San Francisco: Pacifica to Alameda

We met a lovely couple, Jerri and Charlie in Yosemite, who kindly invited us to come and stay with them when in San Francisco.  We negotiated the freeways from Pacifica and crossed the Bay Bridge that seemed endless.

We stayed two nights in their house and I think the kids enjoyed the extra space.  Jerri and Charlie have grandchildren that come and stay from New York, so they had a chest filled with toys.  The kids didn’t know what to play with first, they loved it.  They thrived on the attention from Jerri and Charlie and I certainly appreciated the mini break.

They took us to the Oakland Zoo not far from their place and it was a fantastic zoo.  Not too big but all the animals you would want to see, giraffes, elephants, tigers, monkeys.  There was a train that circled the perimeter of the zoo and also a mini fairground with rides.  Chloe squealed with delight on the merry-go-round.

Santa Cruz to San Francisco

The RV Park in Pacifica, about 15 miles south from downtown San Francisco, was situated on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  Great view, but blustery winds made it quite cold.  We stayed 4 nights and ventured into San Francisco on the bus and train.  We visited Fisherman’s Wharf and saw Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. 

 We had the famous Clam Chowder in a bread bowl for lunch, good, but I’ve tasted better.  We walked uphill to the ‘crookest street in the world’, say the Cable Cars and headed back to downtown  trying to avoid the hills!  Not all of San Fran is hilly, but the bits that are can be quite steep, particularly pushing 30kg.

Yosemite to Santa Cruz

On our last day at Yosemite we walked to Ahwahnee Lodge and had coffee.  If you wanted to come to Yosemite and stay in style this is where you would go.  It was beautiful inside and the outside was magnificent.  

In the afternoon we decided to do one final walk.  It was a toss up between the ‘easy’ walk to Mirror Lake or to Vernal Falls, which we hadn’t noticed the rating for.  We were closest to the Vernal Falls’ walk, so chose that one.  The kids were in the pram and we made the comment if the terrain became too rough for the pram we’d just turn back.  Well the terrain was fine, in that the path was paved, it was the gradient that was proving challenging.  We guessed the kids weighed about 30kg collectively, so Rich and I took it in turns of pushing them up and up and up and up.  We only made it half way to the Falls but the view heading down was spectacular and worth the effort!

We bid farewell to Yosemite, along the windy road and again some great scenery.  We headed back to the coast with a stopover in Merced at the local Fairgrounds, which was hosting a ‘County Fair’ with lots of cows.  The following afternoon we arrived in Monterey, home to the Pebble Beach Golf Course, which of course we visited.  Luke couldn’t quite understand why he couldn’t have a hit! 

From Monterey we went to Santa Cruz staying at an RV Park located at the Harbour.  Rich perused the Harbour and discovered a boat on the ‘wish’ list.  He was invited on aboard by the owner who was more than happy to show off his boat.

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park – WOW!  After spending the night in a campground by the side of a river, we drove up and around the windy road to Yosemite Village.  It was a pretty drive but nothing special until we rounded this bend and in front of us was this massive rock face with snowed capped tips and cascading waterfalls.  I think we both said – WOW!  We arrived in the village early in the morning with brilliant blue skies and sunshine.  The village is basically surrounded by these rock faces, waterfalls and snow.  Whichever way you looked you had this spectacular scenery, almost a little surreal.  As Rich said, it was difficult to comprehend the size of these rock faces.    We ended up staying four nights.  Luke helped Rich with the camp fire most nights and one night we had pizza and beer in the village.  It was near an outdoor amphitheatre, which Luke adopted as his stage and entertained us with ‘Wiggle’ songs.

Snow ! ! !

New warm doona on board, we headed for the snow.  We planned to stay in Oakhurst but the RV Park was full.  We were becoming a little disillusioned with the RV Parks, they are a tad sterile and we were keen to find some camping grounds.  So we stopped at a Tourist Information Centre in Oakhurst.  They suggested a camp spot called Nelder Grove in the Sierra National Forest.  They also mentioned a couple of alternative overnight spots should Nelder Grove be snowed in!

As we drove up, we spotted a little bit of snow on the side of the road and got all excited about our first sighting of snow.  We hoped there would be some snow around the camp ground!  Well as we continued to go up and up and up, there was more and more snow until we came to our turn off to Nelder Grove that was completely covered in snow.  It didn’t even look like a road there was so much snow.   The road ahead was also covered in snow.




Luckily Rich had noticed a spot in which we could turn around and as it was late in the afternoon we decided we may as well just spend the night on the side of the road, surrounded by snow.  It was very pretty, remote and the kids had their first sighting, touch and taste of snow.  Chloe was very keen on eating it and Luke wanted to build a snowman.

We headed to Paso Robles – wine country!  But after dragging the kids around the shops for the last few days I decided we should do something for them.   We past a number of wineries on the way and although we were both very tempted, I had discovered a Children’s Museum, located in an old fire station.  It was more an indoor play centre than a museum and the kids had a ball.  It had an old fire engine, dating back to 1920, I think Rich enjoyed it as much as the kids. 

Paso Robles was a pretty town and the RV Park just as neat and clean, with a heated swimming pool and games room.  Rich meet a couple who convinced us to go to Yosemite National Park, although someone had already told us it was closed due to snow.   We decided to check it out, but first we needed to find that warm doona.

Pismo Beach to Morro Bay

On our way from Pismo Beach to Morro Bay, we stopped at our first Walmart.  The smell of plastic was overwhelming.  We are still buying a few necessities for the motorhome and after a very cold night, Rich and I have decided we need a decent doona.

We arrived at Morro Bay to a very average RV Park.   It was right next to the beach, with a massive rock marking the entrance to a bay.  So on paper it all seemed good, but after Rich went for a walk and discovered we were next to a nuclear reactor and sewerage plant, we decided to stay only one night.  

On the Road

We farewelled our house at Santa Monica and took to the road in our Motorhome.  We travelled a whopping 25kms up the coast to Malibu.  We arrived at our first RV Park situated on the cliff tops of Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

We spent two nights in Malibu and then continued north along the coast to Pismo Beach.  We stopped along the way at Santa Barbara, which is very pretty.

Sightseeing LA

Finally after two weeks, we spent a full day sightseeing.  We took a big red double decker bus (yes we're in LA not UK) and toured the sights of Santa Monica, Beverley Hills and Hollywood.  We walked along Rodoe Dve, very pretty street, not as big as I expected, but very nice.  We had a bite to eat and then jumped on the next bus that took us into Hollywood.  The bus stopped on Hollywood Blvd for about 20 mins and there was lots going on, big Elmo, Superman and lots of other characters, both in costume and not. Rich and Luke got off for a look around, Chloe was asleep on my lap.  The whole trip took about 6 hours and we only got off once at Rodeo Dve for about an hour.  We saw the 'stars' on the pavement on Hollywood Blvd from the bus.  We went passed Paramount Studios (massive), Beverly Hilton on Wilshire Blvd, Whiskey a Go Go, Chateau Marmont, Viper Room, Four Seasons, Fox Studios and of course the Hollywood sign.