Our trip began in San Francisco, where Peggy's brother Chris took us on a tour of the city. We went to Fisherman's Wharf where we had lunch, watched the sea lions and had ice cream at Gharadelli Square. Then we walked across the Golden Gate Bridge, drove down Lombardi Street and went to the top of Coit Tower. We finished the day with dinner in China Town.

Our friend Lisa R. was not able to attend this trip. She is an employee of Harley Davidson and was asked to represent Harley at Sturgis which was the same week as this trip. In her honor, we stopped at a Harley dealer outside of San Jose to bring a T-Shirt home for her.

We stayed three nights at Wawona Lodge (rooms 208, 209 and 210) in Yosemite. This was great place with rustic rooms and shared bathrooms. The big verandas were a major hit with the BVE's. We started our day with coffee on the veranda and ended the days with toasting time on them. Here we are toasting our first day in Yosemite.

In Mariposa Grove, we got our first up close experience with the giant redwood. We did not touch any pine cones as we were told repeatedly that taking pine cones is a serious offense.

The longest hike on this trip was on the Mist Trail to Vernal and Nevada Falls. It was very hot and California was having a drought so the waterfalls didn't have much water. Vernal Falls (seen here) did have a little water falling, but Nevada Falls was dry.

Our last morning in Yosemite we had breakfast on the Veranda.

We spent three days and nights in Sequoia and stayed at Wuksachi Lodge. Very nice with modern conveniences. There were three buildings, we stayed in Stewart room 109. One bathroom for six women - after a long day of hiking we got all six of us through the shower in 1 1/2 hours so we could get to dinner before the dining room closed.

Our first hike in Sequoia was the Congress Trail, where we saw General Sherman. This redwood is the largest living mass. We also saw The Senate, The House, McKinley and General Lee to mention a few of the trees.

Our second day in Sequoia, we went to Cresent Meadow. The road there went through a fallen tree, so in fine BVE form, we stopped for a group picture.

In Cresent Meadow we decided to see if the BVEs would be able to hug a redwood. As you can see, we only got about 1/2 way around the tree.

Our next stop was Moro Rock. There were 473 steps up to the top of Moro Rock. The views from the top were well worth the trip up.

Our third and final day in Sequoia started at Topoka Falls. We started at the trail head in Lodge Pole Campground. The Fall was dry due to the drought, but that didn't stop us from hiking to it.

On the way back down we stopped to skip rocks in the stream, but even the stream was dry. That didn't stop the BVE. We skipped rocks in the dry creek bed which was rock. The rocks really skipped.

After a picnic lunch at the Lodge Pole Campground, we drove to Little Baldy Trail Head. This was a 1.7 mile hike with an 800 foot climb. At the top there was a beautiful 360 degree view of Sequoia.  

The next day we packed up and left Sequoia. Before leaving the area we went into Kings Canyon and hiked the Big Stump Trail. We spent our last night in California at the same Four Seasons Sheraton in San Jose that we stayed the first night. The next morning we flew out of the San Franciso Airport.