San Diego - a little paradise!

A buzzing city with the most gorgeous beaches, cool trendy bars and good looking surfer dudes! We have had a fantastic week here with our niece Erin. She got us a 'deal' at a great hotel and let me tell you after nine weeks of camping we were quite thrilled with the simple things in life - like hot running water, soap at the basin, a mattress instead of an airbed!

Erin's housemates kindly lent us their bikes and I was particularly taken with the 'flairs' in the handle bars, they were also admired by a couple of cool surfer guys too!

In typical 'Hodgson' style we came across the most delicious family ran Italian that served meatballs the size of tennis balls - Keith was in his element.

An interesting thing happens there too, every Sunday afternoon down at the Seaport Village - a band plays modern kinda rock music and all the old folks (average age of 70 years) start strutting their stuff, shaking their hips, wiggling their booties, line dancing and generally "gettin' it on down". It like a scene from the film Cocoon!

Tonight is our last night here then it's VIVA LAS VEGAS!! We are meeting up with Dad Elves and brother Christopher and are sooooooo looking forward to seeing them. So for now - 'Elvis is leaving the building' and will make contact later.

Wine Tasting

Have you seen the film 'Sideways?' If you have you may recognise a few of these places - it's prime wine growing region - so, when in Rome and all of that.......

The lady above got well mugged by Keith's 'can we have a picture trick'. It goes like this - first of all you wait until the wine tasting is over - then ask - is it ok to take a picture of you pouring wine. After the lady has finished Keith announces that - he didn't quite get that - could we take another one - hey presto - two extra glasses! You have to learn the tricks of the trade when you're travelling for a year!!

The place is very odd - settled by the Danish and that's just the way they want to keep it - hence the flags and windmills etc.

Next stop - Meeting Erin at San Diego

The Big Sur

Over the past few weeks we have just had the greatest of times driving through the spectacular scenery of America. You just have to remember to not look too much at the scenery while your driving because you don't want to become a part of it! The dramatic landscapes and open roads have made driving an absolute pleasure and The Big Sur has been a greaat finale to our American tour.

We have driven US Highway 1 down the country's entire west coast from Oregon to California. The Big Sur follows US highway 1 along the rugged Pacific coastline from Carmel-by-the-Sea to San Simeon, 90 miles of breathtaking coastline.

To complete the ultimate driving experience we bought a gadget that plugs into the radio and the MP3 player so we've had our favourite sounds blasting through the speakers on volume number 11. The only down side to this of course is that I have also had the sweet tones of Darcy blasting in my ears, and those that know her know this is not always pleasant, as her Grandad once said, "Girl, you sing like a nightingpig"! Well there's always a price to pay....

The first photo is a classic Big Sur shot showing the famous Bixby Bridge which spans high above a plunging canyon, backdropped by the Santa Lucia Mountains. There's often an early morning sea fog hanging around the cliffs, we were lucky and clear blue skies shone through!

We decided to take a couple of days over the trip and took photos the whole way along. We stayed at a couple of great campsites just about on the beachfront although they were quite windy and any sunbathing was accompanied by a 'body sand blast'!

The second and third photos are taken in Monterey where there's a really nice sandy beach and harbour, (there's also a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory - which took a right plundering - they make the best Chocolate brownie's ever!) from there the highway goes straight to Carmel.
A mans work is never done (photo 8) and as usual each evening I am expected to knock up gourmet delights with a very make shift kitchen, that particular delight was ya meatballs in tomato sauce!

Photo 11 was taken at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. The picture perfect cove is graced by the McWay waterfall although this all has to be admired from afar as there is no beach access!

The final stretch of the journey is home to California's largest elephant seal colony. Big buggers just lying around doing nowt (bit like work really), making noises like whoopee cushions!

Click on this picture and check out the waterfall - it's a beautiful spot.

Our Anniversary

This is us on the morning of our 5th wedding anniversary! We did have a card to open (beautiful job Auntie Sheila) from me Mam - and there was a piece of 'confetti' inside - thanks very much - we're saving it until we meet Rare and we can all go out for a meal.



It was a great day - we were in Yosemite NP, the picture was taken at our campsite, which is probably the best one we've had yet - totally private and surrounded by beautiful scenery. Thanks for the anniversary wishes from everyone - those who forgot are already in the little black book!



We're just South of the Big Sur now, still hugging the beautiful coast - we'll be in San Diego on Wednesday and meeting up with our niece, Erin (AKA The Rare).

Yosemite National Park

Well what can we say, I think the pictures speak for themselves! Yosemite is called the 'crown jewel' of USA's National Parks and it certainly is magnificent.

Photo 2 is Half Dome (8842ft), Yosemite's most distinctive monument and it dominates most of the Valley views. Can you believe that the granite of Half Dome is 87 million years old!

The other photos are shots from around the park, quite beautiful eh!

Photo 8 is a classic view of Yosemite Valley with El Capitan to the right, (a massive, granite monolith that stands 3593ft from base to summit, it's very impressive) Half Dome, Sentinel Rock, Cathedral Rocks and Bridalveil Fall (unfortunately dried up at this time of year).

The final 4 photos are at sunset. We climbed to the top of Sentinel Rock and from there we had the most marvellous 360 degree view of the park.

More San Fran Pics

Had to split the blog with all the pictures - so here are some more - see the next blog for the blurb!!

How would you like to have to park like this outside your house?

Sam-Planks-Disco

Well it was quite an entrance coming into San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge, one of those famous sights you've seen so many times on the television and then... well.. you're on it and in it!

We enjoyed a hectic couple of days seeing all the sights like Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf, Washington Square, Coit Tower, Golden Gate Park... we didn't get to visit Alcatraz (fully booked up for over a week) or to ride the cable car (broken down, yes honest)!

We spent most of out first day following a walking tour in the guide book - highly recommended! As well as taking in the sights it refers you to lots of little stopoffs including yummy delis, micobreweries, eccentric old bars and a task we manged to complete, to track down the 'perfect burrito'! Supposedly a matter of urgency if you're hoping to gain some cred in San Fran! Anyway most delicious, not too interested in the street cred!