FIRST, we went SOUTH

The thing with California, is everyone thinks of LA...  Warm, sunny beaches, shorts and a suntan.  That's for people who've never been to San Francisco.  There, while -in- California, is not really in 'California'.  In SF, it's more or less cold year round.  Never freezing perse, but not summery is summer, and certainly not summery in spring.  But, ok, it is summery in fall...  LA however, is summery almost year round, therefore beings solidly -in- 'California.

Right, being in SF in March required heading south to be warm.  Safest bet for being damn near *hot* in almost winter, is DEATH VALLEY, so that's where we went first.  We took Hwy 99 south to Bakersfield, and jumped over the Sierra Nevada mountain range on Hwy 158.  This took us by Lake Isabella and through an amazing Joshua Tree forest--not 'Joshua Tree National Park'--that's a later trip!