Hello! We hope you are all ok. We have now managed to update most photos so far. We do have a lot of the California coast which we have just finished travelling up but unfortunately the computer seems to have deleted some previous pictures off our memory card. Hopefully we will be able to recover these :-( So we will wait until we are home to update the rest from the coastal drive, Yosemite and San Francisco.

Our trip to Santa Monica, LA was very enjoyable and we were very welcomed by Selma and Steven, Joe's Nan's long lost cousin. They recommended lots to do and showed us around the area which gave us a good insight into LA. We visited two lovely museums called The Getty Centre and The Getty Villa. We also visited Hollywood and Beverly Hills, window shopping down the famous Rodeo Drive. We saw the hotel Richard Gere stays at in Pretty Woman. Joanne has pictures! We spent time relaxing at the beach and also bike riding along the boardwalk which was a lovely ride. One evening we went to the Hollywood Bowl which was a huge open air theatre that holds many concerts in the summer. It was a great evening and a Cuban band were playing. Lots of mambo dancing! We would like to thank Selma, Steven and Benny for making our time in LA very memorable and we were sad to leave! Hope to see you again in the future!

When we left LA we drove up the coastal route to our first stop, San Luis Obispo. This was a lovely town with lots going on. We only had one night here so we had a meal before going to the cinema to see Tropic Thunder. Very funny film!

Onwards and upwards, we drove up the Big Sur the next day and stopped at a very picturesque, deserted beach with a waterfall which is now a National Park. We stopped quite often on our journey as there were many scenic spots to take pictures. The journey was very up and down, one minute you would be by the beach and the next up in the mountains and clouds!

We arrived at our next stop in Monterey which had a marina and lots of noisey seals. We need to get used to this though for San Fran! This town wasn't very big, but we did manage to find an English pub called The Mucky Duck. Unfortunately we just missed a live band but we stayed and had drinks.

In the morning we made our way up the coast even further but a shorter drive this time, to Santa Cruz. We had heard that this was a student town and very lively but unfortunately we weren't very keen! It was like Margate, that's the only way of describing it! A seaside resort with many tramps and tacky amusement park! We still had our friends to keep us entertained after dinner though, the seals...

So now we have just arrived in Sonora and we are here for two nights. The Best Western is a really nice hotel and we had time beside the pool earlier. Off to Yosemite tomorrow which we are looking forward to. We will update you before we leave for San Francisco to tell you all about the famous National Park. Bye for now, Love Joe and Joanne xxxx