr ponizej poziomu morza.
Niegdys w dolinie istnialo plytkie slone jezioro po ktorym pozostaly niesamowite formacje solne o fantastycznych ksztaltach. Na "Diabelskim Polu Golfowym" (Devil's Golf Course) widac rozlegly fragment dawnego dna jeziora, pokryty brylami ziemi i soli o ostrych krawedziach.
Natomiast dno depresji Badwater (Badwater Basin) zalegaja szesciokatne platy solne o bokach nawet to dwoch metrow dlugosci.
Podobnie pozostaloscia dawnego dna sa zerodowane barwne skaly, ktorymi wiedzie turystyczna petla Artists Drive.
Latem Dolina Smierci przypomina "pielko" z temperaturami powyzej 45-50 stopni Celsjusza. W 1913 roku zarejestrowano najwyzsza temperature na polkuli zachodniej: 57 stopni Celsjusza.
Zapezpieczone w wode i zapasowe kolo odwiedzilysmy najdalsze zakatki tej diabelskiej doliny. Nie moglysmy pominac wspanialego punktu widokowego zwanego Zabriskie Point. Widac z niego rozlegla panorame Doliny Smierci i otaczajacych ja gor. Naszym ostatnim punktem na mapie byly piaskowe wydmy Sand Dunes, ktore nieustannie przesuwa wiatr, choc niektorzy wierza iz to sprawka mocy, ktore wypelniaja ta tajemnicza doline.