I am not a Robot

Enough said.

North California

I've wanted to visit north California for some time.

I want to see the Big Sur (above), Carmel, Monterrey...I remember watching the film "play misty for me" and being mesmerised by the scenery, the stunning coastal drives. I wanted to be Clint Eastwood in that car driving along the coast and I want his house in that film! So much space, so few people, bracing fresh clean air, or so I imagine.

I also want to see Yosemite National Park and Lake Tahoe, we will probably camp there. I'd like to see Sausilito, and DH wants to see the Redwood trees further North.

There is something that draws me to the area, the climate, the contrast between the dramatic coast and the beautiful wilderness.

We are thinking about going to North Cal in September. Flying to san franciso and then driving from there. But having costed the trip up its given me a bit of a fright. We want to go for a month. In terms of accommodation we want to camp and stay in a few hotels. I've found an amazing camp site in the Big Sur. The first time I costed the trip it came out as £7,500!. Then I thought if we camped more we could bring the price down to about £6,000.

The trip would have something to keep both DH and I happy, DH is not a beach person, he loves hiking in the outdoors and wilderness. I like to hike but I also like to sit on quiet beaches watch the waves and just ponder. Hopefully we will get beach and hiking in north cal.

Can I justify spending the money? We could stay somewhere in the Mediterranean at that price for months. But its a holiday of a life time for us and it really is the only place (long haul) that we want to see.

Would it be so bad if....

Back to the issue of where to go and what to do after The Escape.

Actually, we know what we want to do and what we don't want to do. We want to live again and enjoy life, to rest for a while, to think and to just be. We want to cook, to while away the hours whilst enjoying beautiful scenery. We want to enjoy the great outdoors. We want to be close the sea and close the countryside.

We have decided that we are not really interested in travelling per se, i.e we have no desire to go travelling round Australia or Asia for example. To be honest, DH and I are not very good travellers. We love the Mediterranean. There are parts of the USA that we really want to see such as North California, Oregon, Montana and Idaho.

Cost is also a factor. Lately I have been thinking as to whether it would be so bad if we had a little base in Devon or Somerset? Just somewhere small we could rent for several months and go on extended trips from there. Its funny because when I originally started writing this blog I had visions and ambitions of sailing away from the UK on a plane somewhere with two fingers stuck in the air, ha!

I still want to spend the end of the summer this year and the few months of autumn somewhere in the Mediterranean. DH and I don't like the heat so we need to wait until it cools down.

We are also thinking about the option of housesitting and I am sure that we will do this one day. But for now, we think that we might need to have a something with no commitments or timetables etc.

Nothing is set in stone for now.