California N to South at Easter live,one thread,with pictures. SFO,LA and San Diego

[cornishfrogboy]

California Dreaming (on a winters day).

Firstly, this is my very first attempt at a 'trip report' and It is prepared with the aim of assisting others in any decisions they make, rather than simply being a photo album of selfies and eats. Any comments, positive, negative or of indifference are much appreciated and will guide me in any subsequent USA trip reports! Any questions will be replied to.
A single thread with index approach (below) was adopted in order to free up space on this section of the forum.

We decided on an Easter California experience, aiming to avoid the following.
1. Excess cost in August, (we calculate an extra 25%).
2 Smog in LA.
3. Crowds.

The disadvantages of this were that we were limited to 14 Nights due to school break and Yosemite was ruled out due to the possibility of snow (and the 14 day limit). Our other snag, as we were much later to find out was the continued issue with the mud slide blocking the Pacific highway South of Big Sur. This is of course, now clear.

Plan as evolved.
Flights in to SFO and out of LA, 27/03/18 to 12/04/18... and plan our stops from this purchase app 8 months out.

We had clear ideas as to which bases we needed to tick and my report will cover these from arrival at SFO onwards. (I feel sure that a description of flights etc will benefit nobody). It was Virgin Atlantic, but purchased through Delta and in a Dreamliner. It was £575pp minus APD on that of my youngest.

Day 1. San Francisco arrival. Subway, Chinatown. Page 1.
Day 2 Embarcadero, Alcatraz, Fishermens Wharf, Trolley ride. Page 1.
Day 3 Dylan's famous tour, cycling , the bridge, page 1.Sausalito, Muir Woods. Cheesecake Factory.
Day 4. Hire car, bay bridge, Castle AFB, Monterey. Page 1.
Day 5. Whale watching and drive to Madonna Inn with review. Page1.
Day 6. Reagan Library (amazing) and arrival Valencia. Page 1.
Day 7. 6 Flags and arrival Annaheim. Page 1.
Day 8. California Adventure park. Page 2.
Day 9. Disneyland, Oceanside and arrival at Mission Beache. Page 2
Day 10. Sea world. Page 2.
Day 11 Balboa park, Zoo, Airspace, Natural History Museum ‘meeting the English’’. Page 2
Day 12. Boat trip of Harbour, USS Midway, Topgun bar, Seaport. Page 3.
Day 13. Ponyland, Tijuana by sea (and through the fence),. Page 3.
Day 14. Scripps aquarium, Legoland, Queen Mary. Page 4.
Day 15. Santa Monica, Hollywood excursion, LAX. Page 5.
Day 16 Home to Cornwall and collapse from exhaustion. Page 5.