Of course, we all know the state I was most excited about reaching was my beloved California! I had devised an awesome playlist with all the best Cali tunes and so as we approached this sign it was only appropriate that we had 'California here we come...' blasting out of the stereo! We drove by too fast and I snapped a blurry shot of the sign above so of course I made By go back so I could document our arrival to the Golden State officially!
We stopped at the road for a little spot of fresh fruit picking! to keep the pregnant me happy!
The raspberries we picked were totally delish!
and then it was on to By's favourite part of the trip - the Redwoods! We stopped and spent the day at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.
We hiked the Boy Scout Tree trail...
which led to some very large encounters indeed! The pic above really puts thing in proportion when you see me compared to the trees!
By snapped this awesome 360 panorama of me and all the trees!
Just when we thought we'd seen the biggest one yet, we'd keep finding even bigger ones!
It made for a pretty spectacular walk!
Eventually we made it to the infamous tree!
Just to give you an idea of how huge it is...that's Byron and I with our arms outstretched as far as they will go and we didn't even cover nearly a 1/4 of the tree!
I'm used to Byron being so much taller than me so it's funny to see how those trees dwarfed him!
We headed on to the little town of Leggett...
especially to pay a visit to the 'drive-thru' tree!
and there's Byron driving our little hire car on through!
It's pretty crazy that the trunk is fat enough for a whole car to fit through!
Fortunately these days there is a lot more preservation going on so nothing like this would ever be allowed these days and the Redwoods are really protected...but it was still a bit of a novelty to be able to drive through a tree!
We camped the night at another state park nearby, and headed out early the next morning. Passing 101 road signs still bring a smile to my face!
We drove through a lot of vineyards in the wine country, until eventually we made it to Fairfield - the home of the Jelly Belly!
My family are huge Jelly Belly fans! My sisters and I used to belong to the Jelly Belly fan club when I was like 8, and we used to get sent free samples of new flavours through the post!
I remember 9 years ago when Mel and I were in San Fran we saw a leaflet for Jelly Belly World in the hostel we were staying at, and we were so desperate to go! but it wasn't possible to get to it by public transport...so 9 years later we made it happen! and Mel made it happen on their Californian road trip last year too.
So we stopped and had lunch first before the tour...because one thing I learnt quickly on our road trip was that hungry pregnant ladies can get angry quickly!
and where else in the world can you get a jelly belly bean shaped burger?!
we also tried these amazing deep fried mac and cheese bites!
and I got a jelly belly shaped pepperoni pizza!
Lunch was a hit! and then we went on our tour of the factory where we got to see exactly how Jelly Belly beans are made! It was awesome, unfortunately you weren't allowed to take pics on the tour, but I'll leave you with this one on the way out of a bear made entirely from jelly belly's! so clever!
After our day of Jelly Belly fun we headed to San Fran. As we arrived it was approaching evening, and I decided we should head to Sausalito to get a good view of the San Fran skyline...because look how blue and awesome the sky was!
but oh San Fran, how could I forget about you and your fog! so this is the best we could manage!!
We stopped off at the side of the Golden Gate, only to be surrounded by more fog!
So I present to you not even half of the bridge!!
but I still love it all the same!
spooky mist and all!
We arrived into the city just as it got dark. We had arranged to stay with a random couple through the website air b n b, and they wanted to take us to this local ice cream place down the road which was meant to be super popular!
Clearly, this idea went down well with us! So we headed to Mitchell's...
By went for a monster waffle cone of Reese's choc pb cup ice cream...
and I just had to try one of their delicious ice cream sandwiches! mint Oreo sandwiched between two fresh choc chip cookies! It was the perfect way to start our sugar filled 24 hours in the city!
Yum I have totally been craving chocolkatre tonight and the Belgian has finished even my cooking chocolate and nutella! Loser! Glad you enjoyed jelly belly world too and I had that pizza too! Those trees are amazing wish we'd had the Forrester with us!!
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