I was so excited as we set down at San Francisco airport as I’ve been wanting to do an American road trip for so long and finally the day had come. Also being back in an English speaking developed country after 7 months was going to be so nice. We arrived at midnight so we’d booked a hostel in town to guarantee ourselves a bed for the night. This was one of only a couple of reservations we’d made throughout the last 2 months which is a complete turnabout for me, Mrs Organised - Jinny you’d be proud of me!
I fell in love with San Francisco straight away and it would be a great place to live. The seaside location, the mild climate, the sights, the shops, the restaurants and the atmosphere had me hooked. The only downside we’ve noticed are the number of homeless which is a result of both the mild climate and the closure of all the mental hospitals c.30 years ago. So as you walk around you are regularly asked for money, although not in an aggressive way. There’s even a guy by Fisherman’s Wharf who hides behind a big tree branch and jumps out in order to provide some entertainment for a donation – he’s known locally as the “Bush Man”.
Breakfast in our hostel was self-made pancakes – they provided the pancake mix and syrup, and you cooked. Le Roux and I were entertained by the very poor efforts of other guests – somehow they managed to turn a pancake into unbrowned mush which looked very unappetising. Many were looking on enviously as we turned out some pretty decent looking pancakes!
We spent our first day catching up on some chores, including some much needed shopping – I was like a kid in a sweet shop with proper western clothes shops to browse around! I also had lunch with an old work colleague, Simon, who has now moved to San Fran - the city is known as San Fran not SF for short. It was great catching up with an old friend, especially as he was the first person from home that I have seen in 7 months.
Our 2nd day was spent doing touristy things such as a walking tour of China Town, the Coit Tower, and the three major hills which afforded us great views over the city and of Bay and Golden Gate bridges, as well as Alcatraz. I have to admit to cheating and not walking up them all as we hopped on the Cable Car to travel up and down the iconic steep streets of the city. It was interesting to see that it is still turned around by hand on a turntable at the end of the line. In the evening we went to the cinema to see the King’s Speech, which was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience as we hadn’t been to the cinema since we saw Harry Potter in Santiago, 5 months previously. The only disappointment were the snacks which were not as good as in the UK or in Chile – no pick ‘n’ mix, no icecream counter and no sweet popcorn!
Unfortunately it was time to leave the city and begin our actual road trip, but luckily we were coming back in 3 weeks time so we could tick off a few more sights then. We’d finally made the decision to rent rather than buy a car as the cost was pretty similar and it would be less hassle to hire one, so we picked up our Jeep Liberty and headed to the outdoor shop on our way out of the city to pick up a few extra bits of equipment now that we don’t have to carry everything. I decided to invest in a better, thicker camping mat and it was the best purchase I’ve made in a long time – I actually get a good night’s sleep in our tent now, which is a good thing as we’re doing a lot more of it given accommodation is so expensive in the US.
We headed south from San Francisco and picked up Highway 1, also known as the famous Pacific Highway, with good reason as the views of the coastline and ocean are spectacular. First stop was Monterey, set on a lovely bay. We drove around the headland stopping every few yards for photos. At Lover’s Point we watched on, chuckling to ourselves, as this cheeky squirrel tried to steal a piece of chicken from a sleeping vagrant – although we were rooting for the squirrel it was unlucky as the guy woke up in time to shoo it away. We also saw lots of friendly fat ground squirrels and playful sea otters. The scenic 17 mile drive through Pebble Beach, also on the headland, caused us a few issues as we managed to get a bit lost even with a map, but we did manage to see the Lone Cyprus Tree and Bird Rock as well as some picture postcard coastline.
We camped at Veterans Memorial Park Campground in Monterey and were horrified to find that it cost $27 for the night for a tent spot – twice what we’d been paying for hostels and hotels in Central America! Le Roux cooked up a seriously spicy chicken stew for dinner, after we’d argued about which chilli to buy in the supermarket and I lost - he promised not to put too much in and that he’d taste it before adding more. It did not work out well as he’d picked a scotch bonnet chilli so even a quarter of it was too much, and I sweated and practically cried while eating my dinner - I had to give up in the end! That night we left our washing up to dry on our picnic table and a naughty raccoon stole our wooden spoon.
