August 2011
13 posts
3 tags
Santa Cruz
The drive to Santa Cruz from Pigeon Point down highway 1 was cool. When we arrived in Santa Cruz, we parked up at the first part of the beach we found and were greeted by loads of dolphins just off shore in the surf. What a cool sight! We immediately liked the place. We had a little walk on the beach, the waves were huge, no wonder everybody surfs here. We drove along West Cliff Drive to...
Pigeon Point, staying in a lighthouse.
There was more crazy windy roads to get to Pigeon Point, but eventually came out on Highway 1, with the Pacific Ocean and very beautiful views. Checked into the lighthouse, staying in the old keepers quarters in an dorm but no body else was there which was nice. Ste managed to get us a free dip in the hot tub for an hour (normally $7 for half-hour each) after befriending the Mike the cool surfer...
The Universities and a drive-in movie
After checking out of the hotel, we headed up to Berkeley. It was like a completely different place. There was a festival on, so there were little stalls everywhere, selling everything you’d expect from the hippy capital, tie-die t-shirts and hand made jewellery etc. They had live music too, from some young people with dreadlocks, playing violins and cellos, it was really cool. We had a walk...
San Fran - Fog City
We decided to stay in Oakland, just outside of San Francisco California, it was a lot cheaper and we got free parking which we found hard to get in San Fran. It was a bit of a mistake though as the area wasn’t very nice and the BART train, that you take into San Fran, is expensive.
On our first day, we took the BART to Powell street, right in the centre, this was the shopping centre, with...
Point Reyes National Seashore
It was a very scenic drive to Point Reyes National Seashore and we got our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. We were staying in a HI-Hostel, the only accommodation within the National Seashore. It was really lovely, by far the best hostel we’ve stayed in so far. It was like staying in someones house. We were meant to be in a 10 bed coed dorm, but there was nobody else in our dorm for both...
Napa Valley - Wine Country
We stopped off on the way to the Napa Valley in a place called Fairfield just to break up the driving, there wasn’t much to see so had a relaxing evening in a motel 6.
The next day we first drove to the town of Napa, there was a cool wine train that you could have a meal on, whilst it goes around the region. We headed onwards to the very pretty town of Yountville, it was more like the south...
The Gold Country
Set off from Yosemite and had to drive more crazy roads, up and down to get out heading towards the gold country. We stopped briefly in a town called Mariposa, but their wasn’t much to see. The road continued on passed the beautiful Merced River and Don Pedro lake. We got to Jamestown around 2pm. It was like we’d set back in time. The buildings were something out of a wild western...
Yosemite National Park
We drove the very scenic Tioga Pass (it’s only open in the summer), the views were magnificent, and we kept stopping to take photos. Once into the national park, the roads were still a bit hairy and it seemed like we were driving through the mountains and down the other side. Eventually got into Yosemite Valley, and it was amazing.
We setup our little campsite and put pretty much everything...
Mammoth Journey to Mammoth Lakes in Cali
It was a long long journey to Mammoth Lakes. The sat nav said it would take over 12 hours, and we couldn’t work out why. The roads through Nevada were endless straight through the desert. Then we turned off to the road to California and we realised why the sat nav said it would take so long. We had to drive up and over the mountains and the roads were really really windy. It took absolutely...
Grand Canyon, Grand isn't big enough!
It was a really long drive to the Grand Canyon, eventually got there at 8pm and had to put our tent up for the first time in the dark! Well, by car headlight. Woke up early to the sound of a woodpecker, pecking a tree next to our tent which was pretty cool.
We took the free bus all over the south rim of the Grand Canyon. It stops at all the “good view” spots. So we jumped on and off...
Viva Las Vegas
Got to Vegas at 7am, it was mental driving through the desert at sunrise, only to see the skyscrapers of Vegas in the distance, it was like a mirage. We were very excited. We left our bags at the bell desk of the MGM Grand, yes, we forked our to stay somewhere nicer than the hostels. We had a look around the MGM hotel and casino and saw the lions and their cubs in the lion habitat playing with...
Albuquerque, New Mexico
The bus to Albuquerque was a bit of a nightmare, we had to change at San Antonio, but there was too many people for the bus so we had to hang around in the station for an extra 3 hours and get a different bus. We meant we had to change again in Amarillo. The whole journey was crazy because the greyhound people didn’t know what was going on, the passengers didn’t know what was going on,...
1100 Miles South to Austin Texas
Today is going to be a long day, headed over to Minneapolis to catch the greyhound towards Austin at 11:30am. The bus stopped in loads of little obscure towns, with make shift bus stations, glad we weren’t getting off there. There were some really odd folk on the bus as well. A little Armish kid kept kicking the back of Ste’s chair. Kelly the driver was a bit of a character too, at one...
