The Last City

It wasn't the first time this trip that we had come to Los Angeles, but it would certainly be the last, as we prepared for the last couple of days stay in the US of A.

After stopping off in Fresno (not much to tell about that place) the previous night after our jaunt into Yosemite, we began the last substantial drive of our road trip. It was bog-standard Interstate fair, and there wasn't much to engage us about the scenery, instead we focused on getting to the City of Angles, and finding a coffee house with free wi-fi so that we could find ourselves the last hotel of our trip, for the final two nights.

We found said coffee house, and had a quick cuppa with a certain Mr Adam Rogers who popped along to send his regards, and we found ourselves a small cheapy hotel called Westside Rentals in Hollywood. After checking in we headed off around movie-central, walking down Hollywood Blvd. where we sampled the many stars littered along the sidewalk, with many a famous name from yesteryear, and present day. Along we went to Grauman's Chinese Theatre, where we found the whole street cordened off, and a bright red carpet rolled out in-front of the iconic cinema, awaiting the VIPs for the X-Files movie premiere later that day. By this time we were pretty hungry, but luckily we found a great little place in the shopping precinct next door called The Dip, which did excellent lamb sandwiches with gravy for dipping. We enjoyed them muchly!




After our little snack we made the journey in the car to Century City, to do a spot of shopping, and to get ourselves out of the heat for a bit. However, the place did only one thing to impress us, which ended up being the DeLorean parked next our Mustang, but aside from that it was pretty dull, and so we headed back to the hotel to decipher what to do next. The 6 mile journey back took us about 45 minutes due to traffic, but did give us the chance to venture through Beverley Hills once more this trip, which is always entertaining enough.

That night we headed out to The Grove which was everything that Century City wasn't. A stunning place, with interesting shops, good restaurants (we tried the French Steakhouse), a rather nice looking outside area with water features, and even it's own little tram service. Would highly recommend anyone visiting LA to pop along and enjoy this little place. Afterwards we went along to St Nick's Pub and Grill to meet one of Adam's old school friends, Kerry, who is working out here. After a quick Corona with her, we arranged to meet up the following morning to have breakfast near to where she resides.

The next morning we did just that, and popped along for breakfast, and I was surprised to find the berry fruit bowl I ordered from the menu ended up arriving at the table with a mountain of whipped cream on top. I thought I was being healthy too! Adam thought it very funny as he munched on his weird combination of french croissant and omelette.

We said our farewells to the girl Adam hadn't seen since GCSE Physics class, and on her recommendation headed around 60 miles south to Orange County, and Laguna Beach. The weather was glorious, as was the beach itself, and we spent our last full afternoon of the holiday either topping up the tan (me) or snorkeling for sea-shells, getting hit by massive waves, and nearly being decapitated by a small boy on a surfboard (Adam). It was a great beach, and like many places on this trip, is a good location to visit.

The journey back to Hollywood was not a pleasant one, and took us over two hours due the traffic (again!), but once we were back, we weren't going to sit still for long, and we headed up through Griffiths Park, along little windy mountain-side roads up to the Observatory sitting atop Mount Hollywood. This really does give great views of the city, and we alos got to take a peek through the telescope at the star Vega, which was kinda small, white and blurry, but interesting all the same. The long and short of it is that if you want to see great views of LA, and the Hollywood sign, then this is the spot for you.



We made it back down the mountain, and headed out for the last evening meal of the trip, finding a place called Lucky Devils, where we were the lucky ones and enjoyed some of the best burgers we'd had all trip, together with a decent pint of English Ale! All in all a good foody finish to our meal times in America.

And so, the penultimate day of our journey is at an end. There is little more to blog on than us dropping off the car, heading into LAX, and maybe if we're lucky, catching just one more movie at the cinema before we go. So you'd think we'd stop blogging now right? Nope. Stay tuned for more!!!



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Now playing: Guns N' Roses - Paradise City
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Park Life

As we approach the end of our month-long drive around the USA, there was one more fabulous scenic drive to complete - around Yosemite National Park. And if it is to be our last experience of the great roads in the USA, then it left us with quite the parting gift.

After departing from San Francisco Bay, we headed East for the first and only time on this trip, and as soon as we were a few miles inland we started to feel the warmth that we'd been missing in 'The City' suddenly envelope us again for the first time since last week. The heat and sunshine had been sorely missed. Down came the roof of the car once more, and we soaked up the rays in the faint hope of garnering a tan before we arrive back in England on the weekend.

