Blogs from California, United States, North America - page 1031

It was a shame to leave Yosemite as the scenery was so phenomenal. So after we saw the last of Yosemite, half dome, El Capitan and walked through the smoldering sequira grove we left the park to find the freeway and make our way to something that is a total contrast to Yosemite’s environment. Yes we were going to LA, which would be the most southern stop on our trip. We found a historic museum to have lunch at on the way and chatted to the friendly volunteers at the museum who had plenty of good advice for traveling in California. Driving on the freeway was…..an experience. Vehicles whizzed past me on both sides. The corolla was battling to maintain the aggressive 70 mph or 112 kph speed limit. We managed to find the hostel in ... read more

Well, it has only taken us about 3 months to publish our first travelblog. We have had wanderings in unspoilt Nicaragua, laid-back Pacific Mexico, euro-latin Mexico City, futuristic and mystical Hong Kong, home-sweet-home in small town Berridale (pop. 809) Australia in the Snowy River country, beachside Sydney, East Coast Aussie (Coffs Harbour and Byron Bay) and now bustling, steamy Bangkok. We launched our journey at the decidedly non-backpacker-ish fancy restaurant "Foreign Cinema" in San Francisco with our good amigos Jake and Alexis before boarding a midnight Taca Airlines flight to Managua, Nicaragua via San Salvador, El Salvador. Grub, booze and well-wishing was excellent all-around, and it is good to have such good friends to come back to while we make some new ones along the way. The SF Sendoff was a bit surreal for us, Lucas ... read more

The adventure continued this past weekend as Hope and I hiked up Mount Tallac. It’s a 3100 ft ascent over just a few hours. We’re getting better at these big climbs, but it’s still pretty grueling. Along the way we passed a variety of lakes and ponds. A few areas were loose, steep rocks that were tough. Tallac is a popular local hike so you see all kinds. The highlight was passing a family early on that included several 5-9 years old kids. We didn’t expect to see the crew again, as we thought they’d hike out and back within a few miles of the trailhead. But these bad ass parents drug the little ones up the mountain. We passed them on our way down and one of the dads looked like a Christmas tree decorated ... read more

Day Fower So we made it...a nine hour drive from SF to Santa Barbara via breakfast pancakes in monterey (home to the famous Jimi Hendrix concert) saw happy smiley delares as we were leaving San Fran trying to mount a one woman save the children campaign..can't help thinking shes had her smile surgically enhanced..it's so permanent..saw a woman who, if you consider leslie ash trademarked the 'trout pout' this woman went a whole species further with the 'Koi Carp Lip Curl'..anyway Santa Barbara is fantarta...reminds me of Cuba even though i've never been just what i experienced playing Driver!! that helped me getting around SF too..Jo got chased by a seal lion she wanted to pet as we left Monterey..country drive was cool but pretty uneventful..Jo couldn't get any truck drivers to hoot their horns...I said ... read more

Robert wanted to get up bright and early this morning so we could get an early start on the day but I did not want to wake up! He finally rolled me out of bed around 7:15am and we still didn't end up leaving the house until close to 9am. By the time I got things done at work and we ran our errands, it was 10:44am before we left Bend. We actually made really good time driving down to San Francisco. MapQuest estimated that it was approximately an 8 1/2 hour drive and it took us about 9 hours but we stopped for Subway lunch in Klamath Falls and stretched our legs at several rest areas. Battling through California freeway traffic is always a rush but we made it to Nate's house with little incident; ... read more