Seattle - the final destination

Neither of us could believe that we had already arrived at our last stop on this trip and that it had come round so quickly. We arrived in Seattle on Black Friday - the biggest sales day of the year in the states. There were no RV parks within 20 miles of Seattle, so we needed to book ourselves into a hotel for the next 3 days. The usually reliable Sat Nav decided that it would be a good idea to take us right through the main shopping area, with millions of shoppers and hundreds of cars! This was probably the most nervous I have been driving the van and I was pretty sure I'd either smash into something or run someone over, but we managed to negotiate the traffic and arrived at our hotel in one piece.

On the agenda for the first night was to go and see the Seattle Space Needle before heading into Belltown for a feed and some beers. I have seen the Space Needle before but it looked really good at night.

As it was night time, we decided to take the ride to the top the day after. Next to the Needle there was a Winter Wonderland exhibition on that had all sorts of Christmassy stuff inside as well as a bunch of dancers on the stage which really got us in the Christmas spirit, even though we hadn't seen any decorations yet!

After food and drinks we called it a night. Saturday was going to be very packed. We walked to Pike Public Market, which has loads of little stalls selling stuff ranging from T-Shirts to fridge magnets to huckleberry jam to fresh fish and meat. The place was buzzing and it must be so satisfying to get all your fresh fruit, veg and meat for your lunch or dinner. There is a fish stall here that every time they get an order for a large fish, the fish gets thrown around like a rugby ball from one side of the stall to the other. It's really fun to watch and attracts a large crowd. The only place that rivals this is the market in Barcelona. One thing that is very cool about Pike Market is that it's the location of the first ever Starbucks. The queue inside was massive, so we didn't bother getting a coffee here, but it was quite cool to see it!! We also decided that we could get a coffee at one of the other billion Starbucks in the city.

After here we headed to Pioneer Square, located in the downtown district, to go and see the Mariners American football stadium, which is now shared with the Seattle Sounders football team. As we pitched up , we were in time to take the tour of the stadium, which was amazing. We were taken round the whole place ranging from the changing rooms, to the corporate entertaining area and even pitchside. To see how this stadium compares to the ones back in England was really good and shows that the Americans really know how to build their sports grounds.


Final part of the day was to go up the Space Needle. which gave us great views of the city. The plan for the evening was to hit the bars in downtown, where we ended up in Fago's Irish bar! I had been here before a few years ago and the place was as good as ever, including the live band that was the same one as I had seen here before. We got chatting to a Sol Campbell and Michael Clarke Duncan lookalike (John Coffey from the Green Mile) and ended up doing a few Lemon Drop shots with them.


A cracking night had by all. We stayed there until we got kicked out and jumped a taxi back to the hotel, where we both wanted a late night snack. Right by our hotel was a place called the
Hurricane Cafe. This place is open 24 hours and there were about 100 people in there. It's probably because we were both drunk, but the food we ordered tasted soooo good!!!

Sunday rolled around and we had planned to spend the day watching American footy in the local sports bar, which is exactly what we did, and after quite a few beers, another few bars we called it quits and headed back to the hotel.

Seattle is a great place that has everything. A lively nightlife, suburb restaurants, great shopping and a fantastic market as well. It's somewhere most Britons will never go as it's not touristy, but it's one of my favorite places and a perfect way to finish a perfect trip.

All the pics are here.

Lots of love

Stuoobs

xxx

Thanksgiving in Portland

Portland was our penultimate stop on our travels and we were due to be there on Thanksgiving, which we were both really looking forward to. As you will know, Thanksgiving is one of the major holidays in America and we wanted to get into the spirit of things so we booked ourselves into a plush restaurant for the occasion.

We still had 2 days to go before the big day, so after checking into the RV park, we took the bus into the city centre for a wander and some beers and found ourselves at a bar called Rock Bottom Brewery. Portland is famous for brewing its own beer and most of the bars here have what are known as "microbrewerys", so we picked from the several in house beers available and I must say, they were pretty good. Much more flavoursome than the mass produced Budweisers or Heinekens that we are used to. After a few of these, we moved on to a few other cool bars before calling it a night.

You may be aware that the state of Oregon has no sales tax, which can be as high as 11.25% in some states. This makes Portland a shopper's paradise and we decided to take full advantage so headed to the outlet mall on the edge of town. This was a tad disappointing as it was very similar to the outlet malls in the UK. We cut our losses here and headed to the premium shopping centre in town. This place had the more upto date styles and both Cazzie and I found a few tax free bargains in the Abercrombie and Fitch shop, so we left with happy faces!

The shopping trip took most of the day, so we retired to the van for the rest of the night.

The next day was Thanksgiving, we were unsure if any bars or shops would be open during the day, so it was a late start as we only got into town for 3pm. We managed to find a hotel bar that was open and sunk a few beers before it was time for out dinner at the Portland City Grill. This place came highly recommended as one of the best places to eat with fantastic panoramic view of the city from the 38th floor location. I don't have any pictures to post here as we were blessed with fog and rain so the views were non existent!

The meal itself was really good. I ordered the traditional turkey dinner and Cazzie opted for the rack of lamb. Add a starter each, 2 deserts and 2 bottles of wine we were expecting a large bill, but once again as there was no sales tax, we ate for $140 or £85, which we were both delighted with.

It was time to visit another one of Portland bars and we managed to find one that had some live music. The gins here were very cheap and flowing very freely. All in all a terrific way to spend thanksgiving.

Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures of Portland so I am unable to post any here, which is a shame as Portland is a great place. I think we missed out on a lot of the things to do here as it was Thanksgiving, but we both enjoyed the place nevertheless.

Love

Stuoobs

xxx

What to do on the way to Portland?

The drive from Napa Valley to Portland was going to take over 8 hours and not something we wanted to do, so we spent a lot of time trying to find something to do in between. We thumbed through the Lonely Planet guide, searched the Internet and even asked around, and no one could come up with anything half decent to do. As a last resort we unfolded the paper map (yes they still exist) and scoured the area and spotted Crater Lake, a mountain area located about 3 hours South West of Portland. A bit of Google-ing later we decided to give it a go and we are so glad we did.

