Hello chaps,
It seems there are a few people still looking at the blogg, so I thought it may be a good time to tell people about our new business.We have been up and running for a while and have bookings coming in pretty quickly for our Contemporary Wedding Transport.Have a look at our webpage( www.funkybugs.co.uk ),very kindly made up by Chris Walsh at www.loofy.com so if you need a V.W.convertible beetle to get you to the church,you now know where to come!!!!
Well, it seems appropriate to use the words of Ol’ Blue Eyes to describe what’s going on now, at least we feel like we’ve done it our way. New York, New York has been a great way to finish as well, with sunny skies, a cooling breeze and a couple of days without driving to really enjoy it. Yesterday was spent in one of the gems of any major city, Central Park. We picniced under the leafy shade of a spreading oak (ignoring the coughing tramp sat behind us) and then sunbathed on the well manicured grass, the sound of children playing drifting in and out – difficult to imagine you’re in one of the most packed cities of the world, when you’re in the middle of this green expanse. Had a beautiful relaxed day (Soph maintains it’s one of the few where I didn’t rush her around and need to get somewhere under a strict time constraint) not doing much, but seeing a lot. As you gaze above the tree line you see the towering, gothic blocks of apartments that line the park, safe in the knowledge that normal man can’t look out of their windows – unless your Donald Trump or old money. We saw a fantastic street tumbling act on the terrace, by a boating lake turned green with algae; the shouts of the performers mingling with the gush of water, that sparkled from the victorian fountain. We saw tunnels and bridges, statues and ampitheatres. NY seems to have shed it’s hard criminal image now and places like this are clean, safe and welcoming.
And here I am typing the last blog of this trip (oh no there’s a sequel I hear you shout) in our motel room in Jersey City, the smell of cat’s wee having deteriorated or we’ve got used to it! Bit sad, but also happy to be coming home after just over 10 months and 11 countries.
We stayed in Australia the longest and Canada the shortest (but wish it could have been longer).
Our worst night was in Johannesburg Airport looking for a place to sleep.
The most bug bites happened in Madagascar, it’s not just cute cartoon animals, 117 bed bug bites in one night.
Our favourite eat out meal was in the Old Port area of Hermanus in South Africa.
Our scariest moment was either driving in South Africa in the middle of the wild coast, in the middle of no-where, in the middle of the night – lost! or approaching the rhino or (for me) the bungy jump!
We’ve had loads of sociable times with lots of people and thanks goes to Fintan and Clare, Joan, Jamie and Rich, Mick and Jo, Silke and Thorsten, Debs and Steve, Tim and Robyn, Stew and Ang, Mustafa, Bart and Michelle, Sam, Murray and Harvey, Neil and Vicky (sorry about the carpet!), Sue and Arch……and, of course, my brother Phil.
Favourite natural sights list – Drakensburg Mountains, Ganges, Mount Cook over Lake Pukaki, Abel Tasman Peninsula, Whitehaven Beach and Great Barrier Reef, Uluru, 12 Apostles, Wave Rock, Yosemite Valley, Niagra Falls (ignoring the tourism).
Favourite Man made sights list – Khajuraho Temples, Kuala Lumpar Twin Towers, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House, Chicago Art, Iwo Jima Monument and Statue of Liberty.
The coldest day 1 degree C, hottest 51 degree C.
Funniest moment – aah that would be Adam the waiter in South Africa.
Favourite animal seen – Soph, Koala, Chris, African Elephant.
Longest drive 515 miles in 10 hours in camper van.
Times across the Equator – 6, all longtitudes covered, 5 continents and 89794 miles (so far with about 5000 to go, so we didn’t break the 100K mark Stewart)
We flew 56163′, we drove 29678′, we sat on trains for 2699′, we boated 797′, we walked 239′ (pitiful we know), we got tuk-tuk’d 95′, we bused 68′, we trammed 42′, we kayaked 13′ and we sat on an elephant for about 300 metres. So of the miles covered we did about 0.35% of them under our own steam – get in!
This is the 76th post in 16 categories, which have attracted 7456 views. The best viewing day ever was 102 views on 21 Jun 08 (boring day at home, or was it Debs Hill going on line 40 times to improve our stats?) the worst day was 1 view (thanks Gill or Liz) – you the audience have posted 128 comments.
We have changed a bit since we started travelling. We are perfectly happy to stand our ground in a queue situation now, we argue with waiters over poor quality food or service, we are happy to bend the rules to get our way (when called for), we try new things more readily, we are no longer daunted by long distances (Plymouth to Glasgow, pah that’s nothing!) and we realise that the world ain’t so different there are good, honest, fun people who you want to spend time with and there are rude, greedy, self-absorbed jokers you don’t want to be involved with.
Some things haven’t changed – we still like a beer, unbelievably we still laugh at each others jokes and we still love each other like crazy.
That’s it until the next world trip in 2027!
Hello All,
And so the end of our world travels is nigh! We are on our final days. Mixed emotions about finishing our travelling. We are both really loving America and it is the perfect ending for our trip. I am so excited about going home. I plan on bringing all our material possessions out of the loft and rolling around in them a.s.a.p. It will be like Christmas as I can’t remember some of the things we have. Having 10 months without most of our possessions has been a positive thing. It has made me realise how little I need objects and the things I missed most were people and not “things.” Living out of a knapsack means no choice in clothes, no luxury toiletries, no accessories, no nice shoes, no handbags, no hair products, hardly any make up and no glamour. However if you have no choice then I have found that I will put on any old thing. It has made me less vain, but I do look at our photos and think “Oh dear!”
So homeward bound soon to get back into the world of hard graft, family, friends, house, garden and all the material things. Brilliant!!!!
Anyway, since the last blog we have visited Washington. Very cool big city. Chris has been a demon covering all the miles in the U.S.A. I have been too much of a wimp to drive and he has basically driven us across the country. So we arrived in Washington on my birthday, after a brief night stay in Delaware. We saw a huge thunder and lightening storm from our hotel room. It lasted about 20 minutes with sheet lightening and lit the whole room as we stood at the window, with all the lights off for full effect. Even the storms here are impressive.
So on to Washington. Chris greeted me with birthday breakfast in bed and a beautiful necklace from The Grand Canyon. Very lovely! I also have been going on about wanting a foam fingers for ages. My dream came true as you can see from the photo. Very handy bit of kit, as you can see I immediately used it to its’ full potential by pointing at my new necklace. I don’t know how I ever pointed without it. Debsi Hill gave me a new top too so I had gifts and some lovely messages and e-cards to make me feel loved.
We had a look around the town that we were spending the next few days in. Gorgeous place with people of all colours, shapes and sizes making the place look vibrant and fantastic. We headed to a real diner for pancakes. Yum,the diner even had a juke box on each table to play tunes while we ate. As it was a special occasion we allowed ourselves an afternoon snooze before our night out. Chris and I had our own little party in the local town centre. It is really pretty in Silver Springs and we found a pub that made great food. After so much time together it is amazing we have anything left to talk about, however we managed to talk (mostly rubbish) most of the evening. It was a busy, balmy night and we had an outdoor table, I am going to miss these nights a lot. The evening ended about 5 beers later than it should have and at one point we enjoyed a game of “chicken” across a water fountain display, runing between the spouts of water that were on a random timer. Great fun.
Inevitably the next day was less active and no sights were seen. We had a late night cinema trip to see The new Mummy film (not great) then back to bed.
Our last day in Washington and everything left to see. We went for it! Starting (via the subway) at the Washington Momument. This tall, smooth stone needle has open space around it and the dry grass pans out to The Reflective Pool (made famous in Forest Gump) and The Lincoln Memorial. It was a stunning day, as usual we were out in the midday sun, but onwards, we plodded to have a closer look at Lincoln. The reflective Pool is pretty disappointing, not as clean as the normal standard. Lots of geese and ducks and their droppings make it more of a stew than a place to see or feel reflected in. The Lincoln Memorial was pristine marble with the huge greek pillars and white steps leading up to a sculpture, again in white marble, of President Lincoln. A welcome cool shade before another walk to the Iwo Jima US Marine Corps Memorial. We didn’t linger amongst the massed white graves, set in lines of servicemen who have lost their lives in Service to their country. A very dignified setting, beautiful trees breaking up the white lines of hundreds of men and women’s graves.
