We left Peru on a 4.20am flight and landed in Toronto around 1pm before needing to wait for our 6pm flight to Los Angeles. As you can imagine, we were feeling the strain but managed to keep the engines running with a few of beers – “kel surprise” I hear you say!! So, when we boarded our flight, and sighing relief that our heads would be nestling into to some comfy hotel pillows in just a few hours, the rain outside turned into a raging storm, and we knew that we were going nowhere fast. Our fate was sealed when the baggage handlers ran for cover. Fortunately, we could not see our bags in the piles of luggage dumped on the ground next to the plane, but the girl next to us however, could see her suitcase slowly floating away into the sunset! We sat for an hour, then two and then joined the queue of planes waiting to take off. Needless to say, being 12th in line it was another hour before we were airborne! Whilst waiting in line, the aircraft cabin filled with a really thick mist, almost like a fog! A voice in this fog told us not to panic, and that it was a perfectly normal (something to do with the air con and that it happens before boarding and after the aircraft has been sitting for a while)! We laughed, as did most other people around us because this perfectly nice message seemed contradictory to the coughing and the frowns of the cabin crew! Fortunately, the mist did clear before we took off so all was good and we started our adventure in LA at around 11pm.
We picked our car up the following morning at LAX. We had gone for the cheapest car – an economy so were somewhat surprised when we walked away with a PT Cruiser. This was an introduction to the BIG and BIGGER. Only in the states could a PT Cruiser be considered a compact economy car! By the end of our trip however – 4300 miles later – we did feel ‘ickle’ and truly compact in comparison to the huge 4x4, which the Yanks drive.
We hit the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), which takes the scenic route along the Californian coast – really cool. We drove through Malibu, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz etc. At Santa Maria, we headed inland towards the Sequoia National Forest. We decided to take the PT Cruiser off road here and try out some of the less beaten tracks to find ourselves some big old red woods. Bad move! We drove around for hours over some mega dodgy terrain and didn’t see much other than a big meadow aptly named “ Big Meadow!”. We passed a 4x4 and the guy was kind enough not to laugh at us in our ickle car just politely told us that he had struggled with some of the road up ahead and that we might want to consider turning around! So we took the advice and headed back to the main road…and those elusive red woods, well we found shit loads of the f*ckers on the side of the road out of the park! So we learnt a hard lesson – it doesn’t always pay to leave the beaten path of the tourist.
The red woods were fabulous and it truly looked like they had been plucked from the land of the giants and dumped here on Earth, either that or they were on some seriously good steroids! We saw some wonderful examples both at Sequoia National Park and when we went to Yosemite National Park. To put their enormous trunks into perspective, we saw examples where tunnels had been made so that stage coaches (and later cars) could drive through the tree! An average example would need at least 5 people with arms outstretched to circle the trunk. Only the outside of the tree is alive, the inside is dead and very brittle, so it is very easy to climb inside the tree itself. One tree we walked into, the entire middle was hollow so you could look right up through the tree to day light. It was aptly named the “telescope”. Yosemite was beautiful for many reasons, it had the red woods but it also had the most incredible waterfalls and monolithic mountains in a valley carved by glacial erosion over millions of years. We stood at Glacier Point to get a good view of the valley and our breaths were taken away. The stone almost radiated blue, so this against the green lushness of the forests and the white water of the falls was just incredible. A key sight here was “El Capitan”, which is said to be the largest single monolith in the world standing at 3593 feet. Another sight dominating the valley was “Half Dome”, a mountain of granite 87 million years old and standing at 8842 feet. We took a drive down into Yosemite village and managed to get an up close view of Yosemite Falls as the light was fading and the crowds had disappeared. Such a beautiful place and very much deserved of its title as the “Incomparable Valley”.
When we left Yosemite, it was getting very late so we stopped off at a little town. Alas there were no rooms at any of the Inns because of the world famous annual chocolate festival. Oh yea, everyone has heard of that right? There must be some mighty fine chocolate going down at this gig for the whole town to be booked up! So, given we wanted to head to San Francisco in the morning anyway, we got Andy amped up on red bulls, got in the car with a “f*ck yea” attitude and drove the 200 miles to San Fran. We arrived at around 1.30am but were cool thinking how difficult can it be to get a room in a kicking town like San Fran? Really f*cking difficult when there hosting the National Marathon that weekend and you’ve rocked up on the Friday night!! Think of the lyrics “we drove all night…” and you would be spot on. The only room available was in a dodgy part of town where it looked like there was gonna be a showdown between two rival gangs when we got there! When one guy got out of a van left the engine running and had his arm inside his shirt like he was carrying a gun, we took this as our cue to get outta dodge!! So, what did we do? Well at 6.30am in the morning, having lost some of our “f*ck yea” attitude (strangely), we just pulled up at the Golden Gate bridge got out and took some photos as the sun rose over San Francisco! We then proceeded to climb back in the car and get a couple of hours sleep before driving into town to see the sights! San Fran is a beautiful city, its got a really chilled feel to the place. It kinda felt like Notting Hill in London, a really hip and happening place with lots of places to eat drink and be mellow. We had fun just cruising around and going to see Pier 39, where all the seals hang out, serenading tourists with their shouting and squealing. The Golden Gate Bridge was really cool also, it’s an incredible engineering feat. It was never thought possible to build because of the 60mph winds that hit the Bay but it was, over 4 years at a cost of $35million completed in 1937. It can actually sway upto 27 feet in winds of 100mph, which is pretty bloody scary. Yet it stands proud and safe so all good. We wanted to spend longer in San Fran but with no accommodation options, we had to leave that night, which was a real shame.
