Welcome to the Hotel California

Such a lovely place, such a lovely face!

Driving into LA was kind of surreal as we started to see signs for Hollywood, sunset boulevard, rodeo drive and Beverley hills. We were on a mission though and as soon as we arrived at our hotel (unknowingly situated in the heart of 'Korea town') it was laundry time! 

After we were feeling clean again we were off to our first ball game! The LA Dodgers v the Washington Nationals. The game was somewhat one sided and not in the favour of our newly adopted team! It was still fun to be at and the atmosphere was very exciting, especially when the med crew came to the aid of a poor gentlemen who didn't quite catch the rouge foul ball that made its way up into the stadium!

Hollywood was next. We wandered Hollywood Boulevard for a while, checking out the stars on the pavement and the hand and footprints of the stars in the concrete (..these places do have real names but can't remember them!)   we then took a bus tour of the stars homes and saw the house from ironman, jack nickelson's suspended tennis court, and a bunch of other mansions all packed into the 'it' area where all the stars like to live! We spotted the iconic hollywood sign a few times, took a drive down rodeo drive and past the hotel clifornia , where the eagles actually wrote the song!! We ended the day strolling through Madame tussads, hanging out with the stars and then spent the evening watching the stars roll up to the red carpet at the Star Trek premier! 

From then, everything just seems like a blur as the days were spent trying to fit in all the theme parks LA has to offer! please remain seated and keep your arms and legs inside at all times until we come to a complete stop.

First on the list was Universal Studios where we were taken on an interactive tour of the studio, home of a few classics like war of the worlds, jaws, King Kong, desperate housewives and the worlds largest outdoor green screen! Attempting to fit as much as possible into our day we went on the Jurassic park ride, the mummy roller coaster, transformers and the Simpsons ride (so not worth the 45minute wait!) we learned about special effects in films and saw the shrek 4d show and of course, the world famous water world show! 

 We then Rushed over to Warner Bros studio for our VIP tour! The tour was a little more personalised then the universal tour as we were taken around the sets as a small group and told a few secrets, tricks of the trade and of course a few movie and TV sets and props! The highlights on this tour being our visit to the set of the Big Bang theory and the car garage which was home to all the bat mobiles (including those from the dark knight films), the mystery machine, a car from Austin powers and Harry potter and much to my excitement, the nerd herd car from chuck! Other highlights of the tour were the costume museum, where we were sorted with the sorting hat from Harry potter ( I into Griffindor and Rhys into Slytherin), the props museum (home of a pair of $2M chandeliers) and the central perk cafe from the set of friends ! It was a huge movie filled day and we both went home feeling like we should watch more movies.. If only there were more hours in the day!

The next day was the day I had been looking forward to since I was a little girl...Disneyland! We were pretty overwhelmed after walking into the theme park and sat down with the park map and a coffee to plan our day! We walked out with 'first time' badges and the knowledge that it was unlikely we would be able to see everything but we were going to try and make a dent in it as best we could! The whole park was done so well and they even had stories and films playing while you were waiting in line to get you ready for each of the rides! We definitely would've enjoyed it a whole lot more if we were a few years younger, but we had a ball and it made us feel like kids again! 

Highlights included, meeting Mickey Mouse (!!), space mountain ride, shooting laser guns with buzz light year, riding jeeps through the Indiana jones ride, the classic rides oike the dumbo planes and the teacups, and of course the night time parade. We hadn't timed our visit on the right day to see the fire works over the castle but the parade was well worth it! It was another huge day and after 11 hours at Disneyland we drove through to Santa Monica and wished upon the stars knowing that with the magic of Disney "anything your heart desires will come to you!"

California dreamin...

After our photo course at Yosemite we were back on the road en route to Los Angeles! Instead of taking the direct route along the major highways from Yosemite to Los Angeles, we stuck to the coast and cruised down the famous the route 1. Our first stop was Santa Cruz where we checked out the worlds first beach side theme park and tried to work out how they had constructed it and kept it maintained when it was so close to the ocean and salty air! We then drove through a thick sea of fog to our next destination, Monterey. It was super creepy coming into town because it was night when we arrived and the lights just made everything look eery! 