We visited Monterey Bay Aquarium which was fantastic – it was huge with all manner of different species of sea life. It took us ages to wander around all of the tanks and exhibits, snapping away with the camera. Although we missed the otters and penguins being fed, we did see the diver hand feed the sharks with squid which was pretty cool. My favourite creatures were the jelly fish, the sea stars and the sea horses which were really so interesting and weird to look at.
Next stop was Carmel-by- the Sea, a charming rich seaside town. We stopped in at the Mission San Carlos De Borromeo De Carmelo (aka Carmel Mission) which is one of the prettiest missions in California and so it provided me with yet more great photo opportunities. Unfortunately due to time constraints we didn’t have time to explore the town so we did a quick driving tour of the town and beach instead – very pretty with lots of huge expensive ocean front houses and fancy shops.
We had hoped to drive all the way down the coast to LA on the Pacific Highway, but unfortunately due to a few mud slides onto the road and a rock fall out from under the road, we weren’t able to make it to Big Sur. We drove inland down Highway 101 instead and looped back up Highway 1 a little way to visit the elephant seals at Piedras Blancas and Hearst Castle. Unfortunately we couldn’t see Hearst Castle as all the tours were sold out, but we did get to see lots of massive female elephant seals with their young pups. They were packed onto the beach, jostling and wriggling in tight groupings. As you’d expect we spent a while taking lots of close-up photos of them – Le Roux loves their eyes and got a great picture of one seal looking straight at him with its doe eyes. We camped at nearby San Simeon in the state park and we were even more horrified at the cost as it was $35 per night for a tent and you had to pay extra for a hot shower - all we got was a patch of grass, a picnic table and the use of a toilet!
Le Roux’s friend Neil had recommended a stop-off at the Madonna Inn on our way south towards Los Angeles so we pulled off the highway at this crazy place and were dumbfounded by the kitschness and OTT nature of the hotel – a very bizarre place! The pecan buns were amazing though and we were gutted they only had one left which we had to share.
Next stop on the drive south was the Santa Maria valley for a spot of wine tasting. As Le Roux wasn’t feeling great he kindly offered to drive which allowed me to indulge in a few different wines. I’d picked the Foxen winery from the ones listed in the book as it sounded nice, and it was. However, I hadn’t realised that it was one of the ones featured in the movie Sideways so I had my photo taken in the same spot as the guys in the film – cheesy but fun. As part of the tasting I got to keep my glass, so in amongst all our plastic hard-wearing camping gear I now have a glass wine tasting glass. Amazingly it is still in one piece and I feel quite proper drinking wine out of it at picnic tables in our various campsites!
From Santa Maria we drove onto Solvang which is a very OTT Danish style town, overrun with Japanese tourists - I wasn’t a fan of the place. However, we hunted around to find the icecream shop we’d been told to try and finally found it. Le Roux made the mistake of asking for 2 scoops and ended up with the biggest icecream I’ve ever seen. I only had one scoop but I still struggled to finish it and I can safely say that was the first time I have ever had to throw away icecream! It’s one of my favourite foods, but I just could not eat it all and Le Roux definitely didn’t finish his 2 scoops. American portions are way too big and we need to remember to order one between the two of us in future.
After the wine and the icecream we rolled in to Los Angeles. Le Roux’s good friend Hendrik (aka Krokkie), his wife Carol and their little boy Jaco kindly agreed to let us stay for a few nights. It was so lovely to stay with friends in their home after being in hostels and campsites for so long - they made us feel so welcome. Krokkie cooked up some delicious lamb chops on the BBQ to go with the good bottle of red we’d picked up at the winery. It was great to have lamb, my favourite meat, as it had been ages since we’d come across any.
We spent our time in LA doing some very touristy things and we loved every moment! We drove over the hills to the Malibu coast and enjoyed the pretty coast and the massive celebrity mansions, before accidentally driving through Beverley Hills, having missed Sunset Boulevard! We eventually made it to Hollywood Boulevard which we strolled along, gazing at the stars in the pavement as well as at the Chinese Theatre. The Hollywood sign was a must so we headed up to the Griffith Observatory to get a good view of it and we were also rewarded with a great vista across the city which is a vast urban sprawl, home to 10 million people.
