I wish they all could be Californian Girls....

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Hi All

Many thanks for your great e-mails and comments on the NZ blog....the cheque from the NZ tourism department is due soon!!!

We had a great flight from Auckland, the very strange thing is arriving on the morning of the evening you took off after 11 hours of flying, therefore gaining a whole day....we had lunch in Auckland before we left on the 10th and then lunch in LA, again on the 10th....Fantasic 2 lunches on the same day!!!

We decided to stay in Santa Monica and not downtown LA, slightly less nutters apparently!!....Although we arrived in bright sunlight we were both surprised at how cold it was....just 14 degrees!!!....A cold Pacific wind blew in and chilled us to the bone...the coldest we had been since leaving the UK!!!

Santa Monica is a really nice place to stay and pretty good for the airport and the sights...in warmer weather the beach would be fantastic....you may remember "Bay Watch"...well this is where it was filmed... There was no-one daft enough to be in the water so no chance of Pamela Anderson charging down the beach to save them, shame!

Day two in LA and we decided to do the VIP city tour / J P Getty museum....a great day which started at the Getty museum...A $1billion museum displaying Gettys collection of Western Art....stunning architecture, gardens, exhibitions and a great restaurant overlooking LA...we spent 4 hours and still didn't manage to see everything!(J.P Getty was one of the worlds richest men, who inherited a lot of his wealth from his father who made it big in oil!)

After the Getty centre we visited the Farmers Markets, Mann's Chinese Theatre famous for its permanent collection of handprints, footprints and signatures of film stars, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. Then to Beverly Hills the business center of the entertainment industry and home of 20th Century Fox Movie Studios.....A busy afternoon!!!

Next day we had to get back to the airport to pick up our car for the drive to San Francisco....So we decided the bright yellow convertable Corvette would draw a bit too much attention (in this economic downturn) and chose a burgundy Pontiac instead!! The drive through LA was fine and we soon found Highway 101 or the Pacific Coast Highway and headed north....

Having made a couple of wrong turns we worked out that the 101 and highway 1 were sometimes the same road and sometimes not!!....Still we made it to Santa Barbara for lunch in one piece.....driving on with the Pacific on our left we made our way to San Simeon where we found great lodgings overlooking the ocean; balcony, open fire, coffee percolator and ice machine in the car park!!...We were here two nights as the famous Hearst Castle was just a mile up the road and it is a "must visit" if you are in the area...

By the way...having been in NZ (southern hemisphere) at the end of their summer coming in to Autumn it was a bit strange to be suddenly in late winter / spring.....in NZ the grapes were about to be harvested...here the vines were naked...and there are a lot of vines here...over 300 wineries around San Simeon alone!!

So, Hearst Castle.....Built in the 1920's by William Randolf Hearst....another one of the worlds richest men...again he inherited from his father, aparently one of the most popular ways to become very wealthy if you are American! The castle was his dream having toured Europe with is mother when he was young, it was built 600 metres above the coast on an "enchanted hill" where the family used to camp....this was to be his beach home....have a look at http://www.hearstcastle.org/ ....it has 56 bedrooms, 41 fireplaces, 61 bathrooms and 19 sitting rooms in over 90,000 sq ft of living space!!!....

Hearst Castle was certainly amazing and a "must see" our guide Chuck was excellent and made the trip fun, entertaining and very American!!

The following day we made our way north again on highway one / 101 / PCH.....it was here the coastal drive really started to become exciting and I was quite pleased to be on inside of the road as the cliffs were pretty steep and I was on the wrong side of the car, the wrong side of the road & trying look at as much scenery as I could..... and the wind was getting up!!....

We also both started to get a bit nervous as I had forgotten to fill up the car with "gas"!!!.....Prayers were answered as we rounded a corner to find a small gas station / coffee shop....phew....she would have killed me!!!

OK, on to Big Sur where we found a great restaurant for lunch perched up high overlooking the Pacific with Condors swooping overhead and cheeky mexican children running around screaming!!! Lunch was excellent...in fact all the food so far had been excellent and reasonably priced despite the pound dropping again!!

We drove on, missing Carmel unfortunately. due to poor signage and my inability to turn left. We bowled up unanounced in Half Moon Bay....lucky again with accommodation we found a very good hotel (Best Western!!) with open fire...blar blar blar....the pool looked good but it was still very cold so we had a walk around the Marina a stiff drink and half a dozen oysters!....

