Brrrr! the drone of the boat was ringing with Mae and Joe were asleep on dad when somebody shouted WHALE AT AT ONE O’ CLOCK!!! the whole of the boat moved over to one side of the boat puff! A rush of air and water came out of the water, a spout!, as this happened the man on the microphone said in a very strong american accent ’’ well folks I believe we’ve spotted a humpback whale” then the whale dived and showed of his huge tail. Then came the ravenous killers of the sea know throughout the world, are culprits for many lives and injuries, know especially for their strategy and whits, DOLPHINS! They came in a pod of about fifty jumping and leaping showing off being little goodie two shoes. The rest of the day was filled with whales and there tails and then we docked and walked of the boat stunned.

Whilst the mountains are humbling, the sea is my real panacea (like mother like daughter), so what a birthday treat. A lovely cooked breakfast, courtesy of Bill and the kids and then a day lazing by the ocean in the blistering sunshine, frolicking in the waves and watching whales far out to sea. Concluded as all good days should be with a glass of wine under the starry skies. Need I say more…

I woke up and I had some breakfast and we thought it would be special for mummy if we had a special breakfast. I wanted to help Daddy, so I did by making the toast and frying it. Mummy seemed very happy because it was her birthday. We then went to the beach, there were really big waves, so we all decided to go in, it was really cold so your hands and legs went really numb. After mummy had some time sun-bathing while we all played in the sand. Me and mummy decided to go into the sea again because the waves got bigger, there was one that literally took me to the ground. It was really fun. By the looks of it mummy was having fun aswell (she was! – as included by my secretary mummy).

When we got out it was nearly time to go, so Dad came in with me, he was a bit grumpy at first, but then he really enjoyed it. We saw a seal it was about 15 feet away and he taught me how to belly slap.

We were heading out to town in San Francisco, to get some bikes. We went to loads of different bike rental places, but we finally found the right one, it was called Bike the Bridge. Then it was very busy in town so I found it hard to concentrate and get to the bridge. I got there in the end, I was so excited, there were a couple of struggles up some hills but that was it. It was very windy on the Golden Gate Bridge. We were all talking about if an alien came along and attacked the bridge because Izaak could mention lots of films were it happened. When you see the Golden Gate Bridge you think “wow those pillars are big” but when you see them up close they are even bigger. When we got to the second pillar we took some alien photos.

From San Fran we were off to find a whale. After dosing the kids up with sea sickness tablets for our three hour trip we set sail, seeing humpbacks in the distance within the first five minutes (if they count that as a sighting I will be most upset). With a whole extended family throwing up off the back of the boat (I hope they cross sea trips of their excursion list for the future) we were treated to dolphin extravaganza. From there on it was whale spout and fluke galore. Joe was in his element

What we quickly realised arriving in San Francisco was that we were going to haemorrhage cash, the closest RV park was in a lovely little suburb called Larkspur a mere 50 minute ferry ride to town, lovely as it was, it was also costly. Still throwing cash to the wind, literally, we headed into town in a last ditch hope of Alcatraz tickets. Silly Mummy did not read the small print about booking months in advance, so we were to be disappointed, not to worry the ferry at least went past the Island and they had a model of it at the landing bay for others like us, who were to be disappointed. Not to worry we would fill our faces with calamari and shrimps and a glass of wine (or two) to make up for it.

It was only a mile back to the ferry port but the kids had finally mutiny’d they were walking no further. There came the friendly rickshaw lady, yes she could take five, she had taken seven before and so for a good price we happily sat on her rickshaw and transited very slowly to the ferry port.

How to recover day two, what better way than to get on our bikes. There followed a fantastic cycle along the shoreline and up over the Golden Gate Bridge. What an experience, better than Alcatraz any day. We then finished our authentic San Fran experience walking up the very steep hill to Lombard Street, where we managed to avoid the 90 minute cable car queue and hopped on a trolley car to ride the street of San Fran back to the Ferry.

We left Yosemite early, with mixed feelings, glad to be leaving the a very busy park but also marking a definite break in the type of holiday we were on. Up until now we had been focusing on parks, natural beauty and a lot of walking. By leaving that behind we were not only changing our holiday type but also recognising that our three week extravaganza was now entering its last 7 days.

The transition from nice wide single lane roads with no traffic to narrow laned freeways full of cars was fast and we found ourselves quickly engulfed in busy commuter traffic wanting to get home on a friday afternoon. We arrived at our RV park which was to be our home for the next two nights and could not quite take in the difference between it and the campsites we had been in previously. Up until now we had pitches which would have been 300 to 400 square feet in size with trees and benches and fire pits all to ourselves. here it was a parking space, literally, i could not even bring myself to take a photo but it would have to do.

