Monterey to San Fancisco - 28th March

Everyone had a great night's sleep in Monterey and we had breakfast at the Ramada Inn, including fresh hot waffles made by a little Mexican lady. We got petrol, and headed towards San Francisco via Santa Cruz. We drove through lots of fields of strawberries.

After Santa Cruz we stopped off at a wonderful big empty beach. Spot our car... the big white one!

There was a seal on the beach, which I think was dying. I saw it by noticing its tracks along the beach.

 We stayed at the beach for a little while - it was just crazy gorgeous there!

After that we carried on driving along the coast road, passing loads of fabulous State beaches. I really liked it there, and joked I'd come and live there.

We stopped off at Half Moon Bay beach for a while, and Scott had a nap, while I wrote my journal (a little red leather one I bought for the trip) and the kids played.

Burying Harry...

We then drove on to San Francisco. It was fun driving down this road and seeing the buildings start to become San Franciscan, and getting our first glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge.

We drove over the bridge and pulled in at a viewing place. The car park was full, so Scott just pulled to one side while we went to the toilet. When we got back Scott had found a parking spot, so we went and took some pictures, bumped into some missionaries, then crossed under the bridge and walked up a hill to a look out point.

The view from the hill overlooking the bay was wonderful, and the weather was beautiful too.

There are some abandoned buildings up on the hill too, which we looked round a bit.

Scott and I sat on a bench overlooking the bay for a while, just soaking it all in. We could see our car in the car park below!

We walked back down to the bridge a different way, then along it out to the first upright.

Harry and Tom were waving at passing cars, and Scott said he'd pay them 1p for each wave they got back. They took the challenge seriously and waved the whole way! It was a good job Scott capped it at 50p each, because they got hundreds of waves and a few honks in return! It was nice watching people smile when they saw them.

The scale of the bridge is massive - a helicopter flying under the bridge.

After that we drove through San Francisco, and along Lombard Street. There was a big tail back going up it, and the crazy angles and view back down behind us was hilarious! Scott was super-impressed with the power of our car.

We saw a sign on the way up the hill making us think that the famous bendy part of Lombard Street was shut, but when we finally got to the top, we were able to drive down! It was cool! There were loads of people standing around at the bottom of the bendy bit, and when we got down there, some nice lady was like ''Yay, well done - you made it!!'' to us!

We then headed through San Francisco, towards Bay Bridge, and I was delighted to drive past my favourite building - the Transamerica Pyramid.

We drove over the Bay Bridge (seeing this cool caravan!) and through Oakland, where we saw the Oakland Temple in the distance on the hillside. Our hotel was in an industrial area. Not very pretty, but the hotel was great - comfy rooms, with extra camp beds. There was also a gym opposite our rooms which Tom used.

We went across the road to 'Jack in a Box' for tea, where Jack had a ridiculously large drink!

I spent the evening editing photos and putting them on Facebook - fun!