We left Fresno as early as we could and headed off for Monterey. Some nice scenery along the way especially once we got close to Salinas. Salinas is an agricultural area and there were fields upon fields of fruit and veggies, fruit stalls at the side of the roads and a few vineyards. The drive took us about 4 hours and we eventually checked into the Marriott near Fishermans wharf. It was a nice hotel with good facilities including a decent gym so I was happy. ...

We arrived in Fresno today. The sun was shining and initial impressions were that it was an ok sort of place. We were booked into the Holiday inn for 2 nights as this was a pretty good base for both National parks-Kings Canyon and Sequoia. The hotel had recently been refurbished and looked quite nice on the face of it. It also had a gym and a sunny pool which was a bonus. Our room was large with a balcony. All sounding good so far isn't it? We hit the gym strai...

After Napa we drove to Mariposa, our base for Yosemite National Park. I opted to drive today And actually quite enjoyed it once I got used to the freeways. There is no lane discipline at all and people over and undertake at will. Anyway, you just have to go with the flow and, so far so good. We arrived in Mariposa early afternoon. It's an old Gold rush sort of town, some of the guys are walking around in cowboy hats, very Pioneer like. You almost expect a saloon...

Today we drove to Napa. Stephen offered to drive us out of San Francisco which was something of a relief as, the one way systems and endless traffic made for a slightly unnerving experience. We headed over the Bay bridge and eventually the traffic dissipated to a more manageable level. As we approached Napa we were surprised at the number of vineyards, despite it being a renowned wine region. They were all over the place. We found our hotel, the Discovery Inn w...

The interesting thing about travelling from Auckland to San Francisco (via LA) is the novelty of flying out in the afternoon of one day and arriving in the morning of the same day. Despite both of us being shattered we struggled to sleep on the plane so arrived at the hotel about midday exhausted. Much to our annoyance we were told that our hotel rooms would not be ready until at least 2pm... Ugh... Still we did eventually check in and have a nice walk around fis...