Approaching the National Park some 180 miles away, Adam and I spotted a huge plume of smoke rising up on the horizon, and we feared that perhaps some of the Californian Wildfires had spread in Yosemite too, and that we wouldn't get to enter yet another park. Thankfully this wasn't the case, and as we entered the forest area, we were greeted with some wonderful views and vistas, and a road that perhaps stood as one of the very best that we'd covered in all the near 6,000 miles that we've achieved on this trip.

We edged round huge skyscraper-high rock-faces and stared down into the valley to our right, all the time feeling that this was a place rivalled perhaps only by the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley in all that we'd seen so far. The twisty road took us down into the valley and to Yosemite Village, where we sampled the not-so-great visitor centre, and the hugely busy village store. But despite the village not being all that great, the drive back out the valley was just as enthralling as the drive in, and the added bonus was that we exited the park on the other side of the valley, so we got a whole new range of views and more twisty roads to experience.


All in all, Yosemite certainly left a lasting impression on me, as being a place of amazing natural beauty, and a place that I would love to visit again. The day ended with us pulling into a motel in Fresno, and contemplating our last big drive the next day - to Los Angeles - the City of Angels - where we will sprout wings, and start the long flight home.




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Now playing: Blur - Parklife
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Bay City Rollers

After the glorious Highway 1 trip expectations were high as we approached San Francisco. Not San Fran and definately not Frisco, but regardless of pet names 'The City' was spectacular. The traffic was pretty heavy but we ploughed on until we saw ludicrous hills and tram tracks.

Upon reaching our hotel it turned out that our good friends at Travelocity had took it upon themselves to cancel our booking AGAIN whilst we were 'en route' to the said pre-booked and confirmed hotel. Joel and I were, I want to say, slightly annoyed. So I'll leave it at that. Fortunately we still managed to get a room at America's Best Value Inn which had a nice little bar called Cassidy's right next to us. After settling all three of us into the reasonable sized room, we ventured out up 7th and on to Market St where we boarded a half-tram-half-bus up to the wharf district to find the world famous Pier 39. It was bigger than Brighton Pier it turned out.

We found a left-handed store (see left), various seafood outlets and an opportunity to buy some extra layers because it was pretty nippy out. Trying to find somewhere to eat was another matter however as once again we had timed our arrival perfectly, with dinner. Luckily a slightly 'upper class' restaurant had kept the tourists at bay so we decided it was a perfect time to splash some cash and eat like kings. Having a couple of drinks around town we caught a cab back to the hotel as my bag full of souvenir crapola was getting a bit heavy.
We all changed into our swanky clothes (it was night five for the party shirt and still smelling great) and caught a cab back into town. We saw an advert being shot involving a Ferrarri, which was nice for somebody. The nightlife was lively but not for us, after a hard drive we really wanted a quiet drink and a nice chat so after wandering around looking for a suitable bar we decided to head back to the little bar, Cassidy's, right next to the hotel.

Many drinks and a few poorly played pool games later we downed some tequila and met a nice british chap called Dylan and went out for a long walk in the search of a supposed after party the barmaid had told us about down on 2nd street. After walking around the streets of San Francisco until 03:20 and not finding the place we decided to call it a night and went back to America's Best Value Inn on Hallam St.

The next day Adam left us to head back to L.A. by train and we... well, we didn't get up early let's put it that way. After catching X-Men on HBO we ventured out and find Mel's Drive In Diner, decked out from head to toe in homage to George Lucas' American Graffiti. After Joel finished his gigantic chilli dog (Ha! I knew I could convert him) we headed to the cin... Movie theatre to see the new Batman film The Dark Knight. I don't need to even start about how good it is, just go see it. Afterwards we felt we needed another movie, as drinking was not an option. We opted to see Wall-E which we would both highly recommend. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside now.

After our hard-core movie day we thought the final day really should revolve around the tourist kinda thing. We got on a proper tram his time and got off early, because we weren't paying attention. Because of this however we found the Fog City Diner on the way to Pier 39 and had a great meal before heading off to buy some tickets for a tour of the bay on one of the many ferries. Curiously there were Sea Lions basking on their own private jetties, genius!

