| Up early (as I usually was) and out to head to Yosemite. On the way you go through a town called Groveland. |
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 The Rim of the World Vista in the Stanislaus National Forest. |
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| More snow in Yosemite National Park. |
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| Most of the park was inaccessible as major roads through the park were still closed for the winter and spring. |
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| All I got to see was Yosemite Valley. |
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| But it certainly is a scenic part to visit anyway. There is a great view of Yosemite Falls, which is actually three separate falls. The Upper Yosemite Fall and Lower Yosemite Fall are visible here, however between them is the Middle Cascades, a set of smaller plunges. |
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| Lots of campers in the park. |
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| I walked along a path that led to a closer view of the falls. |
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| Getting closer. |
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| Given how much snow they get at elevation, I am not surprised that the roads are closed for the season. |
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| Here is a close up photo of the Lower Fall. |
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| And then the water continues on down Yosemite Creek. |
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| Tall trees and even taller rocks. |
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| It was in 1890 that John Muir
successfully got Yosemite Valley and surrounding areas as a national
park, the first national park in the United States. I believe this is El Capitan. |
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| I usually go for historic things on my travels, but I do like a good national park from time to time. I think that is Bridallveil Fall there on the right. |
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| Not really sure why I felt I should take a picture of the entrance to this tunnel but I did. |
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| There was a vista overlooking something, but I don't know what I was supposed to be looking at. So here are some more rocks and trees. |
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 Out of the mountains and into California's Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions. |
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| We have arrived in San Jose. Shortly after checking in I made changes to my travel plans. I had been keeping an eye on precipitation that was predicted for Saturday. That is the day I was to drive back across the mountains to Reno to fly home on Sunday morning. Interstate 80 had not been shut down during the week for snow associated with other weather systems, but there were chain and snow tire restrictions off and on. On Thursday I looked at conditions and there were restrictions and the highway cameras did not look great. If there was going to be more of it on Saturday, I might not be allowed to get across because I had no chains and the Elantra didn't have snow tires. I didn't want to get up in the mountains only to be told to turn back around. |
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| So I got online and changed my return flight from Reno to San Jose. It cost a little bit, but the change fee was waived, so I think I really just paid what it would have cost to fly in and out of San Jose anyway. I also managed to get my car rental changed to San Jose as well. That only cost $25.00. Overall, the additional money spent was well worth the piece of mind I got for the remainder of the trip. |
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| Compared to the gas station in Bridgeport, this one is cheap. |
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| I was in San Jose early, so after making my travel plan changes I walked down the road to Santa Clara. |
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| Beach volleyball practice. |
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| The former Buck Shaw Stadium, now
Stevens Stadium, was actually a former home of the San Jose
Earthquakes from 2008 to 2014 before they moved into their current
stadium, which we will see tomorrow. If you remember Bend It Like Beckham, Jess and Jules got soccer scholarships to Santa Clara. |
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| The Mission Santa Clara de Asis is located on the university campus. |
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| Pizza My Heart is a chain of pizza restaurants, but it is local to California so it meets my criteria of not eating at chain restaurants on vacation unless it is some place I cannot go to at home. I got a couple of slices of manresa, which was a white pizza with basil, garlic, roma tomatoes and ricotta cheese. |
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