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Published: October 27th 2008
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San Diego was great.
From there I drove north along the coast to visit a cousin who had re-located from wintery
North Bay, Canada and had settled into the California life quite comfortably it seemed.
Los Angeles Tuesday September 16th:
I arrived at a cheap North Hollywood hostel which didn't have as many backpackers as there
were guys from LA who were doing projects from sound engineering, script writing, book writing and
photo editing on their computers. They were all living in this dormitory and you'd over hear
conversations like,
"...Bogdanovich finally got back to me" or
"... Bob Dylan brought his son
to my child's b'day party and was dressed a little wierd.
I said, 'You look like a bug".
Dylan replied, 'I feel like a bug'." Also there were discussions of politics like Blair and Bush's
"smoking gun memo" along with other controversial subjects not popular in the US news media.
Everyone seemed to be some sort of intellectual down on his luck.
I remember hearing how the public transport in LA was not very good.
But they've got a subway now and the buses run everywhere. You can get
an all-day pass
Len & Trish
California Cousins which includes travel in the whole area. Some buses even have little TV screens
like on airplanes which show you a cartoon bus moving along the streets
to indicated where the bus is.
Grauman's Chinese Theatre
A landmark on Hollywood Blvd.
It's been home to many movie premieres and Academy Awards ceremonies. The theatre began providing the footprints and handprints of popular actors. Lots of tourists are seen crouching down on the pads of their favourite actor for a photo.
Up the coast Up the coast where the highway forks off to the Coastal Highway #1 is
San Luis Obispo. A beautiful university town which was having a farmers market
along with a Mariachi Band celebrating Mexico's independence holiday. The picturesque town was flooded
with university students beginning the new year. But most notable was the temperature
change from LA which was only a couple of hours away.
Further up the coast I passed San Simeon, then the next day I thought I would
be able to get a bed at the hostel in Monterrey only to find out that the Monterrey
Jazz Festival was that weekend and everything was full. Bad planning, or rather No planning.
Grauman's Chinese Theatre
A close look at the door on the police cruiser indicates
that "this is a movie car". Careful you don't get an actor instead of a real cop in LA. There are lots of bicycle riders on the coastal highway. I've been paying attention
because years before (see:
http://ca.geocities.com/mungo_stjohn) I rode my
bicycle down the coast as far as San Francisco and always wondered whether I
should have continued. From my more mature perspective I'm glad I didn't. For some miles around San Simeon the road is fine but it quickly changes to steep cliffs with dangerous curves
and non-existent shoulders.
There were colonies of Elephant Seals along the coast as well as dolphins. Grey whales are
here at other times of the year.
I stayed at some lighthouse hostels along the coast and any of the large international hotels
would have paid a fortune for the location. My view from the common sitting room looked like a painting.
A colony of Murre birds which used to inhabit the Devils Slide Rock view was unfortunately wiped out by oil spills in 1986.
A new colony had been formed by conservationalists by using mirrors, decoys and amplified calls to lure them back. Now in the common room of the hostel is a view of the new colony by means of a solar powered video camera.
See photo below.
San Simeon, Hearst Castle
Popular tourist attraction portrayed in
Orson Welles' biographical movie of William Randolph Hearst, "Citizen Kane". San Francisco area National Parks of the USA include many historical sights in cities, not only wilderness areas.
Tours by National Park Rangers are available in all these areas for free by enthusiastic rangers.
I was the only one who asked about the 4 o'clock tour and felt obligated to go on the tour. It
turned out surprisingly interesting and since I was the only one he took me into areas that wouldn't
have been accessible to a larger group.
I had been trying to reserve a place in San Francisco over the internet but everything was full
even though it was the end of the school holidays.
I found a place at Marin Headland Hostel, across the Golden Gate Bridge, $6 toll, towards Sausalito.
It's in the
wilderness housed at a vacated army barracks.
From Sausalito area I crossed another bridge ($6 toll) to get onto the highway going to
the capital city of California, Sacramento. On the way I stopped in to visit another
too-long no-see transplanted cousin
who migrated to an enviable lifestyle from the Great White North.
I made a reservation at one of the casinos in
Reno, Hearst Castle
Tickets were $25 to $30 for partial tours.
(At least, I saw the movie)
This is a stock photo. Nevada .
The Motorcycle Convention,
"Vibrations", was taking over the city just as I arrived. It’s HOG heaven!
After a night in Lake Tahoe, I headed for Utah.
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