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