The park was the best we stayed in. It was run by a retired couple that are ex rv-ers who wanted to build and run a park that they would want to stay in. It was in a terrific location right in the alpine forest, it had super fast and free Internet, steaming hot showers that were spotless, the bathroom it's self was very warm, the site was huge that we allocated to park in and to top it all off, it was one of the cheapest we had stayed at.

As it was late when we arrived, I paid the following morning and went to find Jim, the owner. We chatted for over 25 mins about what to do , what to see and where to eat, so Cazzie and I tidied up and headed off to go and see the waterfalls, lakes and raging rivers.

The main river that flows through this area is called the Rouge River. This flows fast enough to fill two Olympic sized swimming pools every minute and is a whitewater rafters idea of heaven.


The river has created holes in the softer rock and in some parts disappears underground before reappearing a few meters later. This tunnels are called Lava tubes and were very cool to see in action.

After a bit of a walk up and down the river, we headed to Becky's Cafe and as we walked in we saw a huge sign advertising their "Famous Homemade Huckleberry Pie". Huckleberries grow in mid-alpine regions, often on the lower slopes of mountains, so we were in the perfect location. We ate our sandwiches and couldn't wait for our pie and I'm pleased to say it was fantastic. So flavoursome, so juicy, so sweet and so bitter, all at the same time. Almost worth the trip on it's own.

So it was now time to head to Crater Lake, a place we didn't know much about. It's the deepest freshwater lake in North America (1,949 ft deep) and sits in the remains of a blown out volcano, now known as Mount Mazama. As we drove the van further and further up the mountain, the snow got deeper and deeper until it was over 4 foot high, which took us both by surprise.

We parked the van and walked towards the lake which is where we hit the waist deep snow!


After a very tough walk in this snow, we found ourselves in full view of Crater Lake, which was surrounded by snowy covered mountains, over looked by clear blue skies and littered with evergreen trees. A truly stunning sight.




We spent over an hour here wandering around and taking lots of pictures, that can all be seen here.

Crater Lake is not one of the famous tourist hot spots in the States and I'm sure not many people have heard of it, let alone go, which is a real shame. There is lots to see and lots to do here and the decision to come here was totally the right one.

Love

Stuoobs

xxx

Napa v Kelowna

Napa Valley was always on the list of places to go as we were both very keen to carry out some wine tasting in the most famous wine making area in the world. Of course we had already been to Kelowna (blog here), and even our tour guide for the day in Kelowna told us that we must do Napa.

We checked into the RV park and wandered into town to see what Napa village was like, and I was pretty convinced that an area famous for wine making would have lots of bars. This was sadly not the case. The place only has 2 pubs, a few restaurants and a lot of retail shops, so you can imagine our disappointment. So after a coffee and some really good garlic butter fries, we called it quits and headed back to the van for the night.

Saturday was our wine tasting day and we have booked ourselves on a limo tour of the area. The price was $99 USD compared to $89 CAD, so more expensive. We also were shocked to find out that we would have to pay for our wine tasting at each vineyard, whereas the the Kelowna tasting were complimentary. You do, however, get your fee knocked off any wine purchase you make.

The limo arrived and had another couple in there, who were on their 1st wedding anniversary. John, the husband, had surprised Cindy with the trip, but the odd thing was that Cindy doesn't really drink and has never had a hangover, so Cazzie and I both thought this was very strange. We did get on very well throughout the day and had a real laugh!

The first vineyard was the biggest of the day but was also a modern art gallery. I wasn't here for art - I was here to drink. We got our tour of the place, allowed to taste some grapes off the vine and saw the bottling area. We were then invited to view some the of modern art, which did not interest us at all, so we headed for the tasting part. This is where I sampled the beauty of decanting wine again. The server poured one glass of wine straight from the bottle and the same wine was served through a hand held decanter. The difference is so noticeable and re-enforced the fact that you MUST decant your red wine, no matter how cheap or expensive. I now have a use for the 3 decanters at home.

I also learnt here that there are several different types of soil in Napa and these areas are called appellations. The terrain can range from rich soil to hard volcanic rock and which type of soil depends on which variety of grape can be grown. There are also huge differences in temperature from the bottom of the valley to the top of the mountains. The fog that comes in from the Pacific helps keep the temperatures lower in the summer, which aids the growing of the vines. With this being the case, our next vineyard only grew Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, which is where we stopped for lunch.


The final vineyard of the day was Mumm Napa, a place that makes sparkling wine and was easily the busiest place we stopped at. It was a different type of tasting as the 4 of us were asked to take a seat and the waitress brought 6 samples of sparking wine, including one made from Pinot Noir grapes, which just didn't taste right. Whether it was all in my mind that red wine shouldn't be fizzy or cold, but I just couldn't come to terms with it. The place was lovely though and Cazzie seemed to like it!!





That final place of the day was an olive oil tasting place which had about 50 different types of olive oil to taste. I particularly enjoyed the lemon and habanero ones!


Of course I am going to compare the day in Napa against the day in Kelowna and when I take everything into consideration, Kelowna gets my vote. The vineyards are nicer, the people are friendlier and the tastings are free. My pallet is not sophisticated enough to judge which wines are better, which I suppose is the only thing that really matters, but if I were to choose between the two, Kelowna would get my vote. The nightlife in Kelowna is much better too!

The Napa photos are here.

Stuoobs

xxx

Jails, bike rides and Irish bars in San Fran

I have been to San Francisco twice before, both as a stop off to see the Fodens and both times ending up drunk in Lefty O'Douls, the best piano bar in town.

The RV park was a little bit out of town but right by the 49-ers ground. It was our most expensive park to date and had the worst service. The Chinese people that owned the place just seemed not to care. But the park was clean and showers were good so we weren't really that bothered.

