"Without love in the dream..."

"...it will never come true."

22. Friday 28th September - LA (West Hollywood)
First lie-in for a while!
As I found LA a bit too stressful to go for our usual drive/walk about, we decided to go to Venice Beach.

It wasn't the best day weather-wise, so no muscley men I'm afraid...

But it was the perfect day for a walk on the beach, even if I got a load of beach tar stuck to my foot!

23. Saturday 29th September - Drive to Sequoia National Park
We stopped off at CALM (California Living Museum) on the way, a brilliant nature reserve specialising in animals native to California (all too injured to be in the wild). It was fantastic, way better than I was expecting. Big faves were the touch-aquarium, beaver and porcupine.

Anemone

Beaver

Porcupine

Also liked the birds - condors, falcons, bald eagles, vultures, a road runner... Absolutely brilliant.

Peregrine Falcon

Vulture

Roadrunner

24. Sunday 30th September - Sequoia National Park
I don't know if it's the altitude or what, but we struggled with our energy levels today, and yet got really silly mid-afternoon.

We did a few walks in the park, saw shorter but bigger trees than previously (if that makes sense), ending with the biggest of the them all: General Sherman.

I think my favourite thing was Tharp's Log, which was a cabin made out of a huge fallen log!

So cool.

25. Monday 1st October - Hearst Castle
Oh wow. Oh wow oh wow.
Had we known it would be so good we would have booked more tours. We went on the main rooms tour which seemed to fly by in seconds despite being an hour long.

Also saw wild zebras roaming with the cattle, before visiting the huge male elephant seals lounging on the beach!

26. Tuesday 2nd October - Pacific Coast Highway
First off we stopped by the elephant seals again, which are so interesting and mesmerising. I don't know what it is but I could watch them forever.

We then carried up the highway, seeing some beautiful views and some which should have been beautiful but were obscured by the fog!

We had lunch in a remote little beach cove, all very secluded and romantic. Tricky to climb into but very worth it. We did leave pretty sharpish once we realised the tide was coming in though!

We also stopped at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park but, as the hike we wanted to do was closed, we took the ranger's advice and walked another. It was boring, too steep, and it didn't even have a good view! Though my vision was obscured slightly by CB spraying bug repellent in my eyes...

27. Wednesday 3rd October - Monterey
We took a whale watching tour all morning, which I thought was going to be very very dull but turned out to be absolutely wonderful.

We saw a group of humpback whales lunge feeding:

And we saw them breach:

We saw a pod of orcas who were just going nuts having a laugh and showing off for us!

It was so good the drivers stayed out for extra time and actually called their orca-mad boss to come out and see!

Absolutely fascinating and so much fun. Great day.

28. Thursday 4th October - San Francisco
Final night!

On our drive from Monterey to SF we stopped at the Winchester Mystery House.

SO GOOD. We did both tours, so saw pretty much every room. It is mad. Less creepy than I thought it would be, but more historic and interesting and rambling.

A particular fave was the witch's cap room which, when you stood in the very centre made it sound like you were speaking into a microphone whilst underwater, but only to you - no one else in the room heard your voice any different!

Physics is fun.

29. Friday 5th October - Flight home (and CB's birthday!)
To be honest I felt like the holiday was ending as soon as we dropped Drive Boy (our rental car) off  the day before.

I felt sad the holiday was over, but I felt so much more relaxed than I did when still in Sheffield.

It was such an amazing holiday, really difficult to pic out favourite things or even favourite days or places. And it's corny and I've said it before, but honestly the holiday wouldn't have been nearly as good without being there with CB. He's my best friend and I never grow sick or tired of spending time with him. Every day is an adventure - but this month was more so than most!


*Quote from the Grateful Dead.