When we arrived here in Berkeley on Friday afternoon it had been one week and an approximately 1700 mile drive through three different states since we left Seattle, so we have rather a lot to catch up on! We have spent the past three nights with Will's relatives Mike and Betty here in Berkeley, just east of San Francisco, and we have been looked after incredibly well, not to mention fed more food than I ever thought I would have been able to eat. We had no Internet access from leaving Seattle to arriving here - we didn't even get phone reception until we reached the suburbs of San Francisco - clearly AT&T doesn't deem it worthwhile to provide signal to areas of Washington and Oregon where the only civilisation consists of towns of a few hundred people (if that - one sign actually said population: 1) every ten miles or so. Anyway, all this means that we have a week or so of catching up to do, so an advance warning that this may be quite a long blog entry...

A week ago on Saturday I was having a minor panic attack when faced with the prospect of driving our hire car. The idea of driving an automatic for the first time on the wrong side of the road had been worrying me a little already. When we turned up to the car hire office and the man serving us cheerfully announced that they had upgraded us from a three door to a five door, and I came face to face with a car twice the size of my lovely little red Lupo at home, I almost considered hitchhiking our way down the coast instead. Fortunately Will talked me round and within half an hour I was happily cruising down the Interstate out of Seattle, which is quite fortunate given Will can't drive the car until he is 21 so I have driven as much as seven hours a day on our journey south! Now I am very attached to our silver Kia Forte, which is considerably less clean, inside and out, than it was when we collected it, having all our worldly possessions emptied into its boot (I mean trunk) and back seat.

On our first night's camping we attended the Mason County Rodeo, which was a wonderful all-American experience. After viewing all the livestock, home bakery, memorabilia collections and craft creations on show we were entertained for the evening by the rodeo events. Some of these we had expected - bull riding, for example - but others were rather surprising - one event involved one man on a horse having to rope in a cow and then another on the ground having to grab hold of the cow so the first man could jump off his horse to get enough milk into a bottle that it would drip when turned upside down. No drip, no score. Then of course there was the children's event where several chickens and one piglet were let loose and if the children managed to catch one they got to take it home. Their lucky parents…

Our first full day after leaving Seattle was spent driving around the edge of Olympic National Park in the state of Washington, occasionally venturing into the park itself to see its wildly different environments. From a northern entry point we reached Hurricane Ridge, high up in the mountains, where we enjoyed incredible views and climbed over piles of snow still remaining from the winter, despite the temperature being well into the twenties. It was a stunning mountainous environment, with meadows of wild flowers and incredibly tame deer wandering around. Only a couple of hours drive away, however, and we were walking in the Hoh Rainforest, also part of Olympic National Park. It seemed incredible that such different environments could exist within such a relatively small area.

Whilst Olympic National Park was a fantastic place, we found that once we had crossed the state border from Washington into Oregon, the coastline became truly spectacular, and the coastal towns a little more welcoming (if occasionally tacky) than some of those in Washington, which had seemed to us to be a little depressing. We spent two nights on the Oregon coast and whilst it was a little chilly at times, the poor weather and mist made the Pacific beaches look really quite awe-inspiring, albeit in a barren, even quite frightening, way. We stopped at many little towns on our way down the coast, sometimes even finding a little bit of sun - some were quite bustling and full of American holidaymakers, whilst others (courtesy of our road trip guidebook) were places we never would have dreamed of stopping, and it seemed no one else had thought to stop there either! The Oregon coast thus far has been the place we are both determined to come back to one day and spend a little more time exploring.

Our last night in Oregon took us to Crater Lake National Park. Here we found enough sun to actually take an early evening dip into the lake in question, possibly the bluest water I have ever seen. Sadly we also found a lot of mosquitoes, and both got bitten to death on the steep walk back up from the water. The next day we crossed the border into California and we spent our sixth night camping amidst the stunning and ridiculously huge redwoods. By this stage I was certainly feeling ready to sleep in an actual bed. Six nights' camping had confirmed that I am most definitely not a camper. Whilst I rather enjoy toasting marshmallows over the campfire and reading my book by torchlight wrapped up in the tent, sleeping on a thin mat and, more importantly, shared bathroom facilities, had not gone down too well with me. Poor Will has had to put up with rather a lot of complaining, and as we depart in a couple of hours for six nights' more camping, he is set to endure quite a bit more. I promise I am at least trying to get into the outdoor spirit…

That ridiculously long update brings us as far as Mike and Betty in Berkeley, and in the last couple of days we have explored San Francisco, which I will leave Will to tell you about in a little bit. From now on I hope to be able to update this blog a little more frequently so you won't have to endure quite such long entries!