Blogs from California, United States, North America - page 1125

We'd had enough of National Parks by now so we decided to head for the coast at Monterey a few hours drive south of San Francisco. This was probably the nicest town/city we visited in the US. We camped for three nights at the town's campsite up the hill 45 mins walk from the Marina. Sara- We explored the small seaside resort and the highlight was the Monterey Aquarium. All the critters were mainly local and they had a thing for jelly fish (although we're not entirely sure that most of the 'tanks' weren't just monitors with groovy screensavers). We got down with the kids and watched feeding time at penguin central and otter island. However our favourite interactive activity was stroking the Bat Rays who seemed to like it. (Although later in the cafe my ... read more

We spent the night in Fresno in a very dingy university motel. The room (supposedly) a non smoking room reeked of cigarette smoke. Luckily we spent as little time there as possible, arriving quite late and leaving very early. The 5th of October was our last day, and most hectic. We had to drive about 260 miles, check in take the car back, go to the post office, etc etc. There was the leaving expensive equipment in the hire car incident! I think Mick ran a half marathon that day in jeans. Boy he was stinky!! We eventually got on the plane, and of course I slept like a log again (HA HA, Mick hates that)! The Lufthansa plane was much more modern than the creaky old United plane we had to the USA. The German ... read more

The next day we headed inland for Yosemite National Park. Of course even after going to bed relatively early we still didn't leave early enough. We had a huge lunch along the way Ribs and Catfish! Once again the lack of road signs caused us trouble! We arrived at Yosemite in the mid afternoon and it was absolutely spectacular! We could hardly drag ourselves away, and once again vowed to come back for at least a week! Every corner it seemed we had to stop and take more photos! When it became dark we had no choice but to leave, so we headed for Fresno (yay)!... read more

Up as early as we could manage (~6.00 am) and hit the road (~8.00 am) to head north over Golden Gate Bridge to Muir Woods the first stop of the day. We took the wrong exit (again) and got off early (will get the hang of the system eventually). Once off the highway the drive to Muir Woods was VERY nice! (with the top down of course) and the trees were SPECTACULAR! A coffee and a (very) salty pretzel and back on the road . . . So what do you have for lunch when time is short and you're racing the sun to Yosemite National Park? All you can eat ribs of course! I only managed four ribs as I was trying not to be a glutten, besides I had a long drive still ahead. ... read more

Today we had a few things to do, we went to Haight Ashbury for breakfast, then went to the park near the Golden Gate bridge, then we went on a tour of Alcatraz, phew. Alcatraz was a little creepy, and was absolutly packed with tourists. After that we just walked up and down the main tourist strip looking for souveneres and the like - beer for Mick!! We actually had an early night for a change. ... read more