Blogs from California, United States, North America - page 1004

Six weeks after I return to the US I can say that I am finally adjusting. Don't get me wrong -Its great being back, seeing friends.. living in the most amazingest place ( I wake up every morning to the sound of the Ocean). Nonetheless, I really miss South America. Everyone always talks about the effects of arriving in other countries- the difficulties, the adjustment, the feeling of loneliness,the culture shock. Yet, no one ever speaks about the hardships of re-adjsuting. The past 6.5 months were by far the best months of my life. I completely changed as a person. Backpacking solo, I had to maintain an open mind, hope for the best, and think twice about decisions (like when I badly had to use the restroom, but was waiting for a bus and had no ... read more

Firstly i must apologise as i realise my blogs go on and on and on a little more but there is sooooo much to squeeze in that i cant even write about half of it! Believe it or not this is the condensed update... That said, here you are, enjoy.... So from the hectic and freezing urban jungle that is New York we took the 6 hour flight to laid-back California. The whole time we were in NY we saw people taking helicpoter trips over Manhattan thinking 'how amazing would that be! Shame we are budget travellers, doh'. Someone must have heard us as once our plane took off from JFK airport on the clear Friday morning it circled right around the whole of Manhattan and we got a bird's eye view of the lot. Just ... read more

So onwards we drove, further and further along the hairpin bends and icy cracked tarmac until we reached Kings Canyon. We started by General Grant, the 3rd largest tree in the world, followed by a trip through a forest of some of the largest and orangest trees we have ever seen. Snow was still on the ground, and a coyote padded right up to our car, but seemed rather surprised when I wound down my window to take a photo! We also saw Sherman Tree, this time the largest tree in the world, way too big to take a photo of the entire length, even with a wide angle lens!... read more

Hi gang Wow what a day. It seems that today has been more like a da and a half because it was so busy!! But what a fantastic day we had. I started my day visiting this most A-M-A-Z-I-N-G school which is like a "practice school"attached to the University of Southern California Channel Isles. I spent several enlightening hours looking at this wonderfully bi-lingual school and checking out the school environment including their Pre-school facility. What can I say?? I really enjoyed looking around and getting lots of ideas. Their "Home Ec"unit is attached to the Music section and they share a facility which they call a Diner. They are looking at changing the cafeteria food and so much more. They are also teaching the students bi-lingually which means they run a 50/50 program which changes ... read more

The car is booked and according to the example photo on the internet site should be cool - let's wait and see! 31 Jan 07, Travelodge booked in Santa Monica for the first 4 nights 4 Feb 07, One night in Joshua Tree (the town not the album) and Pioneertown, yet to be booked 5 Feb 07, drive east to Arizona and 6 nights on the Stagecoach Trails Guest Ranch 11 Feb 07, from wide open spaces to the urban playground, 5 nights at the Statosphere on the Strip in Las Vegas After that we should be heading east to Monument Valley, but nothing booked yet... Watch ... read more