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Published: August 14th 2008
California
Arrived-JetlaggedHi all....our time in the USA is almost over, we're staying in a Travelodge near LA airport for a couple of nights and both fully appreciating a bed and clean shower after sleeping in the back of the van for 3 weeks!! Sorry if some of you get bored…they won’t all be as long as this!! Get yourselves a cup of coffee or beer (Marty D!) before you start reading…..
June 23rd...
Our first long haul flight-both had jetlag when we arrived in LA. Hacienda hotel....went for a walk to McDonalds-$1 menu was tempting Kit had lots just because they were so cheap! Hard to get too excited about being there as we were so tired....needed to regain our energy for the Donuts, twinkies, pretzels,corndogs and burrittos to come!!
24th
Kit had his 1st Burritto! Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills- lots of amazing, big, expensive shops! Would need to re-mortgage a few houses to do much shopping there if Kate had her way! Hollywood, walk of the stars - a bit grubby and reminded us of Yarmouth, but we were doing the tourist stuff. Spent the evening trying to arrange where to head to next as we hadnt booked or thought
California
My 1st Buritto.... about a car or any more accommodation. Whoops...
25th
Picked up van....transport and accommodation on wheels. Decided to travel along the West coast to San Francisco then East to Yosemite before heading back along the coast to LA. 1st stop Venice beach....a cross between Yarmouth and Newquay , loads going on....shops, cafes, juice bars, arts & crafts , musicians on the walkway, muscle beach, roller blading and more sports....we had a picnic on the beach. We bought a California RV/campground book, which led us to our first night - Malibu RV site was the most expensive campground ever $89 just to sleep in our own van! we only stayed 1 night. View of ocean was amazing though...
26th
Woke up still annoyed about the $89 campsite fee! Morning jog along the beach....couldnt believe our eyes as we saw 3 Dolphins swimming parallel to the shore, we stopped and watched them for ages. Drove north - 1st gas station experience, you have to specify an amount and pay inside before you fill up....a bit bizarre. Arrived in a hot and sunny Santa Barbara, there was a 'Outrigger' boat race competition on so the beach was absolutely rammed...the beach wasn't that
nice but we had a dip in the sea to cool off. We tried coastal campsites but they were all full, we experienced this all through the trip - California has a severe lack of campsites!!! We headed in-land a bit to the 'Flying Flags' RV site.
27th
Round of Golf this morning, cheap deal through campsite - quite an eventful round as Kate drove the Cart and after insisting on having bare feet, she got stung by an Evil BEE on her big toe! A friendly couple gave us some native american medical advice, pack wet mud around the sting to draw out the poison. Kit made a mud pack with a bottle of water and a mole hill! It worked! Saw a colony of Elephant seals at Morro bay and some more dolphins, on a beach next to the highway...stood and watched for a while. On one of many 'wee' stop we stumbled across 'The Rainbow Bean' cafe in Cambria....the BEST Peanut butter Mocha smoothie in the Universe, with a nice lady owner who kept trying to give us free stuff!!
Stayed a 'Big Sur' forest that evening....red wine and a fire, whilst star gazing.
28th
California
Adriaaaaaan...... Got up, went for coffee and met a nice couple who told us about 'funnel spiders' and how to get them to come out of their nests...ummmm not sure we want them too??? Back on the road ended up in Santa Cruz not what we expected as we thought it would be a great surf beach but it was a lovely bay with the surf vibe thang going on. The 'Boardwalk' was just like the pleasure beach, bit of a disappointment but the sea-lions who lived under the pier made up for it and the Burritto shop... Kate’s 1st Burrttio…. Yummmmmmmm.
29th
WOW!!! we found the most beautiful hostel in the world - 'Point Montara Lighthouse' hanging from the cliff top with panoramic views of the ocean. Had tea, sent some emails and then to bed for the first time in a shared dorm with strangers! ahhhhh. It was fine.
30th
San Francisco - what a lovely city, but we think this because it's right next to the sea. After walking around and taking in the brightly coloured trams and impressively huge buildings we went for lunch in 'China town' -expensive & rubbish duck. Afterwards to work it
California
Expensive shopping! off we took a long walk for a few miles in the wrong direction to 'Bay Bridge' not realizing until after taking pictures that it was grey and not the red 'Golden Gate Bridge' we thought we were looking at.... must consult the map next time! Decided we would do that tomorrow as we would need another day to explore this place.
