Retired and Loving It

We're home and planning the next trip

dianaandmalcolm — Tue, 3 Jul 2012 04:14:00 GMT

Well, what an experience that 8 week sojourn in South Western America turned out to be. We were stunned by the different scenery we saw each day [different to anything we have seen in other parts of the world], the intenseness of the heat in Death Valley, the weather including dust storms, twisters and wild fires, the fantastic people we met and the food; the huge portions and how we needed to remember to share a dish rather than have one each.

Americans speak American English but the culture is so very different and we learned so much which we think they do so much better than us ie parking bays at an angle to avoid opening your door onto another car, room to back out without backing onto a road, senior citizen parking at supermarkets - how cool is that, no grumpty shop assistants etc etc. And others where we are more advanced or do better ie harvesting; our machines do everything whereas they do a field twice to get in the corn and then the stooks separately, we don't charge for parking everywhere you go and have compulsory valet parking for which you pay a huge fee and then have to tip the valet.

We have so many photographs and so many memories that we will be talking about this trip for many years yet. There is nothing we would have changed had we had the opportunity to do it all again.

Our Favourite view; we both agreed was Bryce Canyon

Our Favourite hotel; we loved them all but for Diana it was El Tovar at Grand Canyon and for Malcolm it was Habor View Inn at Santa Barbara [which was Diana's close second]

Our Favourite meals; ie Craft in Century City Los Angeles, Jeffrey's in Moab [the steaks just cut through like butter], the Spotted Dog in Springdale near Zion NP, the Waterfront and John's in San Francisco - all fine dining with delicious food.

Our Favourite road; definitely the No 12 from Torrey to Bryce Canyon [a joyful mountain road experience from start to finish]

Malc's favourite place; [1] Death Valley and [2] Monument Valley made the most impression. Diana's favourite place; [1] San Francisco [2] Bryce Canyon and [3]Sedona made the most impression.

Would we do it all again? YES

Where next? Bishkek Kyrgyzstan to visit younger daughter Andrea, and a side trip on the way back to Instanbul for three nights.

Photos: Colorado2

dianaandmalcolm — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 02:16:00 GMT

Log Cabin

Fireflies and Cardinals

dianaandmalcolm — Thu, 7 Jun 2012 04:52:00 GMT

Each night we sit on the patio - surrounded by a cloth gazebo with black nets - attached to our friends house in Salina [pronounced Sal eye na]. We watch the antics of the many and varied birds feeding from the two enormous bird tables, the squirrels which walk the tightropes of the telephone wires and, as it gets darker, the many fireflies darting from place to place and lighting up the night.

Usually birds are in an aviary but it really feels as though we are in an aviary watching the birds! The birds with the brightest plumage are the red cardinals [which are so quick it is difficult to catch them on camera] and we have seen oriels, collared doves and robins among many others. They grow huge robins in the USA and they are akin to the size of our thrush. I think I prefer our little dinky ones.

We just love watching the fireflies and cardinals.

Pacific Coast Highway 1 California

dianaandmalcolm — Thu, 7 Jun 2012 04:06:00 GMT

The day started bright and sunny, as usual. The sea was pounding on the rocks near our hotel and the seagulls screeching their demands of each other as we made our way to our breakfast place of choice, a superb bakery for Malc to have his Almond croissant and Diana to have her scrumptious chocolate croissant sat at an outside table whilst watching the antics of the seagulls and of the local schoolchildren – and their ever patient teachers - getting ready to visit to Aquarium opposite.

Having discussed the options for the day we finally decided on a drive through the Carmel Valley and then ein fahrt ins blaue as the German’s would say. [No real idea but we will make it up as we go along].

The Carmel Valley road was a lovely drive through wooded areas with nice little villages and hardly any traffic. We stopped at the Valley Village and strolled along the shops purchasing cold drinks to keep us going. We eventually arrived at a place called King City and took the momentous decision to drive through a Military area on a road which eventually diverted us onto another road [how frustrating but fortuitous] which led through more densely forested areas onto a fantastic road with a superb overlook of famous Highway 1 which clings to the mountain side overlooking the pounding pacific ocean.

We stopped at the top and spoke to a young motorcyclist who told us he had been coming to that spot since he was 6 [he was probably about 28ish] and it had great meaning for him. As we talked to him3 or 4 vultures circled below us taking advantage of the thermals and beautiful butterflies danced from flower to flower. We made our way down this precipitous road to the sea which joined highway CA 1 just south of Lucia and drove back along this twisty road to Monterey which took so long it was like going on a roller coaster ride it was so twisty.

