Ramada Limited Santa Cruz Water St

... Mission San Carlos de Borromeo de Carmelo. This is the first Mission we have actually visited during our trip! Surprising, considering that California is just full of missions! Apparently, this is one of the most strikingly beautiful in California, so we decided to give it a shot.

The basilica is fairly simple, with an ornate tabernacle, but the gardens are what stood out, and was surprisingly interesting! They had many ...

... gadgets.

This is actually our longest stretch of days camping without electricity hook-ups. So that's the reason why we sometimes find ourselves scrambling for power.

Having indulged in the Dungeness crab for lunch, dinner was back to little snacks at the campsite.

Let me tell you about the campground at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Monterey. The park is a ...

... before you can see the sign marking it !! not good for his blood pressure I can tell you.

Today we travelled about half of route 1 taking in more amazing clifftop scenery whilst driving a very windy road. Seals on the beaches and fog rolling in ahaed onto the mountains...It is a shame that I still haven't been able to upload photos ( what is wrong with these computers they just freeze....maybe its the quality of my picture taking ...

... the american chocolate is rubbish so I am going to focus on the one and only chocolate brownie.

It's a tough job but don't think it's been done yet so will keep you updated on the progress I have made.

I promise not all entries wil be about the brownie but I have to have something to keep my girlie friends interested.

Anyway, my first brownie is calling, Love you all loads

Vix
xx

... by Castle Crags state park outside of Mt. Shasta. We had heard there was good climbing here and it looks incredible! We will definitely be back here to check it out some day. Ruby Report: Windshield Wiper fell off. All other systems are a go. Tim's improvements to Ruby before departure: New Muffler, Stereo installation with IPod adapter, New Tires, and numerous cosmetic improvements.

... texted me their info if I wanted to look them up but I was a little worried about the call being last minute and sounding desperate or something, that made me a little reluctant even though it would be amazing to see them. I decided that the later fact meant more to me than anything else and called them up. Rick who is my good friend Peter's father answered and he immediately invited me over. I was wondering the Mitsuwa Shopping Center for a bit trying to kill some time and ...

... been disappointed as she wasn't there. Rick wants to look again in LA, should I tell him that she is actually working in Vegas at the moment? Spent some time in the arcade and played a few games. Nice set up in there, they have a pirate them and cannons set of smoke every so often over the mini-golf course. After Santa Cruz we headed back into San Jose and stopped off at an In'N'Out Burger. Had to go there as Glenn recommended it plus they do ...

... in the DR, all of which are living in horrible, poor living conditions, none of which will be able to improve their lives with the current way the country is being run. I was unhappy, got a plane ticket and left. These families however, cannot leave, and they and their future children will be stuck in a runt in a vicious cycle. Here I was in California not only a week and I had almost completely forgoten about these people, and then one night (exactly ...

... that I slept well and arrived in Auckland (almost) refreshed and ready for anything. Unsurprisingly, the something I ended up doing the first day there was drinking beer in the sunshine with a mate I know from my Sydney stint, his hostel had arranged a keg party with as much beer as you could drink and as many sausage butties you could scoff for $10. Never one to turn down an offer of ridiculously cheap beer and food, naturally I was there like a shot when he told me what was happening ...

... driving. That and making photographs really do not mix with maneuvering in traffic. When there is something to see you find yourself in the middle lane of traffic with no possibility of stopping. Nevertheless I crisscrossed San Francisco, up and down, and saw it all. The derelicts here are even more troublesome than they were a few years ago. I understand the new mayor is asking people not to give money to them and he is determined to get them off the ...