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Published: April 3rd 2008
A State Of Contrasts
We went from the urban sprawl of LA to the vast wilderness of Yosemite in less than a week. There's no doubting that California has a diverse selection to offer its visitors.They say a week is a long time in politics and, whilst I’m sure that’s the case, it can feel a like an age when travelling. Seven days ago we were in the merciless heat of the Nevada desert, revelling in the chaos and excitement of Las Vegas. As the sun rose today, we strolled through an endless forest wilderness surrounded by deep snow, our breath clouding in the freezing air. There’s a whole lot happened in between times - please let me explain more...................
The Vegas “experience” had mesmerised us both and it is another city that makes it onto the list of “Possible Places To Return To” (as I’ve said before, there’s still so many places in the world to see, this list needs to be kept pretty small). However, the sand in our “leg 2 of 3” hour glass was running pretty thin now and it was time for us to visit the second largest state in America - California, here we come!!
We collected a hire car from The Bellagio and headed west to the state that can boast to be the most populous in the US (home to more than 34,000,000 inhabitants) and to
Santa Monica
LA's relaxed beach area proved a great location to explore the city from and then escape back to. have the seventh biggest economy in the world. It’s probably less proud of the fact that it’s governed by the star of such classic films as Jingle All The Way, Kindergarten Cop and Conan The Barbarian; only in America could Arnold Schwarzenegger hold such a position of importance - out here they call him The Governator.
It took us about four hours to drive from Vegas to our first destination of Los Angeles. That, however, was just to reach the city limit and not our hotel. It was quite a surprise to discover that LA is really just a huge urban sprawl that suffers with crippling traffic problems and serious pollution. In most places we’ve been to, we’ve located ourselves in or near the downtown area as this tends to be where there’s most to see and do. That couldn’t be the case here as LA seems to lack a “city centre” in the traditional sense and is more a collection of large towns. It’s home to more than 13,000,000 people which makes it the second biggest city in the country (only New York is more populous) and covers a massive 1,700 square miles.
We only had three
A Major Hollywood Attraction?
Surprisingly I wasn't spotted by a Hollywood casting director so the above heading applies to the famous sign only - this is as close as we could get to it............ nights allocated there so it was important to plan carefully and see as much as reasonably possible in the time available. This meant we had to “cherry pick” the best the city has to offer and, despite the constraints, we didn’t feel like we missed much of great interest. Often what we did see was interesting but never really lived up to the romance and reputation that precedes LA. By way of an example, we were keen to see the legendary Hollywood sign on the mountains that surround the city, but you can’t get anywhere near it. It’s inaccessible by road and, even if you try and get close on foot, it’s fenced off to prevent access. The best view we got was when filling up at a petrol station where you could just about make it out in the distance as you refuelled.
Close by in Hollywood itself is the Walk of Fame where celebrities are immortalised by copper stars bearing their name set in the pavement. Anywhere would struggle to have followed the thrills of Vegas but, again, this was an anti climax and the greatest excitement of the walk was whether you remained untrampled by the
We Considered Getting A Tandem........
.......but I knew who'd end up doing all the pedalling!! We had a great time cycling along the 18 miles or so of LA's beach bike trail. crowds as you tried to read the stars names.
Bordering the decidedly dog eared district of Hollywood is the upmarket home to America’s great and good (and filthy rich), Beverley Hills. For no other reason than to be nosey, we drove up and down its steep avenues to look at how the other half live. Whilst for the most part you see only unscaleable walls and imposing double gates, sometimes the elevation allows you to catch a glimpse of these houses. I use the word “houses” in the loosest possible sense as many properties make South Fork Ranch from Dallas look understated. Olympic sized swimming pools glisten in the sun and drives are full of flashy sports cars - are the residents really happy though........................?
Not quite in the Beverley Hills set but wanting to avoid South Central, I'm glad to say my travel advisor again came up with the goods in terms of where we stayed during this leg. As I said, LA is made up of many areas that are seemingly cities in their own right and we stayed by the sea in Santa Monica. Famed for having 325 days of sunshine a year, this turned
Little Denmark
It was weird to happen across Solvang, a small piece of Scandinavia in the Californian countryside. out to be a great choice and had a totally different feel than its more urban neighbours. Its pier extends far out from the beautiful beach into The Pacific and there was a ton to keep us entertained. Along with its great bars and restaurants, Santa Monica has a cycle path that runs for 18 miles along the sea front - importantly it’s really flat. One day we rented a couple of bikes and cycled along it for almost its full length (honestly, we did!!), taking in the sights of the famed Venice and Muscle beaches amongst other things. It was a relaxing experience as we pedalled at our own pace, stopping to enjoy the views and points of interest as we went.