When we arrived at Iwo Jima, we agreed it was well worth the hot walk. It is set in a quiet area of the park and and it is stunning. Much bigger that we expected, this famous sculpture shows the scene of 6 marines supporting each other in lifting the American flag marking the land in Mount Suribachi. It is really beautiful. The sculpture is based on a photograph taken of the above event in 1945 and the men (who lived) who actually lifted the flag later posed for the sculpture. I personally think this is what makes it really special. A surprisingly moving sculpture.
I was ready to call it a day and retreat to the shade, but Chris had different ideas. I feel that there are only so many memorials I want to see in a day (I am thinking 4 is a fair amount.) However my memorial crazy husband kept the pace up. We had a minor disagreement on the heat, walking pace etc then off we went again. This time we took a tube and headed back across the open spaces to The Jefferson Memorial. To cut a long story short it was very similar to the Lincoln Memorial, but with Jefferson in the middle in a dark stone sculpture. It overlooked a pretty lake which, much to our amusement, had pedalos in it. This was particularly funny as it was quite a small lake and everyone in the pedlos looked really bored and unsure why they were there.
Finally a walk across to The White House which was a bit far away to have a good look at. We took the required photo then headed for some late lunch. Chris has looked up a great French restaurant online, so we had some cool water under the umberellas with white tableclothes and genuine French waiters. Tres bien! We were amazed at how spacious the grounds were around all these monuments and buildings. Washington is a very attractive and calm city. It was a Sunday, but the landscape and buildings have a peace to them.
Just when I thought the Christopher Warn Tour of Washington was over, we stumbled across another gem. Capitol Building, where the senate sits when in session. A truely beautiful piece of architecture with an ornate central dome and white carved steps, ponds, fountains, balconies and doorways. I had no idea Washington was so lovely. It made me feel ashamed that our previous afternoon snoozes and hangovers stopping us seeing more of it. Despite my regular moaning about the heat and my aching feet, I loved every minute of our sight seeing. If you come here I would recommend taking the CW Tour and some comfortable shoes! It is cheap, but very fast walking is involved!
Our goodbyes to Washington made our trip’s imminent ending even more real. We drove to New York knowing this was the last port of call. No more travelling, no more car. We returned our hired car in the madness that is New York driving the next day. We were a little disappointed to find our motel room smelt of cats wee. We were kind of expecting the motel to be a bit dodgy as it was cheap. This is one of the things that makes me happy to be coming home, no more strange beds, grubby rooms, cat wee smells etc.
So the car has now left us and we have a huge mound of things piled in all spare spaces in our motel room. We have definitely not been travelling as lightly as before. We have bought new bags to put everything in. New York is everything we hoped it would be and we have been sightseeing like a couple of maniacs. Yesterday we drove through the Lincoln Tunnel to 5th Avenue and then headed to The New York Library. This is where Carrie was supposed to get married in Sex In The City. I was a little over excited about this and everywhere reminds us of films we can’t quite put our fingers on. The library was a working place ,so very low key and had a great entrance with marble steps dividing into two stairwells once inside the high open entrance halls. We were focussing on the uptown end of NY and soaked up the atmosphere as we walked the steamy streets. We found a little oasis of green amongst the sky scrapers and tucked into a sandwich. The little green patch, Bryants Park was a relaxing square of grass and everyone seemed surprisingly low key. People sunbathed and ate lunch with skyscrapers, The Chrysler Building and The Empire State building casting shadows over them.
Feeling very happy to be here, we headed onward on foot to Grand Central Station. Huge place with stalls and boutique type shops mixed with fast food cafes. We headed to where I think the Bourne Identity might have been filmed, not too sure. The station’s huge famous windows let the NY sun shine in as people headed for trains or underground tubes. Some just stood around taking photos, we were in that gang. With more still to see we walked to Times Square. As busy as expected, with loads of neon adverts and fliers for theatre productions being thrust into our hands. A bit smelly and hectic ,we kept going until we reached our bus stop. The bus stops here are very dark and grubby with queues that make little sense. We found the right bus due to Chris’s naval navagation training and headed to the place that dreams are made, THE MALL.
This place has over 200 shops under one roof, restaurants, cafes and cinemas. Only for serious shoppers!My heart was racing with glee, Chris was up for it and we had 4 hours until our last bus. I won’t go into the details, but we were incredible. Like Torville and Dean we manoeuvred ourselves around prams, toddlers, teenagers, couples, shops and cafes. We left exhausted with sore feet and bags of stuff. My dreams have come true. There is a shopping centre big enough for me.
Like true travellers we got 2 buses back to our motel and rubbed our feet. Great day, miles and miles of New York covered and still time to watch the olympics highlights, yippee!
And now my final blog! We have spent the day visiting Mid and Downtown NY. We were up and ready for the day nice and early. A bus ride into town (about 30 mins )and we walked to The Empire State Building. We were in the queue to go to the top and gave up on the idea half way through. Mostly because there was a 1 hour 15 minute wait and also because it was a bit like a cattle market. The staff there were really rude ,so we left before anyone else could try to sell us something. I am glad we did, for principles if nothing else. I am sure the Empire State Building will fall into rack and ruin now we have not contributed our 20 quid!
Back on the streets of NY we walked passed Madison Square Park and saw the gorgeous “Flat Iron.” This is the building that is like a section of cheese. Thin at one end and opens out to form a triangle.
We followed the road down 5th Avenue ,on the sunny side of the street of course. Quite a trek to Greenwich Village where we saw the house used in “I am Legend.” This is the more bohemian area of NY. Lots of model looking people wearingly achingly cool clothes and talking loudly about their latest audition into their iphones. Pretty little italian restaurants, galleries (with paintings with no price tag), professional dog-walkers and general wealth. Some people were trying a little too hard and we passed a man that was dressed like one of The Krankies(the weird wife who used to dress as a school boy, remember her?)
We strolled along in our flip flops caring not a jot for fashion, as our minds were focussed on the scenery. We briefly passed the Ground Zero site on our walk to the docks. It has high fencing around it and work going on inside, I don’t know what the future plans are for it, but there was a large area of flatness amongst the skyscrapers .
Eventually, weary, we arrived at the docks and headed along the water to the Statton Ferry. Great trip over and back, no fuss, no queuing, no cost. We enjoyed the glorious weather and saw The statue of Liberty in the distance. Very nice too!
We are now snuggled up in our motel room (wee smell has gone.) and are aching all over after 2 days and lots of flip flopped miles. NY is wonderful and we are making sure we are making the most of it.
This is my final blog and so I will say a brief goodbye. Thank you to all who have stuck with us and Chris will be putting in one last blog before we finish this very long travel blog. I am so excited about coming home and getting back into our house. When you see me, give me lots of wine, don’t look at my podgy belly (from too much food,not baby) and I will try not to say “When we were in ……….”
