The cruise ship docked in San Francisco, and we were able to collect our baggage and get back to the car by 10:30. I was so happy to be home in California! I was also happy to be home early, because Seanie and I were driving to Yosemite and the sooner I was home, the sooner we could leave on that adventure. But Mom, figuring that we had saved an hour because she had thought we wouldn’t be off the boat and back on land until 11:30 or 12:00, decided that rather than heading straight to San Jose we could go shopping in San Francisco for a while. Never mind that it’s our one year wedding anniversary and we might want to spend as much time together as possible; shopping comes first. Le sigh. That was frustrating, because I had already told Sean we were on our way home, but she could not be dissuaded, so I had to keep telling Seanie that we would, in fact, arrive rather late.
When we finally got back to San Jose around 12:30, Sean and I raced about the house getting everything together, and we were soon on the road. We made decent time, and arrived in Yosemite in late afternoon. We spent about half an hour walking around the Mariposa Grove, admiring the towering sequoias. By 5:00pm, we had made it to the Wawona Hotel, and were getting settled in our room.
That was when we realized that Seanie had forgotten his dress shirt and tie.
“What does that matter?” you might be thinking, “You’re in Yosemite!” Well, yes. But we had dinner reservations at the Ahwahnee Hotel for our one year anniversary, and their dining room does have a dress code. Men must have a proper collared shirt. We went to the front desk at the Wowona, and asked them if they had any ideas about where we could buy a collared shirt. The front desk manager called the Ahwahnee and told us that they had collared shirts available in their gift shop – and, thankfully, loaner shirts that diners could borrow. I quickly slipped into my dress, grabbed my heels and we rushed to the car so that Seanie could get a shirt.
The loaner shirts were dreadful. There were two choices: a tiny white shirt that must have been made by a Japanese company because it was so tiny and a huge blue shirt that was so long it nearly went to Seanie’s knees! We went with the blue shirt, rolled up the sleeves, and went in to dinner.
The food was amazing. For an appetizer, they had given us paprika-sprinkled roasted almonds, and Seanie had a bowl of pea soup. I had baby lamp chops with pomegranate sauce, served with spinach flavored with lavender and sea salt. I’ve never tasted anything so delicious in my life! Seanie had a perfectly grilled steak. We were tempted to order as much food as possible, since the entire tab was on the Ahwahnee – a free dinner for two being the thank you for having our wedding reception there the year before – but just this was more than we could finish!
But of course, we had to get dessert. After looking at the menu for a while, we settled on an ice cream sampler: passionfruit sorbet and boysenberry gelato. The passionfruit was unbelievable – Seanie tried to describe it as “a thousand knives stabbing at my mouth”, but in a good way. There was just so much tartness and flavor in every bite. By comparison, the gelato, which was very good, felt too heavy with cream and fat. It would have been amazing were it not being compared to the sorbet.
So, happy anniversary to us!
Seanie and I at the Ahwahnee Dining Room.
He’s already changed out of his loaner shirt, but trust me, it was terrible.
When we finally got back to San Jose around 12:30, Sean and I raced about the house getting everything together, and we were soon on the road. We made decent time, and arrived in Yosemite in late afternoon. We spent about half an hour walking around the Mariposa Grove, admiring the towering sequoias. By 5:00pm, we had made it to the Wawona Hotel, and were getting settled in our room.
That was when we realized that Seanie had forgotten his dress shirt and tie.
“What does that matter?” you might be thinking, “You’re in Yosemite!” Well, yes. But we had dinner reservations at the Ahwahnee Hotel for our one year anniversary, and their dining room does have a dress code. Men must have a proper collared shirt. We went to the front desk at the Wowona, and asked them if they had any ideas about where we could buy a collared shirt. The front desk manager called the Ahwahnee and told us that they had collared shirts available in their gift shop – and, thankfully, loaner shirts that diners could borrow. I quickly slipped into my dress, grabbed my heels and we rushed to the car so that Seanie could get a shirt.
The loaner shirts were dreadful. There were two choices: a tiny white shirt that must have been made by a Japanese company because it was so tiny and a huge blue shirt that was so long it nearly went to Seanie’s knees! We went with the blue shirt, rolled up the sleeves, and went in to dinner.
The food was amazing. For an appetizer, they had given us paprika-sprinkled roasted almonds, and Seanie had a bowl of pea soup. I had baby lamp chops with pomegranate sauce, served with spinach flavored with lavender and sea salt. I’ve never tasted anything so delicious in my life! Seanie had a perfectly grilled steak. We were tempted to order as much food as possible, since the entire tab was on the Ahwahnee – a free dinner for two being the thank you for having our wedding reception there the year before – but just this was more than we could finish!
But of course, we had to get dessert. After looking at the menu for a while, we settled on an ice cream sampler: passionfruit sorbet and boysenberry gelato. The passionfruit was unbelievable – Seanie tried to describe it as “a thousand knives stabbing at my mouth”, but in a good way. There was just so much tartness and flavor in every bite. By comparison, the gelato, which was very good, felt too heavy with cream and fat. It would have been amazing were it not being compared to the sorbet.
So, happy anniversary to us!
Seanie and I at the Ahwahnee Dining Room.
He’s already changed out of his loaner shirt, but trust me, it was terrible.
be a laughing jackass!
