USA - Part 1: California

We flew from Shanghai across the Pacific and time warping international dateline to San Francisco on the 12th of May. The city was immediately likeable with a certain familiarity about it probably from watching Dirty Harry films and numerous other cop movies (Steve) and comedy romances (Claire). Great 20th century architecture including Steve’s favourite art deco style. In most places worldwide with hills they build winding roads up the hills to reduce the slope. In San Francisco the planners stuck a grid plan over the city area so that roads go straight up and straight down all the hills. On their own they’re not the biggest or steepest hills around but they just go straight up and straight down. At cross-streets the roads briefly level off. What we really wanted to do was drive straight down one in a huge brown seventies sedan just like those car chases in the movies where they bounce up and down with the loose suspension.

San Francisco seemed all so familiar. The bay was expansive and cold out on the water but beautiful - the calls of the seagulls made it seem more lonely and empty. Steve could just picture the scene from a Dirty Harry movie out on the other side of the bay late at night when another murder victim was found. Then there was the cool and laidback downtown. In the mornings people would sit on the grass in Union Square, pull out their laptop and start tapping away using the free outdoor WiFi. With our newly acquired EeePC we were able to blend in with the crowd - it was also the nearest place we could get free internet. People wore jeans to work every day of the week. In the lobby of our hotel where conferences were held and out on the streets, the local workers constantly had mobiles to ears or were in groups talking business plans using all the buzzwords and waving their arms enthusiastically. Being long term tourists, the corporate world and all its strategies was fortunately foreign to us.

People in San Fran were so friendly to us tourists, helping us with bus numbers and so forth. There was friendly chit-chat in the shops and so often the “how are you today?” or “have a fantastic evening!” enquiries and remarks that were said with real meaning (or so it seemed). San Fran has its fair share of drop outs, beggars and hangers-on who are usually also friendly and add to the feel of the city. Although with a beggar almost on every corner in the tourist hotel area it sometimes seemed everyone was after something out of us - and we were non-working tourists! We also noticed loads of people sporting tattoos particularly the women - might be the new fashion we should pick up on!

We saw most of the main sights in San Fran: caught the cable car and enjoyed the banter of the drivers; went to a seafood restaurant at Fishermans Wharf; saw the smelly, noisy but cool sea lions at Pier 39; walked across the Golden Gate Bridge; went on a bay cruise that included a sail under the bridge and a sail past Alcatraz; and drove down Lombard Street - “the crookedest street in America”. The bay lived up to its reputation - the temperature must have been 20 deg C or about 30 F (in American) colder out on the bay than at the wharf. We were lucky that the bay was clear of fog for our whole visit and on our last day the mercury climbed to over 90.

We picked up a Chrysler Sebring convertible in San Fran and hit the Californian highways down to Yosemite National Park. The drive included rural American areas, past long railway sidings, grain silos and huge orange groves. The land was dry, brown and flat and reminded Steve of his younger days visiting relatives around Toowoomba in Queensland. Nearing Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada the scenery changed to alpine with flowing rivers and gorges. We spent two nights in Wawona Lodge at the southern end of the park. It had a lovely long swimming pool but a shame for Claire that it was still empty and closed till Memorial Day the following weekend. The scenery in Yosemite was breathtaking and unique. The size and scale was most impressive - huge granite mountains and tall cascading waterfalls with lush green valleys. The waterfalls were real value for money satisfying most senses by their sight, sound and when up close their drenching mist. Back at the lodge we enjoyed the Saturday bbq chilling out and met some American tourists from San Fran who Claire played “just 15 minutes” of bridge with that lasted for 3 hours.

The Tioga pass in Yosemite was still closed so we had a long drive down to Bakersfield then up and across towards Death Valley. This is where we started to hit desert country, where roads became straight and long, cacti were the tallest plants and the scenery was typically large flat valleys surrounded by bare rocky mountains. On Highway 178 we passed through Trona, a small town in the middle of nowhere, no sign of any people, a welcome sign advertising its nine churches plus a burnt out car. Some kind of mining and perhaps salt extraction seemed to be going on but no sign of life anywhere. It felt a bit strange - we kept the doors locked and went straight on through into the desert.

It was hot that day - a late Spring heatwave had hit the west and there was no way we were going to make use of the car’s convertible function. The drive over the range into Death Valley was beautiful though especially late in the day as the sun was lower in the sky. In Death Valley the roads were still straight and long, but now they also led downwards, to more than 200 ft below sea to the valley floor. It was far from featureless though with sand dunes, salt flats and rocky terrain. The town of Furnace Creek lived up to the furnace part. Even later that night at 10 pm the air was hot and stifling. After dinner we went up the road to Golden Canyon. Only about 4 miles from Furnace Creek but it seemed a million miles from anywhere. We parked the car, got out and . . . SILENCE! It was deafening! Beneath the full moonlit sky, with the canyon behind us and the valley in front all we could hear was nothing - no insects, no animals, no cars - even our whispers seemed too loud and seemed to fill the valley. For Claire in particular it was mesmerising and like something out of The Twilight Zone. The quietness and emptiness is what made the place such an experience and something we will always remember.

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