Luckily the fog had cleared by morning and ready for our drive down Big Sur and the coast line route 1. The drive down was pretty chilled and had some impressive scenery!! We were driving along the windy road on a beautiful sunday afternoon so it was pretty busy and i entertained myself by counting the Chevy and mustang sports cars which are apparently really cheap to buy or rent as there was plenty of them!

We drove past a beach literally covered in elephant seals, which smelt like they hadn't had a shower a while and  as the viewing point and car park were downwind we didn't stick around there for long! 

We stopped in a little town off the highway, Pismo Beach and spent a few hours by the water playing frisby and went for our first swim in the chilly west coast waters! 

It was then straight onto Los Angeles! The warmer weather had us craving cool drinks so we stopped for a juice and were a impressed with our selections! Rhys's juice had 22 strawberries, and 1.5 bananas and mine had 13 carrots and a bunch of other veggies... Probably should've had them before lunch ! We'll know next time

Don't Go Chasin' Waterfalls

Checking the weather prior to our departure from San Francisco didnt have us looking forward to this part of the trip but it worked out in our favour when the Park Ranger told us the only reason there were spaces in the campground was because of the terrible weather on the way!

Regardless of what the weatherman had in his forecast, we had planned to visit Yosemite for its hiking, trekking and picturesque landscape and that is exactly what we did during our stay.

A quick tally at the end of our stay indicated just how much hiking we managed to do during our stay at Yosemite National Park. Between our three active days we had managed to walk/hike up and down approximately 40km with a total combined climb of 2100 m.

Sensing a break in the weather our first hike was to the top of the world renowned Yosemite Falls which took us past the famous Camp 4 (the base for the serious rock climbs taking place in the area including El Capitan). The falls are in total almost 1km tall split between three smaller drops and are visible throughout the Yosemite Valley. Reaching the top of the falls we found ourselves surrounded in a dense fog which stopped us from a potentially amazing view, but provided a different eerie feel!

In an attempt to keep out of the rain, we cracked out the tarp for its first use which meant testing out some knot tying skills and utilising some of our engineering expertise to survey and determine the best location, best tree to tie to and how to shade as many windows! Emma got her Girl Guide cap out and can now tie a handy knot or two =) (with the help of the rabbits)

Day two had our map reading skills in full swing as we made our way from the parking lot toward Mirror Lake and found ourselves climbing unexpectedly to the top of Vernal Falls. We managed to complete both of the walks during the day in time to check out the information centre in the afternoon including a short film on the history of the Yosemite area and how it had become the national park that it is today. The timing was perfect as we managed to find ourselves indoors for what was the most intense thunderstorm either of us had seen in a number of years; thunder, green clouds and hail filled the valley over a 45 minute period and left everyone in crisis mode. Luckily the clouds parted and remained that way for the remainder of our stay.

The final day of hiking was another well-known trail by the name of Four Mile (which is somewhat deceiving as it is actually a 5 mile hike to the summit) which winds its way up the mountain to Glacier Point; a wonderful viewpoint for the Yosemite Valley and Half Dome. We took our time on the way up stopping to take lots of photos and rest our somewhat tired legs!! The view from the top was amazing but there was also a car assessable road to the top which meant we enjoyed the view with a lot of tourists who hadn't climbed the gruelling hill!!

Before we headed west toward the coast, on the final morning we managed to fit in a photo walk with one of the local professionals who has spent over 3 years in Yosemite. It was not so much a how to use your camera course, but more about how to select a suitable photograph arrangement and explained how photographers did their post photography editing back in the day! We both found it really useful as we start to use the camera more and more to try and create some print worthy photos. Hopefully one day I will get a chance to play with Photoshop and do some post photo editing to see what I can come up with =)

Hello, San Francisco

Ahhh back in the big smoke... Although maybe not quite as homely and relaxing as you might think! San Francisco is one of the biggest cities we have visited so far since our arrival into the states and it was quite the rude shock to the senses!

