Hey guys. Another stop, another chance to update on the past couple of days.
Last time I wrote, we were getting ready to head to 'Slims' in San Fran for the Between the Buried & Me gig. We actually wanted to see the support bands too, but got there too late and missed Behold the Arctopus (so pissed!). We did get to see August Burns Red though, they were ok. They were nothing compared to BTBAM though, oh man, they were sooooooo amazing. (Minz - if you're reading this, I'm sorry). Every single song was absolutely album perfect and they played a mixture of tracks from Colours & Alaska. Even played a cover of Sepultura's 'War for Territory'. Got right up the front and took some really mean photos and video. After the show, Dan the bassist came to the front of the stage to sign some stuff for people so I grabbed him to say hello. Let him know I was from Stomp and he was really cool and chatted for a while. He took us backstage to meet the rest of the guys and we got a big group photo and had a beer with them. Such friendly guys and they're all real keen to come to Aus which was great to hear. So - a totally incredible night had overall, and we walked back to the hotel buzzing. Unfortunately, we did have to head straight to bed because we had an early start on Tuesday, so no boozing with the other fans this night :(
Which brings us to yesterday. We had some breakfast first off, across the road from our hotel in a little diner. I got some french toast while the boys had pancakes. Great way to start the day! We actually had abit of time before checking out so Xtian and I went for a walk to look at some shops while Matt went to a Golf shop he had found down the road. Saw some pretty crazy sights over in that neighbourhood. The homeless there seem to have a little community, and you hear them saying g'day as they pass each other on the street, pushing along their trollys full of belongings. We also had a walk around City Hall and took some great pictures, it's a beautiful big building, I'll upload some photos when we get to an internet cafe (on Matt's laptop right now and he doesn't have the right program to upload). At around 11, we checked out of the hotel and headed down to Fishermans wharf to pick up our hire car. We got a nice bright red Pontiac, pretty swish! Xtian drove around the carpark a couple times to get used to the feel of the left hand drive, and then we ventured out to the road. We all felt a little nervous, especially not knowing exactly where we were going, but we soon found our way and headed north over the Golden Gate bridge. We had decided that we didn't have time to drive up to see the Redwood forest, because the drive south to LA is a long one. So, we pulled over to a Vista point and checked out the view of the bridge and the city. Breathtaking!! Came across and interesting family in the carpark, who were asking for money for gas for their winebago. The mother (a huge african american woman) had a plaster on her eye for some reason. She came right up to our window to ask for money and Matt told her that we didn't have any before she had a chance to ask. He told her that we needed the money for petrol to get our kids home (the same thing she had been yelling out) and she was totally oblivious to the fact we were taking the piss! She let out a huge sigh and was like 'ooohhhh! Me too! I got a big ass winebago that I gotta get my kids home in too!'. Haha, it was hillarious. Possibly just because she had a plaster on her eye, wtf? Maybe you had to be there....
After checking out the view for a while, we began our trek south on highway 1. Took a while to get out of the city, but soon we were heading down with the ocean to our right and wicked big hills and countyside on our left. We pulled into a little restaurant for some lunch, where they were filming a comercial! Asked them if they needed any testimonials from foreigners, but seems that it wasn't quite our time for being discovered. Maybe in LA... After our lunch and a wine on the deckchairs outside that over looked the ocean, we made our way down to the first stop - Monterey. We found a cute little hotel called the 'Sea Otter Inn', so checked in for the night, dumped our bags and went to check out the local area. We found a bar and sat outside by the open fire to eat. Walking back to our hotel after dinner, we could hear the sea lions barking down on the wharf. Was pretty cold out, so we decided to leave the sea lions and head back to the hotel for some sleep.
This bring us to today!! We woke early and had some more hearty American breakfasts at 'Archies', complete with mini Amercian flags on our food. We checked out of the hotel and went down to the famous Monterey Aquarium. Spent a couple of hours checking out the creatures (including the most adorable sea otters, a newly captured great white shark and some freaky electric disco jellyfish). Also got a free ticket to the Aquarium for filling out a survey, so anyone thinking of coming over before Dec 08, let us know!! Haha. Again, was pretty sad to be leaving such a cool little place, but time was ticking and we weren't even 1/3 of the way to LA! The 'Big Sur' was the next mission, but soooo worth every second of winding road. The most amazing scenery I've ever seen in my life - massive cliffs down to the ocean, with the sun setting as our backdrop. I felt bad for Xtian driving, not being able to look out to the ocean, but we did stop a few times for photo ops. The roads were pretty scary - at some points no barriers on very very sharp corners. Made me wonder how many people have driven off the edge... wouldn't be too hard. We made it through though, and came across Hearst Castle, which we could just make out at the top of a hill in the distance. Unfortuantely, the last tour had just ended, so we didn't get a chance to check it out. Instead, we kept driving on and stopped at another diner for a another burger. Eventually, another couple of hours later we made it to Santa Barbara, which is where I sit and type this novel!! We have a cute little apartment for the three of us, and we're planning to do the final part of the journey to LA and hit Venice beach area tomorrow afternoon.
Phew! Sorry for the mammoth read. Has been another busy couple of days!
Write more soon...
Love J & X
xx
