Hey again! I am now just down the road from San Francisco in Orinda where we are staying with Sarah and her family. Orinda is right next to Berkeley, one of the main college towns around here. Amy drove us down here on Tuesday night after a day spent at the pool she works at. We had a great day there topping up our tans and swimming. It was a really gorgeous day and we got that proper holiday feeling. We arrived at Sarahs that evening to huge screams and suffocating hugs.... We had told her mum to keep it a secret so she was really shocked to see us over here, especially as the last time she heard from us we were right over in Philadelphia! It was a good suprise! We had another lazy day yesterday as the family were at work and school. Well, sarah was allowed to take the morning off to spend time with us then they all left us in the afternoon. So me and Charlie once again spent all day by the pool - this time in their back garden - we are desperately trying to work on those tans!! It was so nice to have the place all to ourselves and just chill out. We also did boring things like our laundry, wasn't much chance for that on the boat! Last night we had a lovely meal cooked for us by Sarah's mum Susan and then she took us all out for ice cream. I could get used to this! Today we got up early and went to Berkeley with Susan. She works at the college in the science department so she took us for a look around the campus. After that we went for a wander around the town. It's a really cool place, full of vintage clothes and record shops. We bought a few things of course and enjoyed chilling in the cafe's. It's a really interesting place. Then tonight we all went out for a meal. Once again it was very nice! We are moving on to the next part of our travels tomorrow, a little earlier than planned. Amy went to college in Santa Barbara and has gone down there to collect some of her things. She called us and asked if we'd like to join her and go to another party tomorrow night so we couldn't pass up adding another place to the list of where we've been!! So tomorrow morning we get on a train to Santa Barbara for 9 hours - longer than our flight over here!! Hopefully we'll still feel like partying when we get there! We are staying at Amy's friends house then in a hostel on Saturday. Amy is going to drive us down to LA on Sunday which will put us back on track for the end of the trip. I can't believe I will be flying home a week from tomorrow!!! So all is still going well over here, enjoying the sunshine and thinking of all you guys back there in sunny England!? See you all very soon! Bring on the beach at Santa Barbara!!!!! Lots of love, Laura xxx