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Californian Sunset 2
From the Post Inn Ranch, Big Sur Thursday 24th April - My final day in New Zealand; I got picked up by a shuttle from the Jailhouse hostel in the morning and went off to Christchurch Airport. I was due to fly Christchurch to Auckland and then Auckland to San Francisco. I spent ages in a queue with some fineky, elderly, english gentlemen trying to book my luggage through to the international connections desk so that when I arrived at Auckland the big rucksack would automatically get packed on the flight for San Francisco. Finally checked in the luggage with about 15 minutes to spare until Air New Zealand boarding commenced. I sat next to a nice elderly Kiwi couple (the wife was originally from Manchester and moved there in the 60s) who made sure we didn't dehydrate too much throughout the flight. They said that they had changed their British passports to New Zealand ones solely incase the plane got hi-jacked as they knew the New Zealand government would intervene, but Britain wouldn't. We landed at San Francisco at around 10.30am US time. I'd managed to watch a great film called 'The Kite Runner' on the plane and also slept a few hours, it helps if you
Big Sur View
The spectacular one (on many postcards) have a window seat as you can lean against a wall, so I didn't feel too restless.
I found my way around the airport and sent an email to Angela and found a payphone and left a message on her mobile saying I would get the underground to Rockridge station as she had previously suggested (the nearest station to where she lives in Oakland, which is on the outskirts of San Francisco) and that I wasn't contactable by phone (my english SIM card for my mobile didn't work) but hoped to talk to her later. After a fair bit of dithering with a guy from Australia (luckily a local helped us out), I finally managed to pay the correct fair on Bart (the SF underground) and got the train to Rockridge without a hitch. Arriving around 1 1/2hours later, a lady who had befriended me on the train, showed me where to get off, she was originally from England and had moved to SF in the 60s. When I explained I was going to look for a phone to call my friend, she invited me back to hers to use her phone as pay phones were a bit difficult
Eyes Up
Palm Trees, Santa Barbara Beach to find. I thanked her very much, but declined as she had a busy afternoon. Anyway, I wandered into town and after several enquiries found out that there was nowhere I could buy a US sim for my mobile and the cafes only catered for wifi logon to the internet if you had your own laptop. Eventually I went into the library and the personnel in there allowed me to use their phone (a service they provide to desperate people since the public phones were taken out!) to leave a message for Angela. So I left another message on Angela's mobile saying I'd be in the cafe opposite when she got out of work - Hudson's Bay Cafe. The library also had pcs with internet access so I could send an email - phew!
I wandered into the Hudson's Bay Cafe and blurted the whole thing out to the owner. Another customer said I looked so tired he offered to buy me a drink!! Most people in there had laptops and were logging onto wifi - Silicon Valley is only about 30-40 miles away. A while later Angela called the cafe, phew, and said she would be there around
7pm. Happily reunited we got a chinese takeaway and headed back to the lovely house that Angela rents with her boyfriend Majid, brother Tom and other housemates. Fantastic view of San Francisco in the distance!
Friday 25th April - Angela took the day off work so we could head off to Santa Barbara for the weekend to visit her sister Stephanie and fiance David. We had a quick coffee stop at Montclair Village and put the cappuccinos in the drinks holders in the car! We drove South along the coast, on Highway 1, which is considered as one of the most scenic drives in the world. It was very pretty, lots of brightly coloured flowers, bright oranges (the Californian poppies - State flower), bright pinks, reds. The weather was gorgeous! Thelma (Angela) and Louise (me) ha ha did do a few stops at Santa Cruz which was quite nice and then we had lunch at gorgeous Carmel. We arrived at Fernwood, a campsite at Big Sur State Park where Angela had booked us into a cabin. We drove up the road to the Post Ranch Inn Restaurant, which Angela had wanted to go to for a while. We arrived
View of San Francisco
From the house in Oakland where Angela lives there to see a fabulous sunset, followed by cocktails in the bar and some 'star-gazing' in the garden with a telescope. The telescope showed up Saturn with it's rings. Saturn is apparently the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. We then went on to a restaurant/bar called Nepenthe and sat outside enjoying the atmosphere. We went back to the campsite and completely failed to light the fire! Something largish moved in the dark near the picnic table, so I started moving my touch around (thanks again VOPS!). I was worried about American psychopaths (I've seen a lot of horror films set in American woods and have an overactive imagination) and Angela was worried about possums. Well, it was a possum, the weirdest one I've ever seen, rather large, the size of a medium sized dog and it had a black and white face, not like an Australian Possum. Apparently they can be aggressive, but with Angela shrieking it wandered off quickly ;o)
Saturday 26th April - We had breakfast in the local shop near the campsite and saw in the newspaper headlines that a shark had killed a swimmer
Montclair Village Coffee Stop
Down the road from where Angela lives off the coast of San Diego! da da da da etc We drove to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, with fabulous scenery and a waterfall falling on the beach which I hadn't seen before, Angela said you see lots of them in Hawaii. We stopped off at the Whale watchers cafe and then drove further South along the coast to see the Elephant Seals - there were so many!! Hope you like the video - first one I've put on the blog - only realised it was an option a short while ago! The Elephant Seals, hundreds of them, are all female; the males are out at sea at this time of year and are much larger in size. We drove onto Santa Barbara and met up with Angela's sister Stephanie and her finance David at their house. We went out for a lovely meal at Zaytoon Middle Eastern Restaurant and sat outside with heat lamps and fire pits, joined by one of David's friends, it was very atmospheric. We then went onto a bar and witnessed some erratic dancing to the band there, before heading in a taxi to a 'Hollywood' style party (complete with film producers) in Montecito,
where apparently Oprah Winfrey has a house. True to form, I'd had a big meal and some wine and so was rather tired! After the host kindly made me a cup of tea I fell asleep on the sofa missing all the local celebrity action!
Sunday 27th April - Feeling a little bit the worse for wear, the four of us headed off for brunch in a gorgeous setting at the Bacara Resort. We visited the picturesque Santa Barbara Mission and rose garden, before spending the rest of the afternoon at the beach. Evening relaxing indoors.
Monday 28th April - Angela and I headed off in the morning, via a coffee stop of course, and took 5 hours to get back to Oakland, quicker than coming down as we took the quicker inland road.
Many thanks to Stephanie and David for such a gorgeous weekend in Santa Barbara. Visit to San Francisco the next day....
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It was a fabulous trip, Mandy. Thanks for letting us share it. xx