Travelling Beyond

Hi Back again. We were going to go to to Chicago via Las Vegas, The Grand Canyon, Santa Fe and Taos in New Mexico, but instead we went by hire car from Long Beach California over to see the Sequioa Giant trees which were amazing. One tree called General Sherman is 35ft in diameter and is over 250ft high and is over 2000 years old. The next day we drove onto Yosemite National Park which was awe inspiring! We even had a black bear cub join us for a picnic lunch! Thankfully Mama Bear didn't come too. There are signs everywhere about not feeding the bears and leaving food behind and one guy left come egg on a paper plate on the picnic table. The bears can be shot if they keep coming back to the picnic spots, so we did our best to shoo him/her away so thet he/she wouldn't get into trouble with the rangers. After Yosemite National Park we drove onto Merced where we stayed the night then onto San Francisco for two days. San Francisco is such a beautiful city. We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge which was covered a lot in fog the two days we were there. It is was till exciting to be able to say we drove across it though. We visited Sausaleto too and Muir woods with more big trees, I really loved the Sausalito area a lot. The homes in San Francisco were so beautiful - and BIG! We drove down Lombard Street which is supposed to the the crookest street in the world. I believe it! We had a chineese meal at Chinatown the first night, then a seafood meal at Fishermans Wharf the second night. On Tuesday 31st July we took the Amtrack train from Emeryville, Calf to Naperville, Illinois which is about 30 kms west of Chicago city. It took us two and a half days to get there by train so by the ebd of it we were sure glad to reach our destination at last. We are staying in an area called Lombard, which is very beautiful. We have been busy everyday, visiting a lot of the local sights and still have a LOT more to cover yet. We will keep you posted when I get a chance to log on. Bye for now Toni & Gary