Bye
Sophiexxxx
Originally uploaded by chris.warn
Long time no blog, but we have covered a few more miles, another country and even lost and regained our camera (hence no recent entry). We left Chicago and headed briefly South and then West, passing through the towns of Paw Paw, Climax and Kalamazoo. We had a look at Indiana (very quickly) dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, da, da (raiders of lost arc theme) and then Michigan. Didn’t see much of the state really, mostly on the motorway which got increasingly poor the further North we travelled. In Lansing we went through a huge deluge of rain and lightning a bit scary on the motorway (talking of weather, nearby Flint suffered the deadliest tornado in US history in 1953, killing 115 people) and then stopped off in Flint, founded in 1819 by a fur trader called Jacob Smith. The next day was 2 weeks to home time, so we felt the need to drive to Canada – Before that I let Soph loose in a Mall for a couple of hours, you could almost see her heart beating in her chest when I went to drag her away from the TV section. Passed through Port Huron and then into a big queue for the border to Canada. When we got to the gate, got another stamp and a series of harsh questions by the stern customs guy, all he needed was a tache, a pair of polaroid shades and some form of whip. Eventually let through and into Canada, straight into another traffic jam. Then on road, with great Canadian views, lakes filled with lillies, grasses and dead trees – but no Mooses or Beavers! We were staying with two guys Murray and Harvey (who we met in NZ way back when), thanks to their directions we steamed through Toronto to their house in the Cabbagetown district. So called because it used to be poor and a bit of an Irishtown, where all the residents grew their own cabbages to ward off starvation. Now filled with lovely Victorian housing with a distinctive style and metropolitan air (the area even has its’ own flag). The city itself sits on the banks of Lake Ontario and has a beautiful string of islands just off the coast and its’ central point is the tallest building in the world (for the moment) the CN tower at 553.33m, this central pinnacle gives the city the air of a large sailing ship from a distance. We were welcomed with open arms and huge sized cocktails – marvellous. Great to catch up eating and drinking and laughing.
Next day we were very excited as we were off to Niagra Falls, but first a visit to a vineyard in the Niagra on the Lake district, which is a quaint and manicured area, reminds me a bit of Henley. These two fellas were great company (and extremely silly) and even though we saw more traffic jams, the trip flew past. We passed the huge lock system that parallels the Niagra river, bringing merchant vessels through from the Atlantic, down the River Lawrence, into Lake Ontario and through to Lake Eerie and Chicago/Detriot. Didn’t realise that the Welland Canal was so important to US and Canada. We stopped off at the Peller Estates, one of a series of vaunted winerys which have unique weather conditions which allow the vines to grow, the escarpments in the area creating the required relief. It was a young vineyard only started in 1994 and they specialise in cabernet sauvignons and rieslings and Ice Wine. Never seen the latter before, but it’s made with grapes grown in the winter/autumn months. They let these ones go and as soon as the temperature hits -10′C and that’s pretty cold, the pickers come out grab the grapes and produce the wine. The extreme cold, concentrates the sugars in the grape and allows for this sweet, delicious wine – it was really, really good and we had to drag ourselves away from the tasting to stop any embarrassment! We ate in the restaurant, a bloke called Jason Parsons (Canadian TV chef) doing the menu. The food was phenomenal, and I’ve included a picture of my pudding, the richest choc cake ever tasted. We drank Pinot Gris and laughed a lot, once tipsy, Harvey drove us back through the town of Niagra by the Lake where they were having a peach festival?? On to Niagra, passing a statue of General Brock one of only a few successful Brit soldiers in War of Independence. On his plinth he looks down on the river and an area called the whirlpool, which was our first stop and a place where we got to see the thundering power of the river. Further down is the Falls themselves, not much to say really. The area is very touristy as you’d expect. If you look to the river it’s beautiful, but behind you loom lots of restaurants, hotels and a Casino! We walked up close to the water at Suicide Point , staring up river to the rapids and down to where the green, sheen of water curves over the precipice and plummets down, throwing up a huge plume of mist. It’s good. As we walked downwind to see American Falls further down river, we found that the mist is thrown back onto the walkway and we got soaked! Come to sunny Canada they said. Storm really broke on the way home and more heavy rain forced us in doors to eat pizza and watch a taped version of Beijing Olympics opening ceremony – good wasn’t it?
Sad farewell the next day and after a look around the district of cabbagetown and the waterfront, we were off to Ottowa – but not so fast, on way there we realised we had forgotten our camera (major piece of kit on our trip) in Toronto – bummer! This means we have no photos to show you of Ottowa, which is a shame because it is a truly beautiful city, right up there in parts with Paris! We arrived in Gatineau, on the Quebec side of the River Ottowa, late and after a Thai meal got an early night, it felt strange not taking phots of things! The next day we visited the Canadian Museum of Civilisation. A very cool look at how Canada has got where it is today. Fascinating, from a physical look at First Nation boats, weapons, totem poles and huts, through to a look at the people themselves. We certainly didn’t know that so many of the locals here fought in the First World War. The normal shameful picture of the Europeans abusing the hospitality offered by these people in the 1700s, was painted and we walked around some of the exhibits in silence, pretty bad. BUT the First Nation has now grabbed the situation and is a growing community, which has embraced its’ culture and stands by it, a strong part of Canada. Captain James Cook was up in these parts in 1774, naming Friendly Bay – he sure got around!
After this we didn’t stay, which was my fault really, Soph wanted to because Ottowa looked even more picturesque in the sunshine. But no, we were back on road, heading south over the border and into New York State to a place called Lake Placid (no crocs). Pleasant wooded area with the US’s winter olympics training set up here, but weather still a bit iffy (the US is going through its’ 10th wettest summer on record, so far). We didn’t hang around and the next day we drove to the Boston outskirts to settle up in Bedford and collect our camera from Eileen, a friend of Murray and Harvey (they kindly UPS’d it over).
Our trip into Boston was amazing, again an American big city has maintained and encouraged a great tourism industry. We used tube, bus and trolley to get around from Harvard University to the ship the USS Constitution. A day where we felt we learnt huge amounts, not least from the old guys driving the trolleys around, who kept up a running commentary. Here are 7 of our favourite facts:
1. Washington ran the British troops out of Boston in 1776.
2. The statue of Harvard in Harvard Yard is called the statue of 3 lies, first lie it’s not Harvard, someone else sat for him, second he is not the founder, he was the benefactor, third the Uni wasn’t founded in 1638 it was 1636 – all in all a poor effort.
3. The USS Constitution (oldest commissioned ship afloat in the world launched 1797) was called ‘Old Ironsides’ by British sailors who couldn’t understand why their cannonballs bounced off the sides, ship is just made of strong white oak.
4. General Joseph Hooker, a hero of the Civil War, used to enjoy the company of nefarious women. These girls were nicknamed Hooker’s Ladies, this was shortened to Hookers. IT’S TRUE!
5. Oldest pub still standing in Boston is called The Warren Tavern built in 1770.
6. The Pilgrims left Plymouth to arrive in 1630 at the behest of a man called William Blackstone, a preacher who first settled the Boston area. When they arrived he got quickly bored with them apparently and sold his land to them and headed inland. This land is now known as Boston Common.
7. Ho Chi Minh worked as a pastry chef in Boston before becoming a demi-god.
At the end of the day we dined in a place called the Red Hat Cafe in the Old Scollay’s Square region and then had a beer or two in a pub built in 1775, not bad. A fun, tiring day.
The next, not so much fun at all as we just drove from Boston to Philadelphia on the way to Washington to celebrate Soph’s birthday tomorrow in the USA’s capitol city. The only thing of note happening today was the storm that has just passed through here (Wilmington), gales, fat, warm rain and lots and lots of lightning – fantastic looking at it through our motel window. We have also just heard a loud siren alarm go off and thinking it might be a serious storm warning or tornados or something, we have just rung the reception to be told it’s the fire station alarm next door to our motel. These motels are cheap but they’re always next door to something noisy airports/train tracks/nightclubs.
Looking forward to tomorrow, a few treats for Sophs and a look at Washington – how cool is that.
A really busy and exciting time continues for us in the US. We spent a night in Hot Springs just on the edge of the Black Hills of Dakota, which Soph found very exciting because of the links to Calamity Jane. This is real cowboy country and this was proven at breakfast as 3 rodeo riders came in for their waffles and syrup. The old lady running the place said ‘does yo momma let you wear spurs in the house?’ and basically shamed the guys into taking off said spurs and their huge hats, which lay on the floor like small miner’s cottages.
