Up early to head to our first national park, the Lassen Volcanic National Park... this is something i had wanted to see when we first started planning the trip but it was axed because of time restraints... Luckily, our trip to Modesto to see the rellies was postponed by a week so we had a chance to visit the park and it was well worth it... think Rotorua but at 8000ft elevation. We hiked a 3 mile round trip through snow and ice (and the lungs felt great!) to see Bumpass Hell (yes, that is what it was called) which was a thermo volcanic area complete with steaming vents, boiling mud-pools and dodgy harry hikers... the smell was pretty bad but nothing compared with Buck Lake! ;)

The road ran right through the national park and the addition of snow capped mountains and millions of pine trees made us really feel like we were in the USA. Great place! Remember to always have a full tank of fuel before entering a national park!! ;) (Mum Grove, you would have had a breakdown!)

We stayed in Chester last night at a place called Bidwell House B&B and it was awesome, lovely owners, lovely rooms, fantastic breakfast and we even made friends with an enormous bearded local at the burger deeeepo down the road... he looked like he could chop down trees with his hands!

We are just back in Quincy now on our way to Lake Tahoe, write more soon.

Speak soon y'all.