Our California Road Trip

April 21, 2019. After a good nights sleep (I think we'd have slept through anything by then), I went down to the reception area of the hotel, where they served a buffet style breakfast selection, of fruits, pastries, breads and bagels.  Grab an IKEA tray from the stack (hey - we have two of these at home!!), and stack it up with as much as you can eat, grab a couple of coffees (or tea, hot chocolate, fruit juice, etc...), then take it back to your room to consume in privacy and comfort. For our first day out in America, we drove back up CA-1 north, to a spot to the south west of the Golden Gate Bridge, called Lands End Lookout. We thought it was just a view point out across the Golden Gate, but found that it is also the start (or end - depending on your perspective) of a coastal walk that extends for a little over a mile eastwards towards the bridge, ending at a place called Eagle Point.  The end of the trail overlooks Baker Beach and Marshall's Beach, which lead your eye...

April 16, 2019. It is coming around quickly now, and we are beginning to realise how little time we've got left to get ourselves organised. Planning and packing for 35C in Vegas, goodness knows what in Death Valley, and potentially close to zero in Yosemite is proving a challenging prospect, especially as neither of us travel light anyway! Deciding which camera gear not to take is also a big wrench for me - I'd take the lot if I could carry it all, but I need to be ruthless, so camera, a couple of lenses (OK - three lenses), tripod and flash... Oh, I just know that at some point I'm going to say "if only I'd brought the..."

April 12, 2019. Thanks for joining me! To celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary year, my wife Karen and I (I’m Graham by the way) are embarking on a driving holiday, touring around the southern part of California, and taking in a little bit of Nevada (and also Arizona, as it turned out) too. The plan is to fly into, and spend a few days in San Francisco, before driving down the coast through the Big Sur towards Los Angeles.  Then we’ll head inland, crossing into Nevada to visit Vegas and the Grand Canyon.  Next we’ll be driving north again, through Death Valley, and on to our final destination Yosemite National Park, via Mammoth Lakes.  It will also be Karen's birthday while we are in Yosemite - somewhere she has long wanted to visit. Being a keen photographer, I am looking forward to all kinds of photo opportunities along the way, from the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, to the lights and glitz of Vegas, the ruggedness of the Grand Canyon and Death Valley, and ...