We headed out past Alcatraz and out into the bay towards the Golden Gate Bridge, which is coloured; International Orange, we learned. Looked like Dulux Rust Red 0173a4 to me, but I digress.

The bridge was huge and was a real treat to see up close as we did a quick about turn and headed back past Alcatraz again and in the direction of the Bay Bridge and back to port where we had an urge to see The Incredible Hulk, not because we're slowly turning into lazy movie going yanks. Mainly because it was another film we hadn't seen and we were quite tired after all the walking.

Leaving the next day we left the hotel and headed for Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world. It was a shame that everyone else wanted to drive down the iconic road too, or we may have gone a little faster than 5 mph. Then again, those corners were pretty freaky, so maybe not.

After a quick stop for gas we were headed out of the city and towards the fabulous vistas of Yosemite National Park.


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Now playing: Frank Sinatra - (I Left My Heart) In San Francisco
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Number One

Leaving our little break in San Diego behind, we headed back toward Los Angeles to pick up Adam Rogers, and the three of us planned to head up to San Francisco using the infamous Highway 1 - one of the most celebrated drives in the USA.

We rose early in our hotel near Ocean Beach, and jumped in the car for the day's driving ahead. It took us a couple of hours to get back up to LA, where we met Adam R. outside the apartmant he and Karlyn had been staying in over the last week or so. The drive up Highway can take the best part of eight to ten hours depending on traffic, so we made the decision to do the journey in two parts, finding somewhere to stay on route up the coastline.

We hit the traffic almost immediatly as we left Santa Monica, and feared that it would ruin the drive up, but thankfully it cleared after a few miles through Malibu, and the roads started to open up a little, all the while giving us a handsome view of the incredibly blue Pacific Ocean to our left. The only problem came when we had the roof down, and Adam had to deal with the rather windy nature of the back seat in the Mustang.

It was around 5pm when we made it into the small town of Pismo Beach, which is roughly about halfway along Highway 1. We came across a rather nice beach, and felt it could be quite good here. It didn't turn out that way. Checking in to the last available motel room we could find, we set about finding a restaurant for some dinner, and was recommended 'Fins' just outside of town. Quite why we were recommended we don't know, because it wasn't very good - in particular the Fish Taco that Mr Rogers was served.


We headed into town and went in Harry's Bar for some live music, pool and beers. Neither of these things raised our opinions of the town, and we headed back for a good night's sleep, before the rest of the epic journey up Highway 1 the next day.

As expected the views and vistas that the road offered us the next day were quite stunning. Not even the cloud and fog managed to dampen our opinions of the road, although the American drivers who have little experience of corners, let alone an ultra twisty road like the one we were on, did their level best to spoil things by creeping round bends at around 5mph. We stopped up where we could to enjoy the stunning features around us.

The only dissapointment was the closure of the Big Sur National Park, due the recent Californian wildfires that have ravaged much of Northern Cali in recent weeks. This was the most fun part of the drive, and despite this setback, the Bixby Bridge just north of the park raised our spirits again.

In short the highway is a beauty to behold, and I would recommend anyone staying in California to experience this wonderful drive. Of course there is one thing that is mandatory for the journey - a convertible, although warn anyone sitting in the back just how windy it can be!



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Now playing: The Beatles - The Long and Winding Road
via FoxyTunes

The Beach Boys, underwater fun and very few pictures.

Leaving El Patio on Ventura Bl. just after 10:00 we headed south towards our first little beach holiday in San Diego.

A bit more long haul flat country driving as we crawled out of L.A. was our next treat as we ate up the mere 120 or so miles to sunny San Diego. The traffic didn't let up for long and only 18 miles from S.D. we were crawling along a nice sweeping piece of freeway. Just to make it particularly pleasant instead of the road arcing off invitingly for miles ahead of you, it was full of cars. We both thought of home and the joys of the M25.

Upon arriving in San Diego at the Bay Inn (not so near the bay) it turned out that our travel nemesis Travelocity (a hotel booking system we have been using) had, for reasons unknown, cancelled our reservation! After some polite words with the receptionist Joel convinced them that we were quite clearly in the right. The British Empire would not be pleased if we couldn't have our pre-booked room. It all turned out peachy and we headed to the beach to see what all the fuss was about. Ocean Beach was beautiful and after finding some free parking we had a tan-tastic time buying some beach mats and putting them to good use.

