Entries about yosemite

Having a place to live in San Diego before we left for Europe was unexpected and brought about more changes. We had already planned to see Yosemite in May given that they turned the falls on this year, but that trip now needed to be part of our move to San Diego. We drove up on Tuesday, May 16, had a wonderful day of sightseeing on Wednesday, including breakfast at the Ahwahnee (don't ask me to call if the Majestic), and finished the day with dinner at the Wawona Hotel. Our room in the hotel was a visit to the past, perhaps a little too authentic as we had no bathroom. I guess the good news was that we had a short stay, waking up at 3 a.m. to begin the drive to San Diego.
Turned out that though I wanted the movers to come Friday, the best they could do was Thursday. I negotiated a starting time of noon, so we needed to get from Yosemite to San Diego before lunch. Not too many cars on the road at 3:30 a.m. but, surprisingly, we were not completely alone even while driving in the Sierras. We ended up in the LA basin just in time for rush hour and therefore turned east until we reached Ontario. From there, we took I-15 into San Diego, arriving at 11 a.m.
The movers worked hard an got all our furniture and boxes into the condo and storage area that afternoon. Debbie and I spent the next week getting most of the boxes unpacked and the furniture arranged, altogether making considerably more progress than I thought we would, especially as our contractor, Ray, needed us to make some decisions we hadn't planned on such as selecting the lighting fixtures and mirrors we wanted installed.
We got most everything done in the next week and flew to the Bay Area just long enough to pickup Chesirae and fly back to LA for Sharry's sushi party, which also provided us a chance to give Chesirae a surprise graduation party. Mom, Dan and Kim, Lysa and Todd, and Tyler all were also there, as well as Kasey and her girls.
Debbie and Chesirae returned to the Bay Area on Sunday while I took a train on Memorial Day back to San Diego. I spent the week continuing the unpacking and organizing of the condo. Dan became our first guest as he came down for an overnight visit. On Friday, I moved all the furniture into whatever spaces I could find that were out of the way, as construction starts Monday, June 5. With that, I flew back to the Bay Area, one more week before we begin our summer trip to Europe.