Day one's agenda was to start with breakfast at Mama's, a place that we tried to get into last time I was here but the queue was so long, we decided to leave it. The place came highly recommended in the lonely planet guide, so we were both quite excited. The meal was ok, but not really worth the hype.

It did, however, set us up nicely for our trip to Alcatraz, something that I have always wanted to do. We boarded the ferry for the 12 minute ride to the prison and began the self guided audio tour of the place. I knew this was going to be a bit of a weird place to visit and we were going to hear some stories, especially as the sign on the wall red "Break the rules you go to prison,
break the prison rules you go to Alcatraz". I have never been in a prison but you see them portrayed in films and on tv, but the reality is much worse here. Everyone jokes about the showers, but this was no joke!

This was a huge 24 man shower in the middle of a room with benches around the side so the prison wardens could keep a close watch on all the inmates. For effect, there were bars of soap placed in the holders! (insert own joke here!).

The tour then took us to the recreation area. Rec time was given as reward to the well behaved inmates, but the worst thing about it must have been the beautiful view of San Francisco staring back at them, while they were stuck in one of the toughest prisons in the USA.

Back inside we learnt all about 2 of the escapes that took place, one resulting in a prison riot where 3 inmates were killed and one prison officer. The breakout plan consisted of one guy starving himself so thin that he could squeeze between the library bars, overpower an officer, prise open the bars to the gun gallery using a home made vice, overpower the warden with a gun and break out. This plan worked right up until the key that was needed to open the door was missing, giving time for the alarm to be set off, starting the riot, which lasted for 3 days. The marines were called in and threw grenades into the area that the prisoners were barricaded in. You can still see the holes in the floor and walls from where they exploded.

One other escape consisted of 3 prisoners making fake heads out of soap, hair and dirt to trick the wardens into thinking they were still in bed. They had, over several months, been slowly scraping away at the concrete vent in their cell to make it wide enough to get a man through, escape into the air vents and get out.

Overall 36 prisoners were involved in 14 attempts, two men trying twice. 23 were caught, six were shot and killed during their escape, and three were lost at sea and never found.

It took us about 2 hours to complete this tour and it was one of the best parts of the trip.

We had worked up a thirst, so headed to Union Square, found ourselves an Irish bar and set about getting smashed. Luckily for us, there were loads of businessmen in town on a conference who were kind enough to buy most of our drink on their company credit cards!! Great night had by all.

Day 2 we were planning on cycling across the Golden Gate bridge, so it was off to the bike rental shop where we decided to hire a tandem for the day. I thought this would only end in tears but I'm please to say that it was a great success, even though we did feel like real idiots!



After a few beers on Pier 39, we headed to another Irish bar, which had live music on. The plan was for a couple of drinks and then back to the van, but we ended up drinking after hours with the band, the owner and the staff. Another top night.

All the highlights are here.

Stuoobs

xxx

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite was the 7th National Park that we had adventured into during our trip and it's probably the most well known. We arrived at the RV park very late on, so after a good night's sleep we were ready to drive the short journey to the park.

This national park was again very different from the rest. We started off by seeing one of the huge water falls that are scattered in the park, although sadly most of them have slowed to a trickle due to the time of year. From the pictures on the information board you can see that when the snow melts in the spring, this trickle turns into a major blast. Our journey continued through the park, and after our now customary encounter with some wild deer, we reached our second waterfall.


It was time for lunch, during which Cazzie opening the mayo and it exploded all over her! So we cleaned her up and headed further into the park towards Mirror Lake. We were keen to see if Mirror Lake was going to be anything like Lake Louise, so we parked up, untied the bikes and rode off. It wasn't as impressive mainly due to the lake being somewhat lower than usual, but the views were great.


On the drive out of the park we stopped to see the rivers which were littered with huge boulders that have fallen from mountains or been moved by the glaciers that once existed here. One thing that makes this park different from the rest is that a lot of the rock here is pure granite.

That was it for us in the park for day one and we were not looking forward to going back to the RV park to shower, as they were the worst showers to date. We drove past a hotel on the way back, so we stopped in and asked if we could hire a room for an hour. After few funny looks and a couple of questions, they finally agreed to let us have a suite for $15!!! Winner winner.

Day 2 started early again as we wanted to get the rest of the park covered before we headed to our next destination. It started at another waterfall, where I discovered I had a great knack for rock climbing!


I managed to make my own way down which allowed us to go to Tunnel View, which is not a view of a tunnel as you may think, but the best view in Yosemite Valley.


From here you can see Half Dome, El Capitan, Sentinel Rock and Mt Stuoobs.

From here we drove to Tuolumne Grove to see the Sequoia Trees which are the biggest and oldest trees in the world. They can grow over 60 meters and some of them are over 1,800 years old. We followed the self guided walking trail into the grove which allowed us to see these beasts. Unfortunately we were not able to touch them as they have been sectioned off because too many people were hugging the trees. This meant the ground around the trees was getting damaged and harming the tree. The sign that explained why, stated "too much loved started to kill these trees"!


Yosemite was once again a brilliant park, totally different and we were so glad we took the time to go and visit.

Pictures are here.

Stuoobs

xxx

The Big Sur

Our travels now took us to meet up with an old work buddy, Robbie Burns, his wife Carol and their new addition, Andrew. Robbie moved to Ventura about 2 years ago, which is where Carol lives. Ventura is about 1 hour north of LA, right on the coast. It's a lovely place with great beaches, buzzing downtown and historic landmarks. The only problem with Ventura perhaps is that it's over looked by mountains that are covered in trees thast in the summer and autumn can catch fire very easily and threaten the town. The mountain views, however, make it a very beautiful place to live.

Robbie and Carol were very kind and offered us their spare bed for the night with the added treat of the Deva shower he has installed. We jumped at the chance! After a few beers we headed out into Ventura for a lovely meal and a great catch up,before a couple more beers in the local Irish bar. Carol, who wasn't drinking, drove us around Ventura and up into the mountains so we could see the night time view of the city. Cazzie and I thoroughly enjoyed our stay with the Burns' and want to say another big thank you to them both!

