Hi Lovelies,

How are you all? Good I do hope!

So I am back in Jersey from San Francisco! I had a wonderful time with Stacy and Trevor -- it was really great to catch up with them. Thanks for having me guys! I loves you.

SO here are a few pics for you all...we are running around crazy at the moment trying to get everything done. I shall post some pics of the mayhem when I get a moment! =)

Lots of love,

jess xoxo

The view of the Golden Gate Bridge from Stacy + Trev's rooftop

Some of the houses in the Sunset district

The sunset from the sunset district!

Stacy and Trevor protecting themselves from the wind on our walk

Stacy and I

Hi All!

How are you? Good I do hope! We are here in San Francisco, we arrived yesterday and have been having a splendid time!

We walked part of the Golden Gate Bridge, which was kinda scary as there were bikes and cars and people and it was just very hectic! Still, it was an awesome thing to do! We have explored the area known as Fisherman's Wharf, watched the cute Sea Lions who live at Pier 39, been on a trolley to the Union Square Area as well as Chinatown and Downtown areas!

Last night we went out to San Bruno and met Andrea and Stephan (friends who use to live in New Jersey with us) and some of their friends at a Mexican restaurant. It was great to catch up with them, they seem to be enjoying life out here on the West Coast!

Today we did more exploring and then caught a boat out to Alcatraz which was awesome. For those of you who do not know, it is an island in the middle of San Francisco Bay that use to house a maximum security federal prison - I guess because there have been many movies made in Alcatraz it made the whole place seem oddly familiar, yet totally creepy. It was just awesome to see!

Then tonight we had dinner with one of my friends from college, Stacy who lives out here! Tomorrow Mum, Dad and Meish are heading back to Jersey and I am going to stay a few days longer with Stacy and her boyfriend, Trev. I am looking forward to catching up with them both!

There are lots of photos below as I didn't post yesterday. Hope you enjoy them all!
Lots of love,

jess xoxo

p.s. sorry if this post makes no sense! I'm exhausted and can't be bothered rereading it!

The Golden Gate Bridge

Fisherman's Wharf

The Sea Lions sunning themselves on Pier 39

Meishey eating a scrumptious strawberry!

The gang at the mexican for dinner

Mum, Andrea and Livingston - the traveling pig

An awesome heart sculpture in Union Square

Alcatraz Island!

haha...Mum sad because she is stuck behind bars! haha, i love this photo

This place sure was creepy

The corridor of the prison, it was 3 stories high with cells on either side.

Hello Everyone!

How are you? Good I do hope! =)

So today was spent traveling around several wineries around this area - the Sonoma Valley. It is a very pretty area, and at times it even looked like it could be somewhere in Australia! They have gum trees here in California, and the area is really quite dry. The combination of which means that in parts, and with a little bit of imagination, you could be somewhere out by Orange looking at the vineyards out there!

We had lunch over looking the Sonoma Valley Dam, and then dinner here in the hotel as we had done a lot of driving and just wanted an easy answer to the question of dinner!

So I shall put a few photos below, hope you enjoy!
Lots of love

jess xoxo

Dad swirling a glass of Syrah

Grapes!

A cute chicken we found at one of the vineyards

Vines with the mountains in the background

A rare group shot!

Hi all,
How are you? Good I do hope! I'm trying something different today with the photos and the stories. Hope you like it!
lots of love

jess xox

This morning I was greeted by Monkey, sitting in my seat in the car, wearing the hat of an emperor...

Meish then told me that it was nice having me as a sister and good luck. Clearly Monkey was taking my place on the road trip and I was to be left in the small, strange town we stayed in last night.

Luckily I sweet talked Monkey into taking the middle seat and jumped into the car...

As we began today's journey, we stopped to drive through a giant redwood tree! As you do around here! The tree is still living, it just has a convenient car sized hole at the bottom of it. For those of you with good enough screens, you can see Dad poking his head out of the car!

After about four hours (or there abouts) in the car we made it to today's destination, Rohnert Park and found the In N Out Burger. Meish had been told that we had to go there and get hamburgers so go there we did!

We got a hamburger, and a cheeseburger, some fries and a vanilla milkshake. As we were waiting for the order we could see the people, washing the potatoes, cutting them up and making them into fries. Right before our eyes!

Dad was happy that we finally made it to Rohnert Park and fed him a hamburger, apparently it was very tasty!

Even Meish ate some hamburger!!! I had to take photographic evidence as not many people will believe me she had some. What a cute Meishey.

Since we finally made it to a place that was hot and we didn't have to wear jeans and jumpers we quickly checked into our hotel and hit the pool! It took a bit of convincing but we got Mum in the water. =)

Meish took some photos of me, some flattering, some not so.

So I took some photos of her, and they all turned out spectacularly.

Now after a long day, we are all tucked up in bed ready to face a big day wine tasting again tomorrow. Until next time folks...

Hi All,

How are you? Good I do hope! =)

Today we drove down from Oregon into California through what they call "The Avenue of the Giants" - it is a national park that has Redwood trees in it bigger than you can imagine trees can be!

Before we left we had an early morning walk on the beach, and on the way down we saw some amazing coast line, but the redwood trees very much stole the day. We got there just as the mid afternoon sun began trickling though the leaves, it wasn't hot but it wasn't cold either.

