30th July 2011: Headed up to Yosemite and arrived around midday. Decided to do the Glacial Point route as we would have little chance parking at the village. Fabulous views, this is a park that does not disappoint!
We stayed at the Narrow Gauge Inn. The rooms didn't look like they had been updated since the 70's except for a flat screen tv. You also had to pay for wifi.... Really, pay for wifi!
The Inn has the premier dining spot in the area. It does have table clothes and metal cutlery and that's about all I want to say about that. The barman, however, was a delightful chap called Shane. An excellent host who took the time to collate a bourbon tasting list and made a very decent Cosmopolitan for Kath.

31st July 2011: Drove the hour and ten minutes to Yosemite Village. Used the shuttle bus network to get to Vernal Falls.... Very nice, same about the number of people. Started peeing it down so went back to car... Bit of a snooze then off to Yosemite Falls followed by Mirror Lake. Very nice, but..... People have no idea how annoying they are. You spend time trying to get the perfect reflection shot and them some lovely individual decides to go paddling right through your shot...
Another interesting dining experience followed by a very enjoyable session in the bar with a local couple. He was a retired naval officer and she enjoyed going to see Dancing with the Stars.

Thursday 28th July: Left Dana Point at 10am for the 4 hour 50 minute drive to Sequoia. Route took us back through LA on the 450 which was rubbish. As you drive away from the coast California becomes more like a desert. The only patches of green are the irrigated fruit plantations. It is a very harsh landscape. As you approach the hills of Sequoia a bit more green starts ap Dari ing high up.

We stayed about 10 miles from the parks entrance. We did a quick venture in during the late afternoon. It is a bit like driving in the Alps, just tight turn after tight turn. Pretty amazing scenery.

Had an interesting culinary experience that evening. We walked Fromm our B&B to the nearest eatery, The Cidar Mill, a simple ribs and burger joint next to the main road. Played it safe and ordered the half rack of ribs.... 45 minutes later and a fairly mediocre rack was delivered. Kath had tequila marinated chicken although no hint of tequila could be detected.. Ho hum, off to bed.

Tuesday 26th July: Left LA and took the Pacific Coast Highway south. Thought it would be a nice Coastal drive but most of the way is 8 lanes of concrete. Passed Huntingdon and Laguna Beach but both were so commercial we decided not to stop. Now Dana Point is a odd..... Very clean.... Very nice..... Very Stepford! We stayed at the Blue Lantern Inn, a very nice timber frame hotel over looking the marina. Everywhere in Dana Point feels like a gated community but saying that you are quite happy to walk at night and it is very.... nice.

There is a small public beach down by the marina and a sea conservation society that runs summer camps. It has a couple of large sailings ships that take out groups of kids on week long adventures. Would have loved to do that when I was growing up. The odd thing about the Marina is the total lack of any commercial ventures. No fast food, no selling of tat. The only place you could buy a sandwich was from the lady selling the whale and dolphin excursions. So if you are going to Dana Point, get a packed lunch..

Don't eat at Cannons, it is truly weird. They are determined to put cheese with everything. Carrots with sweet stem ginger and raisins. What were they thinking.
Do eat at Luxe, it gets terrible reviews but don't worry about them. This is assuming you also enjoy an adventurous martini... Try the ones with chilli in them, bloody genius. So impressed, I had two. That's two more after the first one.

Arrived in LA at around 7pm, took a quick taxi to our b and b in Playa del Ray.
Nice accommodation but the area was a bit run down. Totally knackered so went straight to bed.
10 hours sleep later felt more human.
Sunday 24th, went back to LAX to pick up our hire car, white Chevy Impala.... Alright but nothing to write home about. Also came with a satnav. Here's a useful life lesson, don't hire a satnav. Spend £145 at home, buy the maps you need and take it with you. We ended up going back to Dollar 4 times and went through 5 satnav and cable combinations.
So back to Sunday, went to the Getty Center. Well worth a visit for a bit of culture in LA plus some spectacular views and architecture. Satnav died on the way there so Kath did a brilliant bit of off the cuff navigation across LA. This led to our first trip back to Dollar!
Wandered down to Playa del Rey for a bite in an Italian restaurant. Had to wait in the bar next door and was treated to a wonderful cross section of local LA colour. However, the clientel of the restaurant were even more wondrous to behold. It really was like the Cateena scene from Star Wars including a jazz band..
Monday 25th July: Went to Venice Beach..... via Dollar as the satnav had died again. Venice Beach, what can you say but wow, Kath said it was a bit like Hebden Bridge. I said let's wait and see what wanders by to change your mind. Within 2 minutes we saw a skate boarder being pulled by a couple of dogs, not to unusual. This was quickly followed by a woman with a pram full of puggs and then a very old Jimmy Hendrix look-a-like on roller blades playing an electric guitar. Like Hebden Bridge my arse!

The afternoon was a mad dash across LA to Warner Brothers for a studio tour. Good fun.
Oh yeah, on the way the satnav died. So afterwards back to Dollar again. This time we didn't get out of the carpark before the satnav froze. Back in and yet another one and back on the road.
Dropped in to the LAX Gun Range for a quick 150 rounds and then back to the B&B.

Went to the Triple for beers and food. Really nice, lots of locally brewed and exotic beers plus really good scoff. Home and sleep.....

So the next adventure is a 3 week tour on the California Pacific Coast.

LA - San Diego - National Parks - San Francisco - LA