20th October - We drove south from Portland for about an hour to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville.Ralph has been looking forward to coming here since he found out that it houses the world's largest wooden aircraft with the longest wingspan ever constructed, the Howard Hughes H-4 Flying Boat (more commonly known as the Spruce Goose).Once inside the hanger the size of the thing is difficult to comprehend.It is absolutely massive and takes up the majority of the museum.The plane was actually only flown once by Howard Hughes himself in 1947 and was meant to be an aid to the war effort, but it was finished too late to be of any use in this way.Instead it was used to show that something so huge could actually get off the ground and fly without collapsing under its own weight.You can go inside the Spruce Goose, which also gives a wonderful feeling of just how big this thing is (although you have to pay extra if you want to go into the cockpit so that they can put the money towards keeping the museum open).The aircraft took 5 years to build and the government contributed $18 million dollars to the cost and Hughes himself contributed $7 million dollars of his own fortune.It was built from wood so that it did not use materials critical to the war effort, such as steel and aluminium.After a good look at the plane and others in the museum, we crossed the parking lot to the space museum, which is part of the same complex and, after not teaching Ralph anything he didn't already know, we got back in the car and headed to the state capitol of Oregon, Salem.Once we arrived and got to the State Capitol building we were just in time for a tour and so an excitable volunteer showed us around.There was a bit of British bashing going on (the tour guide did not realise we were British until the very end!) but it was another excellent tour and Oregon is clearly very proud of its history.The Capitol has been burnt to the ground twice and re-built and on 30th August 2008 another fire has damaged the Governor's offices and some other parts of the building.They believe construction workers didn't stub out their cigarettes properly and this caused the fire.We left the centre of Salem (it's a really small place for the capitol of a state!) and settled into a nearby hotel (and hot tub) for the night.

21st - A foggy day we set out for the west coast of Oregon and a place called Yachats, around two hours drive from our hotel.As soon as we hit the coast the fog lifted and the sun came out strong and hot (we are definitely going to have to get the shorts back out again) and the views over the coast were stunning.Clear blue skies and perfect blue/green sea lifted our spirits as we took a brief look at an old lighthouse.After that we had a further 5 hour drive to a place called Ashland on the Oregon border, just above California.Ashland is meant to have been modelled on Stratford upon Avon and is apparently Shakespeare obsessed.They have a Shakespeare festival every year from around March to November and put on loads of plays at three venues, one of which is open air.We had thought about going to see A Midsummer Nights Dream, which is currently on, but the tickets were ridiculously expensive and I thought we could probably see it in England for the same price.A strange thing to note about Oregon (this is also true of a couple of other states in America) is that you are not legally allowed to pump your own gas (petrol!).This means you have to pull up at the pump and wait while the attendant takes your debit card or other form of payment and fills up the tank for you, usually cleaning your windshield while they are at it.It all seems a bit strange sitting there watching them do all this, and unfortunately Ralph and I struggle not to get the giggles every time (we utterly failed this time!).The scenery here is quite like the east coast of America, with stunning coast line and beautiful trees all changing into their fall colours.

22nd - We did a really stupid thing today, we forgot to look at Ashland!We are that used to getting up and setting off on a long drive that we did exactly the same today without realising that it was dark when we arrived in Ashland last night and therefore we left taking a look around it until today!It's the first time we have ever done this and we have a whole ream of excuses if you want them, but truth is we just plain forgot.We could not stop laughing when we realised our mistake after about 100 miles worth of driving away from Ashland!So we can't really tell you much about the place, but if anyone else has been, let us know what it's like!The California border is close to Ashland and after crossing it the rest of the day was really just about driving (more than 8 hours of driving in the red hot sun, thank God the air conditioning in the car still works!).We called in at a discount mall about half way into our journey to have a look around and grab some lunch (and a chocolate malt of course) and drove close to the area where they are currently trying to get wild fires under control which have started due to the intense heat.It was a strange sight seeing beautiful clear blue skies and a searing sun but then also seeing a thick band of smoke all the way across the horizon.We arrived at the hotel in Sacramento just before dark, shattered from all the driving, but remembering to actually take a look at Sacramento before heading on again tomorrow!California is an absolutely massive state, and today's 8 hour drive south has not even got us a third of the way through it.We have decided, because of the sheer size of the state, to cut out lots of the things we were going to see, because everything is so spread out it would take us so long so see everything and we have decided that rather than be rushing around to see things before we have to come back to the UK we would like to enjoy a final bit of relaxation, so we are going to try and rent an apartment for a couple of weeks on the beach in Los Angeles.We are still going to be seeing lots of places on our way down there, we are just going to be taking a more natural route rather than zig zagging across the state.We also had to consider the fact that we are over 1,000 miles over our car mileage allowance, but we haven't told our rental company that yet!

