Monday September 6, 2010

Day 82 - Aug 31, 2010 (Tues) San Francisco Part 1
> Left St Helena bright and early to get as much time in at the new destination as possible (was sad to say goodbye, but we were ready after our month long break from the road). Found a note on our car from our neighbours – Alex and her son Roman wishing us safe travelling and wanting to stay in touch so they can send us a Christmas card!
> Had lunch with Martha at the Ferry Building (lovely to catch-up of course and hear all her news... and share all ours too!) And on our way we had a random and surprising encounter with Ash and Nell (Tim and Ash met through Macquarie). Small world!
> Spent the afternoon doing a bus tour and ticking off sites such as the Painted Ladies (also known as the Six Sisters), Golden Gate Bridge (incredible how the fog creeps through it, and then disappears moments later), and Japanese Tea Garden (it was a little steep at $7ea for entry, but we got some great photos so was probably worth it)!
> Walked up some very steep hills (San Franciscans must be very fit!) and arrived at Lombard St, the “crookedest” street is what its known as. It was actually really lovely, and we tend to believe it was built for tourism purposes (surely a street like that couldn’t exist for any other reason).
> Had dinner in Chinatown – very tasty Chinese greens, seafood fried rice and roast duck! (sadly, we were actually inspired to have duck after seeing one in the Japanese Tea Gardens – ha!)
> Checked-in to our Oakland motel and had an early night – we were exhausted from a day full of activities! (Duke even got a prime street park right at the motel entrance)!

Day 83 - Sept 1, 2010 (Wed) - San Francisco Part 2
> Woke bright and early as we had booked ourselves on the first Alcatraz Tour of the day… and we were so pleased when it was a warm and sunny day (85F/27C, which is unbelievable for SF – lucky us)!
> Joined the masses on Alcatraz (the boat cruise out there was really lovely), and did the audio tour through the cell block. We both thoroughly enjoyed it, and managed to spend a few hours wandering the halls and reading every bit of information the National Park Service was kind enough to provide for us.
> Hopped back onto the bus for day 2 on our ticket. It was just lovely to be sitting out in the sun, cruising the streets of San Fran! We escaped for a late lunch on Chestnut Street (a lovely Main St near The Marina area), wandered to Ghiradelli Square, then hopped into The Duke and headed down US1 to our next destination… Santa Cruz.

Day 84 - Sept 2, 2010 (Thurs)
> Santa Cruz: Went to the popular Boardwalk area (quite similar to Coney Island in NYC). We were walking along the Boardwalk and thought we heard seals… so we went to investigate and sure enough there were dozens of seals lounging and playing underneath the pier! We stayed there for a while to watch them – and they were so close, we could have touched them!
> Soaked in the sun for a couple hours, grabbed some lunch and hit the road for Monterey (only an hour away)
> Dinner at the Monterey Fisherman’s Wharf, followed by a walk along a local seaside trail (it really cools down at night, so fortunately we got back to the car soon after sundown!)

Day 85 - Sept 3, 2010 (Fri)
> Day 2 in Monterey. Did the 17-mile drive (privately owned by Pebble Beach Company) – mainly we saw lots of Cypress Trees (including the Lone Cypress – the image of which is owned by Pebble Beach and copyrighted!), then did more US1 driving down to Big Sur for lunch. Monterey to Big Sur on US1 is much more picturesque than Santa Cruz to Monterey, which was much more like a freeway/motorway. We were constantly stopping to take photos, despite how foggy and overcast it was!
> On our way back to Monterey, we took a very windy and narrow road down to Pebble Beach. It was spectacular – we walked the entire length of it (probably only 1.5miles or so), and the warm sand in our toes was very welcome against the cold wind coming off the water. There were a number of people there with dogs, books, lunch, Frisbees, buckets for fishing etc. We stopped for an hour or so and did some reading, then got on our way. It was a fabulous detour!
> We had dinner at Denny’s that night (a chain American diner). It was as good as could be expected. At least we can say we’ve done it now.