Fortunately, not by planning, we were only a 10 minute walk from a ferry that would take us into the ferry port at San Francisco so very soon we were on our way for a recce visit to the city. Our first port of call was pier 33 where we would get our Alcatraz tour tickets. we found that the next available tour was august 25th some 4 weeks later so there nothing else for it, we walked to fishermans wharf and got some beer and fish. Another unexpected thing about the place was the fact that it was very very cloudy and pretty cold. we had got used to 30C and above almost all of the the time without a cloud in the sky but here it was barley 20C Siobhan managed to hit this home buy saying that it was actually warmer in the UK at the time….

The next day we woke to bright sunshine and sailed back to San Francisco with new resolve, if we were not going to go to Alcatraz then we would hire bikes and ride over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was simply unbelievable, a bike ride I will never forget. The rest of the day we walked around looking at fishermans wharf and we rode one of the cable cars to the ferry after looking at Lombard street, the famous zig zig road from all the films.

San Francisco is a pretty laid back place and cosmopolitan with it, I think that I could easily loose my self in the city for a couple of years, they ride bikes, are generally nice people and the food is good. My main observation is that there seems to be a lack of colour. the buildings seem to be quite grey or at least lacking vibrancy which I did not expect at all. In fact I am beginning to think that California is a bit monotone compared to Utah and Arizona, maybe its expectation but it all seems a bit flat……

After too little time we have to leave San Francisco and start our slow journey back to Phoenix via the west coast.

From Bryce we had the short hop to Zion, described by some as the closest thing to heaven on earth, and in my humble opinion they were not wrong.

With its towering red, canyon walls, swirling high into the sky like like rippled ice cream it would be hard to beat (but there is still Yosemite to come). Our pitch for the night was right next to the virgin river, where the kids played a slightly feral version of swallows and amazons, where they laid claim to small islands in the river, defending them by throwing water, sand and on occasions even stones at each other. No need to drag the kids on a sunset walk tonight it is right on our doorstep, looming above us is the mighty Watchman.

Next to the strangest walk we have ever taken the kids on. A pretty walk up a riverside (unfortunately with hundreds of other keen tourists), heading deeper into the canyon, and then into the river to wade a further mile or four, we clearly did not intend to complete the full eight mile round trip.

The first thing Joe asked as the river quickly reached above his belly button was whether he would need to swim! We then spent the next two hours on Joe’s fantasy adventure up the river, dodging “rapid monsters”, that were described in minute detail, finding caves, secret sky gardens and importantly stretches of dry land.

Our next day starts early, off to meet our guides Rich and John for a family canyoning adventure. After the Grand Canyon I am not so convinced Mae is going to brave up, but I am wrong. We spend the next four hours, climbing up over “obstacles” known to most as rock faces, and squeezing (a technical term I am told) through gaps that barely look big enough for Joe, to then descending the canyon via a 45ft abseil, a bit more squeezing, or in my case getting stuck and eventually just dropping to the ground when gravity finally took over, a bit of a bum shuffle and another squeeze / fall and a final abseil. Whilst Joe did a tandem, abseil the rest of us braved it solo.

The Strip

Woke early and left the kids sleeping to drive to Las Vegas. Very easy and soon we were there. Leaving Utah to go into Nevada saw an instant change. We were no longer in the state where to buy beer you had to order food. No, across the state line we were greeted with the first exit off the highway for a casino, adverts for adult shops and liquor stores every where, I quite like Nevada.

Any how we thought that as this was our first experience of civilised America, sorry Phoenix, we decided to do a bit of shopping. First destination a bill outlet mall. Have you ever tried parking a 30 foot bus in a shopping centre? well after driving around for all of 10 minutes we were stopped by a mall cop on a segway. Needless to say the Englishman in me said “oh no we are in trouble, he is going to kick us out”. No he simply said “you looking for parking? Park there, there, THERE!” whereby he was pointing to the valet parking. To park there I had to do a nasty little reverse around the corner and negotiate reasonable traffic at the same time. The Mall cop stopped the traffic, guided me in my manouver then escorted us to a 6 car bay parking space letting me take up the whole lot. He left saying “this is my valet parking, you can’t park but take you time and have a nice day!” so it was back to the sickeningly good and considerate service we have got used to while staying here, all very depressing.

a bit of shopping then a drive down the strip to take it all in. a bit of Blackpool on serious steroids. I love Blackpool but I have to confess the Vegas has never been a dream destination for me. I was not disappointed, it still would not be, not really my bag but interesting to see none the less.

