Road Trip #1

---

Hey Loyal followers, how are we doing?

Nikola and I have had quite the adverture since we last posted a blog. We've been to Monterey, Carmel, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and we are currently residing in the little known town of Flagstaff, Arizona sitting at 7000ft (about 2500m for you metric types in less developed nations than the almight USA) and completely covered in soft white snow!!!!! (Niki finally got to see some, yay!!)

Its been quite a trip I have to say. Carl and Becky picked us up in San Francisco, which you already know about, from there we headed south to Monterey Bay, we were heading for Carmel-by-the-sea (remember where Clint Eastwood was mayor) but we realised that Monterey was cheaper, so we found a nice cheap motel, complete with fireplaces, personal living rooms, two tvs each, all the luxuries at rock bottom price, and ended up staying for three nights we liked it that much. The weather was shit, but we kept finding cool stuff to do, the harbour and beaches were packed with Sea Lions, Sea Otters (cute as hell) and Harbour Seal, you can get right up next to them, it's absolutely incredible. We went to the Monterey aquarium, supposed to be the best in the U.S. and they may just be right, they even have their own Great White Shark (sent shivers down my spine, even though it was only a baby), really worth the money, especially when its pissing down outside. The next day we went Whale-watching, we were supposed to go the day before but the weather was too bad they had to cancel. So we delayed it a day, and they said it was gonna be great, we'd see 70 whales and dolphins and all sorts. We got on board and they said the weather was a bit dodgy so we wouldn't be going out into open water, we'd have to stay in the bay.

THANK GOD!!!!! Within about fifteen minutes of leaving the breakwater (docks area) we were being thrown about sideways in 6m swells, the boat almost flipped over at least a dozen times, lot of people threw up, one chick became comatose, and had to be rescused by paramedics. I really thought we were all gonna die out there, eaten by sharks, would been a great way to go. Trust me, it was really too much to put into words, really hairy shit, but we made it, and even thogh we din't see any whales (they were out there, its just that we couldn't see over the massive tides) we did see a few spouts, which, in an effort to convince us we hadn't been ripped off, the naturalist chick siad we had "seen" five whales. I wasn't convinced, but i was just happy to be alive. I don't think I can justify spending 30 dollars to be glad i wasn't killed, but who cares, it was definitely an experience.

From Monterey we checked out Carmel, we went to the Hogs Breath that Clint owns, its full of painting's and pictures of the man himself (nice and modest i have to say), me and Carl had the Dirty Harry Burger, and we wandered along Carmel beach (very beautiful, and some very, very expensive houses on the foreshore). We did the 17-mile drive to the famous links golf course, and the Lone Cypress tree, that was also cool, but Monterey was definitely the highlight. I'm sure the nice rooms helped.

We tried to drive the Big Sur coast, but the weather was bad, and aparently its susceptible to mudslides (the highway often just slips into the pacific ocean), so we turned back, Literally five minutes later we saw the emergency services and a ploughing truck drive past in the opposite direction. Good choice on our part i think, we may have been floating across the ocean in a pontiac if we hadn't.


Next stop from their down the 101 was Santa Cruz, nothing much going on there. Then onto San Luis Obispo. Strange place. The street full of chewing gum, girls dancing on bars drinking from bottle sof Vodka, some guy who nwas in love with Tony Blair, poeple swing dancing in teh local, sitting on peoples porches, stealing American flags, drinking in the bar that sells the most Jamesons anywhere in the US (we were the eighteenth bottle they'd opened that day). Fun to say the least.

Then Santa Barbara, where the Holloywood stars all either have holiday homes, or go to rehab. Me and Carl almost checked us all into a rehab centre. We asked about rooms, and the guy told us it was a Sober living home. Although it probably could have done us some good. Santa Barbara is a really lovely seaside resort town, full of beautiful people, expensive cars and lots of homeless tramps. The highlight has to be the dog-cat-mouse trio, its sounds unbelievable but some tramp guy trained, or stuck his mouse onto a cat, which in turn is sitting on top of his dog. Weird shit. We only hung out for one night, then south for L.A.

On the trip to Los Angeles we spotted a school of dolphins playing just of the shore which was pretty magical, then we stopped off at zuma beach, Malibu (another area full of very, very expensive famous peoples mansions) where we thought they were filming a movie, but it turned out to be a commercial. Then we drove down to Venice Beach, where they filmed Baywatch, White Men Can't Jump etc, checked out Muscle Beach where Arnie and his cohordes workout, then Carl and Becky drove us into Hollywood to drop us off at our hotel, where we sadly had to part ways, as they headed off to Samoa for the second leg of their new lives. Thanks for an awesome time guys, it was a riot, a trip we'll never forget.

Well thats a good spot to leave this blog, next time is the start of our second American road trip into the deserts of Nevada and the mountains of Arizona. Cyabye.

---