San Fran, Bishop and Death Valley

It's actually Scott's turn to write, but he's driving, so it's my chance again.

So, we pretty much had one day to do a bunch of touristy things in San Fran and I think we succeeded. To sum up our time there we: walked around Fisherman's Warlf, drove down
"Crooked-est" Road and across the Golden Gate Bridge (which we had to pay $6 to drive back across it), ate at House of Nanking Restaurant and Giaradelli's, drank coffee at Phil'z, got groceries at Trader Joes, and got educated at the Exploratorium (which the coolest thing was to bite down on a straw and hear music through vibrations through our mouths...pretty sweet). We would definitely recommend visiting San Francisco; we really enjoyed our short time there. Plus, we were spoiled sleeping in a real bed, watching t.v., getting on the internet, and showering as many times as we wanted in two days. It was glorious.

After San Fran, we headed back to Yosemite. We did a three pitch climb called Commitment. I am amazed every time that we climb these tall climbs (Scott thinks it is so much fun to place gear as he climbs the cracks). I do nervously enjoy climbing after him, but I definitely find more joy in reaching the top and even more happiness once I am back down on the ground!

We ended up staying in Yosemite just one night and then headed to Bishop, California. (We heard that bad weather was coming in and we wanted to drive through Yosemite- this was the fastest distance.) It was a good decision because Bishop was a really cool town and the road was closed the next day. This town is situated in a desert landscape of the Inyo National Forest with the snow-capped Sierra Mountains all around us.

It had three different climbing destinations: Buttermilks (bouldering- short climbing routes- on granite); Happy Boulders (bouldering on volcanic tuffs; and then rope climbing in Owen's Gorge. Scott was in paradise with all of these options all within driving distance. I am not much of a boulderer, so I did more watching than climbing when we visited the Buttermilks and the Happy Boulders. I even opted out of the bouldering for a run, but it was a great run.

Right now we're on our way to Zion National Park in southwest Utah. This is our first time in Utah and this is our forth state to drive through today. This is our longest day of driving (8.5 hours), but it has gone by fast, which included lunch at Del Taco in Las Vegas. (Too bad we didn't have time to hit up a Casino, I'm feeling lucky today.)

Oh..side note...today we did drive through Death Valley National Park. We went down to Badwater Basin, which has an elevation of -282 feet, yes that is correct- 282 feet below sea level. There were salt flats everywhere and mountains in the distant. The coolest part is the say that we've been to the lowest elevation in the United States and one of the lowest in the World (I think the lowest elevation s somewhere in China being 900-ish below sea level.

We have two weeks left to our trip before we meet our Camp Eagle friends in Colorado Springs for a conference (btw: we can't wait to see you guys). Our friends Nate and Val are meeting us a week from today with Jimi and Jen following shortly thereafter. We are excited to have a cook out for Thanksgiving dinner and to be able to share this time with some good friends (not to mention Scott is excited to climb some bigger walls with the guys). Speaking of Thanksgiving, thanks for your prayers, we really appreciate them!

Anne