White Water Auburn

This is why we came here - to do the White Water Rafting. I admit I was a bit nervous but these are the before and after pictures and we survived the Tunnel Chute, which was right at the start - a grade 4, it dropped into a slot then the white water went on and on and on until Chris got catapaulted out when we hit a wall!



We did a full day - 18 miles with loads of drops and bouncy bits - there was one grade 5 section which the guides did on their own - that was good to watch, no desire to do.

Here we are at the end with our guide Tracy - she was very strong and did a back flip off the back of the raft - Ffi and Chris didn't let us down with cartwheels off which didn't compare with Mikes front flip!! you can imagine what that was like! me, I just rolled into the river nothing heroic - very exhilerating but very cold - even in 90 degrees air temp.

We met some fab people who I hope will visit us if they come to Wales or even Europe - we're only a tunnel ride away!

There are photos of us in tunnel Chute on a web site - they can be found at hotshotimaging.com go to whitewater rafting on 9th August and we were in boat 5 - pics are really fantastic = can't not have them as we couldn't take the camera or get that angle!

Auburn has a lovely climate, it's very green and is on the gateway to everything in California. Mark Twain said about San Francisco, "The coldest winter he'd ever spent was a summer in

San Francisco" but as soon as you come inland the temperature climbs up to very acceptable. The old town is lovely. That's where you see the big gold panner, who is the guy who founded the town.
Mike and I had a beer in the California Club and invited a couple of local people to visit us in Wales - great fun

On the way to Auburn we drove around Lake Tahoe - fabulous scenery but so busy - sort of put us off. Skiing looked a long way from the accommo....

Ghost Towns and Hot Springs

After leaving Yosemite we found a hotel in a town called Bridgeport, way up in the Sierra Nevadas. 8000 feet above sea level and a cowboy town.



Closeby is a real Ghost town called Bodie. It boombed in the 1880's and the last people left in the 1940's. They left the town as it was and the State Parks keep it in 'arrested decay'.

On the way to the Mountains we saw some cowboys moving the cattle from one field to another. It was very exciting!

This afternoon we went to a local hot sprngs, the water just spouted out of the ground - boiling hot and not a bit murky. We just sloshed about in it for about two hours. When we got too hot we just splashed in the Buckeye River which ran longside! Later on, deer just wandered down the hill and ate some grass, ignoring us....

This was a quiet day! :)

Yosemite - America does Parks and Steak Sandwiches like NO-ONE else!

Yosemite! I apologise for the continued use of superlatives but this valley is fantastic, it really is breathtaking and should not be missed! Mike and Chris did the gruelling walk to the top of Half Dome, the last 1500 is ascended by holding onto 2 steel wires, 3 feet apart, used by those coming down too. They assured me that,"It was worth it!"

This is the bear they encountered on the way, they heard it was up there and let some other walkers go first to see if they got savaged! They had to walk quite close to it but it ignored them and bumbled about its own business.

Ffi and I paddled 3 miles down the Merced River.

We visited the Mariposa Giant Redwood forest. On the way out it was very quiet and Mike shouted a whisper! "wow, there's a mountain lion!" we crapped ourselves and ducked down!! It turned out to be a deer - in the long grass!! Quite nice to see but it did not have the impact of a mountain lion!

Glacier Point has the best view of the valley, high elevation and looking down on the village spread out on the valley floor, really green and lush, then you get the view of the waterfalls and Half Dome - fantastic.

On the way back we were lucky enough to spot a bear cub ripping open a fallen tree trunk, closely guarded by its mother, who looked as if she was on duty.

We also waked the 3 miles to the top of Vernal Falls with the idea that we would swim in Emerald Pool but that idea faded away when we felt the temperature, it is fed by the run off from the snow melt, which you can still see on the tops of some of the mountains. Chris counted the steps on the way up - 670. My new leg was ok but the other one suffered!!!

Ffi managed to lean on the 8,700 foot high Half Dome


and Chris tickled its top!

Yosemite, fantastic, lovely, pretty, huge and gruelling and to top it off I had a steak sandwich to die for on the way back to our hotel!

Bridal Veil falls is the first fall you come to when you enter the valley, it is huge and we had to get right up to the bottom of it, a rocky scramble! Mike and I were like young gazelles!!

This is the deer masquerading as a lion! Can you see the similarity?!

San Francisco

Hanging onto a Cable Car......

China Town wearing hats......they wouldn't buy them!

Fishermans Wharf with Alkatraz in the background

We met an old friend for lunch. Paul McHugh and his wife Dawn - we slept on Pauls floor in SanFrancisco 20 years ago. Those were the days when our bodies let us sleep on the floor - we also had a lovely chinese meal that Paul doesn't remember eating!! We only remembered today that he left us with his house keys when he went off to work... Paul is an author now, he brought his book and gave it to us, I've already read loads, bril.

California

At Santa Cruz, we hired some boats off Dave Johnson-a paddler we knew from our old days! and took off across from the wharf towords Seamers Lane:) on the way we had to cross the Giant Kelp beds, where we encuntered the animals we went there to see - sea otters, seals +sea lions!!

on the Wharf in Santa Cruz!

Like old times, we stood here 20 years ago but we were in wetsuits then!

This one is for the Forwood family!!! (Thinking of you :) Ffion:D

Sunset last night at Carmel by the Sea. It was also fairly warm - jumpers were fine.

This is our hotel. The Normandy Inn, it was full of flowers - all the rooms were higgldy piggldy, built separately along corridors or off balconies and up the top of spiral stairways - very quirky.

Big Sur

Big Sur California is possibly the prettiest coast in the World - but at the moment it's bloody freezing!! 65 degrees. It's warmer in Wales!

Elephant Seals - only on the Pacific?

Staying in Carmel by the Sea - lovely old hotel, The Normandie Inn. Very Quaint and built about 1930. Gorgeous rooms

LA

Well here we are in Los Angeles!

We started in St Louis on Route 66 andn wenfinished it on Santa Monica Boulivard.

We went to Universal Studios and bought the very expensive 'front of queue' tickets but they were fab - everyone was queuing for at least 45 minutes on one ride 120 mins- it took us, at most 5 minutes to get to a ride! Well worth the money - we did every ride etc at least 3 times.

The studio tour was amazing, we saw sets that we had seen on telly and in films - lots of them use the same balsa wood sets.....

3D glasses or have they been taken over by aliens?

This is the War of the Worlds scene

This one is the Psycho's original motel rooms, complete with Norman Bates and a dead body. He pulled a knife too!!!!

We went to Hollywood and Beverly Hills before we left but we didn't see anyone - just weird big houses!