We visited our first paleontology dig at the Mammoth site, the premier such site in the world, apparently. The first mammoth jaw bone was discovered in 1974 on a housing development, unbelievably, as opposed to just covering it up, the owner sold the land at cost value to the Mammoth Society – what a guy, probably wouldn’t happen today. It was fascinating and we saw both Colombian Mammoth and Short-Faced Bear bones (only 13 now-extinct short-faced bears ever discovered anywhere). The site is still being excavated, they have only dug up about 25% of the 80ft hole that is available. It’s like a mammoth grave yard, because originally 26000 years ago this pit was a sink-hole, filled with artesian water that tempted the beasties in and was so steep sided that they couldn’t get back out – hence the calcification of their bones and voila, a tourist attraction! It was a bit of a shame as some of the shapes of the skeletons were obviously of Mammoths in distress trying to get out of a muddy hole! After this we drove right through the Black Hills, passing through Custer (which isn’t the site of Custer’s Last Stand in 1876, this is actually next door in Montana) and all the while, still surrounded by hundreds of Harley Davidsons on their way to the Sturgis Bike Rally. Next up was the Crazy Horse monument, which was started as a guilt ridden tribute to the Native American tribes of the Sioux in 1948. This massive project was the inspiration of Korczak Ziolowski, a Polish immigrant, who won the contract at the World Fair in New York in 1939. Unfortunatley he has since died and the project doesn’t seem to moving very fast. We saw a photo of it in 1999 and there’s been little progress. I think his family are cashing in, charging 20 bucks just to see the half finished version. This thing (Crazy Horse on his horse) is going to be 200 ft long, so it’s not easy, but they really need to crack on with it.
Feeling a bit jaded and like seen off tourists, we headed for Mount Rushmore, which is the site of another huge rock carving of 4 US presidents (Washington, Roosevelt, Jefferson and Lincoln). We were well impressed, completed between 1927 and 1941 by Gutzon Burglun, this was fast work. Washington’s nose is 20ft long, which gives you a clue as to the size of it. Visible for miles as you drive up through the beautiful wooded Black Hills, it’s a fantastic piece of work close up as well. Sophs got up close and personal with 2 Rangers, but on cuddling one of them he sheepishly admitted that he was wearing a bullet proof vest – either the animals here are violent and fight back OR they were undercover coppers!! We took loads of photos and only left when the black clouds gathered over the Black Hills, threatening a storm (poor Harley Davidson riders). We drove East again after this to make Kimble for a night in another of these great Super 8 motels, although the tap water tastes a bit ‘creamy’ for want of a better word. Dining in a real live American Diner ‘Doowah Ditty’s Diner’ was pure Americana.
On the road again the next day to drive through Sioux Falls, which didn’t feel like a Native American village as we had hoped. We passed into Minnesota in its’ 150th anniversary year and during the day we saw a lot of wind turbines, huge corn fields (stay out of the corn!) and large corn towers with rounded aluminium roofs (looked more like missile silos than grain silos) next to picture book farmsteads. We also saw a small CAT earth-digger doing a wheelie and Sophs swore she saw a monkey road-kill on the side of the road (it was destined to be a strange day). Ended up bedding down in a town called Blue Earth, so named for the blue clay earth on the river bank that winds through the town. We walked into the town in the hot, soupy air via the Park marked on the map, which turned out to be an industrial park, so we had to turn back and find another way – very sweaty. We passed a huge 60ft high Jolly Green Giant wearing a charity run T-shirt, very surreal. Almost exhausted, we relieved our thirst by popping into a bar called the Double Play, with a barman who worked in the local school as a Biology teacher. The evening was just one of those evenings, Doc was very friendly and with his encouragement we downed a few local beverages and yapped to the locals, including one man who looked like Hurley from the programme LOST and a family who were out for a meal, but ended up giving us a lift home, giggling in the back of their pick up truck – great fun howling at the moon and being silly.
Up a bit slow for obvious reasons and on our way to the state capitol of Wisconsin, Madison. Not many people know this but Wisconsin is considered the circus centre of the world, perfect for a pair of clowns like us! First we passed through Iowa by heading South, through beautiful farmland, with some of the best maintained farms (with painted grain silos and signature tapered-arched barns), straightest corn fields and cleanest farm equipment this side of the black stump. We also noticed here that the KFC signs included a suprisingly youthful looking ‘Colonel’ (looks about 30 here, as opposed to a pensioner everywhere else). We were delighted to discover that we had to cross over the Mississippi, for some reason I hadn’t spotted this on the map! The landscape got greener and lusher and then we saw the huge expanse of this famous river. It’s a biggy as well, running approx 2300 miles from Lake Itasca in the North right to the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans. If you played pooh sticks at Itasca, it would take about 90 days for your twig to make it to the ocean. It’s about 4 miles at it’s widest point and where we crossed at La Crosse, we leapfrogged between islands such as French Island to get to the other side. To complete the picture, we saw a red and white paddle steamer come up river as we crossed the bridge – very Mark Twainesque. On crossing the Muddy, we passed into our 10th State so far, Wisconsin and then into the town of Madison. The bridges aren’t here by the way, they’re in a smaller town called Winterset, so no phots I’m afraid. Had a quiet night, which was made interesting by the inclusion of glazed carrots with our steak, glazed in Maple Syrup (uurrgghh).
On the road to Chicageee! Not much to report of journey, on the motorway all the way with the driving speed getting higher and higher as we approached the City. No sign of Illinois’ Law Enforcement Community, thankfully. Huge town, but managed to find our accommodation and went out immediately to take the noisiest train in the world into the centre. Chicago sits on Lake Michigan and we didn’t really have particularly high hopes from the centre, thinking it would be very industrial. As we got off the train, our ears still ringing, we were very suprised to see a mix of stunning Victorian architecture and innovatively designed modern high rises and art. We passed the old water tower and pump house, spotless and looking like they’d been put up last year and the fire station built in the 1902, the same year as our house. We soon realised that our planned bus tour around the city was too expensive, so we walked to a restaurant to get our energy levels up by eating a ridiculously sized portion of pasta. The place, Gino’s East, was very cool and the walls were covered in baseball and entertainment memorabilia and lots and lots of graffitti, done by the public (and the band Aerosmith). We didn’t have any silver pens or Tipex, so nothing from us.
After this came a deluge of culture, more culture than Louis Pasteur’s fingernails. First up was the Museum of Contemporary Art and we just had time to see the exhibition of Jeff Koons, free entry but we only had 20 minutes to get round and out. His work is an eclectic mix of sex, basketballs and blow up lobsters – but pretty interesting for all that. We then walked down Michigan Avenue, the Magnificent Mile, with its’ varied skyline of old gothic buildings, such as the Chicago Tribune Building, and huge looming, shiny skyscrapers, like Gotham City but with designer shops and boutiques. We crossed the bridge over the Chicago River, looking East towards the lake, and then came into the Millenium Park with two fantastic pieces of art. The first by an Englishman Anish Kapoor, called the Cloud Gate (nicknamed ‘The Bean’ by locals). It’s a 110 ton shining, reflective circular shape. It’s very interactive and everyone who walks up to it has a smile on their face. You can walk through an arch under it or just see the buildings of the city in its’ reflection – it’s a visual feast. The second was two tall towers of glass blocks, that are also screens showing faces of Chicago residents, they face each other across a shallow pool of water, which creates further reflections in turn! There are waterfalls and spouts and the kids were running through it all going crazy, our nieces and nephews and friend’s kiddies would have loved it and so would Chris Taylor! We also saw a 925 ft bridge, its’ sides clad in squares of brushed steel panels, like a snake it wound its way over a normal freeway to another park, crazy but brilliant. To round all this off, we were lucky enough to be there in the park when a free concert was going on in the Jay Pritzker Pavillion. The Grant Park Orchestra, playing a freebie rendition of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto 64 in E minor (what else?). We sat enjoying this as it got darker and the sun set over the city, very tranquil. All in all, what started as a low expectation day – ended up with us thinking Chicago deserves more than just one day. Unfortunately, we are running out of time and with Canada, Boston, Washington and the Big Apple to get in before the flight home, we can’t stay. I’ll leave Soph to tell you about our fleeting visit to Canada on next blog, see y’all.