We travelled onto Lake Tahoe and had a scenic drive around the shoreline. It’s a beautiful setting, with the snow capped mountains, pine forests and the crystal clear waters. We stopped in Reno that night, which was a little bit naff. To sum up the calibre of the place, Andy stepped out of the car to be greeted by a used tampon! Reno was our first taste of Nevada, the gambling State. It was quite an eye opener, gambling is a institution here. In the petrol stations, there are machines even in the pizza take away, there were machines in the counter just in case you fancy a quick fix!
We hit the road for Salt Lake City and pulled into a little town called Winnemucca to see the “world famous” Cowboy Museum. This town was also famous for being the town where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid robbed their last bank. Well, the museum was more a small display of saddles and photies housed in the tourist information centre, which also housed a collection of stuffed animals for your perusal. We should have guessed this was a one horse town when tumbleweeds regularly wafted across our path!
We drove across the salt flats before reaching Salt Lake. They were really cool, just a layer of salt covered land stretching for miles in all directions across incredibly flat land. Luckily, as we drove sunset hit and we were afforded this wonderful pink glow across the flats – really beautiful.
As time was short, we didn’t spend much time in Salt Lake City, rather pressed onto Yellowstone National Park.
Yellowstone was just incredible. It was really weird to explore the very fragile crust of what is essentially a super volcano. You can really sense the power of this place with the plethora of vents spitting steam, the copious amounts of hot mud pools and the geysers, including the famous “Old Faithful”, which we were lucky enough to see blow. There were number pools of water that were steaming hot, and the colour – wow – so clear and perfect blue. Apparently, Yellowstone could be ripe for blowing and if it does, it would rip the States a new arse hole and have a significant and devastating impact upon the climate around the world. As such, activity at the Park is monitored very closely for change.
Moving on from Yellowstone, we made our way down to view the Grand Staircase National Park and Bryce Canyon in South Western Utah. Wow! These were just incredible. The Grand Staircase is where plateaus and multi-hued cliffs run for distances that really defy human perspective. It was the last place in continental United States to be mapped. Then there is Bryce, which is famous for its unusual geological formations. The erosional forces of frost-wedging and the dissolving power of rainwater have shaped the colorful limestone rock into bizarre shapes including slot canyons, windows, fins, and spires called "hoodoos." We did a 4 hour hike just to feel the magic of this place for ourselves.
Our next stop was Zion National Park. The park has high plateaus, a maze of narrow, deep sandstone canyons and striking rock towers and mesas. We spent the whole day exploring by car and foot to experience the enormity of this place. The canyons were massive so really hard to believe that river erosion was the main cause for the big gouges in this once plateau rather than glaciers. Really beautiful place.
Onto Vegas - the town of partying and gambling. Las Vegas is great. Its everything to everyone on a BIG scale. Its in your face and brash but its great fun too. All of the casinos are fab to look around, and the money is the town is very obvious together with the signs of all the money being lost at the tables too. We made the most of the strip hitting by foot and going into each and every casino for a nosey. We also went and checked out the chapels of love where you can do a drive through wedding. We thought about it for a while but then realised it was just too up market for us! I really loved New York New York, it’s a great casino with fab entertainment. We went to see the duelling pianos in the evening and were not disappointed. Two guys two pianos taking requests. They were excellent. We really wished we had longer there to party hard and lap up the atmosphere a bit more, but we had to leave the bright lights of Vegas behind to go to Hollywood and the home of the Stars – LA.
We stayed in Hollywood just above Hollywood Bld. Man, this is one of LA’s best kept secrets! Hollywood is shitsville!! Unless you are staying in West Hollywood near or in Beverly Hills, you really are living in a suburb full of bums and slums. We went and did the tourist thing though and took in the Walk of Fame and the Chinese Theatre (where all the fill premieres are shown and the stars have their hand prints in the pavement), which was interesting to see. Its not very often, you can say you have walked past Superman, Wonderwoman, Supergirl and Shrek all in one day!! We took a stroll down Rodeo Drive, which for us was nothing great. Lots of big designer labels, ponsy tourists and chauffeurs. Not really our bag but great I guess if you wanna hang about in hopes of seeing a Star or two – which we didn’t! We also took some time out down at Venice Beach so we could get a looksee at Muscle Beach (which was empty) and do a bit of people watching. Really cool place and the beach was huge. We did end up on a bus back to Hollywood though that dropped us off in a mega dodgy part of town. Infact, we used quite a bit of public transport that left us feeling a little less than safe. Note to prospective tourists – hire a car for LA or join a tour group. The public transportation system is not for the faint hearted or timid!!
We took the chance whilst in LA to visit Disneyland. Wow, was I excited! Andy was so cool about taking me to Disney. I really needed to satisfy the kid in me and he was there to accommodate. No easy task given it was a train smash to get there without a car. We needed to get the airport to get a coach to the park, then when we got back we needed to get back into town, using the questionable public transport system!! All said though, it was wonderful. My face ached so much from smiling and I had a few tears of happiness at the Aladdin stage show and the parade. I am truly addicted to the Disney experience – sucker!!
So, that was the States. We fitted so much in that this update has been much longer than the others but fortunately I am sat with a glass of vino at Daz’s house in NZ with all the time in the world!
The States is a wonderful place to visit. Geologically, it is incredibly diverse and you can do and see so much that we could have done with oodles more time. The people are just so friendly, and I have to give a big thumbs up for the States. Everywhere we went, people were just so nice and really keen to get to know a little bit about us. It did wonders for our beer experience also with samples of 40oz bottles of beer coming in at around a quid! Actually come to think of it, we haven’t had a night yet since we left the UK without alcohol – result!!! We doing great guns on our beer tour of the world!!
Hope you have enjoyed. We are in New Zealand now then onto Australia to visit Mo!! Woohoo!!
