Wine tasting trouble.

A local vineyard, one of many...

With Joanna at her friends' wedding, Sherrie has set off to enjoy the abundant wineries of the Healdsburg region of Sonoma valley. It's a shame that most of the tasting rooms close at 5 pm. She's only been able to fit in 4 so far.

Probably for the best anyway.

there are more pictures to see on the photo gallery page too...

Joanna driving on the right side of the road!

A non Absent Elk...

We didn't expect that the name Elk Meadows, en route to Fern Canyon would be as equally literal but along the coast were dozens of grazing elk just feet away, fairly comfortable with their two legged visitors. Check out the photo gallery for more soon.

Pacific Times

So today has been a packed day, Sherrie has been great at driving - the longest she has ever driven in one day. The odometer is saying 590 miles in total so far which is pretty good going!

We did our huge shop early then pointed Viv the Volvo in the direction of California and the giant redwoods.

Throughout the day we've gone from 65 degrees to 85 then to 50 as we got to the coast. We saw forests of evergreen trees in Oregon through to all sorts of deciduous varieties as we came into California then, as we entered into Redwood National park, miles and miles of giant redwoods as far as the eye could see. We hung out on Crescent beach then we finally hiked along a trail along the coastline to see the Fern Canyon - unsurprisingly a canyon lined with ferns from floor to around 60ft high.

Food shopping fun...

So we're back on the road after stopping off at the supermarket and stocking up on all of our groceries for the rest of the trip at Fred Meyer. We pretty much picked up as much as we could load into the car - totaling $219 altogether!! Lots of great camping meals, energy bars, fruit, propane for the camping stove and a few beers too...

We were really lucky to get some Trecker-caught salmon from Sherrie's dad so looking forward to cooking that up at Yosemite in a few days time.

Where's Snipey???

He's hiding somewhere in this photo before we left Keizer. Can you see where he is?

Sherrie and the Volvo

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2

Sherrie with her parents in Keizer

Thanks for the room and board for the night!

Day 2: California Bound!

We made it to Keizer, Oregon, home of my Dad and Carolyn, my stepmom, at around 10 PM last night. They let us stay in their RV for the night, which afforded us a great nights' sleep in anticipation of the many nights of tent camping to follow. On our way down the I-5 corridor we were treated with sunny weather and periodic views of the Puget Sound, Mount St Helens, and Mount Hood. Near Centralia, WA we stopped for dinner at a McMenamins pub (http://www.mcmenamins.com/), which was a treat for me personally as I'd always heard a lot about the pubs but never been. It was a quirky, fun environment with excellent food and drinks. While it set us back by over an hour, is was well worth it. Plus we missed Portland traffic!

This morning we are up early, getting ready to go. We'll stop at Target and Fred Meyer this morning before we hit the road to load up on groceries and other essentials. From there, we are driving all the way to the Redwood National Forrest, hoping to fit in a quick hike in the afternoon. We hope to make it to our hotel at Fort Bragg by dark.

We are having a fabulous time so far!

Sherrie xo

Day 1 on the road - eating up the miles on the way to Oregon

Day 1 on the road - eating up the miles on the way to Oregon, a photo by jcb2u on Flickr.

Pre-trip planning

So we are 6 days away from the trip and all is going to plan so far. Sherrie has well and truly tested all camping equipment having climbed Mount Helena last weekend while Joanna has bought some amazing new hiking boots and is currently working out how to squeeze 4 lenses into her suitcase.

REI, the outdoor equipment store has done well out of us both over the last few weeks and Sherrie has some amazing friends who have helped us out with a SatNav loaded with keys spots to visit, so we are pretty much ready to go.

More soon…..