Day 86 - Sept 4, 2010 (Sat)
> Left Monterey, and went to Carmel to visit the Mission there. The Mission had a very interesting history, and has been very well restored, has gorgeous gardens, and the primary school that is situated on the Mission’s grounds is gorgeous.
> Back on Highway 1, we continued to encounter beautiful views, although very foggy which added to the drama of it all! All the “pitstops” were few and far between, which meant that everywhere that was a lunch/toilet stop was very busy, and overpriced… but I guess that is what you have to deal with when driving so close to the coast.
> Our hotel in San Simeon was along a motel strip – the “town” consisted of about a dozen different motels, with 2 mini-marts and a video store, and that was all! Accommodating tourists is a hard job!

Day 87 - Sept 5, 2010 (Sun)
> Tour of Hearst Castle (built by media mogul William Hearst) which was much more interesting that we originally hoped… and incredibly popular too. His “castle” (which we learned was actually his ranch) was opulent and ostentatious , but it turns out he just loved European artifacts and went overboard with it all (nearing bankruptcy in the great depression… but who didn’t, right?)!!
> More US1 driving to get to Buellton, CA. We arrived too early to check-in, so we diverted to do a wine tour. By chance, the winery we chose (LaFond) on the Santa Rosa Road was only $5ea for a tasting (including the take-home glass), and we met the husband of our lovely host (Kathy and Mike), and Mike happened to invent the rubber-flooring used in playgrounds and also lives on the ranch next to “Jim and Suzie Cameron” (i.e., James Cameron, movie director, Titanic and Avatar!) …. Small world! ;)

Day 88 - Sept 6, 2010 (Mon)
> Driving from Buellton to Barstow. Barstow is nothing spectacular, and was only chosen as a half way stop between the California coast and Las Vegas!
> We found it really intriguing how the weather changes so dramatically the further we get from the coast – we’re in California desert now, and it looks like Ranch County USA (i.e., we imagine cowboys roaming around tending their herds, and whatever else they do). The temperature where we were on the coast was about 60F/15C, and here in Barstow it is 105F/40C – Crazy!

Days 89-92 , Sept 7-10 2010
Looking into the future in this post! We’ll be in Vegas, and are mostly planned, so can talk about what’s on the cards for our days in Sin City!
> On our way into Vegas, we’re going to stop in at The Gun Store to try our hand at shooting a hand gun/rifle/machine gun! The laws on shooting ranges are very lax here, and The Gun Store offers a “Ladies Special” on Tuesdays, so it seems perfect! (Oh my goodness.)
> We’ve booked a South Rim Tour of Las Vegas (flying in/over the Grand Canyon, doing a bus tour along the rim for some photo opps, then flying back to Vegas)… am sure more will come on this!
> Have booked a Rat Pack dinner and show for Thurs night! Enough said... but should be fun!
> Planning on doing a club night (provided the lines aren’t too unruly! Its just been the Labor Day Weekend here, so hopefully that means the crowds are slightly smaller.)
> Plenty of pool and magazine action to be had too, of course (we’re staying at the Bellagio, and are very excited about it!)

Monday July 26, 2010

Yellowstone National Park to Cody, WY - Tues 20/7 (Day 40)
Checked out of the Dude/Roundup Motel establishment and drove through Yellowstone to get to Cody (surprisingly, no big animal sightings to mention, but we did see a pelican). The east entrance to Yellowstone was vastly different to the west entrance as it was much more mountainous and less congested; exiting YNP from the east we took the Buffalo Bill Scenic Byway all the way to Cody. Cody is named after Buffalo William "Bill" Cody who is famous for taking his travelling wild west show around the World in the late 1800s. He'd be proud of how Cody has continued this fervor for providing entertainment after the experience we had...

We tuned into the Cody tourist radio station and got a couple of tips for the night. Firstly, we went to the Shootout "exhibition" out the front of the Irma Hotel - this was a "show" where dudes (and one dudette) dressed-up in "authentic" Old West garb and did a Goodies vs Baddies gun shootout using blanks. The "show" only lasted about 10mins, but the prelude was about 30mins of selling Wanted posters, selling photo-opps, singing the national anthem, acknowledging the sponsors (although its questionable if these "sponsors" actually put forward any money given the show quality), and rewarding a soldier from the armed forces with a free Wanted poster (to which the audience delivered a standing ovation). It was memorable and hilarious in it's crapiness (but hey, it was free! On the other hand, they do the performance EVERY night, so we're surprised it's not a little bit more polished.... Loud dance music even erupted over the terrible audio system halfway through the actual "show"). For those keeping score at home, the goodies won.

