California Trip- mistakes & Day 1

Because John is starting Med school in the fall, we wanted to take advantage of our last opportunity for awhile to take a summer trip together. We went to California... everywhere in California. Overall, we had a blast.

But first of all, let me just tell you all the things that went wrong with this trip. :) Then, with all of my complaining out of the way, I can tell you how much fun we had. :) Maybe you can avoid some of the mistakes we made.

1. There's the well-known overpricement (is that a word?) of everything in California, and on Amtrak.
2. Our train was 5 hours late into LA, so the Budget rent-a-car place was closed when we got there, so we had to pay for a ride to the airport to get a car and paid $50 more than our car was supposed to cost. (Amtrak's policy doesn't compensate people for any of this.)
3. Most of the people who work for Amtrak must hate their jobs, because they are really rude.
4. Some people who ride trains do not realize, I think, that there are actually other people on the train, or that those people might not be interested in hearing everything they (or their children) have to say, from the other end of the train! This was quite annoying. One family played South Park on their DVD player really loud. I'm sorry, do you really think everyone needs to be exposed to such a vile show, even though you let you 8-yr-old son watch it?!
5. Some of the LA drivers are horrible. Not horrible as in unskilled like here, but horrible as in they possess no regard for human life, theirs or others'. People who drive 85+, weaving in and out of traffic, ought to be locked up for a very long time. That is lethal. This makes me furious.
6. Not all trails in Yosemite are marked. Keep this in mind if you don't want to go 3 miles out of the way into "Mountain Lion Territory" (that sign we saw) on an empty stomach like we did- quite an adventure. :) Also, don't do the Mirror Lake trail in the summer, bc the lake doesn't exist in the summer. :) haha
7. Driving in Yosemite is quite precarious, as there are no guardrails anywhere! The roads climb and weave steeply out over cliffs. If you take your eyes off the road for 2 seconds, or if someone bumps into you, you will go careening over the side of a cliff! :) Not extremely pleasant. I don't see how people drive there in the winter.
8. We stumbled upon a nude beach by accident. haha; at least it was between 2 huge rocks, but they don't label those things very well. :
   
9. Lastly, I was sick with a cold for the first 3 days. :( Here's a tip, one tablet of Airborne, one packet of emergen-C, 16 oz. of water, chug it down!

on the train... & Windmills in TX...

Day One:
See complaint #2 for most of the day. It felt so good to get into that rent car and be on our own finally. We drove straight to our campground. Then, we drove down to the beach just before sunset. It was gorgeous. I had never seen the Pacific before. Here are the pics: