San Francisco
We were picked up by our couchsurfing host, David. He lived
in San Fran with his wife and kids who were out of town on holiday. He drove us
through the city to his house which was a lovely Victorian home that reminded
me of my mum’s house.
We had his daughter’s room (full of barbies and fluffy toys)
and his other 2 couchsurfers were already set up in his son’s room – Anna and
Yan, from Germany.
We all had a chat that evening about our travels and David
gave us some ideas of what to go and see over the next couple days.
Jetlag had obviously set in the next day when I awoke just
before 5am – not especially bad, probably owed to going round pretty much the
whole world to get there.
We headed out to explore the city and first walked from the
station to Union Square which was surrounded by all the big shops, a big Macy’s
sign taking over one side of the square.
Carrying on to the North end, we walked through Soho, which
hadn’t quite opened yet as it was still early, but we saw some great graffiti
and Chinese lanterns lining the streets.
Further down, we ended up at a view point called Coit tower
after a steep climb up one of the city’s 43 hills. It was beautiful and we
could see the Bay bridge on one side, Alcatraz in the middle, and unfortunately
just a lot of fog enveloping the Golden Gate bridge.
We carried onto Pier 39 where we saw some seals sunbathing
at the end amongst some happy snapper tourists. Then we wandered down the road,
taking in all the piers, passing seafood restaurants and stalls, watching a girl’s
calamari being nabbed by a seagull and seeing all the boats docked around the
piers.
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| San Fran - so many hills! |
Unfortunately there were a lot of homeless people around the
city, especially round the touristy areas, hoping to get a bit more money. Some
were walking down the roads swearing and talking to themselves, and telling
people to f off. Some were even cutting and taking cocaine on the side of the
street in broad daylight. It brought the tone down a little, but I guess that’s
sometimes what you have to deal with where there are minimal benefits in the States
for these people?!? Not sure really why this was worse than any of the cities
we’ve visited up until the time I wrote this.
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| New friend |
Further on we grabbed a Vietnamese sandwich and walked south
towards Mission, a district to the South of the centre. It was a short stroll
to Dolores park, which was full of students having finished school and college
for the year.
We walked further on into Castro, the gay district of San
Fran. It was pretty much immediately that Luke was getting more looks from guys
than I was!
After a quick beer, we headed back to Dave’s house,
shattered. With the intention at 8pm of lying down for 20 minutes before making
some dinner, we lay down on the bed. And before we knew it, it was 2am! Jetlag
had definitely set it, but we managed to sleep through most of the night and
frlt like we had our clock set by the next morning,
We had one more day in San Fran. Dave took us and the German couple for breakfast at an old school place which had it’s regular oldies come in, which I guessed from the packed tables of pensioners and one guy walking in and the waitress shouting out his regular order before the door even closed. We decided to go to the Golden Gate park and take an early morning walk past all the little lakes and flower gardens to get to the Bison paddock. Unfortunately they were feeling a little shy so we didn’t see them up close.
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| Golden Gate bridge |
On we went to the actual Golden Gate bridge, today in full
view with no fog taking hold. It was a great view from the San Fran side. We
walked across the bridge for a bit before turning back to take a bus to the
Haight. This didtrict was a flashback to the 60s, with shops full of
alternative fashion, graffiti covered walls, cute coloured streets and fun
shops. Unfortunately there were a few homeless people lining the streets, one
evening kicking the side mirror out of a car whilst he whizzed past on a
bicycle, swearing, oh, and several drug deals going on in broad daylight.
We carried on to Castro again to get some lunch and have a
drink. It was coming up to gay pride so the streets were buzzing and there were
coloured flags everywhere and music blaring from the bars. There was even a guy
dressed up in a corset and tiny pants standing on the corner of the street and
dancing away, shaking his ass in some old lady’s face!
We had a look for a new alarm clock (as my last one got
stolen in Africa!). We walked into a cute store, a bit like paperchase and
found one. I thought I’d ask the guy at the check out if he knew where we could
find a Walmart or another big store, as we needed to get some stuff for our car
journey. And in a rich American accent he said, ‘Oh sweetie, if this city had a
Walmart it would burn.’ Haha…what??? Is that like asking if Chelsea had an Aldi
or a Poundland on the Kings Road???
