Today we had a very long day driving to Las Vegas. There was much breathtaking scenery on the way out of Yosemite including the particularly beautiful Tenaya Lake. Once away from Yosemite we travelled across some amazingly desolate country on long windy roads, up and down mountains in the desert. We stopped at a little diner in Benton Hot Springs where we had grilled cheese sandwiches. Benton is on a crossroad and unfortunately, I think I chose the wrong roa...

Thankfully, it was a bit cooler today, We had breakfast at the buffet and then drove down to Mariposa Grove to see the giant Sequoias and took in the views from Glacier Point. On the way back from there, there was a bit of excitement...a bunch of cars which were stopped in front of us had just seen a bear with 2 cubs but we were about 60 seconds too late. Disappointed to miss out, we were lucky enough to spot another bear when we got back to the valley and man...

Today, we left San Francisco via the massive double decker Oakland Bay Bridge and drove up to Yosemite National Park where we stayed in a tent cabin at Curry Village along with hundreds of locals on summer vacation. Our tent has 3 single beds and one double bed.When we first got here, the tent was really hot (as it is outside), so we walked around the area and found a dining pavilion, buffet area, lounge, groceries and gift shop, a couple of cafes and a pool. T...

Today we had a look through a historic fun parlour called Musee Mechanique and we also toured the submarine USS Pampanito. In 1943 Pampanito sank a Japanese ship which was carrying British and Australian POWs. 3 days later, she rescued 73 survivors.In the afternoon, we picked up the hire car (a Ford Escape SUV) and parked it at the hotel ready for an early start the next day. We had our last dinner in San Francisco at a little restaurant called Pompei's Gr...

On Monday July 9, still in San Francisco, we saw Lombard Street which is famous for being so steep that they have installed 9 hairpin bends and planted the spaces with gardens... predominantly Hydrangeas. We also caught a cable car into Union Square where I left the others to go shopping while I did some exploring including the cable car museum. Later, Mitch and I had a tour of the USS Jeremiah O' Brien which is a WWII liberty ship docked at Fisherman's...