After a quick swim to relax back at the hotel, we headed out to Hooters on Mission Beach so Joel could get some more of their fine chicken wings in Buffalo sauce he has taken a fancy to. We asked several times for the recipe, so it will straight into the kitchen when we get home to try and replicate it. We cruised back the hotel so we could catch some more of Tru TV which has become a bit of an addiction as of late. (It's not reality... It's actuality!)

The next day the plan was simple; get up - go to beach.

Breakfast done in a nice little coffee shop with free Wifi where I had a cup of English Breakfast tea (which was not so good). We overheard a local type talking about a farmers market and decided to investigate further. We bought some fruity produce and I bought a snorkel kit and another cap, because 3 isn't enough. After which I asked where was best to go snokelling and was directed to La Jolla beach (pronounced 'La Hoya'). Which is an ecological reserve a few miles down the road. Upon entering the cool water and a few feet from the shore I was greeted with a huge multitude of rainbow coloured fish. There were literally thousands of the colourful critters some as small as your little finger to ones bigger than my head and all within touching distance. They were, not surprisingly, ridiculously hard to catch and I soon gave up and just enjoyed swimming amongst them. Diving down near the rocky coves to get a better look at some of the more shy ones covered in irridescent blues and reds. It was truly magical and I am looking forward to getting in another swim before we head back to L.A. We have too much left to see there still! Sadly no pictures as my camera isn't waterproof.

That night we popped into a local Outback Steakhouse, as our experience had been nothing but good. Our luck had ran out however as we were given a professional ignoring by possibly the slowest and unobservant server on the planet. Needless to say, for once we didn't feel the need to tip and headed back to the hotel. I popped out that evening to a bar about a block down from the Bay Inn. Where I sank a few Coronas and chatted to some locals, not so local as it turned out most were Aussie's out for a birthday and rest were from the east coast. It was Karaoke that night so I put my name down as 'British Guy' and sang Fire and Rain by James Taylor followed after a few more beers by Take it Easy by the Eagles. I don't know whether I did either justice but most of the people seemed to clap a fair bit and buy me a couple more beers, so all in all a nice cheap night.

The next morning we left at around 08:30 as Joel took us back towards L.A. where we were to pick up Adam Rogers for a trip to San Francisco. I had a little sleep in the car, nice.



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Now playing: The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice
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California Dreamin'

We have done it! The big aim of the journey was to drive from the Atlantic Coast at Daytona Beach, Florida to the Pacific Coast at Santa Monica, California. Around 4,500 miles later, we're here.

We weren't completely sorry to say goodbye to Las Vegas, but it was good to be on the road again, although when we did stop for gas or to get a map out the trunk, the heat in the desert was pretty torrid. Thankfully the trip was relatively quick and easy, although we did stop at the California Route 66 Museum at Victorville, which was kind of ok, but not a patch on the Oklahoma version back in Clinton.

Into the Los Angeles area we sensed the end of the journey across country, and the start of our holiday in California. What we failed to realise is that Los Angeles is the size of Wales, and therefore we still had around 100 miles of driving to do before we got to the pier in Santa Monica, the traditional arrival destination for those using Route 66. On we ploughed..... into traffic. Lots of people on the way had warned us about this occuring in LA, but to be honest, the amount of cars on the road was not the problem. After all, we've driven into London in rush hour - now that's traffic!! However, the road behaviour of drivers in this city is, well.... scary. The speed in which people change lanes and directions is quite frightening at times, and there is the occasional sense that despite knowing that you are driving safely, others will simply ram their cars into yours for the hell of it.

Despite this, we carried on past the downtown skyline and toward the coastline we'd been waiting to see for the best part of three weeks. And there it was, coming off Santa Monica Blvd. The pier.... and the Pacific Ocean. Parking the car up in a nearby parking zone, we walked down toward the surf, knowing what we'd achieved, but not really realising how big this challenge had been. We checked into the Cadillac Hotel just along the way in Venice, and headed out for a celebratory meal. "Where?" I hear you ask. Why we did the very British thing of heading to a pub and grill called the Library Alehouse where they serve, among other things, IPA, and english stout. A very British way to celebrate the conquering of America. Adam would have preferred a nice cup of tea, but that still hasn't materialised. Ah well, there's always this trip along the coast of California. My bet is on San Francisco offering the best cuppa!


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Now playing: Led Zeppelin - Going to California
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