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Published: June 30th 2010
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* Watching sea otters while kayaking
* Walking around forests of truly massive trees
* Finding tiny flakes of gold in a mountain stream
* Fresh California food, especially traditional Mexican
* Snowball fighting in the Sierra Nevada mountains
Volcano Eyjafjallajökull (pronounced “ash falling on hol”?) had meant a cancelled flight a minimum 3 week delay of our departure from Sydney back to London. We had planned to go back to California later in the year anyhow, so rather than waiting around, we decided to delay our flight further and take a return flight to the US from Aus, bringing forward that second US leg of our year out.
On way to Cali, we took a “short” detour to Washington DC to again see Christina’s family. Perfect April weather for nosing around embassies hosting their annual open houses etc.
Following DC would be yet another 1500 mile road trip, this time of northern California, starting in the wonderful city of San Francisco. San Fran is beautiful despite having the highest percentage of homeless in the US (more bums than a pampers photo shoot). At times it could be annoying, but was largely contained
Tree hugger goes large
The giant sequoias really are giants! to certain areas and was overshadowed by the many positive aspects of the city.
We stayed at the “Hotel California” an average hotel in the middle of the city, but which embraced a California attitude with a wooden surfboard for a headboard and the words from famous Cali songs for wall paper. The hotel building housed a popular gourmet vegan restaurant, which made Christina very happy (no worries for lactose intolerance!) and even impressed carnivorous Dave with its masterful disguise of meat substitutes.
As hilly as it is, we had a great time walking around the city, through Chinatown (the largest in the US) and around the Italian cafes, enjoying a nibble at an old coffee bar where the Godfather was penned. We also cycled across the impressive Golden Gate bridge, stopping to see the famous sea lions at Pier 39.
To satisfy Dave’s techy curiosity, an exploration of Silicon Valley was to be had, including a quick geek-hit at the Intel museum. San Jose seemed like a nice but sedate place to live. We enjoyed an old-school Italian restaurant, being served by little old men while the regulars celebrated the local ice hockey team winning.
We then headed back north of San Fran via Berkeley and the Muir Woods of giant redwood trees, and onto the wine regions. First was Sonoma, for more cycling and tasting, where the vines go on as far as the eye can see before reaching the mountainous horizon. This was also where we found another great vintage in the shape of Christina’s godmother, Aunt Bessie. Bessie’s daughter Connie and hubby Gerry kindly put us up in the lovely Healdsburg where we enjoyed yet more wine tasting and great food (no wonders our waists have grown and grown!).. We drove across the scenic mountains to Napa, but found it much less charming and more commercial than it’s neighboring Sonoma Valley.
Next stop, the capital city of Sacramento, where we hoped in vain to catch a glimpse of Arnie “the Governator” but nevertheless enjoyed a visit to the old wild west area now covered with tourists and Harleys.
Onto Lake Tahoe which took us by surprise, since with its high altitude there was still some snow cover. It made for beautiful scenery, but resulted in many roads remaining closed, limiting the route when making our way down to Yosemite National
Park. But when we got there, the melting snow provided for stunning waterfalls in full flow off the rocky cliff-sided mountains. Further south was some more impressive scenery at Sequoia National Park and more walking amongst the snowy trees, including General Sherman, the largest living thing in the world.
The predominately Mexican central valley, yet again very different with everything from orange tree farms to oil drills, was apparently hit quite hard by the recession with 20% unemployment which showed in a number of closed shops. We loved the local Mexican taquerias though, and took advantage of reward points by staying free most nights at Marriott’s lower-budget Fairfield Inns.
After heading back to the coast north of LA, we stopped at Hearst Castle. Expecting a disappointing gaudy rendition of a medieval fortress, we were happy to find a beautiful Mediterranean-style stately home built by the newspaper baron of the 30’s and 40’s. Hearst (who was the basis for the movie Citizen Kane) went around buying up bits of manor house from broke Europeans after WWI. A weird, but interesting collection.
Route 1 up the coastline back to Monterey was breathtaking to say the least, rambling along cliffs
with mountains on one side and the sea below on the other, clearly topping all the spectacular roads we had driven around the world so far.
Our tour of California ended in style with a few days in action filled beautiful Monterey Bay with kayaking along side sea lions and sea otters - supposedly the hairiest creatures in the world (but Dave believes he has seen more hairy Greek bus drivers); cycling around Pebble Beach as it was being prepped for the US golf open; and lastly, watching the epitome of “surfer dudes” surfing at Santa Cruz where it first began in Cali.
Despite encountering the loudest of Americans, the worst of TV, and a few minor mishaps; i.e. 200 mile round trip to retrieve Dave’s forgotten passport; Christina’s credit card lost and Dave’s being used to fraudulently to purchase items in India (suspected skimming at an independently owned motel); and bedbugs at a cheap motel in Monterey; we decided that California is the great place to be.
Currently glad to be home in England despite the tragic loss of World Cup hopes. The camper van has been purchased and we are soon off around Europe!
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