31st
Oh my God!! worst night's sleep we've ever had yet in our lives!!! Snoring man sounded like a cross between being drowned, being strangled and a fog horn at first I thought he was being attacked...... no joke! After we both lay awake in our bunks wondering when this dreadful noise would end and that if it didn't it was most certain we would not get a wink of sleep and what would we do?? We couldn't wake him, we didn't know him and if we did he might be cross and then attack us!! Kit was now on the verge of dragging him outside and throwing from the cliff's!!so before anything too drastic occurred we whispered to each other that the commuinal lounge & the sofa's would be our best move, so thats where we
California
The truck they originally gave us.....we had to swap it for more room! The car shots are especially for Bling Bling George x spent the rest of the night. Today we saw the 'Golden Gate' bridge at last and we were so lucky with the weather it was scorching hot!Walked over the Bridge had fantastic views of the bay and islands, then through the park which had various gardens, museums, sports grounds, ranches..etc, San Fran is such a big place we must have walked over 10 miles today, it was great. We stayed at another hostel where Kit got to experience his first 'Smore' a kids summer running group were staying there and their teachers were cooking up a storm and invited Kit over when he was outside and that was it, we will now be eating 'Smores' forever smore thanks to Jim from FRESNO college!
1st August
Made good use of the $1 help yourself coffee at the hostel....headed towards Yosemite National Park. We stopped at Safeway and bought the biggest sandwich in the world! It was good but I don't understand why the americans put cheese with everything - Ham and cheese, good but Beef or Turkey and cheese is wrong. Beautiful drive East, so lovely views of
California
Baywatch...Venice beach style mountains, forests and lakes. Arrived at Yosemite Lakes RV site, just outside the main park area - Kate was drunk afer one Margarita, I made a bowls game using a stick and some rocks.
2nd Happy 10th Birthday Yazmin!
Drove into the Park, there are 2 villages. Yosemite village and Curry village, it was so hot we decided to wander about and explore. The villages are in the middle of a forest surrounded by Granite mountains. Magificent views, felt like we were on a film set at time. Kate decided her mum would love to camp here, but it would have to be in winter or she’d moan about the heat and the climbing is amazing so James could live there. There's so much to do from biking around the whole valley to treking into the high peaks.
3rd
Luckily we got a camp spot right in the centre of Yosemite without booking -unheard of apparently. Hiked to Upper Yosemite falls which is higher than Snowdon, extremely hot, falls had virtually dried up but there were pools at the top to swim in and the views were amazing of the whole valley and mountains. Getting into bed in
California
Venice beach walkway the van all we could think about was bears trying to break into the car as we slept. Apparently this year has been pretty bad for bears roaming into the camps looking for tastey human food!! all of your food has to be locked in bear lockers or they will try to break into your car, by smashing windows, pulling doors off or in rare cases hotwiring your bad boy and driving into the wilderness!
4th Happy Birthday Martin!
Spent the day swimming and chilling by the river, resting from the day before and to wash as the showers were expensive! Kit made a spear to try and catch some fish but after realising it was too small, decided to make a longer one until i looked at the fish closely and realised they were carp. I didn't fancy eating one so i abandoned the idea.....Ended the day with a campfire, beer and pizza with another star gazing session.
5th
Got up at 6am to join the reservation queue to get another camp space....we got one. Visited the Ahawanee Lodge, native american historical site. Sat in there large hall to use their wi-fi.
7th - Happy birthday
California
Posing on 'Muscle Beach' to James!!
Last day in Yosemite.....hired out bikes and biked for miles in the valley, stopped at 'El Capitan' a massive piece of rock, to think people have free-climbed it and that others spend the night half way up the face is mad. Whilst having a wash in the river we saw a BEAR leaving the river about 100m upstream, we sneakily wandered along to get a closer view without getting too close and watched it for a while in the woods. Watched the sun setting on 'Half Dome' to get some pictures, watched a film about Alan 'Stack' who climbed it at age 72!!
8-12th
Travelled South again the way we came.....3 weeks felt like a long time at the start but neither of know where the days have gone. Now very excited about leaving for Fiji!! The only bad things about the USA are the lack of campsites and the Americans!
Big Love to Kate and Liz today, today is all for you x x x x x x x x
Lots of love Kit & Kate x x
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leighandvic
leigh snailham
HIYA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hiya guys!!!!!!!! Looks like you are having a fantastic time!!!! WOW a bear bet he was really cute !!!!!!! Everything looks amazing was great to see you and what you have been up to cant wait to see some more!!! Where is the next stop??? Missing you loads and loads not long now though!!!! Love you lots Vic xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx