I had a great holiday in California at Easter. America is such a huge place with so much contrast that I don't think you could ever get tired of exploring it. This was my second visit. Last time, I visited Pennsylvania and some of its surrounding area. This time I decided that California would be the place.

 I started off in Las Vegas - I must admit this part of the journey didn't particularly appeal to me at the offset but I think like most people you are won over by the  sheer glitz and effrontery of the place. After all what was once a  dry and dusty desert town has been transformed into a virtual oasis with water literally flowing down the streets. There is just so much to see and marvel at. Yep !!! I loved it.

Las Vegas

Drove out through the Mohave desert to Calico. This former Silver and Borax mining town has been restored to how it would have originally looked. It must have been a hard life, very dry, dusty and hot. Passed Death valley, where temperatures regularly reach 40C. Stopped at Barstow on Route 66 (America's great highway) for lunch. Through the Tehachapi mountains into the San Joaquin valley also through Bakersfield home of Marilyn Monroe

Calico Ghost town

Yosemite and the Redwood trees are awesome, the tree are enormous! still snow on higher ground. This National Park cover over 1000 sq miles. Down out of the mountains into cattle country. Stay the night in Sonora real cowboy country.

Yosemite

 Back up into the mountains, more snow, great drifts of it on the side of the roads - they have snowpoles planted to show where the road is. Lake Tahoe is the only lake in the Sierra Nevadas that doesn't freeze in the winter, because it is so deep. Real contrast from the desert and Las Vegas, weather still beautiful air very clear.

Lake Tahoe

Next day, back out of the mountains, had to put on snow chains. On to Sacramento, the state capital of California. very nice place nice buildings, especially the civic centre. We visited old Sacramento for lunch and a wander around. Then on to Sonoma through the Napa Valley, full of wineries, fruit farms and orchards. Onto my final destination San Francisco.

Sacramento, Sonoma and Napa Valley

San Francisco - the city by the bay, Cable cars and hills,  Fishermans wharf, Alcatraz, Pier 39, Union square, Chinatown and Twin peaks. Just some of the sights in San Francisco, some wonderful buildings and a complete spectrum of society, you see the very rich and the very poor. I was quite surprised by the homeless problem they have in SF but I suppose that is one of the contradictions of the society we find ourselves living in today. Still a wonderful place to visit, though expensive.

San Francisco