Following this experience, we headed to the rodeo (we love a rodeo, and as Cody is the self-proclaimed Capital of Rodeo, this is the entire reason we detoured this way, and we weren't disappointed!) The girls who sold us the tickets at the visitor centre recommended sitting in the front row of the stadium where the cowboys gear-up and mount the bulls/mustangs, so we followed their advice and were generously rewarded for it, having a close-up view of the action! We were entertained by all the regular rodeo goings-on.... The cowboys, the clowns, the calf roping, bull riding (and they start young in Cody - there were entrants in a 12 and under category... With appropriately sized bulls of course). One of the cowboys was Australian (from some town we've never heard of), so the clown asked if there were any Aussies in the crowd, to which we excitedly screamed out! And we were the only 2 in the audience, so we took that as a personal shout out.

Cody, WY to Pocatello, ID - Wed 21/7 (Day 41)
Drove back to Pocatello (stayed there for one night again on our way to Oregon this time), and we visited an old "favorite" for dinner.... Sizzler! We were both shocked by how good it was. The salad bar was very fresh, the French toast was as tasty as when we were 10, and the endless dessert bar was moreish! We plan on going again, for sure.

Pocatello, ID to Ontario, OR - Thurs 22/7 (Day 42)
Driving day and stopover night. Recording it for consistency, really :)
We spent a bit of time at the pool (located almost in the middle of the car park) and tried to even out our hideous driving tans!

Ontario, OR to Bend, OR - Fri 23/7 (Day 43)
We arrived a little early to check-in, so went to the scenic viewpoint to check-out the city - gave a great vantage point, and the town is situated right in the middle of about 10 volcanoes (they're disguised as snow-covered mountains). After checking-in we did some poolside reading, had a couple of happy hour drinks and had a quiet night.

Bend, OR to Reedsport, OR - Sat 24/7 (Day 44)
To get out of Bend, we had to drive through about 20miles of volcanic debris, which was really awesome. There was all this black rock everywhere (and even a tower-like monument viewpoint that we climbed up to look out from), and it was so interesting to see the route that the lava carved for itself all those years ago (and the trees that were left standing were often in very unlikely places). That afternoon, we made it to the West Coast! And wouldn't you know it, it was foggy, overcast and only about 60F (15C). Boo. We drove around a bit, but mostly sulked in our room (with an $8 bottle of malbec we bought from the supermarket). There are some pretty incredible sand dunes in this area, which is what it's known for (unfortunately, the fog hindered the viewing and enjoyment of these).

Reedsport, OR to Crescent City, CA via Redwoods National Park - Sun 25/7 (Day 45)
We let ourselves sleep in a bit this morning (until 830, oh my!) and then headed for Crescent City, the entry point to Redwood National Park. Being on the coast, we were excited to have some fish for lunch (which we did) and then headed to the Park visitors centre, where the uber enthusiastic ranger gave us many options to entertain us for our 24hr stay. So with her advice and maps in hand, we headed off to the northern old growth area to witness some massive trees. We went for the Boy Scout Tree trail via a crazily narrow unpaved road, and saw some fantastically massive trees (apparently some of jurassic park was filmed in Redwood NP, to give you some context). And FYI keep an eye open for facebook photos... Stacey posed hugging a few different trees to give you the idea of how massive they are!! After the trail, we went to the popular Stout Grove, then did some scenic driving and stopped off at Myrtle Creek for a dip (more to say that we did vs being refreshed cos it was reallllly cold... Too cold for a swim, that's for sure!)

Crescent City, CA to Willits, CA (also via Redwood National Park) - Mon 26/7 (Day 46)
We awoke to another grizzly day with max temp expected to be 55F (ouch), then headed further south to explore the beautiful Fern Canyon. Did a fab loop hike through some old forest (though not as old as yesterday's apparently... Fewer massive trees), and Fern Canyon itself was amazing, so tranquil and a real "happy place", and one of our top 3 most beautiful places we've seen. Side note: It's amazing how the weather changes here - super foggy near the cost, and the moment you head inland it clears up; then as we headed south the sun started shining and the mercury inched up bit by bit.