Napa
The next morning we got dropped off by Dave at the airport and we picked up our tiny car and threw in our backpacks. After stocking up on food and freezer boxes at a store just out of town (no, not a Walmart), we headed to Napa. The scenery was beautiful, and unlike Stellenbosch, the vines were still a bright green. There were ashy coloured hills in the background, with vineyards all around us. – exactly how I imagined Napa Valley.
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| Napa...mmm wine |
We stopped off at a winery on the way and had a few samples
of some wine and bubbly! And made our way out of Napa along a beautifully
scenic road, past a huge lake that you just wanted to dive into.
Sacramento
Carrying on north, we headed to Sacramento and met our
couchsurfing hosts Alex and Amelia. They kindly put us up in their spare room.
Unfortunately we had run late and were unable to cook them dinner due to
traffic and no way of contacting them due to our lack of technology (technology
1, Emily & Luke 0).
We grabbed some Belgium beers and Amelia made us a lovely
cocktail to start. They were heading on an Eastern Europe journey in a couple
weeks which sounded really cool. They introduced us to a Norwegian game called the
Cube, played in their garden. Took us a while to figure out the game, but
turned out to be a lot of fun. Boys against girls, we stopped at one all.
Their housemate turned up and we all ended up playing Cards
against humanity, another interesting non- PC game!
Lake Tahoe
We got a relatively early start the next day and after
saying our goodbyes, headed to Lake Tahoe. They had given us directions to get
to a free campsite nearby which turned out to be a beautiful setting in the
woods. So far into the woods it seems, that they guy next to us said there had
been bears coming through the area for the last 3 days. There were paw prints
on his car!
There are bear lockers for you to put all your food in and
toiletries. You aren’t meant to have any in your tent or car as they have a
ridiculously good sense of smell! Plus, if they see anything jn your car that
looks like a freezer box, they’ll break your car windows to get it!
Don’t worry he said…just bang some pots and pans together
and they’ll run off. Hmm…we don’t have pots and pans, will Tupperware with a
plastic spoon do? Or hitting a box of wine with a plastic cup?
We took a drive around the west side of the lake, passing
some gorgeous landscape and some packed out campsites! The queues to get to the
beaches were an hour wait and then you had to pay to go swimming?!?
We decided we’d just drive around, stopping off at the viewpoints. It was beautiful, with tall trees taking over the hills, surrounding this gorgeous deep blue lake. The little coves were picturesque, one with a little island in it that boats kept on stopping off at.
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| Lake Tahoe |
We had our first night camping in this lovely, quiet forest
with only a few tents around us. We loaded the bear locker with all the food we
had and toiletries and headed to bed. Thinking Luke had missed a pack of
raisins from the car, I went to check the locker, but couldn’t find the other
one in the car.
We slept quite peacefully, but were both a bit worried of
jumping out of the tent for a wee during the night! We awoke to a fresh, crisp
morning, and as I unzipped the tent, I spotted the bear locker open…now someone
either wanted our box of wine, that bear had got smart, or I forgot to close it
after the raisin search!!!
As the wine didn’t seem any lighter, I’m going to go with
option 2…that nifty little bear! But he didn’t take anything – must be the
vegan food! Not even the raisins (that’ll be the tiny lunchbox sized
packaging)!
Yosemite National Park
We packed up and headed to Yosemite. We passed through some beautiful scenery and hit Mono lake before going up Tioga pass in Yosemite. This side is closed until May from Winter due to rock slides and ice on the road, but we were recommended it by Amelia, Alex and also Dave, especially for finding a cheap campsite that isn’t full up.
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| Yosemite fisherman |
We drove along Tioga, passing some gorgeous dark blue lakes,
surrounded by mountain peaks and tall trees. Some of the mountains around us
still had snow on top of them, which was surprising as it was so hot where we
were, not far below.
We got to the campsite just before dark and set up, having
tacos for dinner again! I learnt my lesson from before and closed the bear
locker properly this time!