What a lovely day we had.

Photos: Kansas at home and about

dianaandmalcolm — Tue, 5 Jun 2012 09:32:00 GMT

Colorado, Log Cabin Idyll

dianaandmalcolm — Mon, 4 Jun 2012 06:32:00 GMT

We were collected at Denver Airport at 4 pm by good friends George and Phyllis and driven for 5 hours through the lovely countryside to their log cabin high above the Conejos Canyon in Colorado. We arrived at the bottom of a hill in the canyon in the dark and transferred all luggage and passengers into a 4 x 4 to transcend the hill. It was dark and it was interesting bumping and jiggling our way up the ‘road’ to their cabin in the woods. Having arrived, we transferred everything again into the cabin and began to settle in.

Our room was the entire ‘bottom’ floor of the cabin with floor the ceiling windows along one side, George’s workshop [the envy of Malcolm] at one end, a fireplace and lounge in the middle and at the end we pulled down a bed from the wall and began creating our bedroom for the week. We had a lovely bedside table in the form of a log from one of their aspen trees on which stood our lamp and which we adorned with our alarm clock. We had our own sink and ‘restroom’ under the stairs and for the first time during our tour were able to unload all our clothes and other bits and pieces from our long suffering luggage.

In the morning we awoke early to the natural sunlight coming through the huge windows and by the time we had ascended the stairs to the ‘ground’ floor we were both gasping for breath, not realising we were situated at about 9,930 ft above sea level! All week we felt a little whoosy and breathless but this did not detract from our stay.

The next few days consisted of an amazing amount of activity including inter alia, enjoying the company of George and Phyllis, laughing for England together and exploring the scenery and cultural attractions of the canyon, motoring to Mese Verde National Park via Durango and Pagosa Springs; Taos and the lovely world heritage site of a living pueblo village; The Sand Dunes National Park, Alamosa; and delightful Creede with its old prospector mine workings [where they are currently shooting parts of the film The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp as Tonto] and its lovely shops and art galleries. We met local artist Stephen Quiller who has his gallery there and is a good friend of George and Phyllis. We loved all his paintings [which is unusual for us] and could have enjoyed having any in our home.

We loved sitting on the balcony of the log cabin and watching Stellar Blue Jays and Great Beaks feeding each morning from the bird table, watching out for the local mule deer who came to the salt lick provided by George and Phyllis, the delightful little chipmunks who scoured the grounds for pickings from the birds or even climbed up onto the bird table to help themselves - always being wary in case a bear visited. Although we had been keen to spot a Yogi-type in Yosemite we were not too sure about encountering one up there in the wilds of the woods away from much habitation.

Diana awoke one morning to the sun streaming through the windows and decided she would look out to see if the chipmunks were busy searching for their breakfast when she was stopped short at the sight which greeted her on the window. On closer inspection she realised it was a baby bear paw print and immediately grabbed the camera to take a photograph. When the windows were inspected later by Phyllis she drew attention to the muzzle marks made by an adult bear nose on the patio door and bear fur and further bear paw scrapings on the window; scary; although we never did see our black bear visitors and quite honestly were not disappointed.

Photos: Kansas

dianaandmalcolm — Sat, 2 Jun 2012 09:00:00 GMT

Enjoying Salina and Kansas

Photos: Colorado

dianaandmalcolm — Sat, 2 Jun 2012 08:59:00 GMT

At the Log Cabin

Photos: Santa Barbara

dianaandmalcolm — Fri, 25 May 2012 13:43:00 GMT

'It happened in Monterey'

dianaandmalcolm — Fri, 25 May 2012 08:28:00 GMT

A late but delicious breakfast in a pavement café [almond croissant Malc, chocolate croissant Diana] was followed by a potter around beautiful Monterey Cannery Row near where we are staying. Our hotel, The Clement, Intercontinental, a contemporary hotel favoured by conference delegates is otherwise lovely. We have a great room, superb bathroom with separate bath and shower and a surfeit of lovely fluffy white towels. The bed is uber comfortable and the colours relaxing; we wish the room maid wouldn’t put the anxious looking seal and her pup ‘cuddly’ toy between our pillows [it looks like something from a horror film] which we are exhorted to purchase. The only downside is we don’t have a sea view but we just have to go downstairs and look out of the window to get that. We look out onto Bubba Gump which has some connection to Forest Gump but not sure what; there was also one at Santa Monica we remember, potentially another American institution which we don’t quite get.

