Up early to be met by Andrew's uncle and aunt. Rosemary is short and well built, like Andrew's dad. John is a little bit taller and thinner. Very welcoming and friendly. They took us over to Cliff House for breakfast. Then we drove along the coast to Montenery Bay. The coast line here seems to stretch for miles and miles of beaches and sand dunes.

Once out of the city we were passing through mainly agricultural and rural areas. Lettuce, pumpkins, sunflowers and vines are al grown here. Also there seems to be large areas of open grazing, mainly for cattle, and currently parched brown in the summer heat.

At Montenery bay we visited the aquarium. The jellyfish were amazing so beautiful and gentle. There was a rather nice looking sea turtle in one tank and some very cute penguins and sea otters. We saw a very interesting film on sharks and the need to protect their numbers - they really are quite amazing creatures that have been vilified by the media. I also got to stroke a small shark!

We had lunch at a little restaurant on the wharf I had clam chowder and red snapper which was delicious, I even managed to eat it all, the sea air seems to have improved my appetite. We then drove back through San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge.

We crossed the bridge in fog which lifted a bit the other side but then came down again. We drove along a narrow twisty road with bleak ranch land on either side. There were more trees and hills in the landscape, but apart from that it reminded me very much of the Yorkshire Moors. In some ways the landscape is more like the dales but it has the desolate feel of the moors.

We are staying in Dillon Beach a small cosat village.

The house we are staying in belongs to a friend of John and Rosemary. It is a lovely little old fashioned traditional house. It is nearly next to the beach.

Inside the walls are wooden planks, painted blue and white. It really is a beautiful house.

As it was late we just relaxed over coffee, wine and cheese. Discovered that in America they have strawberry flavour cream cheese - I am not convinced about this.

Day 8    Day 10