Greetings from Yosemite...

Hi, this is Will reporting today....

We left Rolf's house in Sonoma at 9am on Thursday and had a 5 hour journey to Yosemite. The journey went according to plan and we stopped off for a while to visit the giant Sequoia trees on the edge of Yosemite park.

We arrived at Yosemite lodge at about 16:30 and just checked in, followed by some dinner. Mummy says that Yosemite Lodge is a bit like Centre Parks on steroids - I think she means it's good.....

Today we have had a little adventure. First of all we watched a short film about the history of Yosemite and then we headed off for Glacier Point. From this area you have an awesome view of the valley. Dad was particularly impressed with the 'half dome' rock which is absolutely HUGE. It is incredible to think that the whole valley was carved out by a glacier.

After taking in the the views we went on a very hard 3 mile hike to a place called Senitinal Mount. This took us up to 2500 metres but the hard work was worth it because the 360 degree view was fantabulous. There is still some snow at the top of the mountains and one piece really looked like someone had painted a crocodile on the side of the mountain. From Sentinal Mount we could see other famous rocks such as El Capitan, Half Dome and also a number of water falls. There were lots of squirrels and chip munks at the top and Mum could see where the Chip and Dale idea came from!

On the way back to the lodge we stopped off at Bridalveil Falls which in the winter is a massive water fall. Today it was just a small water fall with it's spray being blown around by the wind.

Tomorrow we are heading for Death Valley but staying over at a place called Lone Pine which is about half way. Dad thinks we will have some good views of Mount Witney.

Below is a picture that Mum took of the valley (which she is chuffed with). Dad says there are more pictures here if you want to see them.

Caroline's mobile is out of order......

Quick message to say that Caroline's mobile is dead at the moment in case you are trying to text her. If you need to get in touch at all then just contact Chris on his mobile......

Sue - hope you have a great holiday....I expect the weather will be lovely and warm

Will hopefully provide the next update from Yosemite assuming they have internet access there!!

Back soon!

Balloon Ride in the Napa Valley....

Hi everyone... Caroline reporting for first time! Its 11 a.m and we have just come in from our hot air balloon experience which was truly awesome! Sam and Will didn't know anything about it. Last night at dinner we told them we would be getting up at 4 am for an adventure. This morning in the car we played 20 questions that we could only answer yes or no to. Eventually Will guessed correctly and they were a bit dumb founded!

We arrived at our designated location at 5.15a.m and helped ourselves to coffee and pastries. Because it was a bit foggy over Napa Valley, we had to drive to another launch site 45 mins away. When we got there, three balloons were ready for the off. There were 9 people in our basket. The Boys had to get into the basket while it was still lying down... They looked so funny! Then the rest of us climbed in and sailed up, up and away!

Our pilot was called Bob who had been flying balloons for 30 years! It was very majestical floating silently above fields of walnut trees, almonds, sunflower fields, tomato fields etc. In total we flew 16 miles in 1.25 hours (click here for exact details) and at some points flying as high as 2000 feet! Near the end of the flight, the guy in front of us proposed to his girlfriend who accepted!

We landed in the middle of nowhere and were driven back to base where we were welcomed with a glass of champagne and a cooked breakfast including our first humongous pancakes with maple syrup...the boys went up several times for re-fills!

Will said of the adventure..."that was the best surprise ever! Can we do it again this afternoon?!!!" Even Jack gave it 11 out of 10, so it must've been good!

We are now "back at the ranch" chilling out for the rest of the day, sunbathing and catching up on sleep! Tomorrow its off to Yosemite!

This is Caroline Morgan reporting live from Sonoma!! More pics available here or on the right hand side of the blog....

...and now we are in Sonoma...

Hi All. We drove from a foggy San Francisco to Rolf and Roger's other house in Sonama today, not far from Napa. You can see the location in a bit more detail on the link below if you are interested (use the + and - to zoom out etc).

View Larger Map

It is a wonderful house with magnificant views acrosss the valley....vineyards as far as the eye can see and complete peace and quiet......well, it was until we arrived...!

Sonoma is a very nice little town which we stopped at quickly on the way here to get some provisions. So the wine is now open, the boys are having fun in the pool, Caroline has her nose in a book and I am off to join them....

Here are a couple of picks of the house here on our Flickr site (plus a few more photos).

More fun tomorrow.....early in the morning....and then it is off to Yosemite on Thursday.

Exploring San Francisco

We had our first day exploring San Francisco yesterday and had lots of fun finding our way around.

After a breakfast of pancakes and waffles we caught the tube (called the 'BART') to the Fisherman's Wharf area and then walked to Coit Tower. This used to be the main telegraph tower which you can now climb for some great views of the city. It was a very steep approach to the tower and Sam counted about 450 steps....but the view was worth it.

After that we headed over to Pier 39

where there is lots going on. Jack chose a sea food restaurant for lunch and the food was excellent. Lots of shrimps, calamari and chowder type food.

After lunch we watched the sea lions basking in the sun - there must have been about 50+ just lazing around - take a look in the picture on the right.

In the afternoon we took a bus tour of the city before heading back to the Wharf to catch the ferry to Alcatraz. By this time the fog had moved into the bay and it was really quite chilly with visibility down to about 20m. It made for an eerie approach to the island which certainly added to the atmosphere. We all really enjoyed the audio tour and as it was dark it made it all rather spooky. The boys were really interested in the tour and even though they were very tired there

was no moaning!! Hot chocolates on the ferry back warmed us up and Rolf was waiting to pick us up - what a kind chap he is.

We all managed a reasonable night's sleep and are heading off to Sonoma today for some relaxing time by the pool. Rolf mentioned casually that there may be a rattle snake in the garden....so we need to be careful where we tread!!

We have arrived.....!!!!!!

Well here we are in San Francisco....finally, at Rolf's lovely town house. The flight was very good and all ran to time (although it wasn't up to Chris's usual standards... :-)

After waiting an hour for the rental car we found our way to Rolf's house without a problem....sat nav worked like a treat and it was only about a 15 minute drive.

Rolf's house is beautiful - built around 1905 and spread over 3 stories. We are very lucky to be able to stay here for a couple of days - what a great start to our little adventure.

The plan tomorrow is to explore the city a bit and we are off to Alcatraz in the evening - perhaps we can leave the kids there....

It is 6.20pm here now and the boys are still wide awake which is good as they should sleep well tonight!!! We are going to have something to eat next before we visit the land of nod..zzzzzzzz

Last minute panic...

I had a nice call from Virgin Atlantic yesterday just to check that everything is OK. They casually mentioned that my tickets showed me as 'Chris' and did that match the name on my passport? No, I replied - is that a problem? 'Er hem' replied the chap on the end of the phone - 'well, it will mean you can't fly on Sunday...oh and neither can Sam......as his name should be Samuel'....!

OK, so it's just a matter of changing the name on their computer right? Er, no! You have to buy two new tickets!!!!!!!!! What!!!!!!

After a lot of escalation up the management chain I managed to persuade them that they could do it and I would pay an administration charge - £60. They made the change but I had to send them a scanned copy of our passports first.

So all is OK again....phew! Can you imagine turning up at the airport for them to say...sorry, can't fly!

I worked it out to be £6 a letter to make the name change - thanks Mr Branson for getting us out of a pickle!