Next stop was the Warner Bros Studio where we did the excellent tour – we saw all sorts of cool things including the real bat mobile, Harry Potter costumes and props, the set of Ellen’s chat show, the Friends coffee shop set, the outdoor street sets, the largest prop department in the world and the tallest sound studio in the business. Whilst looking round the Harry Potter memorabilia, we were sorted by the actual sorting hat used in the first movie which was cool – I was a Gryffindor but Le Roux came out as an evil Slytherin!
Our final activity in LA was a hike through Malibu Creek State Park with Krokkie, Carol and Jaco – a beautiful area not far from their apartment and it was nice to see that LA is not just an urban sprawl but has lovely green areas too.
We bid farewell to the Tredouxs and headed off across California, into Arizona. Our destination was The Grand Canyon. The drive itself was great as we travelled along historic route 66 and the scenery was fantastic - we stopped so often for photos! We passed through beautiful mountains and some classic themed gold mining towns, one of which even had donkeys roaming freely on the streets.
We left balmy LA wearing t-shirts and flip flops and arrived in Williams 9 hours later to find 3ft of snow and freezing temperatures! There was no way we could camp so we had to shell out for a motel. My vision of the Grand Canyon was hot, sunny, dusty and vast. We got sunny and vast, but it was snowy and cold but actually very pretty sprinkled with snow. The highlight of our visit was the helicopter ride over the canyon – it was awesome as the Americans would say. The views from above were truly spectacular and we really got to appreciate how massive the canyon is. I’d not been in a helicopter before so that was exciting too. After the helicopter ride we drove along the south rim and stopped for a picnic by Duck Rock – a great view while we ate our sandwiches and drank our cuppa soups to warm up! We even saw a coyote in the forest. A few too many tour buses of Japanese tourists were hogging all the photo spots though! Having taken about a million photos between us, none of which really do it justice, we headed off to Cameron for the night, with a view to visiting the north rim the next day. Our plans were thwarted though as the only motel in Cameron was far too expensive for our budget and the north rim was closed for winter! Instead, we headed off to Tuba City on the Indian Reservation where we’d located a cheaper motel for the night. After a long day of sightseeing we could have done with a beer, but apparently there’s no alcohol on the reservation so we had to be content with the biggest sodas ever!
The next morning we headed off to Bryce Canyon National Park via Route 89A, a scenic alternative to Route 89, which took us from Arizona into Utah. We pulled into Buffalo Bills in a little town en route for a late lunch, as we’d read about rattlesnake and rabbit sausages which we were keen to try. However, the restaurant was only open for dinner so we drove away hungry and disappointed!
All of the drive was pretty, but the best part was the last few miles through Red Canyon which contains amazing red rock formations called hoodoos. This was just the beginning though as Bryce Canyon itself was a huge amphitheatre filled with hoodoos – so impressive and very pretty sprinkled with snow. In some ways we liked it more than the Grand Canyon. We’d been told sunrise was at 7am so we got up early and headed into the park to the key viewpoint over the amphitheatre but the sun was already up so we’d braved the cold for no particular reason! We decided to warm up at the Lodge while having some coffee and porridge. Luckily we’d been served before the power failed as some diners were turned away hungry! It was also disappointing that so much of the park was closed either due to snow or the risk of falling rocks, but we enjoyed the short hike we did under sunny clear blue skies. We hiked down into the canyon on one of the few trails that was open and the hoodoos were even more impressive from below. There was one called “Queen Victoria” as it looked a bit like the statue of her in London.
As the weather forecast predicted a low of -10C that night I refused to camp! We ended up in a lovely motel which was famous for its pies. We were expected a nice meat pie, but actually it served up fruit and cream pies in various flavours. We tried the boysenberry pie and the blueberry banana cream pie – both delicious but very bad for my waistline! Breakfast wasn’t included so we decided to toast bagels on our little gas stoves, but as it was actually snowing outside we decided to do it in our room, however, it wasn’t long before we’d set off the smoke alarm and had to brave the cold to finish the toasting!
TO BE CONTINUED...
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