As usual on the road trip thus far, the trip into San Francisco was not without the onset of stress sweats. Creeping toward the outskirts of the city, the thermometer in the car was reading a high of 36 degrees (Celsius of course) and the fuel gauge was reading dangerously low as we reached some unexpected mountainous country (the climbing, winding, low speed type). With Emma behind the wheel for one of the first times on the trip, we knew we were in for a wild ride. Coasting as much as possible on the downhill and minimising the use of the accelerator on the uphill we finally made it to the next "gas station" and paid an exorbitant amount for a top up to get us to the next town!

When we finally reached town I was back at the wheel and we were met with the overpasses & underpasses of the US highway system. Combined with my navigators reliance on 3G (which we don't actually have) and google maps related orientation we made a few wrong turns before reaching the Bay Bridge which at one point widened to 17 lanes through the toll booths (not enjoyable when we were in the right lane and needed to get across to the left)! A couple of nervous phone calls and 20 minutes later and we made it to meet our San Francisco hosts Anna, James and for the first time Leo.

James took us across to the hotel we were staying at in the centre of town which they had kindly managed to get mates rates for us as they will the run the restaurant, bar and room service for the hotel! For the first time in almost two weeks we enjoyed a real shower and more importantly a bed to sleep in... we felt like royalty!

Now, along with the need for first world conditions our clothes required some serious attention. The smell that had begun to emanate from our bags was becoming unbearable so we walked the streets to find a laundromat and spent the morning doing the necessary cleaning where I honed my Blockus skills and fidgety mcfidget Emma roamed the streets looking for coffee and some pre breakfast treats.

Once the clothes were fresh and clean we headed across town for our Brunch date with our hosts in their other restaurant. Walking through the city we were surprised how quickly the scenes changed, from city to sights to china town followed by little Italy and the parks & gardens. Brunch itself was amazing. The chef and the menu were able to accommodate for all of the weird and wonderful dietary requirements at the table to produce some amazing food!

The whole bay area seemed to be named by the pier it lay beside and we found ourselves at the touristy pier 39 where we indulged in some dark chocolate, played in the gift stores and saw some of the local sea lions.

The best way to see the city was by bike and because ours did not fit and are safely stored up in whistler, we hired bikes and embarked on a lap of town. As well as the usual stops along the route including the Golden Gate Bridge and fishermans wharf where we stopped for some fish and chips, we managed to get ourselves slightly lost and ended up having to make a few hill climbs (luckily without tears) before eventually returning back to union square.

Our trip to Alcatraz was all that we expected and more. The weather was on our side for the day and we were able to do an audio tour which took us through the famous prison and showed us what made the prison so famous - the people inside! There was also a little history tour which gave us some more reason as to why there are so many Mexican people and Mexican related signage; not only is Mexico a neighbour to California... California also used to be part of Mexico before the gold rush of the 1800's when the USA claimed ownership!

During our short burst of city lifestyle, treats were a plenty with chocolates, sorbet and snacks all around. If you look closely in day 14 you can see a picture of Emma enjoying her three favourites things - Bridges, Water and Coconut Sorbet!

We were definitely sad to see San Fran in the rear view mirror having not managed to spend as much time with our hosts as hoped, but we have so many other adventures and exploring to look forward to that we had no other choice but to get back on the road; this time headed east toward Yosemite National Park.

Sunsets over the beaches (and some pretty big trees)

"So you're here to see some big trees?" Asked the ranger at the Redwood National Park information centre.. I guess we were and some big trees we did see!!

We ended up spending 3 beautiful days up in the redwood national park in then north of California, exploring the groves and visiting some of the world largest and oldest redwood trees.

After the helpful ranger had showed us around the park map and gave us all the hot tips I made friends with a lady from Virginia in the information centre who told us about this drive through the trees and excitedly showed me photos of their corolla "4wd'ing" through some 'massive' bodies of water . Lets just say when we visited, jimmy cruised through the little puddles! Rhys had fun in 4wd though I think!!

Our three days were filled with long hikes to various locations, such as tide pools on low tide where we saw lots of star fish, crabs, squishies and sea weed (my favourite), of course the big trees, some falls and our favourites; sunsets over the beaches. I think we could definitely get used to watching the sunset over the water, especially when we can sit atop a mountain, whale watching (i swear I saw one) and cooking dinner!!

