Into year 3 the adventure continues..

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Having spent 7 weeks back in Australia to visit family, friends, sort out a few things and house sit for a couple of friends on the Sunshine Coast for 2 weeks we were ready to embark on our last year of a very long adventure. We had been travelling now for 2 years and ironically the day we were flying to San Francisco was also the same day we flew to Buenos Aires exactly two years before! Except this time when we got to Auckland we would be heading north instead of east.

We were stopping off in San Francisco to spend 5 days with our friend Myshel before heading to Mexico City on the 3rd February. It was winter in California, the temperatures were the same as a Melbourne winter but after a few weeks of hot weather in both Indonesia and Australia it was nice to have a change. Myshel lived about 30 kilometers south of San Francisco in the lovely forested, hilly suburb of Woodside. She asked us to meet her at Bucks Restaurant where she used to work full time but now only part time since starting her pool cleaning business. Bucks is one of the best American diners we have been and its not the first time we have been there, in fact its a popular place with many stars as many live in the area.

After picking up our car from the airport we drove to Bucks to meet up with Myshel and her daughter Sarah, it was a delight to see them again. After a nice lunch we followed her to her new abode which was half an hour way up in the mountains. Everytime we see Myshel she is in a different house, this time she is sharing with her friend James a place that is very rural with views over Silicon Valley. Over the next few days we visit some of the attractions we hadn't seen before like Big Basin Redwoods State Park which was very nice and an easy drive from Myshel's place. A walking trail took you to some of the larger redwood trees in the park, this time of year there wasn't many people either. The drive there was just as lovely as the park itself.

On the Thursday Myshel had booked all three of us into a hotel right on the waterfront in Santa Cruz. It was her friends 50th birthday party and we had been invited. We left in the afternoon and as per James suggestion we took the coast road to Santa Cruz and it was lovely. We stopped at one of the beaches and also the lighthouse. We hadn't been to Santa Cruz before so it was nice to spend some time there. The hotel Myshel had booked us into was lovely, pure luxury to our usual accommodation, it had views over the water and also had a pool and spa which we didn't really have time to enjoy. After checking into the hotel we walked down the long pier which had nice shops and restaurants. Right down at the end were some sea lions lounging around in the sea and also under the jetty. We wondered back to the hotel and enjoyed the free afternoon cheese and wine and met up with Myshel's friends. One of girls offered to drive the 4 of us into the town centre to the restaurant where we met up with other friends, Myshel and her boyfriend Jo. It was a great night of food, drinks and laughs, after dinner we all ended up at a bar just around the corner where we played pool, watched local comedians and drank beer! Myshel's friends welcomed us into their group and made sure we had a good time.

Myshel had to leave early for work the next day so after checking out we found a nice cafe for breakfast then made our way to Monterey Aquarium. Myshel had given us a couple of free tickets she had as part of a family pass, it was kind of her and also a relief as the entrance fee was a whopping US$50. The aquarium was pretty amazing, most of the sea creatures on display were from local waters rather than elsewhere in the world. We spent a good two hours or more viewing the various tanks from the Pacific Kelp beds to, sharks and jelly fish. They even had a few penguins and small area on reefs. It was very informative as well as being interactive with having touch pools.

Saturday we planned to go into the city with Myshel and Sara but the weather turned sour, cold and wet so we opted for the cinema instead and nice Chinese meal.

We had a lovely relaxing few days with our friends but now it was time to say goodbye to the cold weather and head south to Mexico.

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