Originally uploaded by chris.warn
Hello chaps,
We are still here,working our way to New York. We slept well in Farmington, New Mexico and headed out to the town for a nose around the next morning. Great antique shops, full of tat and we spent a few hours looking at all things old from the states. Their tat is pretty similar to our tat really, except we don’t have the cowboy boots and gun holsters. We were on a mission to find an old cowboy style coffee pot. I was in heaven and happily strolled around looking at pots, plates and bits of lace, Chris was keen to get on the road so looked particularly relieved when we found one. We also stumbled on a bargain blanket as well.
Back on the road we headed into the mountains passing some stunning whoppers, Engineer’s Peak, Sunlight Peak(14059ft) and Red Mountain(11075ft.)
We had been advised to go to Ouray as it was supposed to be like a Little Switzerland and indeed that was it’s nick name. We were stunned by the mountain’s beauty and some of the scarey hairpin bends. We also got to see a deer as we approached Ouray and managed to get it on camera. Ouray is in a valley surrounded by mountains from all sides. It is a really pretty town with ginger bread type houses in pastel colours like a bag of sugared almonds. I bet it looks amazing whitened in the winter snow, bustling with skiers in their bright skiing jackets.
We headed for a late lunch in a place named The Outback, a spit and sawdust looking place (with the prices of The Ritz.) The Outback has been in the same family for years, first started by an Italian who fell in love with a local girl. It was refurbished after a street train came off the rails and smashed into it in the 1930′s. Great place with cow brands burnt into the walls and lots of photos of roughish looking cowboys.
As we passed the loos we saw some photos of people dressed in the old fashioned American outfits. I think you can probably guess what happened next! As soon as we found out where they had been taken we literally ran down the street to get ours done. The photographer helps you out with your outfit, however Chris knew exactly what he wanted to wear, unbelievable. While i was in the changing room I could hear him enquiring about certain hats, cowboy boots and insisting on having a gun (shocker). When I came out, he was fully dressed in pretty much everything he could get on him, with of course cowboy boots and the sherrif badge. And I thought I was excited about it! Chris also had decided on the pose we would do and directed me to which facial expressions to use. We had to look sternly, no smiling. I never knew that Chris had such a strong idea of what he wanted from a Cowboy Style photo shoot. I think he may have been wanting to be a cowboy for quite some time!!!
It was late and we were way behind schedule, so back to the car and onwards. We passed beautiful mountains, glowing red in the last vestiges of the day’s sunshine.
Chris had been driving all day and we were glad to see the signs for our motel at Grand Junction. The altitude has been making me a little strange and I am nodding off like an old dear all the time. Thank goodness Chris is ok, as we would never get anywhere. To bed in our great motel, ensuite, breakfast included, clean sheets, soft towels, cable t.v and wireless internet, BLISS!
Up early to head for Aspen, we got briefly side tracked by the swimming pool. The weather is glorious and sometimes we just need to lay down and soak it all up. The swimming pools in the standard US motel is normally right by the road, in the car park effectively and lacking in the palm trees and pretty seating, we don’t care a jot though. We did laugh when we talked about our roof top swimming pool back in Bangkok with Roman Statues, underwater lighting and a view of the city, now that was a hellava place.
Finally a little browner (We will return home brown,we will) we set off to Aspen where only the wealthy ski. Busy old road, all worth it when we arrived though. Aspen has lots of cafes and eating out areas, fountains and wealth is everywhere. There are the women with diamonds as big as your eyeballs and just a hint of botox. The restaurant was full of ladies doing lunch, small dogs being carried (clearly no dogs have legs here) and people generally being seen. Labels were shown on everything, Prada Bags, Chanel sunglasses e.t.c. The food was surprisingly reasonable and we enjoyed people-watching and also tried to listen to people’s conversations, great fun. The shops are mostly galleries,jewellers and even fur shops. Quite a pretty place ,but I think we will leave them to it.
It was interesting to see how close the ski slopes were to the town. There was no snow so you could see paths cut out between the pines and zigzagging across the pendulous mountains.
The next part of the day turned out to be very scenic, beautiful silver trunked Quaking Aspen trees, old gold mines, tree covered mountains and narrow cliff roads. We passed over the stunning Independence Pass resting at a massive 12093 feet, literally taking our breath away. It was all too much for me and I nodded off (again, altitude sickness is weird.)
Just when we thought the day was over we reached The Royal Gorge Bridge. This was just for Richie Ryan, but when we pulled up we knew we were going to have to cross it. It was irresistible. Hanging in the cloud with the slickest curves of wire and the biggest bolts, it was a work of art. This was indeed the biggest suspention bridge……………wait for it…………….wait for it……….
IN THE WORLD!
After seeing so much natural beauty it was fitting to see something beautiful that was man made. We crossed over the swaying wooden slats, looking to the gorge below. The river below was no bigger than a curved silver line running through the rocks, we were hanging a massive 1052 feet above it.
It was 7 in the evening and 33 degrees,most people had been and gone, so we absorbed the peace and enjoyed the rocking of the bridge. This is what travelling is all about! These perfect days just keep rolling along.
We drove North again passing through Denver without stopping and seeing the gold dome of the civic centre to our right and the even more stupendous sight of the Rocky Mountains in the distance on our left. We looked around Cheyenne, where we stayed for the night. We had the pleasure of seeing our first drive through bank, why get out of the car at all? There are also real live cowboys in this here town! The town centre was a little bit lacking with no real character, but worth a stroll. The best thing about Cheyenne was that we accidently stumbled upon a theme Restaurant. Now this is what I am talking about! I have been dying to come into one of these places, it has to be done if you go to America. The menu was massive and everything came with cheese on and 6 different dressings and side orders and coke refills. Very American. All the waitresses had those shirts with name badges embroidered on and the whole restaurant was decorated like a car wash with memorabilia. Good fun, good food, box ticked for American Theme experiences. A final trip to the cinemas to watch Indiana Jones (It was ok ), then back to a different motel for bed. Today we spent mainly on the road, passing briefly into Nebraska to see long, flat rolling plains and prairies, interspersed with some striking Buttes near Chadron, the nicest Buttes we have seen in the States!
We are now in South Dakota. We have seen the Black Hills in the distance and sung “Take me back to the Black Hills,The Black Hills of Dakota” twice. I told Chris the story of Calamity Jane going to the ball and wearing that beautiful dress under her old coat. It was a while ago, but I didn’t think he would want to hear it again. Anyway we have arrived at a small town called Hot Springs. There is a big Harley Davidson Convention tomorrow just up the road in Sturgis so there are loads of bikers and the throbbing of finely tuned machines knocking about. All the riders are of a certain age it seems, drive very sensibly, are very friendly and wear shades with extremely well tanned arms. We are off to look at some Mammouth Bones tomorrow (Now there is something you don’t say very often.) Time seems to be slipping away from us and we only have 3 weeks left before we come home. America is a great place to end our trip and every day is a good one, I think my altitude sickness has gone, I have managed to stay awake all day. Chris is watching “Blazing Saddles” while I write this, even the films on T.V. here are about cowboys. Let’s hope we can make it home without buying chaps and a gun or getting into a drunken saloon fight with bottles being smashed on people’s heads and men being slid along the bar (althoough the last bit sounds a bit like a night out in Plymouth)! Keep reading the blogg chaps,three more weeks and our blogg will be finitto!
We are really enjoying the States, the sheer consumerism of the place is right up our alley, plus no tents/campervans in sight and a very happy Sophs! We have transitted a way East since the last blog, first up staying in a small town called Bishop where we noticed a gathering of two types of people 1) middle to old aged men wearing bandanas on huge Harley Davidsons, the cool head gear clashing slightly with their worried expressions about the power of their hired bike and their knobbly knees 2) big haired (mostly white-blond) women of a certain age with unfeasibly large chests (slightly drooping) working in diners and bars – we think these gals maybe ex-employees of Las Vegas!
I have had my head shaved right back, due to the heat, realising that my forehead seems to be getting bigger! The barbers shop was old school, with two really funny guys doing the chopping – old barbers shop chairs, really comfortable with pictures of girls, cars and boxing matches on the walls, just as I imagined it would be.