Chatting as we rode, I realised that doing this year out thing means you have to be more patient than normal with your partner, knowing when to talk and when to listen. It also inevitably results in you having in depth conversations about subjects you’d never normally think to discuss with each other; recently Angela’s been banging on about the drawbacks of living without Frizzeaze while I just want to talk her through United’s title run
The Route 1 White Knuckle Ride
A highway that provides some excellent views but it's definately a more enjoyable experience for the passenger than the driver!! in or the upcoming Calzaghe Hopkins fight. That said, we’ve managed well and I’m confident she could now hold her own in a debate about United’s best starting eleven in a tricky European away tie, for example.
Our return flight to the UK will depart from San Francisco in early April, so we’d planned to spend our last weeks in the US exploring that city and its surrounding regions. We headed north from LA and soon arrived in the Santa Ynez wine region, made famous by the fantastic film, Sideways (if you’ve not seen it, it’s definitely worth watching - http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0375063/ ).
This area is home to the unique town of Solvang - a little piece of Scandinavian serenity in the heart of California (despite what you think, I don’t just pluck these blog entry titles from anywhere, you know). Founded by Danish settlers in 1911, it is built as an exact replica of one of their home towns and the architecture could be straight from a suburb of Copenhagen. All the businesses have names like “Mortonson’s Butchers” or “Lars Olson’s General Store” and its cafes specialise in dishes such as meatballs and sauerkraut . Oompah-pah music abounds
Sleepy Carmel
Clint Eastwood is a former Mayor and is still a resident. Only Angela would be more interested in where Clyde the chimp lives............... and gives the whole place an unreal, Disneyland feel.
Our drive north through California took us almost exclusively up Route 1, a highway that provides stunning views and plenty of points of interest. Running for over 650 miles, it closely hugs the craggy Pacific coastline and would make a perfect location for one of those adverts where a helicopter crew film a sports car flying round hairpin bends at breakneck speeds. We took things a lot more sedately than this, not only so we could make the most of the scenery but also because we fancied returning the hire car in one piece to Hertz. I don’t know if it’s possible for a road to take your breath away (with its stunning views) at the same time as making you hold it in as tightly as possible (it’s a nerve shredding drive at times)but Route One certainly gives it a good go.
Eventually, this roller coaster of a road takes pity and allows some blood to flow back into your knuckles. The tight bends subside and you roll into the small, picturesque town of Carmel By The Sea, a place of only 4,000 people but one that punches
Yosemite National Park
Neither of us really knew what to expect and we were blown away. way above its weight fame ways. For example, it can claim Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston as former residents (presumably before a certain Angelina arrived on the scene............) and it has a rather famous ex Mayor in Clint Eastwood. He still lives there and, apparently, regularly plays the piano during sing-along’s at a local bar. I can’t believe I’m going to stoop so low but (here goes), it really would have “made our day” if we’d have witnessed this (you didn’t expect any better did you? If so, you should catch up on some of the earlier drivel that’s been written).
We had a great couple of days in Carmel, visiting the world famous Pebble Beach Golf Course ( www.pebblebeach.com ) that will host to the 2010 US Open and enjoyed a seafood lunch on the pier at nearby Monterey. The pace of life is very, very laid back and there’s no such thing as “Give Way” signs on the roads- it’s more a case of “after you”, “no, please, after you”. Obviously, we’re not used to this so took to just driving straight through the middle of any junction, waving thanks to the bemused local motorists.
Two
Yosemite National Park 2
A picture paints a thousand words so I'll shut up.......... warm coats had to be purchased whilst in Carmel as the temperature for our remaining time away would be more in keeping with the UK than the 30 degrees plus we’d been getting used to. (It seems unusual that we wouldn’t even consider going to our local newsagents without donning a coat at home, yet we’ve travelled around half the world and never even considered having one until now). These turned out to be an indispensible addition as we got to our next destination, the stunning Yosemite National Park.
