Californiacated

We've driven 1,650 of miles of some the most beautiful and dramatic landscapes from mountains, deserts & the Pacific. The American countryside leaves you speechless and humbled in its vastness. At no point was it ever a chore to hit the road and see where it would take you. Not having a destination and being constrained by time, we were allowed just to absorb it all and take it all in at our own pace.

The cities were no less a spectacle in their vastness and individuality. All though interesting and fun to visit they just brought home the fact that I'm a country boy at heart. I spent more time photographing animals and birds (feathered ones) in San Francisco than the city.

This has been a great eye opening trip that I have enjoyed greatly with no small thanks to Stevie, whose been a great travel companion and friend. His endless googleing and fact finding about the places we've visited has brought them to life. I look forward to our next adventure.

Gravity is overrated

Imagine a light grey piece of paper with nothing on it, then that would have been the Golden Gate bridge today. We decided to walk it anyway in the hope that the fog would clear whilst we walked its length of just over 2 miles, no chance it was even thicker when we returned to the car.

With steep gradients, some seem near vertical, we walked miles and miles. Then took a cable car when to Union Square from Fishermans Wharf, like Stuart said, it seemed like a roller coaster at times...

Turning a corner downtown, we came across a large protest of Hotel workers fighting for their rights, apparently they wanted a contract and they wanted it now!

Without hesitation we both went into press mode and covered the event, just incase...

China town is one of the largest outside China, the streets were busy with frenetic activity and everyone had something to sell. Being hungry I was tempted, but we had promised ourselves steak that evening....

Today is the day we fly home, it has been an excellent adventure. Whilst I have enjoyed the vast difference America has to offer, I do miss my lovely family very much and can't wait to return home to them. Oh yeah! and my monkey tea of coarse.... x

Cars, trucks and vans.

Spending many hours on the freeway, I have come across a vast selection of names that detroit chooses to call their offspring. Lincoln Navigator, Chevy Trail Blazer, dodge Wewillkillyou! Then even Toyota Tacoma, could you imagine a Nissan Nuneaton?

Finding a bed in San Francisco was hard, there was a IBM convention in town and everything was booked up. So having taken the decision to head further out of town to find a room, I spotted a neon that called to me, Pacific Heights was a welcome oasis with just two rooms available and free parking, it costs 50 bucks a night just to park the car in this city, I said we'd take it...

Now morning and not sure if the fog has lifted, but I can hear a fog horn outside so I take that as a NO then.

Our day started with a breakfast at yet another diner, this time it was bagels, very nice too, be hard to return to wheatabix after this.

Then we headed on Highway 101 north towards Pismo Beach where we watched surfers doing battle with the waves. I had money on the waves anyway...

Then after passing San Luis Osbispo we completed the 330 mile journey to San Francisco only to be greeted by cold fog that could be seen from 40 miles away.

Along the way we passed the HQ of Ebay, Yahoo, Intel, Google and we were quite close to Apple too, if hunting for the holly grail, this would surely be the place to start.

Cheated in Hollywood

Apologies are in order, we were informed that the Diner that we had dinner in last night was the location for the Pulp fiction scenes. Well, as anyone who knows me, knows that I'd be on IMDB as soon as I could to check it out, Lies lies and lies, the tour guide made it all up, she also made up the car wash location from the movie of the same name. I'm so relieved that I didn't leaver her a tip, bitch...

Still, the burger and fries were lovely, and I think Stuart enjoyed his huge shake, even though he wasn't at the table with Uma Thurman!

more laters x

More Random pictures from LA

Just some more pictures from todays LA visit...

Movies Movies Movies

With the excitement of kids at Christmas, we headed into Hollywood to have a mooch around at the walk of fame and Kodak theatre. We first went to the "Hollywood Forever Cemetery" anyone that knows me knows that I love to spend hours looking around these places. Found the grave of Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone. We then went up various residential roads toward the Hollywood sign, we got very close to the sign and climbed even higher on foot, ignoring the warning signs of rattle snakes and mountain lions...

Then back in the car heading down to Hollywood blvd Stuart suddenly pulls over and said that a police car has told him to do so, next thing we see is a police officer on each side of the car and I swear that their hands were very close to their guns.

Stuart slowly got out of the car, like a good friend I stayed inside and did nothing, perhaps I may have wanted to run for it, but it was only failing to stop at a "stop sign" (how picky) nice chap let us off in the end...

Getting pulled over by LA's finest was a great experience & since I knew I hadn't done anything serious I figured I wouldn't get shot or thrown in jail.... educated by the movies I moved slowly and was very polite...when I had to exit the vehicle to get my license out the boot and saw a second officer with her hand on her gun covering a sudden movement from a very nervous Stevie, I couldn't help but smile and say "Hi there, How are you today" I think my english accent made her smile and relax the grip on her gun. After a stern warning to obey there laws and with the promise that we'd leave LA we were let off.....I drove away with a really big grin on my face :)

Then after all that, we were trying to find a safe parking spot and amonst a large crowd we spot Barry Manilow outside Capitol Head offices, not being a fan myself we drove on. In fact I'd put him on the same shelf as Blackpool and Vegas!!!!

Then we had diner in the same place where Pulp Fiction had the dining scenes filmed.

Then we head up towards Malibu and take the Pacific Highway as the sun sets over the ocean, again one of the most amazing things to be seen. We got as far as Carpenteria, which is where I fumble away at the keys to try to bring this blog up to date.

Tomorrow morning we should drive to San Luis Osbispo then onto San Francisco.

Vegas to LA

After an early check out from the decaying Somerset Hotel, we headed out of town and towards highway 93 that would take us into Arizona via the Hoover Dam. Arrived so early that we had the place virtually all to ourselves.

Then after 20 miles into Arizona, we turned round and headed towards Los Angeles, stopping off in the desert at Baker to visit the worlds tallest thermometer, it indicated 100 degrees, I didn't disagree! "Betty Swollocks" as Stu would say...

Then we headed on towards LA and drove along Sunset Blvd with the setting sun right in our faces, who could argue.

After some searching for a safe place to rest for the night, I walked into a motel complex that actually had people living in there, made a hasty retreat and we settled for The Comfort Inn in Santa Monica.

Over Easy

So keen to have our first visit to an American diner, we visited this one in Beatty. As everything came with eggs we decided to have King Rancho with eggs.

When the waitress asked Stuart how he'd like his eggs, he hesitated mulled it over then muttered the words "over easy", we guessed it was just something from the movies, she just said "coming right up honey"...

Vegas

Las Vegas, not a lot to say here, but it's like Blackpool on heat.... and I hate Blackpool!

Our hotel is like the one from Barton Fink, the walls were sticky and the place hadn't been touched since early sixties when it was built.

However we did find a wedding to crash, kind of until the bride got very tetchy about me taking shots and I decided to make a sharp exit....

After the beauty of the desert and small town America, to be greeted with the huge visual and noise pollution of Las Vegas, I found it was too much of a shock. We decided to check out at sunrise and head to our next venture.