Next up was the drive through DEATH VALLEY dun, dun, dahhhh! It was a hilly drive initially as we went up through the mountains. It was here that we confirmed that the brakes on our hire car were very dodgy on downhills greater than 7%. They shuddered like crazy and there was a moment of panic by Chris, as he tried to hide the fact that the car was about to plummet off a cliff face from his missus. Fortunately we managed to get to the bottom of the hills, where the heat had rocketed to about 51 degrees celsius as we passed into the valley at sea level. We had previously bought a single egg in a cafe in Panamint. The waitress had to ask her boss how much an egg would cost, he said ‘oh about a dollar’, bless her she then charged me tax on that, 1 dollar and 8 cents exactly! At the Death Valley pass office (20 dollars for a single car to drive across a desert) we performed our egg frying experiment. We waited as long as we could in the heat for this thing to fry, but the only thing cooking was us it seemed. Experiment failed, it’s a myth!
The valley itself was shimmering in the debilitating heat, we tried for a few photos but ran for the cover of the AC within minutes, much like Namibia the heat rebounds of the ground and attacks you from all directions, sucking the moisture from your mouth and eyeballs. Over to the right as we drove through, was a dip in the ground – the lowest point in the USA 282ft below sea level at Badwater Basin (great name). As we came out of the desert, we passed a motel called ‘The Death Valley Hotel’ it sounded appetising, but we decided not to stay.
The roads got much busier and then we saw Las Vegas from about 20 miles away, rising like a tacky oasis in the desert (Las Vegas was named by Spanish explorers, the Meadows but it’s not like that anymore). It has certainly sprawled since I was here with Giles Evans about 15 years ago! We soon found our cheap digs, organised using my American Armed Forces Vacation Club membership – excellent! We weren’t far from the Strip, but decided to take a cab into the Downtown area for our first night. And what a night, I was kidding in our last blog, of course we can tell you about it!
We dined late in Binions Steak House, with a great view across to the North and West of the city, bright lights spreading as far as the eye could see – Las Vegas certainly doesn’t concern itself with energy conservation. We were left alone in the restaurant, as it was getting on and the other customers left, and had a romantic moment or two over our surf and turf (no surf for Soph). Nearing midnight we walked through the covered walkway of the Downtown area with Vegas Vic, the neon sign cowboy still there doing his thing. We watched some free entertainment (ball of death motorbike riders, very impressive) and then hit the slots. 2 HOURS LATER, we eventually managed to drag ourselves off these addictive little devils and cash in our winnings (20 dollars up thanks to lucky Sophs, who else?) That doesn’t sound much but we were gambling with 5 cent bits (nickels?) so if we had been gambling with dollars, that would have made it 400 dollars. But we weren’t, so it wasn’t!
Next up, roulette. Soph’s had never played this before and within a couple of spins, she was up by about 60 dollars (without realising it). I had lost all my money in the same time scale! Unfortunately, a combination of free beer and no tactics had us down by the end of the evening. They are very clever places, big casinos, they employ every trick in the book to take your cash – and they all work! We reckon, one of these tricks is to make the places like a maze or a hall of mirrors, we spent about 15 mintues trying to get out of the one we were in. Still, we had had a fantastic night and crashed into the motel at about 5 in the morning.
Next day we were up at the crack of midday, to hold our heads and wonder where it all went wrong, did a wallet check (which made unpleasant viewing) and vowed to not gamble again, until the next time. We mooched around before taking a wander to The Strip, where there is an Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, Sphinx, Pyramid and the huge Golden MGM lion. It’s mad and cheesy, but we loved it and at night it looks fantastic. We also noticed as we walked the streets that the drains absolutely stink here! We wondered whether it was like Ghostbusters and there’s slime growing down there – who knows? To avoid the temptations of the casinos we went to a huge cinema to watch ‘Dark Knight’ – I was presuming that Heath Ledger’s performance had been hyped because of his untimely death, but he is very good at being bad in the movie and we really enjoyed it (Steve Hill get yourself booked in for a viewing). We slept well after eating a small skip of tasty popcorn (salty AND sweet) and a bucket of diet (that’s a joke) coke.
Next day we swapped cars and got upgraded to a bigger model for all the inconvenience, nice! We sped off south bound on the 215 to the Hoover Dam. It was swarming with other tourists and therefore we didn’t hang around, it’s also undergoing bridge building work to take cars away from the dam and across at a higher point. Not very attractive and with the security checks and exhaust fumes, it wasn’t on our top ten attractions list. Onwards to the route 40 heading East now, passing into Arizona we spotted signs for a historic loop of the old Route 66, so took it. Well, it was nice enough but we didn’t necessarily get a huge amount of kicks from it. Still it took us in roughly the right direction and the tarmac quality was above average! Lots more old men in bandanas on hogs, in groups (get yourselves out here Gill and Liz). That evening we motelled in William and ate out at a Pizza Hut. We were looking forward to our spag bol, but when my dish arrived it was without meatballs, they took my plate away to rectify and in a suspiciously short timescale it arrived back with meatballs – hoorah you might say, booh I say, they were still completely frozen – at last some British Standard Cuisine!
Early start the next day for the big push through to the Grand Canyon, North on the 64. We stopped off short of the canyon at the National Geographic centre to watch an IMAX presentation on the Canyon, the most viewed IMAX presentation of all time, apparently. The film lasted 30 minutes, but there was a food outlet outside and people were coming in with popcorn, fizzy pop and hot-dogs, this at 1030. Good film though, showing how Major John Wesley Powell (only one arm) led the first expedition to navigate the Colorado River through the canyon in 1869. Never mind him, I think the actors in the film deserved a medal, they seemed to be doing everything for real and the scenes of white water rafting in a rowing boat were spectacular. Our appetites wetted, it was on to the real thing. The West Rim road was down for maintenance and we didn’t fancy going to the Grand Canyon Village, so we headed East along the (you guessed it) East Rim. And there it was, a mile deep and 277 miles long, it wasn’t hard to miss. I won’t bang on about it, but it was a very impressive hole and we stopped in several places just to sit and take it all in. We then decided to walk along to Yaki Point via the Kaibab Trailhead. The Kaibab Trail leads down in to the valley for 13 miles round trip and reaches the river. Although the temperature had reduced to a palatable 32 degrees C, we decided not to do that based on our wearing flip-flops and having no water or inclination. Instead we tramped on via the road to Yaki Point, after about 20 minutes of walking in the heat (with my freshly shaved head and large forehead crisping up nicely in the heat, why can’t I get pork to do the same?) we arrived at Yaki, looked left and there, some 50 yards away was the trailhead we had just left, great navigational skills Warn! Sophs not best pleased, but by now she was wearing my t-shirt across her head and shoulders, while I braved the sun (idiot!) More fantastic views and some great walking along the very edge of the canyon, made for an exhillarating day. The best was saved to last however, as we transitted by car further east to Desert View, where we had a salad and visited the watchtower, which was built there in 1932 by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter to commemorate the arts and crafts of the original Americans. Cool tower to look at, but boiling inside. Some incredible views though, East to where the canyon ‘ends’ and where the river carries on and West right up the canyon in all its’ splendour. The fierce sun does wash out some of the oranges and browns you’ll see at sunset/rise but it is still an awe-inspiring sight. Satisfied with some good touristy action we decided to head off.
Further East the canyon narrows to a gorge, the Colorado River cutting a deep, jagged scar which meanders through the green plain of desert brush. This cut is beautiful, but almost completely ignored in the shadow of its’ big brother (a bit like my brother Phil was with me!). We travelled on looking for a place to stay, passing through Kayenta, where we stopped off for dinner at a local cafe the Blue Pot Cafe. Apparently it’s a tradition here to get a blue pot in your new home for luck, nice idea, Sophs was eyeing up every trading post we drove past from then on. The town itself was uninspiring, but the view surrounding it was like something from the land that time forgot. Huge pinnacles, granite plugs and cliffs in the area called Monument Valley. Particularly striking in the fading light of the day.
