We had three great days in Yosemite National Park. Arriving in the nearby town of Oakhurst at Tom's house, our couch surfing host, it quickly became apparent that he was a lovely guy, and it ended up being an absolute privilege to stay with him. We were also joined by Sonja's brother, Kevin, who we hadn't seen in over two years. Catching up with Kevin again was full of good times and it was as if those two years hadn't passed by whatsoever. It was quite intere...

Heading back into California for the home stretch of our western roadtrip took us to Redwood National Park, home to some of the tallest trees on the planet. It was a very impressive forest area that delivered on its promise. We walked along a trail to the tree known as the "Boy Scout" tree, which was an absolute giant. After catching the Redwoods it was time to move on to our host's house for the night, a guy named David who lives in the near coastal town of A...

From LA we started yet another road trip with the intention of visiting some western cities and checking out the national parks. Our first stop was Joshua Tree National Park where we spent two days attempting to hike just about the whole thing in the near 40°C blazing sun. The park actually had a surprisingly diverse range of landscapes ranging from desert expanses filled with Joshua Trees that looked like they came straight out of Dr. Suess books to huge rounde...

We arrived in Newport Beach at the end of a full day of travelling in two busses to get to LA, walking to the car hire office and then driving down the coast. When we arrived we met our new couch surfing hosts, Felix and Rey, and their two other couch surfers, in their unit a few minutes' walk from the beach. Felix and Rey are avid surfers (the kind where you actually catch waves, not couches) and health food fanatics who were great fun to hang out with. While ...