Thursday 2nd February 2006 – 6am London
The alarm goes off at 6am causing the agony in my throbbing head to intensify. I silently cursed myself for having drunk too much the night before.
But it was my friends leaving drinks so how could I not go?
Our car picked us up outside the flat at 7.30am. Now as well as a throbbing headache I feel sick. Curse curse curse.
We arrive at heathrow airport. I should be excited but I just feel ill. We check in and decide on ordering a full english breakfast.
I pick around the sausage, bacon, eggs and beans and end up just nibbling on a crust of toast. I figure this is enough in my stomach to pop some nurofen.
POP
Luckily the flight wasnít full and we had the 4 middle seats to ourselves. So we spread out and slept and my headache started to ease. Ahhhh bliss.
Thursday 2nd February 2006 – 3pm Los Angeles
We arrived in LA at 3pm, and caught the Hertz bus to pick up our Ford Mustang. I hope it ís a red one. When we arrived at the Hertz desk, tired and jetlagged after a 12 hour flight, we were faced with all these decisions. Do you want a 4WD, it will be the same price and better for up in the mountains and the desert? What about a Toyota Sebring convertible? More luggage space? And on and on the questions went.
We cant make decisions at the best of times let alone tired, hungover and jetlagged after a 12 hour flight. Anyway we decided to stick with the original decision of the ford mustang. I hope its red, I hope its red!
It was blue.
We put the top down and drove around the corner to our hotel. We got a special on lastminute.com for the Crown Plaza. Only $55 /night. We had a nice room overlooking the airport.
We wandered down for an early dinner. I had half a chicken and chips and Mike had a steak. Then after dinner there was some jazz playing in the bar, so we watched and listened for a bit before heading up to bed.
I wouldn’t recommend the Crown Plaza, nor would I stay there again. There were yellow stains on the sheets, which I had to get them to change. Disgusting.
Friday 3rd February 2006
We awoke at 4am, up at 6am and itching to get on the road. First stop was Santa Monica Pier for breakfast. We arrived at about 9am and nothing was open. We wandered down the pier and watched the sea mist coming in. Remarkable. One minute it was bright and sunny, then next you cant see a thing.
We could see all of this building about 5 minutes ago
We found breakfast, ate and continued on up the coast. It was very cold in the convertible with all the sea mist. The visibility wasn’t too great either. In fact we couldn’t see a thing. We decided to head up into the mountains. We stopped at Malibou Creek National park to go walkees. It was really hot and couldn’t believe we were freezing 10 mins ago on the coast.
We walked through the park, and saw many lizards.
This is the scenery for some of the mash TV series.
We got lost and what was to be a 1 hour walk turned into a 3 hour walk.
We continued driving along the coast for a bit and stopped at an overpriced motel in Arroyo Grande. We were both tired and it was dark.
Saturday 4th February 2006
Today we meet Jerry, one of my work colleagues who works from his ranch about halfway between LA and San Francisco.
We met up at this big pink building called the Madonna Inn at St Luis Obispo and had a coffee. He recommended we do Hearst Castle and Pebble beach,
but first up go see the seals at Avril Beach, which was 5 minutes drive away.
The seals at Avril beach laying on a raft grunting away merrily. We ate our lunch which we picked up at the supermarket earlier that day.
Some fresh rolls and fresh fruit. Very much needed after all the greasy meals we had been eating.
We then ummmed and ahhed about hiring some dune buggys and hooning around in the sand dunes on Pismo Beach, or a hummer ride in the sand dunes.
The hummer ride won the toss. This was the most amazing, exciting ride ever. Hummers can lean up to 60 degrees.
There were a number of times I was convinced we would roll over and die. But a definite must for anyone in the pismo beach area.
That night we stayed at a little beachside motel in San Simeon. In the evening we had a fantastic mexican meal, and the corona was only $3.
Day 4
Off for some more coastal scenery. Today we saw spouting whales. Drove throught the Big Sur. Decided to keep on driving to San Francisco
Day 5,6 and 7
Sunday 5th February
San Francisco is a cross between Wellington and Melbourne. Wellington for its harbour and steep streets, Melbourne for its many cafes and gays.
