18 days, 1,953.9 miles driven, 9 cities and far too many beers. It's now time to draw my first visit of California to a close. Before I say goodbye to the sunshine, I returned to LA where I spent a night when I arrived. In the complete random nature of travel and the kindness this world has to offer, my friend Paul (who I met only a week ago) said I could come and stay in his Hollywood apartment. When I arrived at their place, it was like I was catching up wi...

If there's ever a time where I fall in love with a place so quickly, it has to be my visit of Santa Barbara. The place is beautiful. It has a harbour (pictured), beach and is a college town which makes me so envious of the students who are studying there. As the over extended trip to Santa Cruz meant that I had to stop in Monterey. I only had one night in Santa Barbara. This 24 hours was truly maximised as I continued to meet some great people. In no time at al...

Surfing USA! My journey down the west coast of California continued as I reached Santa Cruz. Once again I met a bunch of great people which is unbelievable given the hostel had an 11pm curfew and alcohol wasn't permitted. We actually broke both rules as we rolled in at 2pm and then cracked some cans open! Once the group resurfaced yesterday we arranged a days surfing. My bad luck in terms of waves continued as they were few n far between. However with a longer...

So five days have just passed and I've finally settled down and found a quiet moment to type another blog. Such was my intense visit of San Francisco. Difficult to know where to start. Once again I met some great people. I was lucky enough to be thrown in a dorm with Paul & Pete. Paul lives in LA and Pete is from Leicester (OK not everyone is perfect!) they were mates from uni and Paul is visiting for a while. We immediately bonded and throw in free beer a...

The last couple of days have seen a partial reunion of the famous 'Team Old' from Vietnam (sorry Vicki, you we're left out but you'll have your reunion soon enough!) Yes I took the short drive over to the Napa Valley to meet Jill who temporarily lives there until she moves over to New York (coincidentally a day after I fly there!) It was fantastic to meet up again and share stories from what happened on our respective trips after we parted ways. In no time a...