San Francisco and Bad News

Hi friends,

We made it to San Francisco in one piece and got to our gorgeous bed and breakfast, Chateau Tivoli in the Alamo District. This area is right by The Painted Ladies aka the houses from Full House!

Unfortunately, I have not been doing well. You may have read between the lines in my blog, but I have glossed over a bunch of it. I'm having a lot of gastrointestinal trouble due to either the amount of driving, the altitude, just being worn down since the wedding, or some combination of all three. This has kept me from being able to eat well and I have visibly lost weight. It has also kept Aaron and I from fully enjoying these amazing places we are visiting.

Yesterday I spent most of the day in bed, hoping that a day of rest at low altitude would help get me back on my feet. I am a bit better, but I'm still not 100%. We decided that we had to make the very no fun decision of sending me home on a flight from San Francisco to Des Moines today. As sad as I am to miss out on all the adventures we had planned and to cut our honeymoon short, my health comes first and I'm just not recovering fast enough on the move.

Aaron will be taking care of getting the Escape Campervan back to Denver and then heading home. He may stop on a few more Parks on the way if the urge strikes, and who could blame him?

Anyway guys, sorry that I had to cut the story short. See (most of) you soon.

Amelia

P.S. Here are some cool pictures of our bed and breakfast!

Yosemite National Park

We got up early to beat the crowds into Yosemite. It took us about an hour on a windy road to reach the visitors center, but we had some really spectacular views of the valley while we drove. I was really struggling with my motion sickness that morning, probably due to all the windy mountain driving, so I took it easy in the campervan for a little bit while Aaron went to go look through the visitors center.

Once I was feeling up to it he took me on a little bit of a tour. We got coffee and fruit at a nice cafe and then we walked around a geological museum that explained how molten rock and glaciers worked together over millions of years to create Yosemite Valley. Fun fact: Apparently there was never a second half to the Half Dome! Who knew?

Just chillin' with John Muir, the man who convinced Teddy Roosevelt to form our National Park system. 

We also walked through a replica of a traditional Native American village. The Ahwahnechee tribe of the Miwok people made their home in this area and some still use the buildings near the visitors center for their traditional ceremonies, which was pretty neat.

We went back to the campervan for lunch and Aaron took a strenuous and steep hike up to a viewing point for Yosemite Falls while I took a nap. Yosemite Falls is a seasonal waterfall that is caused by snow melt and is seasonal. Aaron says he must have looked like a Park Ranger or something because people kept standing out of his way and nodding to him as he passed them on the trail. Maybe he just looked like he meant business.

Aaron's view from the trail

Yosemite Falls

When he got back down we started our way back to the campsite with a few stops for views and one quick hike to Brideveil Falls. This waterfall sticks around all year because it is fed by glacial lakes that don't drain as quickly, but it is somewhat smaller than Yosemite Falls.

We went back to the campsite where Aaron made turkey burgers and we went to sleep so we could get a good start on our drive the following morning. San Francisco is coming up next!

The Grand Canyon

We kicked off our day at the Grand Canyon with a little walk around the Visitors Center. Got a few National Parks Passport stamps and filled up our CamelBak (thanks, Ky!) before heading out on a walk along the South Rim.

We started at Mather Point and then walked about a mile to the Yavapai Geography Museum. Learned some cool stuff about the formation of the Grand Canyon, had a snack, and re-applied sunscreen! This desert sun is gonna be the death of me! (Not really, Dad. I'm being very diligent about the sunscreen. I promise.)

Next we walked another mile and a half or so along the "Million Year Trail", which gave us a sense of geologic time, and the "Trail of Time", on which every meter walked represents one million years of the Grand Canyon's geological history. Also, there were cool rocks and great views! Aaron wouldn't let me walk out on the narrow rock formations that jut out from the edge of the canyon (he says it's because he loves me) but he did venture pretty close to the edge for a few pictures.

We ended that walk at the Grand Canyon Village and treated ourselves with ice cream before heading over the the camp ground for quick nap in the shade. That night around sunset we wanted to venture down into the canyon. We picked a trail called South Kaibab because there was a stopping point called Ooh-Aah Point only a mile and a half down. We hoped the views from such a place would be worth the climb back UP to the canyon rim and we were right!

We made it back up!

The next morning we woke up early to get a head start on one of our longest drives. Almost 10 hours in the car to get to our campground just outside Yosemite. We got to our campground by driving through very windy mountain roads and immediately turned around to drive to a nearby resort that offered public showers. I've never been happier to pay $4 for 5 minutes of hot water in my life. Back to the campground for a quick meal/snack and into bed.  Being at Yosemite on a Saturday means you have to beat the crowds! More on that in the next post.

Arches National Park

Our alarms went off at 4 AM on Tuesday morning. We got dressed and made coffee in the dark before setting off to Arches National Park. The drive to the park took about 20 minutes, and there were no rangers around to take our pass. Lazy bums. Another 30 min drive got us the the parking lot for The Windows Section. The sky was beginning to lighten so we set off on a very short hike up to the North Window. It was cold and very windy, but the views were amazing! There were a few other people there to see the sunrise, so we found a seat and waited for about 15 minutes for the sun to peak over the canyon walls in the distance. This was definitely worth the early morning!