It was a cold night, and I mean cold! We were wrapped up in
thermals, hats, fleeces, sleeping liners, sleeping bags and still we were
waking uo every half an hour frozen. I don’t know how the girls next to us
managed it – no tent, just sleeping bags and mats. I’m guessing they were made
out of the thickest down ever!!
This and the campsite before were primitive ones – with only
bear lockers, long drop toilets and no water…so no chance of a shower.
Next morning, we headed towards the Yosemite valley,
stopping off at a forest to take a walk to see the giant sequoia trees. It was
quite an easy hike along a mostly paved road. Out of nowhere came our first
sequoia tree – this giant of a tree that apparently wasn’t that big for a
sequoia - that’s width can easily cover two freeways each. Standing the test of
time, some of these trees have been around for 3000 years, surviving forest fires
shown by their charred bark.
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| Meadows at Yosemite |
We took a drive into the valley which was gorgeous from
above, showing the river cutting through it. We ended up having a much needed
shower and did some laundry in a more equipped campsite, before hanging out in
another lodge to sort out a place to stay in Vegas.
Heading back to our campsite, an hour’s drive away, we took in the rolling meadows along the way where dear were coming out for the cooler evening. Coming quite close to getting some antlers through our windshield, we were a bit more worried about them running into the road as it got darker. The sunset was beautiful that night, casting a warm pink glow over the skies, reflecting off the lake surfaces as we drove by and lighting up the back of the snow capped mountains.
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| Waterfall at Yosemite |
Heading back to our campsite, an hour’s drive away, we took in the rolling meadows along the way where dear were coming out for the cooler evening. Coming quite close to getting some antlers through our windshield, we were a bit more worried about them running into the road as it got darker. The sunset was beautiful that night, casting a warm pink glow over the skies, reflecting off the lake surfaces as we drove by and lighting up the back of the snow capped mountains.
Our second day at Yosemite had just heading up to Glacier
Point, one of the highest view points to drive to in the park. It was beautiful
and gave us a spectacular view of half dome, which was the most strenuous hike
for people and could take 10 hours.
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| Half Dome |
We drove back into the valley and took a late afternoon hike
up the Mist trail to see Vernal falls and Nevada falls. It was a relatively
easy hike for the first part, with large stones making up the stairs for the
last long mile.
The falls were worth it though, they were stunning and so
powerful, and true to the trail’s name, we got covered in a fine, refreshing
mist coming off the falls. Obviously, nothing compares to vic falls now, but
still impressive nonetheless!
We packed up the next day and were ready for a ridiculously
long car journey to Zion National Park, passing from California into Nevada to
reach Utah. We thought it was just going to be a long, straight journey through
desert landscape and a few canyon like scenes, which it was, but it turns out
there was something to see on the way. We were very near area 51, and we were
passing through the town of Rachel where there has been supposedly the most UFO
sightings! The town (and I use that word lightly considering most of the houses
are trailers and there aren’t many at all) was covered in alien and ufo
drawings posters, graffiti and there was even a tow truck with a UFO hanging
off the back of it,
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| Restaurant in Rachel that's in the movie Paul |
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| Keep an eye out... |
Zion
We drove on to Zion, and it got hotter and hotter and
hotter. Flies were taking refuge in our car when we stopped, air con was on
full blast and it was like stepping into a sauna everytime we got out.
We eventually arrived at a town about half an hour away from
Zion as the sun was setting. Spotting a guy in dreadlocks carrying an empty
water can with a Zion, he was our best shot at finding a free campsite, knowing
the ones in the park itself would be expensive and most likely full.
He gave us directions to a road with a few dirt roads
running off if it to a dried out creek. We followed them until we could spot
some tents behind the tall grass.
We parked up near a trailer and tents that were a group of
scouts with their leaders. It was a really hot night, so different from
Yosemite it was unbelievable, but we were ready for a different kind of
national park in the morning.