Sunday was wet for our drive up to Napa via the Golden Gate Bridge...a shame but we would be back to the city so the photos would wait!! Still the drive over was amazing.....

The bridge is 1.7 miles long, with the suspension span 1.2 miles its 90 feet wide, including 10 feet of walkway. The clearance in high tide is only 220 feet, it is still the second longest suspension bridge main span in the U.S., though it was complete back in 1937.... The bridge is the most popular place in the United States, and among the most popular in the world, to commit suicide. There is no accurate figure on the number of jumpers however only 26 people were known to have survived the jump...they are now in the USA Olympic diving team!!

Now back to the serious stuff, Wine.....Napa (Land of plenty - Wappo Indian) is the place for me....encompasing over 325 wineries! The first commercial winery started in 1861 and by 1889 there were 140 in operation!!!Things turned a bit sour during prohibition in 1920 and many wineries folded during the 14 years....they do wine extremely well, the Napa region is world famous for many of its fine wines....We visted one or two and really enjoyed both the wine and the camerarderie of the staff and other tasters!!!

We stayed in a place called Yountville...named after George Calvert Yount ...one of the pioneers of the wine trade back in 1836, the first to plant vines in the valley...its now a quaint town boasting largest concentration of Michelin stars outside of New York...this is the gastronomic centre of Napa!...We ate at Redd (1 star), Ad Hoc (1 star) and Bottega....all were great...but REDD was the best!!!

All good things have to come to and end and we had to leave Napa....for San Francisco for our last 5 nights in California, the States and on our World tour!!

The driving directions went well untill I found myself in the wrong lane on entering the city and having to turn right to the Marina...(homing device I guess)....so after that our directions were useless as I couldnt get back to the 101....after a few choice words from my navigator we got back on track and made it to our hotel to drop the bags and then through the city to the Fishermans Wharf Avis office...with no major dissasters!

Having dropped the car off we needed to celebrate the fact we had successfully driven from LA to San Francisco with no crashes and only being on the wrong side of the road twice!!.....Pier 39...Crab and Mojito's did the trick...overlooking the bay and the bridge and the sun was shining despite the forecast, although it was still a little chilly...

As Mark Twain said " The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco".......it does get chilly here, especially when the sea mist comes in.

We spent the next couple of days seeing the sights and walking up and down those huge hills...we were lucky enough to see a fire hydrant spectacularly knocked over...water water everywhere!!....We spent a hour on a great harbour cruise which went under the bridge, took the hop-on hop-off bus which went over the bridge again....in fact we have so far been over it six times now!! China Town is great and the largest in the States, we had tea in the Japenese Garden, cocktails in the Clock tower bar, took a tram up..and down Powell and enjoyed the farmers market...along with about 15,000 others at the Ferries Building....

The sights in San Francisco are great and there are many great places to shop, eat, drink and people watch...who were mainly talking to themselves!!!

On Monday we had decided to spend the day at Yosemite National Park....we were picked up from our hotel at the rediculous time of 06.45!....a time niether of had seen for a while!....It took 4 1/2 hours to get to the park, driving through the central valley and stopping for a short break at the largest Safeway we had ever seen....We then began to climb up into the Sierra Navada hills towards the park....it was at this point we realised we were not particularly dressed for the occasion as the higher we got the more snow we encountered.....Sharron was not amused!!!

By the time we had reached the main areas of the park the snow was thick and crisp and even....and the paths were very slippery!!! The scenery however was stunning and we had a great guide who managed to get us everywhere for the best photos and views...the only thing we missed was the giant Sequoias, big shame but on the list for our next visit!!

The day went very quickly having visited the Yosemite falls, El Capitan (Largest granite rock face in the world), the visitor centre, museam and Ansell Adams photography shop....back on the bus and 4 1/2 hours later we were drinking Martinis and defrosting!!

Our last day in San Francisco was spent at the Museaum of modern art, which was great followed by a lazy seafood lunch before getting to the airport for our delayed BA flight back to London Heathrow....

We will be in Swindon for a few days and then back down to Dartmouth where we have decided to spend the month of April before heading to Europe...

Lok forward to seeing you soon

Mark & Sharron

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