We passed through to New Mexico and a place called Ship Rock. This was a bit of a shanty town, but did have a vast rock stuck on a flat plain just outside the town line. Huge and foreboding it looked like a stage set for Lord of the Rings. As we drove past it, we could see why the reference to a ship, but at a certain angle we agreed it looked like the face of a Scotty Dog – bizarre! Because of a distinct lack of suitable accom, we drove right through to a place called Farmington and that’s where we are now.
Next intention is to drive North now into Colorado and see the Rockys up close, should be good if weather holds up. Every time we switch on the telly we see reports of huge storms and rain sweeping across mid USA, we’ve yet to see them. That said, a day out of the sun will do ‘ma heed’ no harm at all.
See y’all and don’t worry Richie Ryan we are looking out for a big truck picture!
Hello and welcome to our first blog from The Good’ol United States!
I was supposed to write this blog on the same day as the last one, but there is so much to do here I didn’t have time. Apologies,but here it is now!
So here we are in America after a long flight with a lot of noise from the young World Youth Day attendees and not a lot of sleep, we arrived at 10 00 in the morning (American time). As seasoned travellers will know, we gained a day by crossing the International Date line and therefore had two 21sts of Jul. We whizzed through customs and found our way to the domestic arrivals to meet up with Bart and Michelle. On the way we saw our first real live American ‘bitchy’ queen and several ‘super-sized’ Americans. Bart and Michelle (we met them way back on the kayaking trip in Abel Tasman, NZ) had been to Las Vegas for the weekend and were arriving back in San Fransisco airport at 3.00pm. We were pretty tired, so found a quiet spot under an escalator and got our heads down for a few hours on the hard floor. Seasoned travellers or tramps – you decide! We were trying to keep an eye on all our bags, so kind of looped our arms in the straps and hung our legs over the other bags. It was pretty uncomfortable, but we were tired so fell asleep instantly. We woke after a couple of hours and unravelled ourselves. Bart and Michelle’s plane was a little late, so we went for our first dining experience. Faced with a list of burgers we were completely out of our normal dietary range. When our huge portion of food arrived it had a slice of orange on the side with a gerkin on top. We thought it was a little strange but had a go. Salty stuff.
We finally met up with Bart and Michelle, they are a good looking couple and in addiiton were both fresh, clean and tanned and we looked like a couple of very pale, tired gypos. Oh well, nevermind!
Our American mates took us on a mini tour of the city of California before we headed back to their place. We passed through the Golden Gate Park area and the Presidio residential area which was one huge military base, but all the houses and buildings are being updated. You can’t buy them, only rent from the government. We also got our first glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge and then travelled underneath it to Fort Point and took our first touristy snaps. It really is an impressive structure and at the point is a plaque on a fence with a pair of brass hands called Hopper’s Hands. Hopper was a chap who helped build the bridge and he noticed that lots of joggers touched the fence at this point, it was his idea to put some hands marks here for people to touch for luck. Underneath the hand prints were also some paw prints for joggers’ dogs to put their paws on. Nice idea! It was pretty breezy there and directly under the bridge were kite surfers leaping to scarey highs, Bart has also surfed there as well, if the tide is right – but I have to say that looked very hairy.
After getting some luck from Hopper’s hands, we headed through the Sea Cliff area to China beach for a look out across the bay. Then over the bridge to Mill Valley where Bart and Michelle live. This is a great little village that reminded me a bit of Tavistock. Lots of one off shops, fairy lights in trees (always had a soft spot for fairy lights) and a dinky pizza restaurant where we had dinner. Chris and I were nearly boss eyed with tiredness and didn’t know whether we should be eating cereal or drinking wine by now, so we headed off to bed. Bart and Michelle had given us such a fab welcome to the States and Chris and I fell asleep instantly. We both woke at 4.30 am (jet lag is a strange thing) and whispering and giggled in the darkness as we desperately tried to find the toilet in the dark without waking up Michelle and Bart.
Everyone slept in and Michelle cooked up a full brekkie for us to enjoy on their lovely decking. Pretty balmy here and eventually we began our first day in San Francisco. Bart said he had a loose plan for the day, but he was being very modest. We began a full days uber cool (Michelle taught us to use this word,we are sooooo American) tour. We started with a blustery ferry trip across the Bay with the Bridge in the background cloaked in a ribbon of fog. We passed Angel Island and the ex prison island of Alcatraz. Then into the Farmer’s Market in the ferry terminal building, excellent fun as we began lots of cheese tasting, chocolate tasting and open mouthed gawping at the touristy part of the town. The gourmet cuisine here is incredible, every food you can think of with so many gimmicks, gifts and enticing shops. They even had bread rolls shaped like crabs that you filled with soup. It was like a dream,quite surreal. We saw the huge Sea-lions at K-Dock lolling around in the sunshine, entertaining the crowds as though they were born to the task. Bart then had us walking at a cracking pace from the Pier 39 tourist area through steep hilled streets and up steps until we reached Lombard Street. This is the famous street in many movies (ie “What’s up Doc?” – Barbara Streisand/Ryan O’Neil) full of tight bends on a steep hill. We walked beside it and watched some Harleys gingerly negotiating the bends, there was no knee down action.
Then (still walking quite fast) we passed through the Italian area, with the odours of garlic and tomato filling the air. The pace was making us hungry so into Golden Boys Pizza for a slice of superb pizza (Chris had clam and garlic, never seen that before). The urban tour continued through China Town (there is a point when the 2 areas meet that you can get sweet and sour pizzas) and to the Castro District, famous for its gay community. We also managed to fit in a couple of street car trips. San Fransisco has street cars from around the world that have been lovingly restored and speed noisely through the towns hills (we travelled in No 1085 built in 1948).
Finally, as the sun went down we met Darius, a friend of Bart and Michelle. Then the drinking began. Bart is a man after our own hearts who enjoys beers in dark, noisey pubs that smell of booze. The smell instantly reminded me of The Dolphin Inn, which in my opinion, is one of the best smells around.
Darius was a great chap,he looked like a model and laughed like a drain, good stuff. We visited several sleazy pubs with Bart at the front, filling us with beer and information. More fast food at Memphis Minis briefly broke the beer tasting, with a menu so complicated we had to seek help from Michelle. Everything comes with a side order, sauces and various degrees of spice, very complicated,especially when tipsy!
The evening ended in another dark, nefarious pub where an entertaining game of pool ensued with Bart and Chris playing two very drunk locals. One of them looked really familiar like a pirate/film star, the other one looked like an old Axl Rose (I suppose it could have been him, although he didn’t sing). Pretty funny as lots of pirate impressions and general silliness finished the night. Chris also managed to catch a pint glass mid-air as it fell from a table, not a drop was spilt. He’s a pro.The whole day confirmed for us that Bart and Michelle were great characters, exceptionally silly, kindred spirits and now officially our mates!
The next day was a bit calmer. We had breakfast in Mill Valley and it was tastey, fast, cheap and massive. Bart had a stack of pancakes that nearly broke him. We walked it off with a trip up to Tamalpais Mountain. Tremendous views down the valley and out over the peninsula, across the bay to the Bridge with the City in the background, floating on a bed of fog and looking like a Sci-Fi city, all it needed was a CGI dome. San Fransisco is so much greener than I expected, but in the distance we could see the darker smoke created by the huge forest fires burning in the south in the Big Sur region – devastating. We then had a stroll through some beautiful Sequoia trees and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the forest.
Our trip in San Fran was going to be over the next day so Bart and Michelle took us to collect our hire car. It is supposed to be a compact, but it still feels massive to us. Chris deftly followed Bart through the busy streets at rush hour to partake in an all American evening at the ball game. We briefly popped into Barts last business venture, ‘Chrome’ bike bags and gear. Very impressive, i thought it was a little shop, but it is massive with a large amount of stock, all very funky stuff designed by Bart and his mates.
