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Page 8 of B bop Travel Blog Posts

North America » United States » California April 8th 2011

Not too much to report over these past 2 days. We have mostly been driving down the Pacific Coastal Highway enjoying the beautiful scenery. We did stop and see the Hearst Castle on our way to our hotel stop in San Luis Obispo. The castle was amazing, William Hearst was an eclectic man and we are lucky that we get to enjoy all that he built of his 151 room mansion. There are 4 tours each lasting 70 minutes that you would have to take to see all of the mansion (and thats not including the 20 minutes it takes to get up and back). After our stay in San Luis Obispo we got a late start and were on the road by 11, we only stopped once for lunch in Malibu on our way ... read more

On the Road Again

North America » United States » California » Monterey April 6th 2011

Pacific Coast

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We got up early this morning and drove our rented 2011 Nissan Sentra up across the Golden Gate Bridge (we had ridden across it with the tour but its something entirely different to drive it your self) and up into the mountains of California to Muir Woods where there is a Coastal Redwood forest. We ended up being so glad that we got there early since when we left the place was teaming with people and tours. We had a lovely quiet walk through the forest of these peaceful giants. Coastal Redwood's are the tallest living thing on Earth, and it is amazing to see them up close! It was interesting to see that Redwoods grow 2 ways, either from a seedling, or from a dead Redwood's root system. You can tell the two apart ... read more

Last Day in San Francisco

North America » United States » California » San Francisco April 5th 2011

Mom happy as a clam riding on the Cable Cars

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Hello there! Well today was a big day for us, we set out with enough knowledge of the city to be dangerous :) but it all worked out beautifully! I must say the people in San Francisco are so friendly and helpful! Every time a native saw us looking at a map they came up to ask us if we needed help finding something. It was quite amazing for a complete stranger to ask if you need help and be happy to offer it. We bought an all day pass for all the public transportation in S.F and Mom could not wait to ride the cable cars, she was almost jumping up and down when we arrived at the place where they manually turn them around. (I have pictures and a video of this but I ... read more

Napa Valley

North America » United States » California » Napa Valley April 4th 2011

Mom and I at our first stop

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Today was another very fun day in S.F, well. . Napa valley is where we spent most of the day, but it started in San Fran. It started with Mom getting the times confused and waking me up at 6 a.m, which was hour before I was set to get up. A little groggily I woke up and then realized what was going on, but I enjoyed being up well before I had to because it gave me time to try and figure out if I could upload my videos from the day before onto the blog via my phone, but sadly it won't let me so I have to wait until I am around a computer to do so. After a quick breakfast we set off to catch up with our Napa Valley tour. As we headed out ... read more

San Fracisco tour - first full day

North America » United States » California » San Francisco » North Beach April 4th 2011

San Francisco

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What an absolutely beautiful day in S.F! The sun was shining and everyone was outside soaking it up . After a nice breakfast Mom and I went exploring before we met up with our tour at 11:30. We poked around in a few chocolate shops and places along fishermans wharf on our way to the ferry landing where we would be meeting up with the tour. It felt great to sit on a bench and bask in the sun while looking out over the serene waters of the S.F bay. Soon enough we were underway with our 5 hour tour of S.F where we saw so many great things. So as not to bore you I will give you the highlights, some of which weren't even supposed to be on the tour! First we drove by ... read more

California

North America April 3rd 2011

Our Hotel

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We made it to San Francisco last night safe and sound! We had a great flight due to a man named Jaime who had the seat next to us. It turns out he has been a resident of California all his life and gave us some great information on where to go and what to do. We also had the pleasure of being able to watch the final four games on the TV's provided on the airplane, But sadly, with only 16 seconds left in the UK vs UCONN game, they shut the tv's down and the whole plane started booing. We made it safely to our hotel, The Wharf Inn (which is in the center of everything in the fishermans wharf!) and went to sleep ( it was difficult since we were in the center ... read more

The countdown

North America » United States » Virginia » Yorktown March 30th 2011

My bags

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Hello out there!! Well I finally have my blog up and running and I am well into the countdown to Saturday at 2:30 which is when my plane departs for the great state of California! I am getting the final details hashed out with my mom, Beth, who will be joining me for the week on the West Coast. We plan on visiting San Francisco then heading down to San Diego, and ending up in Los Angeles for my flight to Australia and her flight back to Virginia. I am only taking a 40 L backpack with me and plan on living mostly out of that for 16 weeks. There has been a lot of planning for this trip, but at the same time some of it is still up in the air. It is exciting, ... read more