March 2006

The long drive south

Boooorrrring day of driving today. We left San Francisco at 9am and made great progress south, but then hit Los Angeles. We sat on the so-called Interstate 5 for two-and-a-half hours before appearing on the south side of the city and making it back to San Clemente. But the smog was orange today, which apparently isn't that common.

The guide books are very scathing about driving through central California, as you have the sea, the mountains and then a huge, flat, agricultural plain. But the variety of crops is amazing, mostly trees with oranges, almonds, pistachios etc. and a few vines for figs and grapes. The entire area would be desert, if it wasn't for all the water brought over in aquaducts from the Colorado river. The whole rural economy is based on immigrant workers, so your choices on the radio are Spanish or Christian rock. We listened to the Spanish stuff.

Anyway, a weekend of eating and shopping awaits, punctuated by Sunday morning at a megachurch (congregation: 22,000). Hallelujah, brother!

Endless farmland, although we did see a crop duster (not chasing anyone)

The view outside Bakersfield

Our healthy lunch stop - all the major food groups

Newly set up nodding donkeys in the middle of farmland

Jim and Gen's fab house in San Clemente

Minnie, their cat. I had no other photos of cute fluffy animals for today.

Redwoods, Wine and Llamas

It wasn't raining quite as hard this morning. So we stuffed our faces with the complementary pastries in the hotel. Again. And then caught a cooking-oil fuelled bus for our wine tour. It was run by a lady called Catherine, who didn't stop talking from 9.15am until she dropped us back at the hotel at 7pm.

We started at Muir Woods, a redwood forest where they filmed the Ewok scenes from Return of the Jedi! I was so excited. Then we were taken to a really nice bistro for lunch where our nutty guide made us order our food then run across the road for 15 minutes at a cheese factory before going back to eat.

The vineyards were all nice, but the wine was disappointing and expensive. Visiting vineyards is an industry in itself, with huge crowds turning up on buses and every place having its own food/T-shirt/fridge magnet line. If only they spent as much effort on the wine...

The Golden Gate bridge

A slice of a giant redwood, where they filmed Vertigo

Hannah pretending to be an Ewok

It's worse than its bite. Hahahahahaaaaa...

Sonoma Jack cheese, a poor relation to the mighty Somerset Cheddar

Hannah and lots of cheese

At the vineyards

About enough wine

Wine tasting, but you had to pay $5 for the priviledge! We didn't.

The winery's llama, called Dolly.

Hannah, David, the Golden Gate bridge

David and the tour guide, when she stopped talking for three seconds

Then it started raining again. So we went out to a Mexican restaurant where we had roasted cactus and I had a cactus juice cocktail. San Francisco is just the best! We're driving back to San Clemente tomorrow, so I'll take lots of pictures of road signs.

Arriving in SF

It kept raining. So we waited it out in a nice bakery in Santa Cruz that the gayest man in the world (who worked for the tourist information) directed us to. It was still raining after that, so we headed to the mall. Thankfully the sun appeared after that, and we got to San Francisco in the afternoon (where the lady who owns the motel we're staying in said that it's rained for 24 days in March so far).

San Francisco is a fantastic city! We spent the day walking around, drinking coffee and looking at sea lions.

More of the rain that California is famous for

Hannah enjoying a latte and granola at Gayle's Bakery, Santa Cruz

The San Francisco skyline

Sea lions, not doing much, at Pier 39

Chinatown

Bird(man) of Alcatraz

Strange coin-operated execution machine.

This is a real skunk!

I'm off to bed now. Tomorrow it's our wine tour on a bus that runs on cooking oil!

A day with the fish

We said goodbye to the hippies at the Avila Beach Inn and kept driving up the Pacific Coast Highway. What they don't tell you in the guide books is that huge boulders fall off the mountains and block the road. What they also don't tell you is that it NEVER stops raining in California.

So we spent most of the day in the aquarium at Monterey, then had dinner at a fantastic place called the Black Bear Diner. It kept my obesity target on track.

Full on hippy living at the Avila Beach Inn

The sunny California coast

Slight blockage on the Pacific Coast Highway

Hannah surveys the Pacific Ocean during a rare break in the rain

The Monterey Aquarium

Anchovies - I'll never look at a pizza the same way again

Jellyfish

Feeding time in the kelp forest

An ugly fish, dressed in pink

Penguins!

Up the PCH

We started driving up the Pacific Coast Highway today, after buying all the junk food we could find at our local Wal-Mart.

Hannah and the Pacific Ocean

David and the smallest hire car they had available

The world-famous Andersen split pea soup restaurant in Buellton. What do you mean you've never heard of it?

A bowl of the stuff

David at the beginning of his all-you-can-eat pea soup and milkshake special

Hannah the split pea soup chef

Solvang, southern California's own Danish village. Just like the real thing! Only not.

A genuine Danish shop! We had hours of amusment asking if they sold bacon.

Another renowned American landmark.

It's an ostrich

But these are emus...

Tonight we're staying in the Inn at Avila Beach. It's a fab place, run by hippies, with complimentary popcorn in the rooms. Wow.

Meeting Jim and Gen

We picked up our hire car in the morning (there's just a line of them and you get to pick which one you want - wow!) and drove down to San Clemente to meet Jim and Gen. Unfortunately we'd forgotten to find out where they lived, but a nice man in a real estate shop agreed to give us directions if we promised to buy our house in America from him.

After that the day disappeared in whrilwind of Mexican food and mall shopping. Now we're off up the Pacific Coast Highway to Avila Beach!

Jim and Gen at Baja Burritos (utterly non-authentic Mexican fast food chain)

Carving up our quesedilla (a cheese sandwich made out of pancakes)

"Everywhere I look I'm reminded of her..."

"Look out for illegal immigrants running across the freeway" sign, near the Mexican border.

Two mechanical moose in the back of a truck...

The Grand Tour of LA

Well, we touched down at LAX at 10pm, sat on the runway until 11pm, spent an hour-and-a-half queueing for immigration and arrived at the hotel at 1am. The fire alarm went off at 2am, and kept going off until 3.15am. We were up at 7am, ready for our LA tour at 8am!

After some fantastic English bashing from the Australian and US ladies in our pick-up bus ("Australia was really just a prison for the English to send the Irish to...") and in-depth discussion of the immigration debate from the bus driver ("but if you took away the border controls to Mexico all the criminals would get in") we got underway.

Day 1 - LA tour!

 

Shopping on Rodeo Drive - just like Pretty Woman, but cheaper.

 

LA in the smog

As close as we got to the Hollywood sign...

David and the Hollywood sign

The Hollywood Walk of Fame (like in the movies!)

More than he deserves...