Day 4 San Francisco to Monterey Checked out of the Andrews hotel after a good stay - better than expected. Sorry Helen, free drinks for residents only. For anybody else they haven't had that spirit here since 1969. Overall opinion of SF is excellent. Surprised by the number of homeless. After a one and a half hour wait to pick up the car we set off down the coast. San Francisco Ocean Beach is brilliant. We found a great place to escape to in Half Moon Bay. ...

Friday was our first full day here and we packed lots in. We bought 48 hour tickets for the open top tour bus and set off. I'm not going to bore you with too much info (I know, that'll make a change) but the highlights were. Finding out a lot of info about SF Seals at Fisherman's Wharf Views Walking the Golden Gate Bridge Sausalito, which is a small town just over the bridge. Free drink at the hotel bar each evening. The weather is perfect and San Francis...

Okay folks, this is the first of our blogs about our road trip to the home of the brave and the land of the free (bet that doesn't apply to the wine). We are all really looking forward to the big adventure in California. Yosemite should be fine by the time we arrive about 11th September but we will keep our eyes on it and we have a back up plan in place. Off to Rose and Vin's tomorrow then Heathrow Thursday morning so we should be airborne in about 48 hours. Wi...