The Californian parks: Death Valley, Inyo National Forrest (with the earth's oldest trees), Mono Basin National Forrest, The Senora Pass (where we were snowed in!!) and Yosemite

The gold rush, panning for gold in the rivers, as they did 150 years ago, as well as visiting an active, modern mine

We discovered (hick!!) the wine regions of Lodi and Napa and then slept it off; and I took an exciting and tranquil hot air balloon trip over the vineyards

In San Francisco we were the guests of my relations, Toby and Michael Hopstone and their 4 boys (thanks) and Shuli and Lionel (Ari) Brigs - thanks for the use of your driveways, showers and washing machines. We cycled the city (which it turns out has a number of hills!!) to the Golden Gate Bridge and visited Alcatraz. We all enjoyed one of the best 'hands-on' kids museum of the trip. The Exploratorium

We spent a week slowly working our way down the coast towards Los Angeles: the beaches and amusement parks of Santa Cruz; the huge redwood forests in Roaring Camp, Felton; more cycling around Monterey; the beautiful 17-mile Drive to Carmel and the magnificent Hearst Castle. We also spent a night camping outside the RV in our new tent and watched hundreds of seal, sunning themselves on the beach in their short mating season

Last stop ... LA. We stayed with (outside) Marni and Trevor Scheftz in Irvine and stayed with (inside after we sold the RV) Karen and John (Buckley/Kaminichi) in Mission Viejo.  We have used the last week for a holiday (from our holiday!). Beach, swimming pool, theme parks, etc. We also unloaded the RV and sold it ... WOW.