Yosemite National Park Days 4 – 5

Wednesday, July 26 — Eric and Keith were both pretty tired from yesterday’s hike, so we decided to rent bikes and spend the day leisurely riding around Yosemite Valley with Greg and Heath. Greg and Heath had brought their own bikes with them on this trip; they rode their bikes over to the Ahwanee hotel and we agreed to meet them there.

On the day that we’d arrived in Yosemite, we found out that bikes can only be rented for the day. The rental place opened at 0800 and the bikes must be returned within 8-hours. We walked over to Curry Village and arrived at the bike rental place 2-minutes after they opened. We were dismayed to see it was a long line.

At 0815, the first party was done with their waivers/paying. We realized that at this pace, we’d been in line for well over an hour. We gave up on bikes and caught the shuttle bus to Yosemite Village, then walked the approximately 1/2 mile to the Ahwanee Hotel. Along the way, we passed a bike rental shop in Yosemite Village with no line.

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Ensenada, Days 3 and 4 — The New Science Museum and Back to the New Malecon

Friday, March 3 was a chore day for us. Here was the sunset.

On Saturday, March 4, we went to breakfast at our second favorite restaurant, Los Veleros. It is cheerfully decorated with bright, colorful paintings of sailboats. It was also packed. One of the reasons Los Veleros was so popular for breakfast was because they dropped off a tray of pastries at the table (the pastries weren’t included in the meal price, but you only paid for them if you ate them), and a quesadilla appetizer was included with the meals. We went there specifically to get the flaming fruit desserts, but we had forgotten that they don’t offer them at breakfast time.

After eating, we walked next door to the new science museum. It was a large building, and there was scaffolding up and construction workers outside working on the building, so it clearly was not completely done yet. Admission was about $3.50 USD.

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Ensenada, Day 2 — The New Malecon

On Thursday (March 2), we went to our favorite restaurant in Ensenada, El Rey Sol, for lunch.

El Rey Sol opened in 1947 and is the oldest French restaurant in all of Mexico. “The Sun King” was a title given to French Monarch Louis XIV. The founder, Virginia Geffroy, was born in Santa Rosalia and educated in France, including cooking school. We’re guessing that she was likely the daughter of a French mining executive. After returning from Mexico, some relatives in Ensenada invited her to open a restaurant in their motel. The restaurant grew from 10-tables to being an internationally venue with seating for 240-people.

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Second Trip to Marina Costa Baja, Day 18 — Carnival

Sunrise on Thursday, February 16. The crescent moon rose not long before the sun did, and was glowing brightly as the sun rose. 

Wednesday had been a mellow day, but Thursday was the exact opposite – we went non-stop from morning until bedtime. 

After completing our morning chores, we took the 1310 shuttle to town. The other day, the Uber that took us back from the grocery store passed a chocolateria called Fan Fan. We were hoping it would be similar to See’s, where we could get a couple of pounds of high-quality chocolates in flavors of our own choosing. From the cathedral, we walked the few blocks to the chocolateria. We were disappointed to see that this was their entire stock of chocolates:

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Second Trip to Marina Costa Baja, Day 17

On Wednesday morning (February 15), Christi and Keith finished washing the boat. They also went back over the parts they’d done on Tuesday to remove the layer of residue that had already formed. 

We had a late lunch the Spanish restaurant in Costa Baja, called Taberna Espanola. Eric ordered two tapas: a mushroom stuffed with pork topped with a quail egg and beef filet with caramelized onions served on toast. 

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