23rd - We got up and, shorts, t-shirts and flip flops definitely the only options from now on, we drove s short distance into Sacramento to see the state capitol building.We were just in time for the tour (we are usually lucky that way) and this was definitely the busiest state capitol in terms of visitors we have seen.As well as our tour group, which was absolutely massive, there were at least two other tours going on at the same time consisting of huge groups of children from local schools (you can guess who they really wanted to see!).Our tour guide was really quiet so it was difficult to hear anything he said, especially with the group size, but California really has a beautiful capitol building and they have made part of it into a museum, showing the old governors office and other important rooms from 1905 exactly as they were, complete with old fashioned telephones and spittoon!After the usual look at the senate and assembly chambers the tour ended and we were left to queue, if we so chose, to take a look inside the current governors reception room and so of course we did - we talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger here!!It was really funny to be inside his reception room because it was full of paintings and drawings of him, a display case of his wife's published books and, best of all, a small photograph of him as the Terminator!!Hilarious!They call him "The Governator" here!We then drove a short distance to Sacramento old town which is really worth a visit.It's full of one off unique shops (no chain shops allowed) but it has been kept in the old style so all the sidewalks are raised wooden sidewalks and the hitching posts have been turned into parking meters, it's a real taste of the sanitised old west.After having lunch there and having a brief look around some of the shops (which included a guy walking past us in a complete sheriff outfit!!) we left and drove towards the famous Napa Valley wine area as Ralph wanted to pick up a couple of bottles of wine and so we thought we would go to the winery owned by the director Francis Ford Coppola called Niebaum-Coppola Winery where the Oscars awarded for his Godfather films are also on display. Unfortunately our satellite navigation system decided to take us to a shop in San Francisco that sells his wine, as opposed to his winery (honestly, that navigation system is in charge of us not the other way around!) so we ended up back in beautiful San Francisco.It was actually perfect timing as I had just broken my sunglasses that I bought last time we were here (meaning that for the last few days I have been wearing a pair of sunglasses with only one arm, to the complete embarrassment of Ralph!) so I was able to go back to the same place on the waterfront and purchase a brand new pair.We then left the city behind and, in achingly slow rush hour, drove to Oakland where we checked into our hotel and then went to the small Chinatown area for one of the best Chinese meals we have had in a long time - yum!

24th - We got up to another day of beautiful hot sunshine and drove south to Santa Cruz.The famous 1906 Boardwalk was closed (which seemed crazy when the weather was so good) but it only opens at the weekend at this time of the year.We watched some school kids playing volleyball on the beach, which was actually their formal P.E. lesson (!) and then took a walk on the beach, put our feet in the freezing cold sea and stopped off at a Mexican diner for lunch.Moving on we drove to a place called Carmel-by-the-Sea which is a really upscale seaside resort consisting of one main street which runs down towards the sea filled with upscale boutiques and unique one off high end shops, a truly beautiful (but definitely designer) place to be.Leaving there we drove along what Ralph classes as the most beautiful drive in the world, Highway 1 which takes you through the mountains whilst hugging the coast, so you can watch the waves crash against the shore as you make your way south.Finally we arrived at Point Piedras Blancas which we visited last time we were here and which is home to a massive colony of elephant seals.They were so funny playing in the sea and calling to each other on the beach.We then settled into our hotel, just a couple of miles from Hurst Castle, one of the former homes of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hurst.

25th - We woke up to a day of mist which had rolled in from the sea and wondered how this would affect our views from Hurst Castle that we were visiting today.There was a five mile bus drive through the San Simeon hills to the castle as part of the tour and within a mile we had left the mist behind. The views from the castle are really spectacular; with mountains on one side and the coast on the other, but the opulence of the buildings are the real eye openers. Outside is the vast Neptune swimming pool, surrounded by original Roman colonnades, columns and marble statues - oh and it's filled with mineral water from the mountains. The indoor pool is decorated with blue and gold mosaic tiles (genuine gold) and is, again, filled with mineral water. We saw the luxurious guest quarters where Winston Churchill, Charlie Chaplin and Hollywood's elite stayed during their visits on our way to the main house that is decorated with European tapestries, furniture and paintings. This building has a dining room based on Westminster and Canterbury cathedrals and a movie theatre. This really was a sight unlike anything else in the world. In Durham, the writer Bill Bryson told Kirsty that the one thing you have to see if you're touring the USA is the Grand Canyon because it's so unique. Having seen almost all of the USA, I disagree. Hurst Castle is the most unique and beautiful thing in America. We left the Castle and drove south to Santa Barbara, where we took a look at the stunning County Courthouse, which our guidebook correctly states is an absurdly beautiful place to be trail.It's like no other courthouse we have ever seen, full of arches, mosaics, coloured glass and wide open spaces.There is also a clock tower which gives you birds eye views of the area.We then called in at a great little Mexican cantina for tea before driving further south to tonight's hotel.

26th - We checked out of our last hotel of this trip and drove for about an hour south to our new apartment on the beach front in Venice, Los Angeles.The apartment is really stylish and we are really pleased with it and the fact that its on the beach, although we do have some issues which we are going to have to try and get in touch with the rental company about (the air conditioning leaks water on to the floor, it's quite noisy from the revellers on the beach at sunset and our "fully equipped kitchen" doesn't include an oven, just a microwave!!).We then went out to a terrible Walmart supermarket (it didn't sell fruit, vegetables or fresh meat, just tinned and processed goods) to get some food shopping, went to Ralph's supermarket to get fresh stuff (I know, coincidence or what!) and then went to the British shop in Santa Monica where we spent an absurd amount of money on things like British bacon, sausages, Ambrosia custard, chocolate digestives, gravy granules, Soreen and Heat magazine.We then spent the rest of the day cooking tea (a real treat for us, we have not had cooking facilities since the apartment in New York City) and settling in.