Whilst writing this blog, I’ve always tried to convey an accurate and honest (whether good or bad) picture of the places we’ve visited. For the most part, I’ve been reasonably pleased with the results, especially taking into consideration the fact that I struggled to get a Grade 2 CSE in English and the last piece of creative writing I did was in the 5th Year at Rivington and Blackrod Comprehensive School. There, we were told to write about what we considered to be our dream job would be upon leaving secondary education. I can’t remember what my vocation was but vividly recall my best mate at the time, Harry The
Dog, waxing lyrical about how much he loved mixing cement (!!) and that this would be his idea of heaven career wise. He’s now General Manager of a cement mixing company - some people have all the luck!!
Where was I? Oh, yes - trying to capture some places in writing is so much harder than others. How can you pull together the madness of Havana or the intensity of Vegas into a single blog entry? I’m sure more talented writers find their vast subject matter makes the task easier but it’s been a bit like trying to fit a gallon into a pint at times for me. Yosemite is a case in point and definitely falls squarely into the “impossible to do justice to” category.
Here goes..............The Yosemite National Park is over 10,000,000 years old and covers an area of more than 750,000 square acres - 95% of it is officially classified as wilderness. The vast Sierra Nevada Mountains form a stunning vista that makes you feel exhilarated just to be able to see them first hand. Sheer granite cliffs faces are often punctuated by falls of seething white water cascading over them (the Park is home
Yosemite National Park 4
I know I promised to shut up but this coat needs an explanation. It was in the sale and I'm hoping to coach non league football when we get back!! to three of the world’s top 10 highest waterfalls). Literally millions of majestic fir and pine trees seem to scrape the clear blue sky and the thick white snow just adds to the spectacle. We moved through the valley both on foot and by car, often in complete silence as we were rendered speechless by this wonderful exhibition nature has created.
The word “awesome” is greatly overused here (how can a cup of coffee be “awesome”?!! ) and it deserves to be reclaimed from the nerds to be used solely and exclusively to describe Yosemite. I’m going to leave the accompanying photo’s to fill in the many blanks that I simply can’t convey, but there’s one more thing to add. Our little Sony digital camera has done us proud on all our travels up to now but you could almost hear it sobbing on this occasion (I’m hearing cameras cry now - help!!). It tried its best but just couldn’t do the scenery justice - I’m not sure the best The Discovery Channel could offer would be able to do that.
We aimed to try and have as near a “wilderness experience” as possible, and our accommodation did
a great job of providing that. We rented a really well appointed log cabin at the idyllic Evergreen Lodge ( www.evegreenlodge.com ). Set deep in the forest, our cabin was cosy and completely private (not private from hungry Brown Bears though if you left any food out, apparently. We were strongly warned against this and advised to keep anything edible in scent proof secure boxes).
Every one of our windows looked out into the forest and the balcony allowed you to quietly observe the wildlife from outside whilst sipping a warming coffee. Being in the middle of nowhere, it was real comfort that there was an excellent bar and restaurant on site, complete with roaring log fire and char grilled elk steaks on the menu!! As we walked back from the bar to our cabin on our final evening , we bumped into a group of staff and guests roasting marshmallows over a camp fire (I’m not making any of this up!!). Everyone was singing along to cover versions of songs played by a pretty good guitarist; it seemed a bit spooky yet highly appropriate when he broke into Green Days “Time of our Life”...................
Time now to
After A Hard Day In The Wilderness.........
.......the bar at Evergreen Lodges was a warm and cosy place to while away the evening. home in on our last location of this middle sector and we set off from Yosemite to San Francisco. We still had a couple of day’s rental on the car, however, and decided no visit to California would be complete without seeing its Napa Valley wine region. A couple of nights later we’d been to some great wineries set in beautiful countryside (sorry, Yosemite has used up all my superlatives!!). Similar to the casinos in Las Vegas, many of these are built along themes such as Tuscan castles or Arabic villages; we even went to one that offered a cable car ride over its hilly vineyards to take you up to its tasting rooms which are based on a Mikonos estate.
Our time in America is almost up now - but we still have some exciting times plans for our final call of San Francisco.............
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Ed
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Frizz Eaze
What a conundrum . Discuss with Angela what life is like without an hair relaxant .or listen to David pontificate about super dooper whooper united ..I’ve made my choice Angela, I fully empathize with your Frizz Eaze predicament. Nobody wants to be walking round Tinsel town looking like Shirley Temple’s number one fan. May I suggest you try combing your hair through with a quality conditioner whilst in the shower. Then finger comb it while still wet. This will give you a little less volume but better definition to the curl. Remember the golden rule don’t use a hair brush. Straighteners would also be a good investment.