Hi everyone, We hired a car from San Francisco and headed up the coast on highway 1. The coastal route is so beautiful and rugged. The sea is really powerful out there. From there we visited picteresque Lake Tahoe (although the town was hideously touristy, full of casinos etc ). We then went across to Gold Country. We spent a night in a living museum, set in the gold rush era. Around that part of the country you can literally pick up stones with gold in them. We've just left Yosemite park after 4 days of camping in the wilderness. It was lovely and hot in the day, but dropped down to almost freezing at night. We made campfires every night, and had toast and marshmallows for tea - we even managed to cook a tin of chilli!! Black bears roamed freely through the park (they are more protected than people) but they didn't bother our tent, Stew's feet I think! We saw a bear, and a couple of deer. The bears leave huge dents and clawprints on the bins, which is worrying at first. We signed up for an art course, which made us see Yosemite from a different perspective. It is truly beautiful. It has every type of landscape, from snowy peaks, to rivers, forests, waterfalls and sheer cliffs. The list could go on. We can't reccommend it highly enough - just dont be fooled by the California sunshine and take WARM STUFF! We made the long drive down to the grand canyon. Took 2 days. We are looking forward to another 4 days of the outdoor life before we make our way to LA. We fly out to Japan on the 18th. Sorry there are no photos at the moment. We are struggling to find decent computers to upload them (a bit complicated for the septics). Saionara (must get Japanese phrase book) M&S xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx