Road Trip: San Francisco to LAX

And here we are, after three weeks on the road, we’re sitting in the departures lounge at LAX waiting on our flight to Melbourne.

We’ve had our fill of Panda Express and Panera Bread, travelled I don't know how many miles.

Since leaving San Francisco we’ve driven the entire length of the Pacific Coast Highway. There was a lovely stop-off in Santa Cruz to see Heather and Bob (my mum’s cousin and her husband). We had a great tour of their beach house and the whole of Santa Cruz – I think Bob is in training to be the official ambassador and town tour guide. He had a whole day planned out for us and I think we saw all there is to see of the beautiful little town.

Road Trip: San Francisco

San Francisco. It’s pretty darn cold. We had to pull out the jeans and jumpers for our two days. After 100+ degrees in Yosemite and Sacramento it came as quite a shock. But we sucked it up and got on with our plans: Alcatraz, cycling the Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito, China town, Pier 49, Fisherman’s Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, the cable cars. We saw most of it in the short time we had. I think one more day and we could have ticked it all off the list.



     

Road Trip: Yosemite

This was my first camping experience (admittedly it wasn't real camping because the tent was already up and there were camp beds and a power socket, but it was pretty darn close). We were so scared of being eaten by bears that we followed the rules to a T. We cleaned out the car, spent hours the night before sorting our luggage so that there was not one bar of chocolate or tube of toothpaste in any of our suitcases, bought a padlock for the bear locker and Dan even bought a knife to protect us.

Number of bears we saw: 0

We were actually quite disappointed!!!

But we did spend two wonderful days hiking, seeing the sights, star gazing, eating in the camp cafeteria, watching deer, trekking to waterfalls in the 100+ degree heat. You could totally spend a whole month there with all of the activities and hikes and classes that they have.

 

Road Trip: Gold Beach to Sacramento

Today was one of those 'big' days. You know, the ones that while you are planning you bookmark in your mind and pre-determine that it is going to be a really good day. It didn't disappoint.

Both of us had wanted to see the giant redwoods for years, and this was definitely one of the highlights of the whole road trip for us. We had loads of fun running around the different groves, climbing on the fallen trees, taking a gondola to the top of the trees, driving through a tree (although that seemed to be quite stressful for Dan!).

The forest fires are still going on and you could hear helicopters circling everywhere and see them collecting water from the river. It was quite sad to think that a few miles down the road thousands of trees were burning. We stayed in a little town called Garberville where the streets were lined with fire trucks and the hotels and restaurants were full with fire fighters.

I'm going to stop right here and say that I love Sacramento. Even with the heat I thought that it was amazing and could totally live there. I just loved everything about it - the history (it was a major player in the gold rush days), the wide streets, the shops, the beautiful State Capitol Building. I really could have stayed here longer than the one night we had.

          

Road Trip: Oregon Coast

Since leaving Portland we've spent the past couple of days travelling down the Oregon Coast. Through quaint seaside towns and past miles and miles of sand dunes. A few highlights...

Astoria with its vintage trolley ride (for $2!), house from the Goonies and Lewis & Clark history

Sandboarding in Florence and just the whole town really (including the Hawaiian food truck that we stopped at for lunch)  

      

Tillamook Cheese Factory - not because of the factory or the free cheese and fudge samples that we got. Purely because of the sheer amazement at the thousands of people that were there. Dan and I could not stop laughing about how popular it was. There were even coach trips!

After miles of driving when we spotted a little diner and ate some of the best burgers we had ever tasted. The owner was pretty cool too - he threw us some for the pinball machines and we wrote on the walls in coloured markers.