We awoke to an arid, dusty orange landscape. With barely any
shade, we were up early and headed into Zion park. After arriving at the
visitor centre, we were advised it was too late in the day to tackle Amgel’s
landing so were told to walk the narrows…excuse me lady, its only 8am – that’s
pretty good going for us. Apparently it was 9am – one hour ahead of California!
So the Narrows it was then! We took the shuttle bus to the too of the park and were ready for this interesting trek. WARNING…your feet will get slightly damp. That’s ok – I’ve got gortex waterproof hiking shoes on. Well apparently that means nothing when you’re wading through water up to the top of your legs! It was a hike through a river basically, walking against the current, sometimes it was only up to your ankles, whilst other times you could have only your head bobbing above water should you wish to enter the deeper parts. It was an interesting journey through the canyon. Gazing upwards you saw a hint of blue sky, on your sides you’re surround by these bright red dirt gorge walls and underneath your feet you’re working your way over giant stones and pebbles hoping you wont trip over and ruin your camera of soak your passport!
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| Wading through waters at Zion |
After a cool down and moving the car over into some much
needed shade, we were off om hike number two – up to the emerald pools. The
pictures looked beautiful of these 3 pools you cam across as you went higher
and higher up this hill. The hike was easy enough, all paved and carved out
steps, but the pools were a little disappointing (great camera work must have
gone into those pictures on the brochure!)
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| View from Angel's landing |
This wasn’t for me…I’m happy enough to admit when I’ve been
defeated. Heights is not generally one of my favourite things and I knew I
would stall half way and panic, so I was out. I ended up talking to a Chinese
guy from Cali who decided against the last section too, and we watched Luke and
this guy’s wife getting smaller and smaller into the distance and up into the
sky before we couldn’t spot them anymore.
The climb back down was hard on the knees, and when we hit
the last half an hour, the lack of shade was evident and the sun was out in
full force. We dived into the stream down below with a bunch of people as soon
as we made it back and got on to the shuttle bus dripping wet.
Viva Las Vegas!
After drying off in the sun, we headed to Vegas!!! We made
our way to our next host’s house – Brett and his wife Brittany. He lived with a
housemate, Ricardo, and Brett’s daughter, Lily, was also visiting.
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| Viva Las Vegas! |
After a chilled out morning, we awoke to breakfast tacos
left out by Ricardo before he went to work. And after a quick lesson in
blackjack by Brett and Lily (who he’s trained well), we all headed out to the
strip. Brett and Lily showed us around a bit before heading off to meet
Brittany after work.
We checked out a lot that day starting with the Bellagio and
it’s under the sea themed conservatory which they apparently change every 3
months. We followed that up with the largest chocolate fountain ever…and after
talking about getting a really long straw through the gaps in the glass case,
but failing to find said straw, we gave up (and I instead treated myself to
some peanut butter m&ms – only in America!).
Shortly after, we took a quick walk through the Cosmopolitan and saw their chandelier bar before walking over to the shopping centre that Brittany was working in. She gave me some free perfume samples after finding me a new fragrance – no more smelling like I’ve slept in a tent for the past 2 weeks!
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| Belagio under the sea theme in the conservatory |
We got a late start the next day as we made some lunch for
the road, did some washing and had breakfast with Ricardo again as the others
slept. We set off for the Grand Canyon, with a stop off at Hoover dam on the
way.
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| Belagio fountains |
Grand Canyon
We carried on the long, hot journey to the Grand Canyon, with no clue where we were going to sleep that night. We rolled up to the entrance and asked the lady if she knew anything about camping in the area. She said that the campsites inside were full (and well out of our price range, may I add!). She told us to chuck a right at the roundabout on our way down and pull of anywhere after ¼ mile to be as far away from the freeway as necessary and free camp anywhere. Great – another night on the cheap!
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| Just sitting over the canyon |
We took her advice and headed right at the roundabout and
started seeing a couple of tents popping enough. We set up and had one of the
best night’s sleep ever, after some boring bean and salsa tacos that is! We
just crossed our fingers that the coyotes didn’t like them as well, or us for that
matter.
