We were very lucky on a bad weather day today, we made it to the car hire place as the drizzle set in. It took us longer than we had hoped to sort our car with a slow check in, not us, we are always ready, Edd always has everything organised, but the Spanish group in front of us! They had no idea what they wanted, extremely frustrating. 
We finally set off in central San Fran in our little Yaris. I drove and Edd navigated, we are now pros in that combination and can cope with any stressful city, in rush hour, on the wrong side, with bad window positions (they had taken out the automatic window adjuster and it took us the morning to work out that you just push the windows to adjust them!)
The traffic was insane and it took us an hour to get out of San Fran central city. When we finally got onto the highway I was appalled at how badly they drive, it didn't help I had more of a blind spot than I would have liked but, Americans zing in and out of cars not bothering with over taking on the outside what so ever.
It's awful because slow cars therefore don't bother staying in the slow lane they sit three lanes out and speedy cars pop up all over the place. Lorries happily block your view whilst they're in the middle lane or undercutting another lorry just behind you.
Time wasting was frustrating because we don't have masses of time in Yosemite and our eta was slowly getting away from us. Having said that the rain started and got heavier and heavier so I started to think maybe we should just check in to our hotel and deal with Yosemite tomorrow.
We continued and Edd took over on the single lane wiggly roads. The driving went well and it was about 2pm when we stopped at the Rangers cabin for our national park ticket ($30 entry per car for 7 days which I think is pretty good value.)
We arrived as the rain lightened up a bit and soon found the visitors centre after a fair amount of driving around looking for parking. We got a few bits of advice from a very strong accented American who didn't really stop to breath and also found out where we could eat. 
They only have a 'general store' or a burger place, we've had too many burgers lately so supermarket it was. We had a mini picnic under cover and set off on a little walk in case it rained too much.
This place is stunning! It may have added to the effect that everything was still dripping but walking through the woods was just fantastic. The water from the water falls into the valley flow through all the beautiful dark green trees so you walk through a soggy, sparkling forest with water everywhere.
We walked up to the bottom of the waterfall and got very wet from the off spray. We didn't last long but Edd got a few pics before his camera lens fogged up.What makes the place so special is the colours. It's technically the end of the season but to be honest I don't understand why anyone would come at any other time. We were blown away with the colours driving into the valley but they were muted by the fog and drizzle. By the time we had finished our walk the sun had come out and the colours were bursting!
I really don't know how to put it in writing. Red, orange, yellow, ochor and pinks everywhere, mixed with greens, browns and golds. We ended up singing 'Joseph's technicolored dream coat' on the drive out as the best way to describe it. Everything was glowing in the late afternoon sun.
We were keen to get to 'tunnel view' before sunset as its supposed to be stunning but I kept asking Edd to pull over as there were more colours and more beautiful shots every where we drove. Eventually Edd stopped stopping and we started the windy journey out on an empty road. As he was driving I turned around to catch a glimpse of a breathtaking view.
I was in the middle of telling him that no matter what he had to find somewhere to pull over because he was 'not going to believe what was going on behind him'. Turns out it was tunnel view and I wasn't the only one who was desperate to get a better look at what I had seen. 
We turned the corner and had to double park with another car in a bus space as the car park was so full. It was definitely worth rushing to get there before sun set!
The view is looking up the entire valley with a waterfall and some stunning mountains as the back drop, the multicoloured trees at the bottom and a bit of mist to add dramatic effect in the middle. I felt like they should have filmed Jurassic park here!!
We continued on with the sun setting and the ridiculous scenery continuing at every angle. We pulled up just outside the national park in, what feels like, the middle of nowhere at a motel as the light disappeared. The room is a bit old fashioned but good enough for us. 
We then went for dinner and the menu was burger, burger or burger cooked to order by one woman. There was a 'family special, Friday night spaghetti' as a different option and I jumped at the chance to eat something different. Edd followed suit knowing that we will probably be having burger tomorrow!
We were impressed with how she coped serving 12 of us in total but the last couple to join at 7.45pm had a restricted menu, spaghetti or spaghetti! I know I have a soft spot for Spag Bol but it really was delicious! She told me later in a very strong American twang that she was livid 'I know I had enough burgers but someone's been pinching 'em'.
Anyway we're having an early night, not through choice! Edd is watching the World Series baseball, I'm not sure how much he's following though, he just commented on how tense the game was but he wasn't sure why! Early start tomorrow to make the most of the beautiful Yosemite.
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