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!

Exploring Olympic National Park

It was by our unfamiliarity with real winters and snow conditions that meant instead of going to mount Ranier as we had originally planned, we ended up in Olympic national park. We weren't complaining though as we were still going to be deep in the forests and doing some awesome hiking!

Our day started with a trip to the visitor information centre where we equipped ourselves with hiking maps, national park passes and of course some local knowledge. Our first stop was Elwha where we did a few warm up hikes before heading to Lake Crescent to climb to the peak of mount storm king. The drive through to lake was pretty impressive with the surrounding mountains reflecting off the glassy water, but the hike was definitely the highlight of the day. The trail was well marked (thank god) and pretty steep, with an elevation of around 3000ft! Te marked trail didnt quite take us up to the summit though and at the end there was a sign, a pretty sketchy trail and a rope. We passed a couple who told us they weren't quite adventurous to take on the rope which I guess we kind of took as a challenge!! That and we really wanted to see the view from the top! We pulled ourselves up the rope (just) trying to keep our footing as the loose gravel was slipping under our feet and there was sheer drop offs either side! We did eventually make it to the top and it was well worth every swear word I think that left my mouth on the way up as I was kinda freaking out by the drop offs either side of the path and how high we actually were!

As usual, the descent was much worse than the climb up as it was no longer a cardio work out to get up the steps but a real quad burner to maintain stability and get down the hill!

Marymere falls was next and then we tested out our new frisby in the sun on a grassy knoll. Lets just say without knowing it, I've become a pro overnight!

We stayed in a campground in the national park that night (free camping as there was no facilities or water - another night without showers!!) and had some friendly deer to share our evening with!

More hiking the next day we attempted to get down to a place called deer lake, but found out a few miles in that the track climbed a mountain that was still covered in snow... We persisted a few times but after I lost my foot in the sinking snow and my shoes filled with snow we turned back. It was then onto the coast for some beach action!

The beaches along the coast were very unimaginatively name beach 1, beach 2, beach 3 and so on.. We stopped off at beach 4 to have a look on our way to the campground. The water was very flat, the sand was black and scattered with drift wood and skipping stones! Not like the beaches were used to back home that's for sure but a very welcomed change of scenery.

The Kalaloch beach campsite that we stayed at was awesome; beach front camping with a view! We wandered the beach for a while, practiced our frisby skills and then retired to the campsite with a cider to watch the sun set! Perfect afternoon really :)

The next morning the weather had turned on us and it started to rain a little after we'd returned from our morning run! We'd made the decision though that today we would try and 'shower' or at least wash in some way and I really needed to wash my hair!! My hair was 'washed' under the outside tap and Rhys helped wash the freezing cold water through my hair.. I don't think I've ever had a brain freeze from the outside.. New experience to say the least!

Feeling clean (or at least cleaner) we hit the road and made our way toward Portland, sad to be leaving the solitude of the national park. I was in the drivers seat which took a little while for both of us to get used to! W drove through Forks, which is one of the places in twilight and they have certainly made the most of that with almost every store in the small town advertising the fact!!

We took the scenic route to Portland, down along the waterfront but the weather was very overcast so we didn't get to see a whole lot!

Once in Portland our first stop was to find a pod for the top of the car.. We'd put some of our stuff on the roof the night before and the space it created when we slept was amazing.,we couldn't go bak to sleeping with all our stuff crammed into the bak again!!

With a new pod and some new boxes to organise all our stuff, we treated ourselves to a meal out and slept like kings with a whole lot more space at Walmart!

Hit the road jack

The day finally Arrived and it was time to pack our lives back into our backpacks and leave whistler... We would be back but it was nice to say aurevoir for a while and venture out of the bubble
Packing was a mission, we'd accumulated so much whilst being in whistler it didn't even come close to fitting into our backpacks! We tried to downsize by storing, donating and throwing out so we could fit everything we thought we were going to need (and a bunch of stuff we might want) into the car..our new home! After saying a very 'sad' good bye to Brio room 409 and checking out of house, we were on our way!

After a few stops along to take photos, stock up on necessities and work out where we were going we hit the boarder. To date, our us/Canada border crossings have been eventful and this one was certainly no different. (.. we will release further details to those as requested) but we made it over and in and our first stop was Wenberg state park, just north of seattle. It was a nice quiet little spot down by a lake and it was so super quiet! After what had felt like a massive day cleaning, packing and driving we were glad to finally be able to rest our heads and slept surprisingly well for the first of many nights in the back of the car! ..we didn't make the most of the showering facilities available at the camp ground as it was only day 2 and we didn't smell that bad yet..but maybe we should've if we had known it would be a while before we saw any showers (or even warm water)again..

Day 2 once again bought good weather and after packing into the car and grabbing a coffee from the nearest gas station we were on the road again! (Please don't think anything less of me mum, it doesn't taste that bad and still gives us the kick we need to do our daily activities :) ) First stop was Tacoma, where we were hoping for a bit of an engineering hit in driving across the Tacoma narrows bridge; hopefully without it falling!! We drove around the town a bit and down to the port where there were some pretty huge navy ships and some pretty scenery! The next stop was to be mt rainier national park but after a conversation with the checkout chick at a Safeway just outfit Tacoma and checking the national park status online (sitting indiscreetly in a maccas using their wifi's) we learned that without chains on the car we wouldn't be allowed into the park.. We hadn't even thought about the snow!! We didn't let it dampen our spirits and instead detoured to Olympic national park.

We stopped in Port Angeles and after a picnic dinner at the pier we spent our first night in a Walmart carpark!! What a night it was too..we got free hot water to do the dishes in the car park, the store was open 24 hours so there was always toilets available, we did a bit of late night shopping en route to cleaning our teeth and saw all the interesting people who shop at Walmart at the weirdest hours of the day !! Rhys even had some entertainment while waiting for me to clean my teeth in the morning as he watched a conversation between the checkout chick and a 'true american'. the guy had icing sugar on his face from eating donuts and the lady politely told him so only to be answered with i 'don't care that anyone knows I ate a powered donut; I'm a proud American!' Way better entertainment than the morning news!!

The last supper

As a treat for our last night out in whistler, we ventured on a double date to a rather classy establishment called Araxi. It's one of those restaurants we'd always walked past but never thought we would actual ever go to! lucky for us as the village is getting quieter as winter comes to an end they were having a 5 course special and we decided to treat ourselves!
To say it was amazing was an understatement! The food was really good, the wine was tasty and we probably could've stayed there all night sharing stories with Jake and Lisa had we not known that we had to be up early to pack!

It's going to be hard to leave whistler and the friends we've made here; especially the ones we've only just started to get to know and won't be around when we get back! But there is Facebook and Skype (and weddings ) on the way so it's not going to be the end!
Saying au Revoir to our new friend whistler isn't going to be hard as the last few weeks have dragged on due to the drop in numbers in the village and we know we will be back, this time to enjoy the summer activities we've been missing for the last 6 months!

So for now, we're packing our lives back into our back packs (and the rest of the stuff that we've accumulated into boxes in storage ) and jumping into Jimmy and hitting the open road!