The tallest tree we saw standing was 383 feet tall, and as you will see below, had a giant circumference. Mum and Meish stretched themselves out and held hands around it's trunk but didn't even cover 1/4 of the base of the tree. There were many fallen trees that had their root system exposed and we saw one fallen tree that had a root system at least 3 times taller than I was (it was laying down exposed). Some of the trees in the park are more than 1,000 years old.

It was just amazing. Most of the good photos are in files that are too big for me to put on this computer, but I shall put a few below anyhow...the really good ones shall have to wait until I am back home with my computer! Okay, thats it from me! I am exhausted, its time for my beauty sleep!

Hope alls well with you

jess xoxo

Mum and Dad walking on the beach this morning

Haven't posted a pic of me in a few days, so here I am.

Mum and Meish

Half the root system for one tree, the other half was broken off in the fall

Looking up

Meish trying to count the rings on this tree - the tree broke in half when it fell so this is about the half way up the tree

Mum and Meish trying to hug the Giant Tree!

Hi Everyone!

How are you all? Good I do hope! Today was another long car day - we left Portland and drove down to Gold Beach which is about 6 hrs drive south of where we woke up!

It is very pretty down here, we are staying not far from the beach and if it were not FREEZING then it would be fun to go down there for a paddle! Once we got here we went down and watched the Salmon fishing at the mouth of the river, and then headed off and had another yummy dinner!

Tomorrow we are continuing down the coast into California.

Hope all is well with you!
lots of love,

jess xoxo

The beach

Random Shipwreck

Sunset

Hi Everyone!

How are you all? Good I do hope! Today we went into Portland and had a look around - I must admit I was not overly impressed with it. Perhaps we just didn't know where the nice places to go were, but from what we saw, it was nothing special really. I think it would not be too bad if you lived there, but to visit, not so much.

Meish, after a trip to the drs to make sure her knee was okay, (it is, she just needs to rest it) headed off to meet with one of her friends from high school. So Mum, Dad and I caught the street car around and had a look at the town. We had lunch in a local brewery, called Deschutes. They specifically focused on making very hoppy beers, and had a few organic ones as well.

Then this afternoon we went to this place called VooDoo Donuts which Meish had heard about. We stood in line for 40 minutes to get these donuts! haha. But I must admit, it was kinda worth it! They had a crazy range of donuts - including maple flavoured donuts with bacon on top! There is a photo down below in case you don't believe me! We tried to get Mum to buy one of these donuts but she chickened out at the last minute! Meish got a donut that was a in the shape of a person with a pretzel "voodoo pin" sticking out of it! haha.

We came back out to the outskirts of Portland for dinner and are now setting about packing up so we can hop up in the morning and move on to our next destination!

So I hope alls well with you,
lots of love
jess xoxo

Mum with this fancy steel bridge we found in the background

Dad was all excited that we finally saw beavers! haha

The Court House

The gang waiting patiently outside of VooDoo donuts!

The donut on the left of the photo HAS BACON ON IT!!

Hi Everyone,

I do hope all is well with you! Today was the first day of our trip that involved vineyards! I know, I was also impressed that we survived a WHOLE 13 days of a trip without once stepping foot on a vineyard! Well, today the drought was broken and we enjoyed the sweet fruit of the vine (yes Andrew, I stole your phrase in an effort to make you comment) on the grounds it was created! haha. In other words, we went to a couple of wineries.

The Willamette Valley, which is where we are currently staying, just outside of Portland, Oregon has more than a few dozen wineries. So while Meish stayed home to rest her sore knee ( =( ) we checked out a few. It was really quite pretty and the sun even came out for a few moments!!

As always, I've put a few pictures below.
Take care,
lots of love

jess xoxo

Hi Everyone!

How are you? Good I do hope! =) So today we spent another day looking around Seattle, it was an overcast day - as I hear many days around here are, but we made the most of it! We spent quite a bit of time in Pike Markets, a public market that has many, many stalls and stores selling everything from fish to crumpets to healing hemp ointment and earrings. It was indeed a fascinating place.

We also went on a ferry ride around the harbour here, there is a big port where we watched containers being loaded onto a giant ship, staring in awe at what our goods and chattel shall endure on their big trip back home.

Then tonight we ate dinner at the revolving restaurant at the top of the Space Needle, which is this really tall structure with a space-ship like thing at the top that has an observation deck and a restaurant. For you Aussies, think Center Point Tower, only a space ship on the top instead of the shape it is now, what shape would you call it? Perhaps bucket shape?

Anyway, thats it from Seattle for tonight. I'm off to bed!
Hope alls well with you,
lots of love

jess xoxo

The outside of Pike Markets

Pike Place Fish Markets, the guys throw the fish around and chant as they work. Meish had seen a video of them and was super excited to go there in person

The gang outside THE original Starbucks store which opened in 1971 (i think)

Cute Street Art I found

Terry - this photo is for you. I know there is not a photo of us drinking the beer, but trust me - we drank it! I'd forgotten you wanted a photo of the beer being drunk. Shall do better next time! Oh, this was Pike Company Brewery - they gave us a tour of the facility!

The view from where we had dinner. Very spectacular!