Excitement built on the walk to the ball game and it was sunny with the hustle bustle of people aggressively hawking tickets and walking the streets in Giants (the baseball team) kit. We were sat up in the gods and could see out over the bay as well as the pitch. Not really too sure of the rules, but it was a lively game. People (shocker) eat like crazy and there are even people coming around selling food if you can’t be bothered to get it yourself. Chips, nachos, hotdogs, candy floss, donuts, popcorn….and so it goes on. We watched most of the game (sat next to two Scots, who we turned to, to ask about the game) but it got a bit chilly and we were all so tired from our massive Bart Tour that we left before the end. My nephew Harry would have loved it though. Lots of singing, cheering and of course the essential Mexican Wave. The jet lag, the boozing and the tour have finished us off. To bed!!!!!!!
Goodbyes were said early the next moring and Thankyous for our lovely stay with Bart and Michelle. We were so glad we visited them after meeting in New Zealand all that time ago, really great people – even if Bart’s James Mason impression left something to be desired (do you know he was born in Huddersfield?James Mason,not Bart)
We drove (well Chris drove as i am still too scared) to our next adventure, Yosimite National Park. On the way we stopped for breakfast at a roadside cafe. We ordered a sandwich and tried a side order of pancakes. It was our first American faux pas. This ridiculously large meal arrived with butter (a massive dollup) and mapel syrup on the 3 pancakes stacked and they were as wide as the plate. We ate at 11.00 am and were so full we couldn’t eat again until 7.30. Lesson learnt i hope!
It took a couple of hours, but we had time to get into the park and walk to a huge water fall called Bridal veil falls. There was a fast stream of water falling from its well weathered peak, hundreds of feet above. We are late in the season so it is quite low water levels now, it was more of a heavy flow than the ferocious pounding of full water flow in winter. The heat was overwhelming and Chris and i were a little unprepared for clambering over rocks. It was the best way to get closer to the base of the waterfall. I wasn’t going to do it initially as it looks a bit dangerous, however i reconsidered as i saw an old man doing it without any fuss or screeching. The huge granite walls that surrounded us were amazing throughout our drive into the park. Pine trees seem to teeter on edges of cliffs and grow in cracks and on ledges. Amazing!
It was 93 degrees as we walked around lower Yosemite Falls,another gorgeous waterfall surrounded by dappled shade through the trees. We were both feeling a little tired as we had not stopped since we arrived, so we made one last heroic effort to drive to Glacier Point before heading to find accommodation – on the way we saw our first deer, a Mule Deer, I say ‘saw’ we almost hit it, which would have taken the edge off the day. Glacier Point has views over the famous Half Dome which is 8842 feet high. Everywhere you looked there are pine covered mountains with rock so white it looks like snow. We were impressed and thrilled to be there, but I was also pretty knackered so we said good bye for the day and headed out of the park for a bed for the night.
Our room was in a brick hut and we had a hot, but good night’s sleep. The next day was the last in the park so we made our way back to Valley bottom to take in more soaring views of the imposing granite cliffs and tried to walk off some of the food we had consumed over the past days. After this we drove out of the park via the Tuollumne Grove, home to some more huge Sequoia Trees. One of them so big that it had a tunnel drilled through it so Chris stood in its centre and couldn’t touch both sides or the roof, huge. Unfortunately this tourist attraction is now dead, killed by the very thing that turned it into a tourist attraction. We drove through some stunning scenery as we left the park, so much so that you almost become used to it and dare I say it, hardly look out of the window unless it absolutely demands attention! We travelled south as far as Bishop a nice town where we holed up in one of the many motels here, clean and efficient, we think they’re great. Next up is Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. America is strange because it all seems so familiar, even if you haven’t been here before. We promise to do better on the food front as well – begone devil food!Where can you get a salad around here?
Bye for now xxx
Hello all,
We have loads to catch up on, so get yourself a cup of tea!
Our last few days in Australia were well spent with Debsi and Steve Hill. After a few days relaxing around Brisbane, we headed up the coast bright and early for a whale watching boat trip off the coast of Mooloolaba. This was the last thing to tick off the list of Aussie experiences and we headed out on Steve’s Whale One (Steve Irwine’s trip) to do just that. Perfect day for it with a clear blue sky,cooling wind and good company. About 15 miles out we spotted our first whale, we saw the tail flip out on the horizon and were told it had gone in for a dive. Apparently the whales can stay underwater for anything from 6 to 45 minutes, but this fella popped up again pretty quickly. The boat follows strict rules of maintaining a certain distance away, no feeding of the whales and all that good stuff to protect the whales from the over zealous tourists and boat drivers. We kept a distance away and everyone zoomed in with their camera to get a snap of a black dorsal fin or a flick of a tail. The whale was pretty shy and spent a lot of time underwater as we sailed along next to it.
We headed out deeper to continue the search, and soon we were lucky enough to see three humpback whales who were a lot more active. It is mating season and there were two males wooing a female. Great for us as we saw lots of showing off with tail flicks, jumping, flipper slaps and rising out of the water with open mouths. We took hundreds of snaps and think we have a few credible ones. The whales came towrds us at one point and we just stood and watched these huge creatures rolling by and giving out a huge blow of water. Now that is something you don’t get to see very often, Awesome! (well we are in Australia, but i promise to stop using that word once we have left.)
We definitely got our money’s worth on the trip, but Steve missed out on the lunch as he couldn’t take his eyes off the whales. We nipped in between dives and ate our lunch stood up watching the whales rise less than 100 feet from the boat. It might not have been the best food in the world ,but it was a pretty impressive restaurant.
We headed back to shore reluctantly to have a fruit smoothy on the beach. It may be the winter in Oz ,but you can still wear a cossie in this neck of the woods, the sunshine coast.
After a quick stroll, we drove to have dinner with Mr and Mrs West (Debsi’s parents.) They followed their daughters over to Australia in March and are now living in a fab new house in Little Mountain, near Caloundra. To top it all Mr West has just bought a very cool spanking new boat (which matches his car.) Chris and Steve were like kids in a sweet shop looking it over. Dinner was a homemade shepherds pie(Yiippee!) and a nearly homemade huge cream cake with strawberries in. A great ending to a memorable day!
We headed back to Brisbane the next morning and i began to feel a little sad as i knew the goodbyes were imminent! We stopped and bought some fresh strawberries, which took the edge off it a little.
The after noon was spent jamming things into our rucksacks. Chris is able to live with one pair of shorts and a few t shirts ,where as i seem to have more clothes than Kylie on a world tour. Still nothing to wear though.
Sad goodbyes to Steve and a teary one to Debsi and then we were off at 7 the next morning. We trained it to the airport and had a quick flight to Sydney. It took about an hour or so and was pretty non eventful.
When we arrived at Sydney it was heaving, full of teenagers celebrating World Youth Day (a Catholic sponsored event), all flying home to their wordwide destinations. Yuk! Teenagers!
We did our best to remain calm and tolerant of screaming, shouting, flirting youths generally showing off. We coped by muttering things to each other and giving out whithering looks (I have always been good at them.)
Chris was worried we wouldn’t get through customs as we had some cockle shells in our back pack from the West Coast. He was worried they might get sniffed out by the customs dogs, especially the cocker spaniels!!!! Come on! That had Chris and i laughing all the way on to our plane. We have been really spoilt with great planes in the past, but this time we lucked out. United Airlines was a bit ropey. I was gutted when i discovered that we didn’t have any choice of movies and individual screens. The air hostesses were really unglamourous and a little past their prime. Chris reckoned that he actually saw one of the hostess’s using the trolley to help her walk! Unfortunately the flight was 13 hours long and the youths were a bit annoying.Thank god for complementary wine!
Our final goodbyes in Australia were the saddest and we will both miss our friends so much. After spending such a long time in Australia we really felt like we got the most from our visit. So many fantastic times and it really is gorgeous. We will be back,thats for sure. So i will end this one as a “cheerio” and not a “goodbye” (as Fagin might say.)
Onwards to the U.S.A.!!!!!!
