my travels in pixels

Next stop – Oregon. We had heard that the Oregon coast was really nice but again we encountered fog and someone had turned off the heating. I found a lovely spot to the east of Brookings, which isn't on the beach, which meant it was warmer - Alfred Loeb State Park . We hadn't been there half an hour when a lovely couple from north of Napa Valley invited us to dinner. Americans are so hospitable. All the campgrounds in Oregon are really good. The sites are well laid out, there is shrubbery to give you some privacy from your neighbour, hot showers that you don't have to scrounge around looking for quarters for that also allow you to move more than a few inches in each direction! and clean restrooms. The weather is just perfect - not too hot, not too cold (unless you go on the beach), sun, blue skies and a slight breeze. We moved up the coast and stayed at Humbug State Park and William Tugman State Park , both have trails close to the campground. Nehalem Bay has a the B...

Heading up the 101 which runs a bit inland from the coast we came across the "Avenue of the Giants" drive where you drive through the spectacular redwood trees. We got the last spot at the Humboldt Redwoods State Park which was surrounded by ferns and tall trees. It was beautiful.  view in front of our campsite, there is a road there but you can only tell when a car drives past Our aim was to get to the Redwoods National Park which is further up the road and we had rung and they said they had plenty of sites. I think we were given the wrong number as the Elk Prairie campground was reservation only and booked out.  There were sites at Mill Creek State Park and we got a lovely secluded site but the park is not really amongst the redwoods. Still in pursuit of better redwoods we headed north, they had three sites left at the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. I’m not quite sure what happened to the National Park, it seems to be melded in with the various State P...

Los Angeles is quite foggy in June/July and the weather is quite cool compared to the interior of the state, so it's a welcomed relief. In the mornings we walk along the beach where lots of other people are surfing, walking, running or riding their bikes. During the weekends people play beach volleyball. The houses on the hill at the southern end of the beach look like Positano in Italy. On one of our drives we went along Mulholland Drive/Hollywood to check out Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, and the Hollywood sign. When most people think of Hollywood, they are actually thinking of Beverly Hills. Rodeo Drive is in Beverly Hills, with lots of exclusive brand name shops. The traffic on the freeways is horrible, six lanes of fast moving mayhem. Getty Museum The Getty Museum is a private collection of pieces from all over the world. The museum is free but parking is $15. From Pacific Palisades we headed to Malibu to catch up with a Klaus, our photography friend...