When I was 10 years old, I won the quiz competition at my school, which was surprising to me and most of my teachers because I was considered deaf dumb and blind. What I remember the most about the competition was the final question that clinched my victory. The question was about the tallest trees in the world and I knew they were redwood trees. I  felt so good knowing something so trivial. Over the years, I read everything about redwood trees and always wanted to see them.

Yosemite national park was the place I wanted to visit. It was snowing and tire chains were mandatory . I have never used tire chains and had no idea how to install them. I parked my car near the entrance and opened the tire chain box to read the instruction manual. Fortunately a trucker felt sorry for me and installed the tire chains for me.

I got to see both the giant sequoias and the coastal redwood trees.

Also the half dome rock formation..

 Coastal redwood trees.

Giant sequoias

My kids enjoying the snow.

Half dome formation.

So far we have been to San Diego, LA (Venice , Santa Monica, Manhattan beach, Sunset blvd, Beverly Hills, UCLA, Disney land) Pismo beach to see the migrating Monarch butterflies, San Louis Obispo to watch the Christmas parade, San Francisco, Stanford,  Yosemite national park and now in Las Vegas.

(Kids enjoying the view from Venice beach CA)

I consider myself to be a really good driver. After all I have driven  through the autobahn, NSE across M’sia, Alaska highway and most of Australian highways. But nothing, I repeat nothing has prepared me for driving in US.

Being the mad woman that I am, I thought I will head to San Diego from LA on thanksgiving weekend. I assumed it would be like my usual morning surfing trip from home to Gold Coast. Happily I clicked the destination on my Gps and followed the instructions only to find myself in a maze with cars zipping in and out of lanes at high speed. I had no idea what the speed limit was, I couldn’t remember the formula to convert Miles to KM, there were so many lane merging and exits. I also had the habit of veering to the right and my son was constantly telling me ” mom you are too close to the line”. But we made it to San Diego and back. I am getting a hang of driving on the wrong side.

We visited Disney Land.  I was a bit skeptical about going to Disney Land in winter, but it turned out to be an awesome trip. I loved the Christmas theme decorations and the castle looked magnificent. My favourite ride is the Star Wars ride and apparently there are 54 versions of the ride and I would love to see them all eventually. Kids loved soaring over California the most and we went on it 12 times! I hate roller coaster rides, but after hearing too many times what a chicken I am, I decided to go on all the rides Including the roller coaster. I closed my eyes and the ride didn’t  scare me.

More updates later