We spent 2 nights in a camp site nestled in Yosemite National Park. And it looked exactly how I imagined it would! Chipmunks scurrying everywhere, cheeky little squirrels sneaking up behind me, big birds of prey that I couldn’t identify circling above the Sequoias! We built a campfire and toasted marshmallows. It was just like out of a Warner Bros cartoon!

On the middle day we hiked about 8 miles (just under 13kms) along the Yosemite Valley floor and took in the famous sites such as of El Capitan and the Half Dome. Butterflies, ground squirrels and deer all around – it was just lovely. We had a great time in one of America’s favourite National parks!

Before leaving San Francisco, it would have been wrong not to stop in Haight-Ashbury for lunch and see what all the buzz was about. A slice is pizza was all we could afford! Prices seemed to be very inflated around this area! And there was an air of pretentiousness about the place.. Not really what I was expecting for the birthplace of free love and all that!

We followed our pizza with a Ben and Jerry icecream.. in keeping with the theme I ordered the Whirled Peace Icecream  – Little chocolate peace signs through out! Yummy!

Before we left, we wandered up Ashbury Street to the ‘Grateful Dead house’ – lighting wasn’t fantastic but I snapped this one for you, Uncle John!

We came into San Francisco over a fog covered Golden Gate Bridge. A much smaller bridge than The Boy and I had been expecting, but still impressive as the World’s largest Suspension Bridge.. I’m always impressed with the  world’s biggest things

We stopped on the other side and went for a walk under it and jostled with all the other tourists to get ‘the pic’. Insanely windy place and all the pictures of me in front of it look like I’m going to blow away!

Our Hotel is on the famous Lombard Street (but not the crooked bit!) and dinner last night was at Joe’s Crab Shack (Eat at Joe’s, Eat at Joe’s) done at Fisherman’s wharf. It was a truly awesome dinner and the tack factor hit the roof when our waiters began to dance every half hour.

The cable car ride was worth every penny of the ticket and the drivers were very entertaining! Hanging of the side was both fun and scary! Some of those streets are so steep, kept imagining seeing a car chase coming down one with air being caught off the flat spots!

Although we were only here for one night, I feel like I got the whole San Francisco  experience and am leaving with a smile on my face )

From a glacier to a volcano! We are certainly having fun now!

We spent the last two nights camped at the bottom of Mt St Helens Volcano… the one that blew in 1980.

We sure know about volcanos now! From the cool presentation at the visitors centre to climbing through Lava Tubes!!

The Lava Tubes are a cave system created by lava and stretched underground for about 3 kms! We were the first car in the car park that morning and had the place to ourselves. With only a headlamp to guide us, we clamoured over boulders and scaled walls… Quite the Indiana Jones moment! Felt like we were searching for a lost artifact.  If only we had kerosene-dipped torches… Glad we got up early, the carpark was almost full when we were leaving it!

See Ya Washington! We had a blast! (hehe)

We had been looking forward to driving the Icefields Parkway since the last time we drove it.. Unfortunately what has been raved to us as the most beautiful stretch if road in all of  Canada was hidden that day by rain clouds, mist and fog.

We left Grande Praire this morning and the sun was shining. By the time we reached Jasper, the start of the parkway, it was pouring rain! We were over it before we had even begun!

100kms down the road the ‘impressive peaks’ were again shrouded from our view.  We thought ‘bugger this’ and got ourselves all kitted up for a hike in the rain to see the Athabasca Glacier,

Not far along this informative hiking trail,the rain stopped and the sun came out and we felt this road trip for the first time! We are now happy campers all set up not far from this Glacier with high hopes for tomorrow

And we are ready to go again! Toby has had a check up and he has had his oil changed and the mouse nest under the hood removed.  *hysterical laughter*

Yes, turns out what we thought was some sort of insulation for cars that experience snow was in fact a home. A home crafted by little Minnies and Mickeys who, thankfully, were long gone quite a while ago.

So now we are 2 days away from the quintessential all-American road trip. From Washington to Florida. The Golden Gate Bridge to the Happiest Place on Earth.

Another surreal start to what is without a doubt another excellent adventure!

The Boy came home from working away for a week a few days ago and the very next day he whisked me away on a mini road trip to see a something he’d seen on his trip home..

Big Banana, Big Pineapple..eat your heart out!

Behold, the Big Beaver!

My Boy sure knows me well

And the skies cleared! Though there were a few rain showers here and there, the afternoons where t-shirt and thongs (flip-flops for those non-Australian readers) weather and by evening the heart and soul was content and happy..

Our second day there I met one of my bigger inspirations in the art world.. What a great day! I was able to browse his work, rifle through draws of his sketches, chat about his processes.. so special!

I was very nervous to meet him, but what a lovely soul! He made us feel very welcome into his creative space and didn’t mind my giddy questions. He didn’t make me feel like the crazed fan I was probably coming across as!

This island we have discovered thanks to Nick’s work is just beautiful.. we have had  such a wonderful time! We went on many lovely hikes (the lungs and I are friends these days) and new animals to add to the list! We watched a mother Killer Whale and her calf and saw a Sea Otter ducking and diving from the little point near our camp. And so many beautiful Black-tailed Deer, casually meandering past us while eating our breakfast or on our walks.

It’s a place that was hard to leave!

I have let my blogging slip.. so here’s a rundown as to why.

Vancouver Island… Rain, rain and more rain. I feel I want to leave this blog entry here, but I will explain a little further

The joys of Van living are greatly reduced when you have more than 2 weeks of solid rain. You begin to feel you deserve a hotel room.. or eating out.. or a bottle of wine. Which are all fine things but not when we are trying to stick to a budget!

Hikes become muddy and without the promise of a hot shower at the end… and the thought of cooking tea outside.. it all becomes very disheartening..

Birds don’t come out as often in the rain, except for the damned Robin, so my birdwatching has suffered… Bucket showers are hard to get excited about on a good day, but truly suck when you’re already freezing… And I had grand plans for stargazing, but every night has been overcast

Ho Hum..

on a positive note.. Matt found a lady Sasquatch hiding on the Island!

We have been staying in an area that has had the largest amount of Sasquatch sightings in British Columbia. So many that they have named a provincial park after this elusive creature! So you know he has to exist!

It is so weird walking through trees that are this big! And it grows so dark and quiet the further into the woods we get. I feel I see movement constantly out of the corners of my eyes but when I turn, whatever it is is gone.

I’ve come up with a theory.. that they dive head first into the ground when they see humans coming and pretend to be trees. With the trees around here appearing to grow ‘hair’, it is a pretty good camouflage! And quite viable!

So again we leave an area without spying the Cryptozoic creature we have been looking for, but I leave happy knowing I saw that beaver the other day! As you all know, I was starting to question his existence… so the feeling was akin to seeing a unicorn