Firstly let us say a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LEANDRA AND MY BROTHER BRIAN....!!!! LOVE TO BOTH AND HOPE YOUR BIRTHDAYS WHERE GREAT !!

San Francisco was cold. Yep even though it is Spring of course San Fran stays pretty cold although you wouldn't know it from how the locals dress. Some dressed like it was summer too. Shorts and tanktops. It was mostly sunny and that did help but the wind is always cold. Anyway, our hotel was average. Due to the high costs I had booked the four of us into a 2 room place. For the four nights we had to sleep on a pullout sofa bed and as we where on the 5th floor it was very warm in the rooms. They did have ceiling fans but they would switch off after about an hour. So we all had to keep getting up and putting them back on. After 2 nights we requested floor fans and yes they supplied. From then on more comfortable.

Onto our time there. We used the great hop on hop off buses again. These are great as you get a good overall of the city and it's history of each area. We did the whole circuit which is about 2 hours and then decided where we would get off. We did this tour for most of each day for two days. Then on the 3rd day grabbed a taxi direct to Pier 39 for a bit of shopping and some Clam Chowder for lunch. On day 1 we had lunch at Bubba Gumps. Shrimps done all sorts of way and was very tasty. We also had dinner 3 nights in a row at Lefty O'Doules in Union Square. Great every day dinners and pretty cheap too.

On day 2 we got off the bus at Golden Gate Bridge and walked it. Very cold crossing and high winds. But well worth the walk. I think it's a total of 1.7 miles one way. On the other side we get onto a smaller bus that takes us to Sausalito. A very busy seaside town. Very upmarket with charming shops. Overall we enjoyed San Fran again but it is always hard seeing so many homeless people begging for money and sleeping on cold hard streets. It was the same in Vegas and much of Mexico. We gave our change when we had some but you can't give something to all of them especially in San Fran as there are over 5000 homeless people. Sad.

Day 4 in San Fran Jess and Jason leave early by cab to Pier 33 to go on the Alcatraz tour they have booked. We finish packing up and move all the bags down to the lobby and checkout. We leave our bags locked up there and walk UP three blocks to the car rental place and grab the hire van. Then drive back to the hotel load up the bags and off to the Pier to meet J & J. They had a great time on the island and really enjoyed their self guided audio tour. And then we are off on our last road trip heading to Los Angeles via the coast for most of the way.

What an amazing drive it is. We have done most of it before but we are doing it again for J & J. Some parts of the drive a quite unnerving. Very close to the edge of rocky mountains that fall down to breaking waves and jagged rocky outcrops below. Jess is holding on like there will be no tomorrow in the back of the van. We stop a few times to take in the views and more pictures. Because we didn't leave till 1.30pm we don't get to The Big Sur until very late in the day. Here we only get time to do a short walk around and see the impossibly huge redwood trees. We continue on and finally get to stop for the night in San Simeon. Here we had a great dinner and a few beers in the local Dinner that is part of the hotel area. The next day we set the GPS to continue on direct to LA.

We get to see yet more wonderful coastline and then countryside before stopping for lunch in Fairview. Only a couple hours later we are hitting the usual LA traffic crawl on the 101 skirting LA before going onto the 405 south bound. Yep it's not even peak times and things slow down. We go all the way to Long Beach and finally find a hotel, good hotel in maybe a slightly rough area . We give our LA friends Gregg & Marcy a call and they say hey come on over for dinner !! Ahh time to relax and catch up. Been 6 years since we have seen them and have much to catch up on. Great time had by all.

Well today was a slower day and just did a bit of shopping and looking around. Tomorrow we are going to a speed shop and catch up again with our friends. tomorrow night is our last night. On Friday we are going into LA to do the sights and a Hollywood stars tour hehe. Also going to Petersons Car Museum so will be a very busy last day before heading to LAX to drop off the car and wait for our flight home.

Will probably do only a small update before we get on the plane for home. After all this blog is a really long one hey. Until then see ya from la la land xxxx