We spent the rest of the morning exploring nearby Carmel by the Sea and loving the many boutique shops and galleries – even Malcolm enjoyed the shops - which is saying something!

The 17 mile drive was nearby so we took that and spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the scenic drive and enjoying our picnic lunch by the sea. We sat at a splendidly located picnic table on the beach and stuffed ourselves full of prawn salad and a strawberry tart which we bought at the bakery this morning following our lovely breakfast. Malcolm decided to return our cooler box to the car whilst Diana sat taking photographs of the sea.

Diana! Diana! DIANA! ……….. Eventually she heard the robust, plaintiff cry and immediately panicked. What had happened to Malcolm, was he alright, had someone stolen something from the car, or even worse …… the car. She looked round to find Malcolm pointing urgently, and two girls nearby in fits of giggles. She looked in the direction indicated and found that a crow, the one which had been taking an interest in us during our lunch, had acquired our remaining crisp packet and had taken it away and was attempting – surrounded by his friends the seagulls - to open it. Diana jumped to her feet , bravely shouted “Oh no you don’t” and retrieved the stolen article fortunately undamaged; not an easy job, those seagulls are huge.

We suffered yet another lovely meal at the Fish Hopper this evening and what delicious fish dishes they have. It was great watching the sun gradually disappear and the lights in the bay brighten the night sky, although it got decidedly colder despite the abundance of heaters around. Tomorrow night we will just have to give in a wear our fleeces like everyone else.

Photos: Highway 1 Pacific Coast Highway

dianaandmalcolm — Wed, 23 May 2012 04:45:00 GMT

Oh, we do love to be beside the seaside

Viva Las Vegas

dianaandmalcolm — Wed, 23 May 2012 04:42:00 GMT

Malc was dreading arriving here and Diana was really excited to see what it was all about.

We came via the Hoover Dam which we enjoyed walking over [not the heat] and travelled towards LV. We saw it rise out of the desert from a distance of 12 miles away and thus began our journey into this huge entertainment city. Malc was distracted by a huge Pyramid and then a Harley Davidson springing out of a wall at us, consequently we took a wrong exit and had to be guided by the sat nav to the correct road. Oh look, there’s Blackpool Tower he said!! No, Malc that’s supposed to be the Eifel Tower!

We arrived at the Monte Carlo, left our car in the capable hands of a valet and joined a line [that’s queue to us] and eventually reached a receptionist. The foyer [oops lobby] was HUGE and we were to discover that everything in Las Vegas is in extremis.

We travelled to the 20^th floor of our massive hotel [Diana suffers from claustrophobia and hates lifts] and opened the curtains …… well we’re glad we don’t have to pay the electricity bill was our first thought.

Malc took ages to sort himself out and clearly needed time to acclimatise or whatever so eventually he plucked up courage to explore the hotel. Everything exists though the casino which takes up the whole of the ground floor with the exception of the lobby and food outlets. There were people of all [legal] ages sitting at machines and being served drinks by waitresses, or sat at dealers’tables playing cards or with dice. It was amazing to see and hear it all and observe how many pensioners there were. We were on our way to the French Restaurant called Andre’s at the front of the hotel. We walked past a scantily clad woman girating on top of a table adorned with tassles and things [the woman that is] and lovely white tasselated boots - don't think Malc noticed as he was too engrossed in getting through it all and to the restaurant. If he did, he never said! Nice restaurant, great food, over effusive waiter, lovely arched booth. Malc likened it to the type of booth that Al Capone and his mol would sit in surrounded by his minders carrying violin cases. The whole table had to be moved out to let us in and out.

Following a delicious meal and plenty to drink we were ready to brave the Strip! Well, there seems to be Strip cred;that is, take your 9 inch heels but carry them and walk in flat strappy sandals, clutch a long plastic drinks container shaped like the Eifel Tower or a pink yard of ale with a straw and wander exclaiming noisily with others; we stood out like a sore thumb. What amazed us was how filthy our feet were when we returned to the hotel – where did all that black come from?

It was incredibly warm and everyone was in loud jovial mood, being the weekend all the world and his wives were there. We eventually found our way to the Bellagio and the dancing fountains – very good entertainment, then wearily made our way back to the peace of our room and looked out onto the Strip in all its night-time glory.

