We traveled LA to SF by car, and left really REALLY early in the morning. By around nine am, we were driving past Central California. We could tell since the freeway had a ton of trucks carrying vegetable cargo. The most notable truck we met was the onion truck. It smelled like In-n-Out.
The smell of In-n-Out made us hungry. We must past this truck or we would be very miserable on the freeway.
On the drive to San Francisco, we passed by a windmill farm.
The windmills stretched for miles. My friend mentioned that the scene would be especially beautiful if the grass was the color of regular grass. I wholeheartedly agree. The scenery would be much more picturesque if the windmills were mounted on a beautiful verdant green field. Instead we are stuck with this nasty vomit yellow photo for a memory.
Now the road trip up to San Francisco is coming close to an end. Soon it will be time to visit the city. The bridge tolls give the first clue that the city will be no fun. The gray weather is the second. And the traffic is the third.
It took us one hour to drive twenty miles on the highway.
No I am not slanted. San Francisco is slanted.

And yes, I have proof: please see the below photos.
We drove across the Bay Bridge to get to the city. It is hard to believe that this is California in the summer.
Concrete bunghole where dreams are made up. There's nothing you can do.
I don't know what happened. The photo got all super contrast-y and dark superhero movie like. It must be from the power of that Nissan Altima. #nofilter
Now it is finally time to enter the city. Hello, San Francisco. I guess you hate me today.
Our first stop in SF is this Hawaiian brunch place. It is super popular. We made reservations prior to coming to the city so we didn't have to wait much.
These are a few of the items we ordered. The doughnuts were dusted with coconut sugar and filled with guava custard. The guava custard is really amazing. The rest of the doughnut is no good.
The streets of SF are so busy. There are also so many pedestrians. Good luck making right turns. 
The part of the street painted red is reserved for buses and taxis.
The cables are for the cable cars.
Our next stop in San Francisco is the Golden Gate Bridge. You can see the bay peeking out from behind the trees.
Located nearby the Golden Gate Bridge is the Korean War Memorial. The Korean War took place after WW2 and was a product of the Cold War due to some very intense global tensions.
It is always important to remember and honor those who served.
After visiting the Korean War Memorial, we headed up to the Golden Gate Bridge Welcome Center. 
A Chinese tour guide and his tour group was checking out the cross section of a bridge cable.
This is the view of the Golden Gate Bridge from one of the viewing decks.
There were a couple of pathways leading up to the Golden Gate Bridge. This path is hands down the prettiest.
I snapped a few photos of our trek leading up to and of the Golden Gate Bridge.


The weather there was so chilly and wet. 
This is a photo of the view of the bridge while on the bridge.


This is another photo of the view of the bridge while on the bridge. 


After walking the Golden Gate Bridge, we got back in the car and drove to a little cheesecake place down Ocean Ave. The store smelled so sweet. If you are a mouth breather then you could absolutely taste the sugar in the air.


We ordered a regular small cheesecake. The cheesecakes are sold out everyday so it is smart to pre-order them.
After our cheesecake stop, we headed towards the Civic Center/UN Plaza to pick up a friend.
The area is gorgeous, but I would not want to stay here. The plaza had a lot of shady characters.
I have a thing for big city libraries. This is San Francisco's. It is absolutely wonderful in there- a department store of free to rent books.
The library really did feel like the mall.
Once we picked up our friend, we headed to the Golden Gate Park. The California Academy of Sciences has a NightLife event on Thursdays so that is where we are headed.
But before we visit the California Academy of Sciences, we ate cheesecake in the parking lot. The cheesecake is so fluffy! It was superb and the texture was amazing. The cake is made of sweet cheese clouds.  
Inside the science center, we went inside the Osher Rain Forest dome. It is grossly humid in there. 


The dome is designed to mimic the tropical rain forest layers to include the forest floor, understory layer, and canopy layer.
There are a lot of butterflies inside the rain forest dome.
Looking down from the canopy layer gives you a good view to see fish.
But looking up from underneath the rain forest habitat gives you a better view of the fish.
There is also an aquarium in the California Science Center 
This fish was giving me the stink eye the entire time.
This eel is over it.

Huh? Over what?

It. The eel is over it.
We also watched a planetarium show inside the science center. The experience was really cool, even though I ended up falling asleep for a bit (I was exhausted by then).
My body was begging for sleep and it was only nine thirty. So once we were done with the NightLife event, we ate a quick dinner and headed to the hotel. We stayed at the Courtyard Mariott in Pleasant Hill. The beds were so comfy and I slept like the dead.

The next day we headed to Three Rivers. Three Rivers is right next to Sequoia National Forest. 

We didn't do much on our second day. It was a little too late to check out the national park (also it wasn't the weekend yet .:. it wasn't free yet) so we took it easy. For the rest of our stay, we booked a place at an airbnb. Mike was our host and he is super cool.

On our second day, we did make a stop in Fresno for lunch. We also bought groceries at Trader Joe's there. Trader Joe's in Fresno is the closest Trader Joe's to Three Rivers. I feel so bad for the people of Three Rivers.


On Day 3 of our vacation, we drove up to Sequoia National Park. On the way there, we saw a few of the notable landmarks. This is the Tunnel Rock.


This right there is Moro Rock. We climbed that. I want to seem impressive but the internet puts honesty over everything else so I will tell you the truth. The hike up the rock is super easy and takes only about fifteen minutes to get up there. Moro Rock is the low hanging fruit of hiking destinations- so little effort for very amazing views.


Don't hike the Moro Rock Trail if there are signs of lightning. That is pretty much the takeaway from the sign.


This is nature's Stairmaster. Or is it? The stairs were man made. 


The following pictures are some of the views we saw while climbing up Moro Rock.
The  view!
The landscape!
What mountain!


This is the last bit of stair climbing before getting to the top.
A close up of Moro Rock to show that yes it is indeed a giant rock.





A picture of some world class trees as we make our way through the park.


This is the Tunnel Log. Our car drove through this.

On the last day of our vacation, we visited Crystal Cave. You must buy tour tickets to visit the cave. We bought tickets for the Early Bird cave tour. This was the highlight of our trip. 

To get to the entrance of the cave, you drive on a completely different road from the rest of the national park.
The parking lot for Crystal Cave is equipped with a lot of bear boxes. You must put all food and scented items in these boxes. Otherwise the bears will smell the food in your car and break in. That is bad for your car and also bad for the bear. Once the bears identify the inside of cars as a food source, they will get pretty aggressive about getting into them. The park rangers will unfortunately have to put them down.


There is a short half mile hike to get to the cave from the parking lot. There aren't any sequoia trees here, but it is still very beautiful and very woodsy.
The walk down wasn't tough and we were also rewarded with a waterfall. ^_^


The entrance to the cave is just up this little path. A whole new world awaits. 
This is Gordo, (I think his name was Gordo. That isn't a very flattering name. You name fat cats Gordo) our very awesome tour guide.


The spiderweb gate is pretty cool. Behind the webbed iron fixture is a living cave. It is nice and chilly inside. I want to go to there.


The cave tour lasted for about an hour or so. Inside, we were taken to a few "rooms". The experience was amazing. Walking through the cave felt so surreal.
Water is responsible for all the cave formations. Close your eyes and you can hear the trickle of water droplets and the running streams of rushing water. 
These are stalactites. These form through precipitation of tiny minerals from the water dripping off of the ceiling. The big rock icicles are thousands of years old. The smaller ones are maybe a few hundred years old.
Jabba the Hutt is a stalagmite made from calcium deposits. 


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