Got to the Hearst Castle Visitors Centre this morning bright and early ready for our tour, but first we saw a 40 minute video on how the place came about, which confirmed to me that Mr Hearst had way too much money and was very keen to make a name for himself in the social circles of American Society! I won't delve into the history of the place here (would be totally boring - you can Google him if you wish to find out more) but basically as a young boy W R He...

We landed in LA just after midday (still Saturday) and were quite quickly through Customs etc., and then thankfully our cases popped out onto the conveyor - quite a worry when you check the bags in at Perth and then don't see them for 35 hours! We caught a shuttle bus over to the Dollar Car Rental depot and were shocked to see 40+ people waiting to rent vehicles! But that was the easy part because after waiting 45 minutes to sign the papers we were told to he...

It was about 7.30am before I struggled out of bed this morning, feeling refreshed after a 12 hour sleep! Had a bit of a struggle to make a cup of tea, using the standard coffee machine to heat up some water and then resorting to bunging it into the microwave to make it hot enough to enjoy. After getting organised Jase and I walked about half a kilometre up to Sepulveda Boulevarde and found a Starbucks for a coffee and a muffin and then came back and got the car a...

SUNDAYHad to be waiting outside the hotel at 6.45am for our trip to Yosemite National Park and we were duly picked up by a small van which we thought would be a shuttle to a coach. Oh Oh!! Wrong! This was our transport!! The tour information said small groups but we thought it might at least have been a bit more luxurious. We 13 of us were squashed into it and the 4 of us were jammed into the back row. The steam was coming out of my ears by the time we had gone 5...

FRIDAYOur early flight to San Francisco was pretty uneventful lasting nearly six hours - no meals or anything on American Airlines - all the airlines are cutting back because of the fuel costs. Big penalties on extra luggage as well. We had arrived at the airport in what we thought was plenty of time (and hour before departure), but all the security etc meant we only just had time to grab a drink and a snack to take with us before we boarded.There was a marked di...