Across the border…

Having entered the USA by plane into JFK, by boat at 1,000 islands and by foot at Niagra, we finally left Canada and entered the USA by bus. After a month in Canada the kids now know their loonies from their twonies, their gondolas from their glaciers but unfortunately not their moose from their mousses.

We just about managed to navigate our way from Seattle station to our airport hotel. Seattle looks like a beautiful city at night, probably worth a proper visit (maybe next time!). The flight from Seattle to San Francisco was great, even if we did entirely forget the new carry-on baggage regulations and manage to pack our toiletries in our hand luggage. After the scanner highlighted our mistake the airport security guard did a quick check of the contents which revealed … creams, pastes, liquids, a knife, scissors, razors …as the guard said, he would like to let us through but we’d managed to pack nearly everything on the banned list. A lightening dash back to check-in saw the offending bag safely stowed in the hold and we all made the flight and arrived three hours later in sunny San Francisco.

The kids decided it would be fun for mummy and daddy to have a competition to see who could get the best deal on a hire car. Rach set the pace, which I managed to equal, both of us beating down the regular price by several hundred dollars. The kids however decided that mummy was the clear winner when the saleswomen informed them that her car had a DVD player and that, as they say, was that.

Obviously suffering separation anxiety after two days away from Doris, the kids immediately named the car Derrick (and Eric by night) and we sped out of San Francisco heading for Yosemite national park.

We were really taken aback as we drove up to Mariposa on the edge of the park, we had not really understood what the Sierra Nevada entails until we started driving through the foothills, the views were breathtaking and the heat scorching. We found a fab little motel in Mariposa town with a pool which, was icy cold in the early evening and a hot-tub which we all thankfully jumped in and finally relaxed after a whirlwind couple of days of travelling.