The next day we headed north to Santa Barbara, a quaint little town on the coast. We jumped on board another trolley tour that took us around the city to places such as the downtown, the mission (old Spanish Franciscans religious site) and the houses of the rich and famous including Oprah Winfrey. This took about 2 hours so we got out our bikes and rode round some of the cycle routes before calling it quits and heading further north to our RV park in Morro Bay for the night.

We were up bright and early the next day to start our trip up the Highway 1 taking in some sights along the way, which began in Morro Bay with a classic car show and a volcanic rock sticking out the ocean.

After a few stops in a couple of little towns, where we saw a house made totally out of recycled rubbish called Nit Wit, we arrived at Hearst Castle. This place is the home of a former publicist that inherited it from his parents when he was 57 and decided to expand the family home into what I can only describe as an olden day Playboy Mansion. This place has everything including 2 huge swimming pools, vineyards, orchards, a wildlife sanctuary with bears, giraffes and zebras, 56 bedrooms, 61 restrooms, 41 fireplaces, 19 living rooms and a dining room. The castle was damn impressive! The location of this mansion was in the hills and based around the natural springs that are here, which still supply the water to the pools today.


This place is so exclusive that the week previous Brooke Shields held a small party on a veranda there for 4 hours at a cost of $20,000. We spent about 2 hours on the guided tour before jumping back in the van and heading towards the Big Sur campsite for the night.

I had never heard of the Big Sur, but is an area on the coast of California that you drive through taking Highway 1, which runs parallel to its more famous brother, the 101. It's a long and winding road that hugs the Pacific Ocean. Most of you will have seen this road as it's where a lot of car adverts are filmed. This was a great time of year to to this drive as in the Spring and Summer it gets clouded with fog. The views were terrific.

We continued our drive up the Big Sur until we reached the 17 mile drive. This is a scenic road through Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach along the Pacific Coastline. Is made up of huge houses and mansions and a number of top end golf courses, including Pebble Beach Golf course. This was the last point on the drive and I can only imagine how good it must be to play here - and expensive.

We did feel very out of place in our hiking boots and scruffy t-shirts, but we didn't care. The drive was a real highlight for us as it takes in 20 or so different points of interest with some spectacular views.

This drive took us 2 days but we could have taken 3 or 4 it was that good.

All the highlight are here!

Stuoobs

xxx

Los Angeles - a place worth visiting?

My Mum and Dad, Andy and Karen and Cazzie have all told me that they would not go back to LA and that it's not such a great place to visit. I'll be honest with you, I thought they were crazy. 4 million people live in the city itself and nearly 13 million in the surrounding areas, and they all must love it there. And you know that the rich list all have their mansions here including Sylvester Stallone, Clint Eastwood, Anthony Hopkins, John Travolta - the list is endless. And it's the capital of the entertainment business. So it's got to be an amazing place.

With this in mind I was sure that I was going to succeed where my parents, bro and girlfriend had failed.

We were staying in Long Beach, which was the nearest RV park to the city itself and I thought it would be pretty close. Our survey says - neeh neeeer! It took 15 mins to walk to the nearest metro station and 45 mins to get to the centre. It only costs $5 for a whole day's travel though. The first day we headed to Hollywood to see the famous Hollywood Boulevard. The metro took us about 1 1/2 hours to get there, and we began our walk to see the stars on the sidewalk. I thought that every star that had their name there had their handprints there too. Our survey says - neeh neeeer! It's just the names of everyone you have ever heard of and some you haven't. We actually walked right past the place where the handprints are and into a coffee shop, where we saw a Micheal Jackson impersonator having a coffee! Very odd indeed. Anyway, after our latte, we stumbled across the place with the handprints, just outside Mann's Chinese Theater.



Hanging around these handprints were loads of people dressed up as famous icons, including the coffee drinking MJ. These are all failed wannabe actors who now earn their money by pouncing upon poor tourists for photos and then demanding money. I got caught by someone who I didn't have a clue who they were trying to be. Any suggestions?

Competition is so fierce that we heard that Spiderman got a bit too aggressive with a non paying tourist. Trouble is, there were 3 working that day and they didn't know which one was the offender, so all had to go!

In the afternoon we visited Beverly Hills mainly to walk up Rodeo Drive to see where all the beautiful people spend their money and to see the Beverly Wilshire Hotel (the one from Pretty Woman). Of course we all know this is where the uber rich and famous live and hang out but it's also the location of the worst toilet Cazzie has every been it and refused to perform. Day was coming to an end so we called it quits.

Day 2 we were heading to Universal Studios. This was a great day as there was hardly anyone in the park and there were no queues for the rides. In fact we were the only ones on the Mummy Ride! The park was good, but not quite upto the standards of the one in Orlando but it did have a lot of similar rides - I even managed to get on the Simpson's ride without feeling sick! We did however, get to do a movie studio tour to see where films past and present have been filmed, which was a lot of fun,and we met Shreck as well!


Day 3 we were going to Downtown LA to see what we could find. This I think was the most disappointing day out of the 3, as there in nothing to do here. Not a lot of bars, restaurants or shops were jumping out at us. It seemed to be a lot of businesses and a couple of music halls. That's it.

We jumped the metro back to Long Beach and spent the afternoon in the pool / jacuzzi before heading out to have a meal and a few drinks in Long Beach.

The drive out of LA included a stop at Venice Beach. This is a very hippy place with lots of stalls for artists, weed sellers, rug makers and clothing along with a skate park. Along the beach front there is no commercial shops allowed ie McDonalds. It gives it quite a nice feel. There is Muscle Beach here to, with an outside gym right on the main sidewalk where all the dudes workout in just their speedos.


Cazzie and I walked up and down the main sidewalk, sniggering to ourselves at the people there before calling it a day.

So I did LA and left with the same opinion as everyone else has. I'm glad I've been, you can do it all in 2 days but it's not worth making a special trip by any means.

Or, I missed what LA's all about too.

