Our family of 8 (minus one family member who couldn’t come) recently returned from a trip to California. We met up with my sister and her family as well as my dad and stepmom for a few days in Yosemite National Park. After spending a few days at the park (where everyone kept calling it Yellowstone 😀 ), we also spent a few days in Sacramento, where my sister lives. Of course, on the way, I managed to detour and visit the last 3 counties in California that I hadn’t previously visited, meaning that I have now visited all 58 counties in California.

So before I turn the corner on this trip and move to the next one, I wanted to give one last recap post that talks about the trip as a whole. I’ve already written a few articles about the trip (which seems like an insane number), and this article will walk through the trip with links out to each article.

Trip Planning – How We Booked It

I looked at a couple of different airlines to book our flights from Cincinnati to California. Fresno / Yosemite airport is the closest airport to Yosemite, but I also considered the 3 Bay Area airports (San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose) as well as Sacramento, trying to find the best deals. In the end, I booked us:

• Cincinnati to Oakland for 14,000 Delta Sky Miles per person (84K total). I ended up booking this on 2 separate reservations, to take advantage of some orphaned Sky Miles in my son’s account from when Delta gave us 20,000 Sky Miles each during our Europe trip
• Oakland to Cincinnati for 15,000 Delta Sky Miles per person (90K total). Again, I split this up into 2 different reservations.

We only needed to book 6 tickets as one of my sons was already in California so we just picked him up on the way.

For lodging, My dad and stepmom paid for our Airbnb, which was a great place to hang out with everyone. We stayed 3 nights in the Airbnb. We then booked

• Our flight was scheduled to get in at around 9:30p.m. (though we ended up getting in way later – see below). So we booked one night at the Holiday Inn Express and Suites – Oakland Airport for 24,000 IHG points.
• We spent 2 nights at the Hyatt House Sacramento Airport / Natomas for 9,000 Hyatt points per night, or 18K total.
• One night at the Holiday Inn and Suites – Oakland Airport on our way back to the airport as we had a 6 a.m. flight back to Cincinnati (it was either that or a redeye). We booked this for 28,000 IHG points.

Drama With Our Flights To California

We were scheduled to fly out to California at the end of July 2024, and unfortunately this was right in the middle of Delta’s operational meltdown caused by the Crowdstrike glitch. The original delays started on Friday, whereas we were not scheduled to fly out until Monday morning, so I was hopeful that things would be okay for us.

Tragically, they were not.

The flight from Cincinnati to Atlanta went off without a hitch, and the plane was even the SAME one that was scheduled to fly the leg from Atlanta to Oakland. But even though the plane, and the pilot and the flight attendants were all there, the COPILOT was not, and he ended up being delayed so much that they cancelled our flight. We managed through sheer luck to get on a flight to San Jose (SJC) a few hours later, and had to take an Uber from San Jose to Oakland, not getting to the Holiday Inn Express and Suites – Oakland Airport (read our full review here)

You’ll have to read the full story to see the madness of what happened – I think this was truly a miracle that we managed to make it on this flight considering the hundreds if not thousands of people that were stuck and sleeping in the Atlanta airport.

(SEE ALSO: Delays, Cancellations And Sleeping At The Airport – My Delta Crowdstrike Pain)

Delta covered our $80 Uber as well as an additional hotel room that we booked, but even if they hadn’t, I think we’d have been covered by our Venture X trip delay insurance.

3 Days in Yosemite

We had a great time in Yosemite National park, even though we were only there a few days. Of course with such a short time, we didn’t manage to do EVERYTHING there is to do in Yosemite, but we did manage to compile a list of 11 Things To Do in Yosemite For Families. Our Airbnb was in Mariposa, which is the last tiny town before you get into the western entrance of Yosemite, so it was about an hour each way to get into the park from our Airbnb. We focused mostly on the Yosemite Village area of the park.

Staying in Sacramento

After saying goodbye to my dad and stepmom (they were off to Hawaii), we drove up to Sacramento, where we stayed at the Hyatt House Sacramento Airport / Natomas. A couple of the kids stayed with their cousins, while 5 of us stayed at the hotel. The hotel was overall pretty good (and a good value), even if they did serve a limited “Hyatt high velocity breakfast” and if the sofa bed was set up in such a way that it was impossible to open.

After a few days with my sister and her family, we drove our rental car back to Oakland and stayed one night in the Holiday Inn and Suites – Oakland Airport (read our full review here). We had a 6 a.m. flight but managed to get in a little bit of time at the Oakland Airport Priority Pass lounge – the Escape Lounge OAK. If you’re looking for a more in-depth review, Ian also reviewed the Escape Lounge OAK a few years ago.

The Bottom Line – Family Trip Report To Yosemite and Sacramento California

Our family recently returned from a cross country trip to Yosemite National Park and Sacramento in California. It was a great trip, and one that was made much more doable (and affordable!) thanks to miles and points.

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