Californian Adventure
First stop San Francisco. It was a tad colder than we expected but we headed straight out to experience a cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf for dinner. This is a buzzing area with plenty of bars, restaurants and souvenir shops.
The next morning, we bought a two day hop on hop off bus ticket and headed to the famous bridge. Because of its location on the Pacific Coast, San Francisco can suffer with fog and it tends to be clearer for the afternoon. We drove over to Sausalito and you couldn't see very much at all but once we arrived in the little town it was warm and sunny. It's worth spending a few hours wandering around the lovely boutique and art gallery shops as well as enjoying the many coffee houses and restaurants. Our drive back was fantastic as the sun was shining and the bridge was to be seen in its full glory!
We then headed to the Japanese Tea Gardens and onto the rest of the tour. An open top bus is a great way of travelling around any city as it gives you a perspective of where everything is, and you can literally hop off and then back on to get to other places of interest. Our highlight was Lombard Street - it was extremely steep to walk up to it and then you had to tackle 250 steps. My tip is to get the Powell & Hyde cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf and to get off at the top!
Second stop Yosemite, about a 4-hour drive from San Francisco. We stayed in a lodge 5 minutes’ drive from the entrance to the National Park at El Portal (entrance is $30 for a 7-day pass Sept 2018). We spent two days driving around Yosemite from the Mariposa Grove to the South to Hetch Hetchy in the North and Mono Lake just outside the park to the East. It is simply a stunning area to explore and the views are breath-taking. My advice is to stop off at a supermarket before you head to Yosemite and take some bits for you to have whilst staying there. The National Park is vast and there is quite a distance between food and drink stops.
For our last stop on our Californian Adventure we headed to Monterey. Our highlight was a whale watching trip from Moss Landing. We headed out into the Pacific at 9am in thick fog but we were rewarded with seeing over 20 humpback whales over a 3-hour period. We witnessed a 5-whale feeding frenzy, a mother and her cub and a rather friendly whale who decided to surprise us all with an overturn splash right next to our boat! Carmel is another beautiful area worth a visit and of course for any golfing fans, Pebble Beach is a must!
We really loved this area of California and enjoyed all the different experiences. It’s a perfect destination for all and has something for everyone!