Pictures are here.

Stuoobs

xxx

Running for sunsets in San Diego

San Diego was the most Southerly point of our trip and one place both of us were excited to visit.  We had heard so many good things and were keen to sample them for ourselves.

We arrived late in the evening from Palm Springs, but managed to catch the Visitors Centre before it shut to grab the customary 1000’s of leaflets and brochures to help us plan what to do while here.  The planning took up most of the evening but we had a very full schedule ahead of us.

The first day we headed to the world famous San Diego Zoo.  This place has 1000’s of animals ranging from monkeys and elephants to jaguars and pandas.  We took the shuttle bus round the zoo which took about 30 mins before making our own way on foot to get a closer look.  Now having seen quite a lot of wildlife in the various National Parks we have been to, it has sort of taken the edge off seeing these various creatures locked up in cages without the freedom to roam.  Don’t get me wrong, the zoo caters for them to a very high standard, but it’s just not the same.  I didn’t really get the “WOW” factor feeling seeing a Tiger or a Polar Bear here as I did seeing the whales or the bison in the parks.  But, having said that, we did really enjoy the day we spent here and it’s certainly a place to go if you are in SD.  Here’s my favourite picture from the zoo – the Meerkats.

One thing you must to in SD is see the sunset over the Pacific – it is supposed to be amazing.  We got back to the RV park, showered and headed out towards Mission Beach, which was a 10 min bus ride away.  We knew that we had to be at the beach at 4.47pm as that’s what time the sunset, but were we up against it as the bus was running 5 mins late.  As we reached our stop, we ran off the bus and towards the beach.  People were pointing and laughing as I was running with my camera in my hand ready to capture to moment. As we got there the sun had set behind a band of clouds on the horizon, so the sunset wasn’t that great! 

That night we spent down in Mission Blv, right by the beach, where there are lots of bars and places to eat.  It is the more relaxed part of SD as it’s the drinking choice for the surfers and beach bums.  I can highly  recommend it.  Cazzie and I got thoroughly “on it” and this was easily the most drunk night of the trip so far.

You will not be surprised to hear that the next morning was the worst hangover of the trip so far and we didn’t make it out of the van until  1 o’clock, when we headed to the Old Town to start a trolley tour.  We have done several of these in various cities and it’s the best way to see a city as they let you hop on and hop off so you can explore the places you want to. As we were so hungover though, we just sat on the trolley bus for 2 hours and listened to what our driver / tour guide had to say, before getting off in Little Italy for a much needed slice of pizza.   The best part of this tour was at the start – Old Town.   Now, who knew that California used to be part of Mexico before the US government bought it off the Mexicans?  Old town is where the first Mexican people settled and most if it remains there today.  It’s a buzzing little place full of little old Mexican ladies making fresh tacos and burritos in a plaza full of old style restaurants with live music and dancing in the middle.  Further into the town there were bands, shops and an old market.  I only wish we were in a better state to fully appreciate it!

After our slice of pizza, we started to feel much better and headed to the Gaslamp Quarter, where all the trendy bars and restaurants are.  We were recommended to eat at Fred’s, a very good Mexican place.  So after a couple of Margaritas (which is rapidly becoming one of my fav drinks) we ate at Fred’s where we had tacos and pulled pork burritos!  Wonderful.  After a few more beers in a few more bars, we were done and ready for bed.  Like many other US cities, there was a late night ice cream place open, so we decided to pop in there and get a quick treat.  This quick treat took over 30 mins to get 2 scoops and I still have no idea why.  It was organised chaos. 

Our 3rd day we had planned to stop off in La Jolla, which is a district just north of SD.  This is a great place right by the sea, with loads of boutiques, cafes and bars.  It’s also a great surfing spot.  We wandered up and down the beach area and around the town before choosing our spot on the rocks to see the sunset.

I feel as we missed out on seeing all of SD due to our hangover, but from what we saw of it, it’s a terrific place and I’m glad we’ve crossed it off the list.

The Zoo highlights are here and SD highlights are here.

Stuoobs

xxx

An Oasis in the desert

Palm Springs was yet again one of those places I had heard about, but didn’t know much about.  I did know that it was a very wealthy area with lots of hillside mansions and fancy bars / restaurants.

We arrived quite late so checked into the RV park, where I got harassed by a drunk German who thought I was Austrian.  Quick shower and after a short 10 mins walk, we were in Downtown.  Downtown is a generic term for where all the bars and restaurants are in any American city and it is always signposted.  This makes getting a drink very easy.  We had a few beers and ended up in a nice, little Italian place before walking back to the van.

The next day I needed a haircut, as my clippers that I brought with me don’t work over here.  We hopped on our bikes, I went to the barbers and Cazzie rode to the visitors centre.  I was about 15 mins and called Cazzie to see where she was to find out she was about 1/2 way to the centre and totally knackered as it was 5 miles away, uphill and very hot!  I got back on my bike and eventually met her there, where we got some leaflets and planned the rest of our day.

Palm Springs gets it’s name from the 1000’s of palm trees that grow by the natural springs that occur here.  Make sense I guess!  The best place to see these is called Indian Canyon.  It’s almost hard to believe that something so green and picturesque can exist in the desert, but all it needs is a little bit of water and hey presto.

We visited Andreas Canyon first and we were stunned!

It really took us by surprise and we took the suggested 2 mile walk to see it all.  Words like “wow” and “incredible” were used a lot here!

The second part of this canyon was called Palm Canyon, which was a lot of the same and equally impressive.

It was now time to take the world’s largest rotating aerial tramway to the top of the mountain!  This provided us with great views of Palm Springs and surrounding mountains, but due to the smog, it wasn’t too clear.  We did manage to see more wildlife at the top – a racoon and it’s 2 pups!

On the drive back down, we got some great pictures of the sky just after sunset – it looked like it was on fire.

That evening we ate in the van and headed out for a few beers and an ice cream!

