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Published: December 18th 2009
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Back to California and back to the rain. Nice and easy ride from SFO to downtown and to another USA hostel. Plenty of time to unpack (mostly living out of a locker) before heading off to the nearest grocery store. Tea then movie time in the special movie theatre with some familiar faces from San Diego.
Switched tour days because grayline apparently don't do Yosemite on fridays, even though the site let me book it. This meant the city tour/woods trip was first so more of a lay in than for Yosemite. Anyway, the city tour was good unlike the weather: still raining and quie misty meaning the views of the city weren't as good as they could have been. The tour took us to all the major parts of the city: Fisherman's Wharf, twin peaks, gloden gate park, pacific beach, the presideo, the civic center and of course the golden gate bridge. After lunch at Pier 39 (packed lunch for me, saving those pennies), it was time to head to Muir Woods national monument on the other side of the golden gate bridge. The woods are home to a large number of coastal redwood trees (you know the tallest
ones in the world) so seeing those was pretty cool and there were just lots of trails to be walked and other vegetation and wildlife to see. Through Sausilito on the way back to the city which is supposedly a mediterranean town, but the fast food places show it's american really.
Up early the following day for the 5 hour drive to Yosemite, joined by some hung over aussies ( the guys from San Diego). Bad weather there too, mist and snow, so the trip was kind of ruined because not much of the stunning scenery was visible but needless to say we had a good time anyway. Lots of mountains and waterfalls and snow and an australian in a bright yellow poncho, all good fun. Back on the bus around 4pm for the journey back and my last night in San Francisco. I used to time before bed to check out union square and chinatown to get more of look at the city.
Decent lay in the morning after because the bus down to LA was not until 12. Just enough time after getting up and breakfasting to go to the shop and buy food for LA
because i had been told there was no nearby food store there. After this it was time for the 7 hour journey from San Francisco to Los Angeles and the last city of the trip. Not much going on when i arrived as most people were out on the organised pub craw but that gave me the peace and quiet i needed to finish another book.
Pickup for my city tour was not until 9 so a bit more of a lay in than usual when touring, which is good because after this much travel, i was pretty tired. Anyway the tour went all over Hollywood and then into downtown LA. We saw the Hollywood bowl (big performance stage), the walk of fame, the Hollywood sign, the place where they have the Oscar ceremony and then onto downtown where the highlights were the Staples Centre (basketball stadium), civic centre and the skyscrapers. After this we went through Beverly Hills on the way back to the hostel. Everywhere is a bit fake (kinda like Vegas), you can tell it's built for the rich but it was still good to see.
Last full day and down to the beach! The
hostel were doing a free shuttle to Venice beach which i gladdy took ( way faster than the bus). Several other brits in the van and i spent the time at the beaches with them. After checking out Venice beach we walked along the seaside to nearby Santa Monica to see the beach there and get some lunch. The temperature was about 25 degrees so hot compared to the weather i'd been having and the beaches were lovely too. Unfortunately we did have to get the bus back, which took almost an hour and a half to go just over 15 miles. I see what they mean about a congestion problem. Off to bed early because the mammoth journey was fast approaching.
Lots of travelling all in one day: hostel to LAX, LA airport to heathrow, heathrow to kings cross, there to Lynn and finally back to Heacham. It was snowing, in England. Shocking....
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lisa palmer
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Wow - what alot you've done and seen in such a short space of time. Bet you'll need plenty of lie-ins! Would love to see all your pics sometime. Hopefully we'll see you sometime over christmas. Sorry the weather in norfolk is cold and snowy - not quite -20oC though!