Bye bye San Francisco - so sad to leave

dianaandmalcolm — Tue, 22 May 2012 04:40:00 GMT

We were saddened to leave San Francisco after such a wonderful time there. We loved the quirkiness of the place, the amazing undulating streets which Malc insisted we walk up and down constantly; Diana wanted to visit Lombard street which is supposedly the ‘crookedest’ street in San Francisco, so we would walk there from our hotel - quite a distance from there. To avoid going up and down so much we zigzagged our way across the city until we reached it and watched the tourists going down the hill in their cars through 8 bends between the beautiful hydrangea beds. ‘Why don’t they just go to the Dolomites’ cried Malc.

Afterwards we took a trip over the Golden Gate Bridge - it was a beautiful clear sunny day and the bridge looked spectacular. We got a shock going across as it was incredibly windy and ruined our hairstyles. Malc’s few hairs plopped easily back in place and Diana looked as though she had been pushed through a hedge backwards. We drove to Sausalito, a very posh and trendy town the other side of the bridge and then returned back to Fisherman’s Wharf where we ate a great lunch and people watched for ages. We decided to walk back towards the Ferry building when Diana announced she wanted to catch a cable car up as far as it went so we chose one that went past our hotel and to which we would walk back up hill to.

We sat sideways on the cable car and watched how the driver adjusted the cable in the road to set the car/bus going up the hill. We had to cling on tightly when it went up as Diana started to slide down the seat towards Malc. We had a good laugh and Diana decided to see whether she could photograph us on the cable car through a reflection in a shop window when it stopped. We were both partially successful at this and it was fun trying. The hill to our hotel is so steep and we breached the top by the hotel and then went down the other side to the terminus. Excellent fun. We walked all the way back up and returned to our hotel tired and very happy having spent such a great day and in the two days we were there having seen/done what we had on our bucket list.

It was difficult walking down the hill again to go to the restaurant we had chosen to eat and half way down we spotted another restaurant and decided to take a chance and eat there. Another great meal, and not so far to walk back this time! Diana’s false knee was put through its paces on this and many other days and held fast, thank goodness. Most people we heard were complaining about the impact on their knees going up and down such steep streets.

We were surprised having had two gloriously hot days [where Diana scorched her forehead quite badly; the wind blew her constantly revealing her forehead to the sun] to get up in the morning and find it very foggy and cold. We had to drag all our winter gear out before we set off to collect our cabriolet. We were however delighted when we eventually found the correct road to drive south down the coast on Highway 1. We stopped at lovely Half Moon Bay and had brunch and wandered around the interesting shops before driving further and stopping again at several of the many beaches to enjoy the coastal scenery and birdlife. The spring flowers beachside are a superb array of yellow and pink and cover the rocks like a carpet or blanket. We took some amazing photographs.

We are now in Monterey and Malc keeps singing ‘ it happened in Monterey’, problem is we can’t remember what was supposed to have happened because those are the only words he knows, thank goodness.

It's official: Malc is historic!

dianaandmalcolm — Tue, 22 May 2012 04:37:00 GMT

Well, we knew that America was envious of British History and how far we can go back but what has surprised us was when the pioneers came to parts of America we have travelled through ie 1878 when Malc’s Grandad Laurie was born.

We were looking at a house recently which was stated to be of historic value and it was the same age as Malc!!! Diana found this hilarious and ever since has been calling him ‘historic Malc’. Well, granddaughter Emily thought her Grandad the oldest man she knew, now she knows he is historic as well, and possibly of historic value!

Let's go to San Francisco.........

dianaandmalcolm — Sun, 20 May 2012 11:10:00 GMT

Another WOW! What a great hotel and an amazing city. We are truly loving it. Diana was initially uncomfortable about staying in such a big posh hotel located at a place called Nob Hill but the Fairmont on Mason Street is truly tastefully spectacular and very comfortable. We have a lovely room, great bathroom, luxurious robes and comfortable bed. It is easy to get to places and on arrival we asked where we could purchase another photo reader to upload our photographs onto the computer [the one we had stopped working and we were frustrated at not being able to share our Las Vegas, Death Valley and Yosemite photographs on world nomads] and duly walked down to Walgreens to find that they didn’t have one so had to walk much further to the Radio Shack and duly purchased one.