Aaron and me in front of the North Window Arch

Panorama with the South Window Arch

Turret Arch

We also got to see the South Window and the Turret Arch after the sunrise as those are also within the Windows Section. We didn't stay in the park for long because I was still not feeling well from the day before and the early morning wasn't helping my case. We got back to the campsite at about 8 AM and spent most of the day resting. We got our laundry washed in the coin operated machines located at the campsite and went into town for a few odds and ends we hadn't thought to pack with us.

I was feeling much better after resting all day, so we decided go back into the park to watch the sunset. We made dinner and then started back toward the park at about 6 PM. The Visitor's Center was closed again, so I had missed my opportunity to get a stamp on a National Parks Passport (super bummed!), but the park wasn't very busy at that point, which was a plus.

We decided to take the hike to Delicate Arch, which is the most famous arch in the park.  The hike was 3 miles round-trip, and had some pretty steep climbs, but we took it slow and I had on good hiking shoes, so we made it just fine.  I told Aaron I was channeling my inner mountain goat. The view once we got to the top was spectacular!

We didn't wait for sunset because it was very busy at the top and we wanted light for the hike down, but we did take the time to stop and look at some Ute Indian petroglyphs (wall art) of a horse rider and some big horn sheep. Finally, we drove farther north to see the Devil's Garden, but we had very little light so we couldn't see much.

This morning we made breakfast and packed up our campervan. We left Moab at about 10 AM and made it to our hotel by Grand Canyon National Park at about 5 PM local time (Arizona doesn't practice daylight saving time). The travel was easy and Aaron was able to drive the whole way. The only thing of note on the drive was our lunch break in Tuba City, AZ. Once we got to the park, our first stop was at the Desert View 

Watchtower for our first view of the Grand Canyon! While I was there I got a National Park Passport and a stamp, but we also realized that my selfie stick was broken. I guess we will have to get creative with the sign pictures until we can get a new one. We did, however, get to walk all the way up to the top of the tower to get the views from the highest point on the South Rim (over 7,000 feet!)

Art on the walls of the Watchtower

Tonight we got dinner at a local restaurant and wandered around the town of Tusayan for a while. Early bedtime tonight and tomorrow we get to see more of the Grand Canyon!

Some elk we're grazing right in the middle of town!

Travelling Campervan Style

Monday morning we went into Denver to pick up our Escape Campervan. Escape is a business that rents large passenger vans that have been converted  into a small RV.  They take out all the back seats and insert a seating area that converts into a bed and a very small kitchen (with a small refrigerator, a camping stove, and a small pump sink), which can be accessed through the back doors  of the van. Then, they spray paint the outside of each van with a unique and colorful mural. We walked into the Escape Campervan office super excited to see which van we would get and walked out about 30 minutes later with two keys to the "Delawhere?".

The Escape Campervan office in Denver

Guys, this was fate. Aaron is unabashedly patriotic and here is a van with an American flag on the hood and a painting of George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River on the side. A more perfect van couldn't have ended up in our possession.

We took the van to Aaron's Uncle Nathan's house in Arvada, which was about 20 minutes away. Nathan wasn't home at the time, which was odd, but we just locked up the van and headed out to lunch with Aaron's Aunt Melissa and her family. We got some super tasty bison burgers at Ted's Montana Steakhouse and caught up with them for a couple hours. Then we stopped at Walmart and bought some perishable groceries to stock our camping refrigerator. Finally, we get back to the campervan and started putting all our gear away. Nathan still wasn't home, but we had plenty of things to do.

Lunch with Kingston, Melissa, and Robert

About an hour later Nathan texted us and wanted to know when we were going to come to his house. To which we replied, confused, "No, when are YOU coming to your house?" As it turns out, the address we were given for Nate's house was one number off. Basically, we had knocked on a complete stranger's door, left a giant van with a portrait of George Washington on it parked in front of their house for HOURS, and then looked like we were moving into the van. Oops!

Once we finally had the right place, we spent time going over our trip route with Nathan before going out to Mexican for dinner.

We got a late start on our drive yesterday because I've been feeling a little under the weather but we got the van packed up and were on the road by 9:30. It was a 6 hour drive to Moab, UT through the Rockies and the mesas of Southwestern Colorado. Aaron drove most of it because I have a hard time reaching the pedals of the van (shocker) so I could only really drive in the flat spaces, which are few and far between in this area of the world. We stopped for a quick bathroom break at a view point for an area called Glenwood Canyon and enjoyed a quick walk to stretch our legs and enjoy the scenery.

We decided to take the longer route to our camp so we could drive along the Upper Colorado River Scenic Byway through the canyons of Moab. The views were truly stunning and I'm so glad we took the extra time!

We got to our campground yesterday at about 5:00 PM and went about making camp. Aaron made a delicious dinner and we cleaned ourselves up in the showers. The facilities at our campground are really nice and we are really enjoying using the Campervan. We went to bed early to get in a good night sleep before heading into Arches National Park tomorrow morning!