We arrived in San Francisco mid Sunday afternoon and drove alongside fishermans wharf, which was bustling with tourists.
But we had no time for sightseeing as we were on a mission to find accomodation for a few nights. Fishermans wharf was well pricey,
so we went off in search for a bed. We drove up some extremely steep hills
,
then down some extremely steep hills,all the while snapping photos out of the top of the roof. Arent convertibles great!
We managed to find nothing for less than $200 in this pricey town. It was time to resort to the lonely planet guide.
It recommended the Maxwell as mid-priced accomodation in a central location. At only $150/night including parking we decided to take it.
The Maxwell is a 1908 Art Deco building. It was a comfortable clean room with Aveda products. It was built 3 years after the big earthquake,
so we figure it would probably crumble in any major earthquake.
We found a fantastic steak and seafood grill for dinner, accompanied with some live jazz. Had a delightful dinner and a number of coronas.
A very enjoyable evening.
Monday 6th February 2006
First stop, chinatown. Mike had downloaded a walking tour to his ipod. Stupidly I forgot so we had to share his one set of ear phones.
Like a typical tourist couple, we wandered around china town basically joined at the hip, listening to stories of chinese slavery and prostitution.
What a cheery way to start the morning.
We then headed to North Beach for breakfast, and stopped at a little cafÈ called Pams cafÈ. I had the best breakfast of the whole trip.
Crispy bacon and home fried potatoes. Mike had biscuits and gravy. Sounds putrid but is apparently quite nice. I wasnít game to try.
After breakfast it was time to brave the tourist infested Fishermans wharf. There were lots of stalls displaying fresh seafood.
I really really wanted some, but not a good idea knowing my history of eating dodgy seafood.
We decided to hire a couple of bikes and cycle over the golden gate bridge. This was a really good call as the day was beaming with bright sunshine
and exercise was more than overdue. This was so much fun and a very easy cycle. It was nice to be back on a bike again.
The view from the top of the golden gate bridge was magnificent, if just a little misty.
On the other side of the bridge we stopped for coffee and cake, before catching the ferry back to the San Francisco port.
This was as close as we got to alcatraz
For the evening meal we decided to head to the Garlic Rose restaurant at north beach, which we passed earlier in the day.
Everything in this restaurant is loaded with garlic! For starters we had a bowl of whole garlic gloves. It was disgusting.
We reeked for days after that. I havent quite enjoyed garlic the same since.
Tuesday 7th February 2006
We decided to walk to Golden Gate Park. Turned out this was a very long walk through streets of the low life ,drugged out, homeless,
weirdo and nut case varieties. I did not feel safe at all. We decided to jump on the tram for the rest of the way.
The summer of love walking tour took us along Haight and Ashbury streets where we learnt about a time in the 60s in which hippies
celebrated sex, drugs and rock and roll. We saw where famous stars such as jonis joplin lived and the hells angels head quarters.
Golden Gate Park itself was a bit of a disappointment. We expected something a bit more compact for a walking tour.
Instead this would have been better suited as a driving, cycling tour. We got fed up and got the bus back to our hotel, picked up our bags,
loaded the car and headed off to the Napa Valley for wining and dining.
Day 7
Departed SF for the Napa Valley. We didnít really know what to expect or where to go. We stopped for lunch and asked a man. He suggested going to a quaint little town called Calistoga. So we did and stopped at a few wineries on the way. Most of the wineries charged for tastings, so we tried a couple, didnít like, and decided not to do anymore.
We found Calistoga and found accomodation to be very expensive. We chose a place with a spa pool and heated swimming pool. Spent the afternoon lazing in the sun, reading a book.
That night we went to the most expensive restaurant in town. The wine was divine, and at $15 a glass you would expect it to be.
Day 8
Left the napa valley and headed for Lake Tahoe. Along the way we say snow.
Day 9
Mike feeling much better so we decided snow mobiling was the way to go. It was awesome. So pretty. A little tame tho. Would like to do some jumpy things etc.