We had walked all the way down from Nob Hill through Union Square and down to the bottom of Market Street. You’ve seen the pictures on the TV of the roads which slope steeply and undulate, well we walked down and everything which goes down needs to go back up so we set off walking and after a while Diana said ENOUGH! Let’s look for somewhere to eat. Malcolm, ever the traditionalist wanted to go back to the hotel, get washed and changed and come out again, Diana for once was not prepared for that to happen and persuaded Malcolm that we could eat out without going through that rigmarole. He gave in, thank goodness, and after going past pizza places, burger places, he spotted John’s Grill and we went to have a look.

What a find, it is the home of the Maltese Falcon [the author’s society has set up home here] and the food was amazing in such a classic setting. It was great to have such a delicious meal after the offerings at Yosemite, apart from the Wawona Hotel that is. It got very busy after half an hour so was clearly a popular choice.

It was an easier walk than expected all the way back up the hill. The final two sections are really steep but we made it quite easily and were delighted to flop back into the bedroom and watch the TV; something we hadn’t done for 4 weeks and guess what was on, a CSI, which of course Diana had to watch; Malc went to sleep, rather noisily, upright in the Chair.

The following day we walked all the way down to Union Square and attempted to determine which would be the best bus tour to take but couldn't make up our mind so decided to walk to Fisherman's Wharf which we did, the long way round!

We had a delicious lunch on the waterfront and then walked on to Pier 39 and spent time people watching and seal watching. We were keen to experience a tram ride so queued to get a tram ride back to the Ferry Terminal in order to catch a cable car up to the top of the hill. What fun. We had to wait ages for the tram to arrive and eventually 2 full ones past before we squeezed onto one. We misjudged where to get off but only had a short walk before we hauled ourselves onto a cable car to take us up the road -up 't top 't 'ill as we say in Yorkshire. Again we jumped off a stop too soon but were soon back in our lovely hotel.

We enjoyed the Bay area enormously and may take a trip on the water tomorrow.

Death Valley - 282 feet below sea level

dianaandmalcolm — Sun, 20 May 2012 10:44:00 GMT

After leaving the bright lights of Las Vegas behind we headed for Death Valley, Diana with some trepidation and Malc with great excitement and anticipation; he was keen to know how the GPS would display minus sea level if at all and he wanted it to get really hot. - that’s the engineer in him coming out and delight at leaving Las Vegas I suspect.

It was an amazing journey on long straight roads, crossing dry lake beds and gradually getting hotter and hotter. The monitor in the car started to read 89 degrees F and then 95 - Malc was urging it towards 100 when it suddenly read 115 degrees F ie 46 degrees C.

The elevation indicator on the GPS initially showed 0 and then -1 and then Malc became really animated as it started to go further down until we eventually recorded – 82 meters below sea level.

We arrived at Badwater Basin at 85.5 meters below sea level, that’s 282 feet to us! We were able to walk out onto the frozen salt water and look up at the rock face to determine where sea level actually was. What a strange experience.

Andi responded to an email pointing out that Diana’s emails were about experiences, people and places and Dad’s were about technology. Yes, that’s about right! Great combination though.

We took a road off the main road called Artist’s Drive and what a great drive it was twisting around bends and up and down hill with hills all colours of an artist’s palette. In the afternoon sun it was spectacular. Walking out in that heat was like walking into a tumble dryer and have the heat blast at you all the time; it was utterly exhausting, even when the temperature plummeted to 86 degrees F at night!

Staying at Furnace Creek Ranch was interesting and Diana was quite happy to leave to go to Yosemite, especially after hearing that the Tioga Pass, which is normally closed until late May, had opened up to traffic and we were able to take the scenic route into Yosemite National Park.

It was another strange experience leaving a very hot Death Valley and arriving in Yosemite to frozen lakes and snow on the mountains and by the road. We went from 100 degrees F to 46 degree F in just a few hours. In the morning we were climbing sand dunes in Death Valley and in the afternoon we were sitting beside a frozen lake and dashing back into the car to keep warm.

Photos: San Francisco

dianaandmalcolm — Sun, 20 May 2012 09:47:00 GMT

A journey through time

Photos: Yosemite National Park

dianaandmalcolm — Sat, 19 May 2012 12:37:00 GMT

More Scenery!

Photos: Las Vegas

dianaandmalcolm — Sat, 19 May 2012 12:36:00 GMT

Viva Las Vegas

Photos: Death Valley

dianaandmalcolm — Sat, 19 May 2012 12:36:00 GMT

- 282 feet Below Sea Level