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| Grand Canyon sunset view |
Route 66
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| Route 66 cute old school diner |
The first town we stopped at was Williams, which had lots of
66 signs all over the place and old school diners and ice cream parlours. It
was right next to the old disused railway which looked pretty cool with one of
the old trains just parked there.
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| Guess where??? |
Carrying along Route 66 and staring across the desert, the
next town of Seligman appeared from nowhere. It was really just shops and
restaurants on the side of this one road running through it. There was a cute
little snow-cap drive in for ice creams and memorabilia in the tourist shops.
There was even a barbershop where this 70 year old man was apparently famous
because he caused a scene when the route was being paved over and turned into
freeways as his customer base was going to go down. It in fact did the
opposite, firing this man into the spotlight. There was even a guy who walked
up to him asking him for a haircut, saying he’d come all the way from Texas to
get it done! Let’s hope he’s good after all of that!
Down the road, there were old school petrol stations and
general stores that looked pretty cool. Then we drove into Oatman, and I just
wished we had a massive bag of carrots. It’s that kind of town you know… I
should probably explain…there were mules everywhere, wandering the streets and
up to shops. So cute, they would come straight up to you to get a stroke. I
think they all had names as I heard one being greeted as he visited a café!
They looked well fed, but I can’t say that the cardboard one of them was chewing
on looked too appetising.
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| Oatman and the mules! |
Barstow
We slowly made our way back into California and our plan was
to at least get to Barstow, a town that split our journey to San Fran in parts.
We made it there just before sunset and started asking around for campsites. The
one I had found online was rumoured to be closed and not so safe with all the
desert snakes apparently.
We drove around the town trying to find some restaurants or
supermarkets where we could get some wifi to find a campsite or ask someone. But
it appeared we had driven into the ghetto city of Cali. Let’s just put it this
way- a guy asked us where we had come from the next day, and when we said
Barstow, his reaction was ‘ooo, sorry.’
We got suggested 3 campsites in the end, but by this time it
was pitch black. The first one was an RV park and he wanted to charge us $60
even though we didn’t need to hook up any electricity! When we decided against
it, he wouldn’t even let me use their restroom…reserved for customers, and
apparently he reserves the right to be rude and stingy! There was a KOA one (a
big campsite company in Cali), but it was ridiculously expensive, and showers
weren’t even included!
A guy from a petrol station just told us to go about 10
miles and free camp in the desert, but with the snakes and scorpions, we didn’t
fancy our chances. So we went to one not far that he said people mainly lived
at in their RVs. $20 for a campsite pitch with showers and even, get this, a
pool, which they told us we could use that evening. Yes please! It was baking
hot, so after a quick tent pitch, we jumped into this pool – a giant relief
after an hour of searching in the dark. We always seem to land on our feet as
well. The ducks from the fishing pond came over to say hello and we settled in
for the night, after finishing off our box of wine.
Coast road
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| What you looking at? |
We headed up the coast the next day, stopping at a million viewpoints to watch craggy cliffs get bashed by waves and gorgeous coves inaccessible to the public. We walked to a waterfall on another inaccessible beach which looked like something out of a book, it was stunning. Wouldn’t mind a castaway moment on that little beach. WILSON!
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| Beautiful beach on the coast road |
We headed up the coast, stopping and pausing for some
picture perfect moments. We made a stop to see some elephant seals, where there
were a good 100 on the beach and in the water. They are the weirdest looking
things I’ve ever seen, poor sods. And they were shedding their skins so they
looked like peeling sunburn, funny faced, lazy, chubby blobs. Not one of god’s
best creations, he must have got bored or fell asleep on the job.
We also ran into some very forward squirrels, and some cute baby ones. They obviously have been used to tourists for a while as they know all the tricks in the book- crowding around people stopping for lunch and pulling puppy dog faces and even crawling into the front grate of your car to ear all the flies, moths and butterflies that have been squashed by you along the highways. One got a feast out of ours, and wasn’t deterred when I made our car honk either!
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| Big Sur Coast |
There was a small park nearby that had RV hook ups and campsites for only $15 so we jumped on that opportunity. It was a great campsite, despite the mosquitos. We had a great night, possibly the last in our old reliable tent! And we set off early the next day to head to San Fran to drop off the car. It was seamless and we were off to our megabus to LA.