The more we walked the more we started to tease ourselves with the thought of an overnight trek into the wilderness. It will definitely be on the cards for some time during our trip but we might have to pick up a few more essentials and learn a little more about the locals before we head out!! I think I'll also have to overcome a fear of bears too...

The camera has been getting a good workout and its hard to tell now whose taken which photo!! I can no longer claim all the good ones!! We've been doing a lot more experimenting with it; Taking some photos at night, with the falling water and of course, utilising the tripod!! The go pro is also getting a good workout but I'm yet to know what we will do with the hours of video footage we've collected!!

We cooked our first meal on the fire too and surprisingly it was a success, thanks to Rhys's fire making skills and my impatience ;)

The morning we left our beautiful (and expensive!!! $35 for a site in the redwood NP, definitely the most we had paid for accommodation to date!!) site we were farwelled by a ..herd?.. (Adzy I request the correct plural here?!) of elk!! It was definitely a nice surprise and a good start to a long and eventful day of driving down to San Francisco!

California here we come

W spent another evening in a beachside campsite and were this time lucky enough to watch the sun set! It did take us about half an or so select a campsite where we weren't going to be blown off the edge! We had a very cold night and although we woke to rain during the night it was warm(ish) and sunny the next morning so we went for a walk along the beach and played a bit of morning frisby!

It was then into the car for a long drive down the coast into sunny California! We pretty much headed straight down route 101 making a few stops along the way while pumping The OC theme song as it suited the day, and ended the day just over the border with the big tress in the Redwood National Park!

The Windy City

Our morning started off in a Starbucks, charging laptop, iPads and phones, using the free wifi's and as a conciliation drinking their coffee! Definitely not our first choice of brew but we've definitely learnt to make do! No one orders coffee there though, it's all 'triple grande vanilla lattes with extra whip' and 'no fat white chocolate mocha with 3 sugars'.. I almost feel like I need a dictionary to work out what their talking about!

Anyway, after our coffee hit we headed into downtown Portland for a bit of exploring. We'd read that Portland was 'well ahead of its time' and full of bridges..the latter kind of had us excited!!
There were concrete bridges, steel bridges, a double story bridge, and multiple draw bridges, one which we were lucky enough to watch in action!! We found our way to the weekend market down by the water, which was busy with people eating, playing in the fountains and enjoying the beautiful weather! We make the most of the sun and chilled out for a while before hitting the road again and heading down to hood river, which we had heard was the adventure capital and famous for its kite surfing!

On the way out to hood river we past a sign for a dam and of course, after our day full of bridges we needed another hit of big structures so we went to check out the dam! It was a hydro electric dam which had been specially designed to allow the salmon through without getting injured in the dams turbines! We even saw a few seals hanging out catching salmon! We took a family shot with the kids, Charlie (of course he's still around, much to Rhys's dismay) Jimmy, Pertuna (the platypus) and Rowland (the panda) if you look closely in the photo below you can see the two little ones on the review mirror!! Anyway, after capturing the moment we were bak on the road to hood river.

We soon found out why it was so famous for kite surfing, it was SO windy! The afternoon we arrived wasn't so bad and we sat down on the pier watching all the guys kite surfing but the next morning was crazy! The lady at the information centre told us they were just about to put out a wind warning so everyone was on their way to enjoy the wind and get their kite surfers out! To be honest I don't think the wind was really our cup of tea and the water looked way too cold to be out there! We did a few of the touristy things on the way out going to all the lookouts and kind of avoided getting out of the car in fear of getting blown away! We did get out once and managed to loose half the papers out of the car and then had to chase them down the street! The clouds had settled in though so after our brief scenic drive we headed west toward the Multnomah falls. We could've spent a few hours hiking around the falls and visiting other sites in this area, but the clouds seemed to be following us and we weren't keen to get wet so we raced up the trail, took a few snaps, had a picnic lunch in the back of the car and were back on the road!
We headed straight for the west coast, hitting highway 101 and making our way to sunny California!