Palm Springs is a location for the San Andrea Fault line.  Most of you will have heard of this as it’s from Superman. Its the fault line that Lex Luthor blows up with a missile and most of California drops in to the sea. For this reason I wanted to go see it, stand across it and get my picture taken there.  Just imagine the look on the visitor centre chap’s face when I asked if I could do that.  He thought I was a total moron when I asked where the fault line was, only to point out that it 1000’s of kms long, 10’s kms wide and I was standing right in it.  I must have looked so disappointed.  So Cazzie took my picture by the sign and we went on our merry way.

Palm Springs is a very cool place indeed with lots to do.  Perfect weather, a great downtown, lots of shops and golf courses.  The only downfall is you are right on a fault line so you are susceptible to a huge earthquake or two. but we both thoroughly enjoyed our time here.

Highlights are here!

Stuoobs

Deep in Death Valley

After a 2 1/2 hour drive from Vegas, we eventually arrived at our RV park in Death Valley. I always envisaged Death Valley to be an expanse of sand with a few mountains in-between. In fact it was not sandy but full of rubble and rocks with lots of mountains in-between. The place was baron and dusty with not much life at all. The hottest recorded temp was 134 degrees F / 56.7 degrees C. The chap who recorded it said he saw swallows dropping dead from the sky.

The RV park was part of a hotel complex, so it was quite nice with a couple of restaurants, a shop, a bar, swimming pool and tennis courts. It was also very busy as it was not only the start of their season but it coincided with the annual 49-ers event. The 49-ers are a group of about 5000 people who pitch up every year to hike, explore and hold parties in Death Valley, and throughout the year they are tasked with spreading the world about D.V. and it’s beauty. There were a couple of gathering in the park while we were there that looked a lot of fun with BBQs on the go, beers flowing and fires burning.

The next day we headed out towards Ubehebe Crater, which was formed when hot magma rose to the surface, turning the groundwater into super hot steam which in turn blew a massive crater in the surface of the ground.

This is 3 pictures merged together as it’s so big!

After a bit of a hike here, we headed up to Scotty’s Castle, the only mansion here. It was built by a chap whose doctor told him that the only way to help his illness was to spend a lot of time in a very warm climate – so he chose D.V! This mansion had to be self sufficient, so it was built near one of the few springs here to provide water and hydro-electricity and it had it’s own massive swimming pool! The odd thing is that it wasn't Scotty who built it. Scotty was a guy who became good friends with the owner after trying to swindle money out of him! Scotty is buried in the grounds.

The final port of call for today was the ghost town where up to 10,000 people lived during the height of the Gold Rush. It was full of bars, a school, restaurants and even a library. Today it’s totally deserted. One of the few things still standing is a house made out of glass bottles.

We headed back near our park to a very popular place to watch the sunset, Zabriski Point. The sun sets behind a mountain, not into the ocean, but it was still very impressive.

We were up early the next day and headed straight to Devil’s Golf Course. Surely there isn’t a golf course in D.V. right? There isn’t. Just a huge area with massive rocks of salt left when the lake that was here 10,000 years ago dried up, with the nickname Devil’s Golf Course.

You could hear what sounded like metal cracking which was the salt expanding as the sun heated them all up – very weird.

The last place we saw was an area called Badwater, a name that stuck when an early explorer found water and lead his horse to drink. The horse refused to drink as it was so salty so he named the place Badwater – which stuck. The reason why there is water here is it’s the lowest point in D.V. and also in the US for that matter, so water from the valley ends up here. We were at 282 feet / 85.5 metres below sea level. It used to be a 30 foot deep lake, but again, dried up by the sun leaving a 1 – 5 foot layer of salt behind. We walked out for a 10 mins before the heat and our thirst drove us back.

Death Valley is a great place, full of things you won’t see anywhere else. It’s also massive and it took 2 days to see all the stuff we saw. There is nothing really to see or do between drives. It’s an expanse of nothingness with just a few plants, but to see it will leave you with a good lasting impression.

The highlights can be seen here!

Stuoobs

xxx

Vegas – again!

This is the 3rd time in 12 months we have been to Vegas, making it 5 in total.  I still can’t get enough of the place.  It was once again different as firstly, we were driving there instead of flying and secondly, it was just the two of us.  We were both thinking if it would be better or worse than our previous times when we were here in a big group.  I’ll let you know!

The drive to Vegas was brilliant.  No other city in the world can you see and name all the hotels in one view.  It was a shame that it was dusk, just as the sun was setting and the bright lights were coming on, so the pictures didn’t come out prefect – but we were happy enough!

We had booked into Planet Hollywood for 4 nights, checking out on Sunday.  It was good as the hotel had oversized parking so we could leave the RV for 4 nights without paying a fortune or worrying about it.  After negotiating a quick upgrade to a suite and getting our complimentary bottle of gin, we got to our room, (the bath was bigger than the bed!) showered and headed straight out.  Our thoughts were to walk up and down the Strip for a bit, have a few beers and get back to the hotel for a gamble.  This didn’t quite go according to plan. We walked as far as Jimmy Buffet’s Margaretville and decided to have one last drink.  Cazzie ordered a long island iced tea and I had a frozen margarita.  An older chap was sitting next to us and was on his phone.  He turned to us and asked where we were from, and then said he was in Vegas on a conference.  We found out his name was Tim and he seemed pretty cool and we liked him even more when he offered to buy us a drink.  I switched to the long island iced teas and kept chatting.  Before we knew it we were engrossed in conversation and finding out that Tim lived near Dallas, sold shoes, was divorced and had a few ladies on the go, 2 of which he got me to ring up and chat with – thankfully they didn't answer. We kept swapping stories and ended up 6 L.I.I.Ts to the good before we realised it was 1am and closing time!  After our customary picture with Tim, who took a real liking to Cazzie, we staggered home to pass out.  By the way, Tim HAS had his teeth whitened!

The next day arrived and we dragged ourselves to the Bellagio for a very late breakfast.  In the queue we met a retired couple from Arizona, who asked if we wanted to sit with them.  We were feeling quite popular with the older generation!  A pleasant brekie passed and we wandered up and down the strip towards the newest hotel, the Encore, which is owned by Steve Wynn.

