The rain followed us up the Californian coastline to the Redwoods, and
then back down to Yosemite. During that week it rained nearly every day,
though often in the form of drizzle. In fact, in retrospect it almost seems as if
there was a rainfall limit set for each week of our travels. In New York and
San Francisco we experienced one-day bursts of really hard rain, but spent
the rest of the time in these cities enjoying relatively dry weather.
Another characteristic of the David and Emma weather system was that we
could outrun it. So, when we left San Francisco in conditions of light rain and
drove south along the coast to Monterey we broke through the clouds and
spent the next two days enjoying cold but dry weather.
Cold weather and a bit of rain were actually unsurprising given that we
were travelling through the winter. But it did seem a little harsh at first
because I thought of sunshine when thinking about California, and I blame the
Beach Boys for that. We did get some lovely sunny periods during this first
stage of our travels, not warm enough that we could do without thick jumpers,
but very welcome non the less - especially after the rain had caught up with
us for a few days.
When we moved on from Monterey we enjoyed one of the warmest
spells of weather that we encountered outside of Florida. We spent a few
hours in Carmel by the Sea, picturesque at the best of times but positively
glowing in the lovely weather. Sadly we did not drive on far enough that day,
and our personal rain cloud caught up with us the next day in the Big Sur
area. We spent the day out walking in the state parks in spite of the cloudy,
showery day; we just wore our waterproof jackets. In fact the weather actually