This morning we boarded a ferry at 11am to go to Alcatraz. Paul and I visited The Rock in 2011, it was one of our favourite tours so we decided to go again so the girls could hear the story of how the prisoners escaped. Jess really enjoyed the tour but Summie didn’t like it… Continue reading Return to Alcatraz
Category: California
Henry Cowell Redwood State Park
We left Carmel Valley at lunch time to drive to San Francisco, our last stop of the trip. It was a three hour drive, so we stopped half way at a beautiful redwood forest, similar to Muir Woods. We did the smaller trail, but saw some amazing trees, the tallest being about 84m tall, over… Continue reading Henry Cowell Redwood State Park
Carmel Valley Ranch
We flew from Honolulu to San Jose on Saturday afternoon, we picked up our hire car and drove an hour and a half to Carmel Valley Ranch. It’s so beautiful here, a welcome calmness after the busyness of the cruise. It reminds me of Center Parcs; there are huge trees, amazing views of rolling green… Continue reading Carmel Valley Ranch
Disneyland Park
We made full use of our fast passes today, starting with Space Mountain at 7:45 this morning. We all loved it! We then went on Autopia, Bob Sleds, Star Wars
California Adventure Park
We left San Diego this morning and drove an hour and a half to Disneyland near los Angeles. We are staying at Disney’s Grand California Hotel right next to the parks. Today we went into the California Adventure Park, we bought Minnie Mouse ears, ate corn dogs and went on a few of the smaller… Continue reading California Adventure Park
You Stay Classy, San Diego
We arrived in San Diego very late last night, after an 11 hour flight from Heathrow. We are staying at the Intercontinental right on the sea front for two nights. This morning we visited the USS Midway located in the harbour in front of the hotel, an aircraft carrier from the second gulf war. We… Continue reading You Stay Classy, San Diego
2 Days on a Train
For some reason we thought it would be a good idea to get a 49 hour train from Sacramento to Chicago (2000 miles). It was cheaper than flying and we wanted to see the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. It also means we get to go through 7 states; California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado (to a little… Continue reading 2 Days on a Train
Sacramento Old Town
We left the lodge this morning and drove 150 miles to Sacramento. We checked into our hotel for the night and walked over to Sacramento Old Town just across the road from us. The historic town still has many of its buildings from the gold rush in the 1800’s so we saw part of the… Continue reading Sacramento Old Town
Best Activity Ever!
Today we went rafting on the Merced river near Yosemite National Park with Zephyr Whitewater. It was amazing!!! There was a lot of snow melt recently so the water was quite high and the rapids were more fierce! There were 7 rafts with 6 people in each and this time we were paddling unlike the… Continue reading Best Activity Ever!
Day at the Lodge
Happy Birthday Mum 🙂 We stayed at the lodge today because its in such a pretty location and has a cute little river/stream where we could relax and sunbathe. We sat by the river for a while, then came up to our room for lunch. The owner’s cat followed us up and sat with us… Continue reading Day at the Lodge