This morning we caught the local trolley bus into San Diego - we are staying at Chula Vista which is about 10 miles south of the city. Once we got there we took a short walk to the harbourside and boarded the Old Town trolley - a hop on and off bus tour of the city. We drove past Seaport Village, the Marina area, Horton Plaza, through the Gaslamp Quarter and along the beachfront. From there we headed over the bridge to Coronado which is largely a Marine Base but ...

We arrived in Palm Springs on the 9th and felt the same heat with more humidity. Palm Springs sits in a valley and must be a good wind tunnel judging by the thousands of turbines that we drove through. Our hotel had a lovely pool so we spent the rest of the afternoon there. We met a lovely couple on holiday from LA and got a recommendation to a great Mexican restaurant for dinner - Las Casuelas! The food was fabulous and the Margaritas had a punch! We all stagger...

Today we headed out early for Yosemite National Park, reaching the eastern entrance by about 8am. It was a cold but sunny morning - lucky for us the day was going to be hot as I have turned the car into mobile clothes line after doing some washing at a local laundromat last night. (Peter was horrified at some of the clothing I had drying on the back seat!) We were stunned at the beautiful scenery as we crossed Tioga Pass into Yosemite and the drove over Tuolumne...

Saturday morning saw us pick up our car and head out of San Francisco across the Bay Bridge amongst all the traffic. It was very busy and took some concentration to stay in our lane but things got easier as we went along - luckily I had downloaded good instructions to get us heading along the motorway to Reno. We went through the Napa Valley then started climbing the hills around Lake Tahoe. After 3 or 4 hours of driving we ended up in Reno - our first crossing o...

Today we took a morning trip over to Alcatraz on the ferry. The day started out foggy and was quite cold. The tour of Alcatraz and the visit to "The Rock" was excellent and certainly well worth the visit and the hill climb! This afternoon we took a cruise sound the Harbour, under Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz. The bridge has been covered in fog for most of the day so our photos aren't great. As we cruised under the bridge we had porpoises swimming near t...