The inside was immaculate with great attention to detail.  Like the Wynn, the Encore is not a themed hotel, it’s just a bloody nice one! The walk took us up to tea time, so back to PH , a shower, and out again for a meal and a gamble.  As we both felt rough from the night before, we were in bed by 1am!

Friday came round and we wanted to go back to the MGM Grand to visit the cafe where we had been on previous visits.  After a huge breakfast, we headed for the blackjack tables and got 4 large vodka redbulls down us, which sorted us right out!  Then a bit of a pub crawl before ending up at the Paris hotel to buy our tickets to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and these gave us $4 off a souvenir daiquiri – winner. We added our own gin to it back at the hotel.

Dinner was upon us and it was time to try the PH all-you-can-eat buffet.  Every hotel has one and you have to go a long way to beat the ones at the Wynn and the Bellagio. The one here didn’t really meet those high standards, but I did really enjoy the desserts!

After a lot of food, it was Eiffel Tower time, which we managed to coincide with a performance of the Bellagio Fountains – views were very good.

After another 21 session at PH, we were done.

Saturday came round – which also happened to be Halloween. We had booked into see Peep Show that evening, which turned out to be a lot of females taking their tops off trying to sing, which was nice.  Then it was costume time.  Halloween is HUGE in the US and lasts for about 3 weeks.  Everyone apart from us in PH was dressed up with costumes ranging from Dracula to Popeye to a bumble bee. It was brilliant and everyone was having a blast.  We got chatting to a few people and felt really gutted that we weren't in costume. Maybe next year.  I did manage to see Fred Flintstone at one of the tables though!

 

I mentioned at the start of this blog that we were both thinking if Vegas would be any better / worse with just the two of us.  Well it was brilliant as always.

As usual, the pics can be found here.

Stuoobs

xxx

3 National Parks - 1 blog

We knew that when we were planning this trip, we would be visiting a lot of National Parks, and I wasn't sure how different they were all going to be. I mean a park just full of green fields, the odd snow covered mountain and a lake or 2. How wrong could I be?

We first hit Bryce Canyon on the recommendation of Cazzie's friend, Vanessa. We thought all the RV parks were shut for the winter, so booked ourselves into a hotel very near the park. Even though this was a lovely hotel with a great meat buffet, we hit problems the next morning in the RV. The temperature had dropped to -7 degrees which meant when we got to the van, there was an icicle hanging from the kitchen sink tap! Not good as this could have meant all the pipes were frozen and frozen pipes = burst pipes. We were frantic with worry and desperately trying to warm the van up, praying that the pipes were OK so we wouldn't be faced with a bust van and a huge repair bill. I found out from reception that the park 1/2 mile away was still open, so we checked into there. Luckily we were OK with the pipes and could now begin our day in the canyon.

We paid our $25 dollars entrance fee and, as always, went to the visitors centre to find out the best things to do. The very helpful lady told us to do "the best 3 mile hike in the world". How could we say no?

We still didn't know what to expect and I'll be honest, it just looked like a load of trees and a few red mountains. Upon arriving at the beginning of our hike, we were greeted by this sight.

It was incredible. The canyon had been carved out over millions of years by the wind, the rain and the constant freeze/thaw cycle. The sandstone and limestone just crumbles away. The tall structures you are left with are called "Hoodoos" and they went on for miles. What made it even more impressive was the greenery that was present too. Unreal. Anyway, we started our hike which took us right down to the bottom of the canyon.


We continued our hike which took us in a big loop. The rest of the park wasn't anything that different, but all the highlights can be seen here, including a really good sunset.

Next stop was Zion, a 1 hour drive from Bryce. This had different rock formations and colours. It wasn't as impressive as Bryce, but still worth spending 1/2 day there.


We managed another hike upto one of the natural springs, but I think it would have been more impressive in the spring time. All the Zion pics are here.

We drove out of Zion Park and into a place called Virgin. This was the location of our best RV park to date. A 5* place with great showers, a pool, spa and games room - but it's the showers that count - it was like having your own en suite bathroom!

The next day we were Vegas bound, but we had spotted en route a place called Valley of Fire, so we decided to give it a go. The rocks here were supposed to look as if they were on fire as the sun hit them. There were different rocks and formations again that make this park unique from the others and the highlights are here.

Cazzie seemed to really love this place!



Overall, these 3 parks were brilliant and so unique. I'm so glad we decided to visit them all. It would have been so easy to miss them out as they aren't the "famous" ones.

After Valley of Fire, we headed to Vegas.......


Stuoobs

xxx

Excuse me, why are you here?

The drive to Salt Lake City took us about 5 hours. Again, it was one of those semi-enforced stops as our next destination (Bryce National Park), was over 10 hours drive from Yellowstone and we didn't fancy doing it in a "one-r".

The drive was through Utah where there are 3 things to do.

1 - Drive to Salt Lake City
2 - Fill up with petrol
3 - Drive out of Salt Lake City.

We drove for miles and miles without seeing anything apart from cows, grain fields and tarmac.

For those of you who don't know, SLC is the home of the Latter Day Saints, or Mormons as they are better know. Mormons don't smoke, drink alcohol or tea / coffee. This worried us slightly. It was also where the 2002 Winter Olympics took place as there is some of the best skiing in the States available here.

Anyway, we had booked ourselves into the park for 1 night, which happened to be a Saturday night, so we did hope that there would be some sort of nightlife about. We showered and jumped on the local bus that took us into downtown SLC.

The place seemed to be very quiet, with only a few restaurants about, but all looked busy. After a bit of a wander we decided to ask someone where to go, so we went into the theatre and asked the chaps there. Now when we speak to the locals in most of the places we have visited, we get asked where we are from and what we are doing there. This was slightly different. We did get asked where we were from but then asked WHY we were in SLC. This made us feel very unwelcome. What they actually meant is why on earth would 2 English people bother to come here as there is nothing to do! After a bit of a giggle with them they pointed us in the direction of a few places and we discovered a PF Changs, a chain of Chinese / American restaurants. As we entered the place and the hostess asked us where we wanted to sit, we were asked again what the hell we were doing in SLC. And again by our waitress! Very bizarre!