The Good Luck

After a brief viewing of eiffel towers, sphinxes, coliseums an new york land marks it was off to see just how close to yosemite we could get. we knew we could not stay in the park as we did not have a place to stay but we were going to try to get as close as possible. with no booking but an RV we were confident we could stop in good time at a comfortable place 200 miles later and getting dusky we have not seen an RV park for the whole journey, in fact we had seen nothing really other than driving past area 51 where surprisingly there was nothing to see.

by 7.45 we were starting to get a little concerned and headed for an RV park that we had thought we could get to but discounted before we came out to the US. We got there 10 minutes before they closed the office and got the second to last space. Good luck, we slept well that night.

Oh yes we did have a fantastic 5 mile section of bumps on highway 120 that really did feel like a rollercoaster at times, Joe was laughing his head off with his hands in the air for quite a bit of it.

The Bad Luck

The next day, after a pretty robust pancake breakfast, we drove out to see a cowboy ghost village. drove down a dirt track, tried to turn around, got stuck, had to be towed out. bad luck, thats just about all i have to say about that.

A Tale of Two Parks

Yosemite, our fourth national park in the space of 10 days and great expectations. we approached the park from the north driving the toiga pass to out campsite. Really really big and quite inspiring but evidence that it is a busy park came early with every lay by parked up and every car park full. the campsite was enormous and dusty but quite breathtaking. in our camping space we had 3 or 4 pine trees that must have been at least 100 feet tall each. the whole campsite was like this.

we set camp and the next day set off to explore the north of the park. a nice hike up a hill called lemerts dome and then a rewarding swim in the clearest lake i have been in for years, a lovely day and a beautiful park to explore I could have spent a few days there.

Day two we went the south of the park to see the landmark spots of the Half Dome and El Capitan. While impressive they seemed a little dull after the splendour of the previous parks we had been to, also it was really busy with, it seemed, people who were there because it was something to do rather than because they were interested in the place. Its difficult to explain but it had a different feel from the other parks. The day was saved by a drive back to the north of the park and a walk around a grove of simply massive sequoia trees, a magical place.

anyone planning to go to yosemite, I would say stay to the north, its different from the south.

Next up San Francisco, great expectations. Its our first proper city stop, I need buildings, cars, people, shops. I NEED A SHOWER!!!

Zion National Park, established in 1990 and I am sad to say, like Bryce, a place I had not heard of until about 5 months ago….

The drive from Bryce was a mere 2 hours and unremarkable the only point of interest was the fact that we had to have an escort through one of the tunnels because of the vehicle size. This in fact was just a traffic flow management exercise with a ranger simply saying “drive down the middle”

Zion itself is, as you would expect stunning, high peek mountains, sheer cliffs and wildlife galore! Our camp place was place just at the bottom of a pretty big mountain which gave a rewarding view from the bedroom and for the first time we had electricity to plug into, what a luxury.

On our first day we tramped up a river with what I would estimate would have been a couple thousand other people. it was different and even pleasant at times but goodness it was hot, hitting the 40C mark. All of these national parks are serviced by free shuttle buses. they are good and convenient but they do get busy especially in Zion. We ended what was quite a strenuous river walk with wet gritty feet to be met with a queue of people that in the uk would have taken hours to get rid of but here, it was no problem, there was a continuous stream of buses which meant a wait of less than 15 minutes. Thats how you do it!

Day two in Zion and we had an early morning start to go canyoning. Our guides were two young new yorkers who had moved out the capital of canyoning to enjoy life. It was every thing we wanted it to be, fun, challenging , scary and oh yes fun! There was one point when we were talking about extreme sports and mentioned some guy who had recently died doing a wing suit jump in Yosemite. One of the guides mentioned that he had “passed”. This is one of those strange things you encounter with extreme sport people and especially american ones, “passed”? Not being mean but the guy jumped of a very high cliff and misjudged it a little, in my books that is not what I would called “passed”….. Any how absailing walking negotiating tight squeezes and enjoying stunning scenery was all part of the experience. I think the kids enjoyed it too.

The rest of the last day we spent walking through the little town near the campsite stopping for a drink and the hope of wifi. This was our first experience of really bad service YES it does happen here, i was pretty happy to be treated poorly in a restaurant just to be able to say its not all perfect here! how weird.

Next up Yosemite!

Oh yes, some snakes, lizards, big bugs but no lions.