Work, Save, Travel, Repeat...

Saturday Route It is often difficult to gauge the timings just right on the last day of a holiday.There are so many variables: hotel checkout times, public transport to the airport, check-in and security lines etc. It is a beautiful warm sunny morning and we choose to do a 2 1/2 mile city walk recommended in our guide book. We started in Chinatown and then to Vesuvio, a quirky and historic cocktail bar, 10.00 o'clock was a bit early for us but they were more than happy for us to look around.  We passed a restaurant where the speciality of the house was everything garlic and the cafe where Francis Ford Coppola penned the Godfather. Then up and up the Greenwich Steps a very swanky part of the city to live to the Coit Tower. Inside the base of the tower were colourful murals whilst from the top there were 360 degree views of the city. Our final stop was at the Grace Cathedral where the organist was in full flow....

Friday. Route We made an early start this morning with a drive to Mount Tamalpais State Park along the Panoramic Highway. We had great views of San Francisco skyline and the big blue ocean. We walked along a trail for a kilometre or so to find a cache called Firestone , the booty  was in the trunk of a burnt out car that must have rolled down the hill! I bet that didn't end well. Beautiful weather today made it well worth the hike. however the tsunami warning siren going off was rather worrying! We hope it was a regular Friday 12 O'clock test? It's very low lying down below. These birds of prey came to check us out and gave us a brilliant aerial display whilst the deer was much more shy and was happy we kept our distance. Now we are really going back to the start in San Francisco stopping off at Golden Gate View Point Point for a great view of the bridge before we cross it and pay our toll. Martin had recommended we take a look at Lombar...

Thursday Route When we woke up this morning we really didn't have a plan for the day. The Napa Valley is a wine growing region and most vineyards accept tastings by appointment only. There are a few problems with this :- One vineyard looks much the same as the next, there are strict drink driving laws and how would you choose where to go? Who wants to taste wine at 10.00 am? Instead we chose to take a scenic drive out of the valley towards the Pacific coast north of San Francisco. The route took us through country lanes that were reminiscent of England, starting to look very autumnal. As we were driving along the route we searched for local geocaches and were stunned to find a rare cache from October 2000 less than a mile from the highway where we were, we just had to make the small diversion to find it. This means we have found a cache placed in every month since Bill Clinton made the satellite information available to the general public in May 2000 and g...

Wednesday Route Lake Tahoe didn't look quite as sparkling today under cloudy skies. At one point the road runs along a narrow ridge with Lake Tahoe to the right and Cascade Lake to the left, Colin stopped off for a better view today as in the car his eyes were firmly on the road while he was driving! We stopped at a view point overlooking the Washington Ridge, part of the Emigrant Trail which was significant in the California Gold rush of the mid 19th century. Our next stop was just outside Yuba City , not generally on the tourist trail but on our radar due to an geocache placed in September 2000 the first in California and one that takes us closer to achieving our Jasmer Challenge . This one gave us both butterflies, it was a must find and was spotted by Colin. Our hotel in Napa is very swish but hardly in the countryside as we imagined, but there is a statue dedicated to the grape crusher!

Tuesday Route We had breakfast in Starbucks, and picked up a picnic for lunch from the supermarket which set us up for the day around the lake. The weather was cool but sunny and as the day got warmer we peeled off layers of clothing, we started off in winter coats but ended up in shorts and tee shirts. Our first stop was at Inspiration Point which overlooks Emerald Bay and the only Island in the lake, this has a derelict tea room on it inspired by a Scandinavian castle. Eagle Falls had been recommended by a lovely man in an art gallery that we had visited yesterday and, while it was a nice stroll, after the majesty of the falls in Yosemite it was a mere cascade of water over a few rocks! We spent the afternoon in the D.L.Bliss State Park which has lovely pine groves and beaches along the lake. We had our picnic on the beach at Calawee Cove and then started the Rubicon Trail which has fantastic views of the lake. We also the saw the Tahoe Gal - the paddle b...

Monday Route The way out of the valley today was via the spectacular Tioga Rd, the highest automobile route in North America at the highest point it is 9045ft or 3000 meters! Our first stop was at Olmsted Point an impressive slab of granite that had been smoothed and scoured by glaciation. We could see the other side of Half Dome today and if you look very carefully you can see climbers on the ladders. The visibility wasn't great today because of the smoke drift from the forest fires. Next was the beautiful Tenaka Lake, it looked inviting but it was pretty chilly at this altitude. The Tolumne Meadows are sub alpine grassland and is snow free for just a few months of the year. We walked along a trail for a kilometre to the Soda Springs a natural phenomenon were water bubbles up from the ground but it is cold not boiling like a hot spring. We would loved to have lingered longer here but we still have a four hour drive. At the top of the pas...