The meal was excellent and we struck up a bit of a rapport with our waitress who gave us some ideas about where to go for a drink (thank god) and as she was from San Diego, some pointers while we where there too.

We headed towards a bar which was fairly busy, had a few gins and called it a night.

The next day we were heading to Bryce, we decided to see a little bit more of the place, including a free tour round Temple Square, which was built in 2000.

Most of you who know me know I'm not a religious person at all, but I do know a little bit about the Old Testament. Our tour guide, Susan, took us round pointing out the interesting bits of the Square while I was asking her what the difference is between the Mormons and the other religions that believe in God, because I could not see any difference at all. There were parts with Jesus, Moses, Noah, Jerusalem, Adam and Eve - all stuff that you learn about at school. Susan informed me that their Prophet, Joseph Smith, was visited by God in 1863 and that seems to be it.

Upon closer inspection and a few more questions, it seems that the Latter Day Saints religion was set up to swindle money out of their members to fund the lavish lifestyles of their head Prophet and the 12 Apostles. This place oooooozed cash. There was an auditorium that sat over 21,000 people with a fully installed sound system and HD cameras dotted all over the place. This is to broadcast their meetings and conferences to over 80 million members around the world, who are no doubt sat there hanging on every word with their bank details to hand.



As we continued the tour, which was quite good may I add, we saw a huge painting of the head Prophet and 12 Apostles in a massive room - a sort of MD and his Board if you like. We then ended up on the roof of this building, with a view of SLC.



I asked Susan how much this cost to build and she did not have an answer for me, so I assume $millions.

Our final stop was the visitors centre, where "The Universe" was. In the centre was a huge statue of Jesus.



I guess you could argue that all religions are like this in one way or another and I feel as if I'm being a tad harsh here, but the impression I got was one of extortion!

We wandered around a bit more, found a shopping centre which was the busiest place we'd seen all day, and headed back to the RV.

One of my fav thigs I saw here was a sweatshirt with the initials of Salt Lake and the abbreviated Utah state name - SL,UT. Genius.

Stuoobs

xxx

A few days in Yellowstone

Our trip from Calgary to Yellowstone involved crossing the Canada / USA border.  Most people will have experience of this when you fly to the States.  You fill in your IW35 on the plane, you wait in a queue at the airport wondering why it moves so slowly, you then get called to the booth where the very unhappy person asks you a few questions, stamps a few places in your passport and lets you in. 

It’s very different in a car if you are a going from Canada to the USA.  First of all the queue is massive.  Instead of there being just people, there are cars, motorhomes and lorries.  Most of the lorries and motorhomes have to be checked for food, milk and goods bought in Canada etc.  These rules are the same from when you fly to the States, but they x-ray your luggage and they don’t really expect you to be bringing loads of cheese and fish on a plane.  I mention cheese and fish as I saw one of the custom guys carrying a bag full of about 10 massive blocks of cheese and some other guy having an argument with them as he didn’t have a fishing permit to show that he was allowed to catch the fish he had stored in his van.  Someone in the customs department ate well that night!

We joined the very long queue, got to the booth in our RV, they took our passports, told us to park up and we waited about 35 mins for the whole process to be completed – and as we were from the UK, it cost $6 each for the privilege. 

So we were in the States and on our way to Yellowstone.  As it was over 10 hours drive from Calgary, we stopped for the night in Great Falls, where the only thing we did was eat out at night and before departing to Yellowstone, try and see some of these “great falls” but they weren't that great, but the drive did have some good views.

We arrived at our next RV camp late at night and bedded in.  The next morning we were up early and raring to go as we had so much to see.  A quick stop at the visitors centre to collect maps to learn that the park is over 3,472 square miles and the oldest park in the States then we were off.  First stop – the thermal springs area.  As we drove up, it looked like there were loads of fires in the distance, but as we got closer, we could see it was the steam coming from these geysers.  We parked up and took a walk round to see loads of them bubbling away while stinking of rotten eggs (hydrogen sulphide).  It was a very cool place to see and one of the most geothermally ( is that a word?) active places in the world.

Next en route was Old Faithful, a geyser that spurts out between 3,700 and 8,400 gallons of water upto 186 foot in the air and can be predicted to the nearest 15 min of it’s next eruption.  We made it with about 25 mins to spare, so took our seats and waited.  After a few false starts and a lot of wasted pictures, it blew.  As it was very cold, steam covered most of the show, but it was still good to have seen it.

 

We drove further east through the park, seeing all the areas that have been ravaged by huge forest fires and then around the great lake, which looked more like we were standing on the edge of the ocean!  All this took us over 5 hours, and it was time to head back to the park, stopping off to see some otters catching fish and playing in a little lake.  We thought that would be the end of our wildlife for the day until we turned a corner and saw a herd of bison right by the side of the road.  Cazzie wound the window down to take a few pictures and they started to cross the road right by us.  After a few minutes we wanted to leave, so started to pull away when the “daddy” of the group begin making really loud grunting noises and seemed to charge for our van, so I thought sod this and hit the gas!!

After a good night’s sleep in the van we awoke to some pretty bad weather that had closed off most of the routes in the park which meant if we wanted to go a see the rest of the park it was a 3 1/2 hour drive just to get there, so we decided to cut our losses and head to Salt Lake City.

Yellowstone is a great place to visit for a few days.  Again, as we were of “off season” West Yellowstone (where we stayed), was quiet with a lot of places closed.  I would have loved to have seen all the park, but Mother Nature, who has been very kind to us so far, decided one day was all we were going to get.

A pictures from Yellowstone can be found here.  There are a lot, but I am in the process of doing a “highlights” album too – so bear with me! 

Stuoobs

xxx