Hannah Powling: September 2011

Journey to Yosemite National Park.

Wednesday 7th September, before we headed off to Yosemite, we wanted to catch the Golden Gate Bridge on the way there and this time we were lucky to see the bridge without too much fog! You can see it spilling in, its beautiful.

We drove over the bridge and then started our drive to Yosemite!

As we got closer, the views were amazing, we stopped to take photos a few times.

Our cabin!

That evening we went for a drive and played about with long exposures in the dark with the moon and our torch..!

Our day in San Francisco.

On our first morning in San Francisco we walked around the shops of course, and went up to China Town to get some Dim Sum for lunch..

Marcus' 'I've eaten too much' face.. haha

We then went to see the Golden Gate Bridge but unfortunately there was so much fog trailing in we couldn't see much of it!

Lombard Street..

We went for amazing seafood that evening on Pier 39.

Santa Cruz, then journey to San Francisco.

On Monday morning Marcus took us to his old university located in Santa Cruz, UCSC. It was pretty much in the forest and was really lovely to walk about and see where Marcus had spent his previous years before coming to London.

Loads of deers about..

We then headed off to see Marcus' close friend, Giana and her boyfriend, which was lovely to meet them. Their place was very homey with an amazing view!

Then we made our way to San Francisco!

..& we couldn't stop munching on Lucky Charms!

The hotel room was very nice, and we had a little explore around Mission and Castro that night..

Hearst Castle.

On the Sunday morning we went to Hearst Castle, one of the most lovely places I've seen and not just the mansion itself, its the location and how we had to get a shuttle bus all the way to the top climbing these huge valleys and the views are outstanding. Here's a bit of info from Wikipedia about the Castle itself...

Again, these are a few snaps, the high resolution lovely photos on the 'proper' camera will take hours to upload on here.. so this is for you to just see how wonderful this place was..

"Hearst Castle is a Natural Historic Landmark Mansion located on the Central Coast of California, United States. It was designed by architect Julia Morgan between 1919 and 1947 for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who died in 1951. In 1957, the Hearst Corporation donated the property to the state of California. Since that time it has been maintained as a state historic park where the estate, and its considerable collection of art and antiques, is open for public tours."