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| Funny looking things these elephant seals |
Los Angeles
We were greeted by our next couchsurfing host David, an
older gay guy living in the suburbs of LA. He was an ex roller derby skater
which was pretty interesting.
The next morning we headed into LA and took a look around, going to the Wells Fargo museum, Hollywood Blvd to see the walk of fame, a bus through Beverly Hills before making our way to Rodeo drive.
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| Hollywood walk of fame prints |
The next day was July 4th and we spent it on the
beaches of Santa Monica and Venice, walking up the boardwalks, seeing the
skaters, the cyclists, the barely wearing clothes people, the ‘I have no fat on
me’ people, the muscles, the weirdos, the eccentrics, the typical loud Americans,
the tourists trying out skateboards and a growing obsession for tandems.
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| Bit of MIC filming |
David was kind enough to give us a lift to the airport to
collect the car. The rental agency turned out to be this really small Mexican
one with one woman working in a room from a corridor that was being rebuilt,
just outside the airport. That was our first clue that this wasn’t going to be
as easy a rental as the other one. We had to buy extra insurance for 3rd
party issues and she was very strict on the ‘no sand in the car’ rule – I’m
sorry Miss, do you realise you’re on the sunny coast of California? It’s pretty
much inevitable!
After quite a while organising the car that morning, we headed down the coast for San Diego. We passed beaches famous for their TV shows - Laguna beach (The Hills) and Newport beach (The OC). Laguna beach was stunning, and despite it being quite foggy that morning, the sun came out just in time for our stop at this beautiful location.
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| Rodeo drive |
San Diego
We headed on further until we got all the way to San Diego.
We hung out on Mission/Pacific beach for a while which had a lovely walk down
it, passing some beautiful holiday homes which were full of families
celebrating July 4th weekend with BBQs out, children running out to
the sea, and just a really nice atmosphere. It felt a lot nicer than the
beaches in LA.
We drove to the house of our next couchsurfing host,
Emmanuel. He had a really chilled out house with 4 other housemates and their
cute Siamese kitten Leo. We fell in love with him instantly, the cat that is,
not Manny, although Manny was a pretty nice guy too.
I’ll be the first to admit that our San Diego trip wasn’t
the most productive in terms of tourism. We spent the next day planning the
rest of our America trip in the morning and left late the next day after more
planning and sleeping in. Leo was extremely playful, very much in his teenage
kitten years. He would attack you if you just moved your hand and would be
sliding all over the floor entertaining himself with a piece of paper or a
bottle top he found. He even wouldn’t leave us alone as we set up our
inflatable mattresses (scared that he’d pop them with his claws) and was
skidding on our sleeping bags for a while). After climbing on top of Luke’s
head and getting him untangled from my headphones, we somehow managed to get
rid of him for the first night to get some sleep.
Leo woke me up the next morning tapping my nose, and as
mentioned, we spent the next morning planning and finding hosts for our next
stops.
Manny was on nightshifts the night before, so when he woke
up early afternoon, we headed out into town. He took us to this amazing veggie
place and I had a delicious sweet potato with dried mole. Mmm, I guess it’s not
all that bad!
We passed the convention centre where you could see things
being set up for comic con which was the following well. Luke was the most
depressed that we had missed that, hoping to have seen some Star Wars stuff.
We went a little out of downtown to go for a beer tasting.
We got to pick 4 minis for $10. It was really good, and a change from all the
wine tasting we’ve done (although, you know me, I could taste wine all day)!
The next day we headed off, back up to LA, picking up the
little island, El Coronada, on the way back and tasting some delicious tacos at
the diner Manny’s housemate works at.
We drove back to LA and stopped off at the Hollywood sign.
It took us a while to find it, but it was really cool when it eventually popped
out from all the windy streets we had to take. We managed to get there just for
sunset.
We stayed at David’s again that night before waking up at
5.30am and heading back to the airport to drop off the car and take our flight
to Dallas!
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