On Monday morning, we shared a short stack of banana and walnut pancakes washed down with organic fair trade coffee for breakfast in the River Inn Restaurant before getting back on the road.
Our first stop was Partington Cove at the end of an unmarked dirt track leading from a locked gate on a hairpin bend in the road making it hard for us to find. We walked down the steep track and through a tunnel to the hidden cove which was purportedly used for smuggling redwood after logging was banned. The water was ice mint blue and there was kelp growing up from the sea bottom. We were hot and sweaty by the time we climbed back up to the car.
From here it was only a short drive to the Julia Pfeiffer Burns Park where we walked along a track overlooking the sea to get a view of the McWay Falls falling 80 feet directly onto the beach. The tiny bay was beautifully framed by the rock wall curling out into the sea crowned by a clump of cypresses. The water and sunlight looked perfect for a swim but there was no way down to the beach. Thousands of seagulls were flying in to drink at the foot of the waterfall. We walked around another track and saw a very well organised couple camping. On the way back we talked to a couple walking the other way who told us that it was very easy to see gray whales out at sea. Sure enough as soon as we looked hard we could see the spray as whales surfaced. We drove on along the winding coastal road stopping at numerous turnouts for vistas of cliffs, ocean swell, kelp forests, barking sea lions and flocks of seabirds.
We stopped at Ragged Point Inn for lunch and took some shots of hummingbirds feasting on flowering aloes as we waited. We spotted the Piedras Blancas lighthouse and stopped the car. We walked down to the beach which was covered by a seething mass of elephant seals. Males with huge noses had divided up the beach and females and their young were spread in between. The young were chirruping and harassing their mothers constantly for food. Every now and then a male would arrive on the beach and try to move out of the water. The closest male would raise himself up and if the newcomer didn’t flee he would race across the sand in a continuous wobbling motion to confront the intruder. Suzie had to drag Keith away as we wanted to see Hearst Castle today.
We drove up to the Visitor Centre, bought tickets for a tour and watched a short background film before it was time for our tour bus to leave. We drove five miles up a winding road to the castle on top of the mountain ridge. We started at the gardens and esplanade overlooking the sea and featuring classical statues in marble and bronze. We moved up a level and overlooked a massive swimming pool (the Neptune Pool) surrounded by Roman colonnades with genuine ancient columns. We moved on to Casa del Sol, an 18 room guest house facing the Pacific. Then we visited William Hurst’s private residence Casa Grande, where we saw the largest of 14 sitting rooms, the medieval dining room complete with tapestries, the morning room, the billiard room and the theatre where we watched a few home movies featuring the Hollywood stars who were invited to stay. The last stop was the indoor swimming pool underneath the tennis courts. It was a masterpiece in blue and gold Murano glass tiles with the walls and ceiling tiles reflecting off the pool surface. It was a Roman Emperor’s pool brought back to life. We boarded the bus and descended the mountain past the empty animal quarters where William Hearst had kept lions, polar bears and numerous other zoo animals. Apparently William Hearst indulged his fantasies to the point that despite his huge fortune he ended up $126 million in debt!
We drove out of the visitor car park and parked across the highway to walk out on the pier as sun set but it was really cold out there. We drove a few miles to San Simeon and checked into Silver Sands Motel where the helpful Carlos on reception mapped out a winery tour for tomorrow.
After breakfast on Tuesday, we checked out of the hotel. Then we headed towards Paso Robles on the winery route that Carlos had mapped out for us yesterday evening. As we drove north east (inland) on the Highway 46, we found ourselves back in Californian wine country. We saw beautiful rolling hills and valleys, majestic oaks, ranches, orchards and row upon row of vineyards with tasting rooms. Unfortunately most of the tastings only opened at 11.00 am, so we were too early for most of the wineries that Carlos had suggested. We saw turkeys, deer, squirrels and Texas Longhorn cattle on our way. We stopped at the Halter Ranch Vineyard and the Adelaida Cellars where we tried a series of really great red wines including a straight Mourvedre.
After a quick lunch stop, we got back on route to Los Angeles on Highway 101. We stopped at Los Olivos, a tiny town in the heart of Santa Barbara’s wine country. We walked up and down the main street which was lined with beautifully painted colonial buildings. Most of these contained wine shops offering wine tastings. We had another walk around at the nearby town of Santa Ynez, which was similar to Los Olivos, but on a slightly larger scale. It was only a few miles from Santa Ynez to Solvang, a town which was founded by Danish immigrants, with a strong Danish theme. We walked around town admiring the Danish architecture, Danish shop signs, windmills and the bright red and white Danish flags flying from most of the buildings. It was a little bit staged with Mexicans behind the counter in the Danish bakery and all the shops selling kitsch Danish wares. We had afternoon tea and cakes at the Solvang Bakery and then we got back into the car.
We drove into Santa Barbara just as it became dark and after looking at a few places, settled on a room at the Oasis Inn. After a short rest, we headed downtown for dinner. We drove to the wharf and after a quick look around, settled on the Harbor Restaurant which was offering a $20 meal special with a million dollar view. To our surprise, the meal was really good and afterwards we drove back to the motel along State Street which seemed to be the city’s main drag and collapsed into bed.
On Wednesday morning we headed south on Highway 101 for Los Angeles. It was a beautiful morning and as we drove out of Santa Barbara along the coast, we could see the oilrigs and islands off shore. At Camarillo, the halfway point, we stopped at a couple of shopping centres and did some shopping. We finally got to try halibut for lunch at the Lure Fish House in the shopping centre complex. It was very much like sole or flounder and was very delicious. After another hour of shopping, we got back in the car and drove towards Los Angeles. At this point we noticed that the highways were now five lanes each way and there was a marked increase in traffic even though it was mid-afternoon.
We drove to the Holiday Inn Hotel near the airport, checked in and had a rest before heading out again. We did some research on Yelp and found a Japanese ramen place nearby at Santa Monica. We found Santouka Ramen in a food court with three other Japanese restaurants opposite the Mitsuwa Japanese supermarket in a small shopping centre. Keith ordered a special pork miso ramen and Suzie ordered the spicy version. The ramen came with fishcake, bamboo shoots, spring onions, cloud ear fungus and slices of melt in your mouth fatty pork (pork cheeks) in a salty rich pork broth. It was incredibly delicious!
After dinner we drove to Amoeba Music on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, where Keith spent a couple of hours searching for some elusive DVDs and Suzie bought a Jazz CD.
After breakfast on Thursday we headed out into the bright LA sunshine. We drove to the Getty Center which was free with $15 for parking. We caught an electric tram up the hill and watched a quick orientation film. John Paul Getty was an oil baron who left $700 million in trust for the museum. The execution of his will was delayed by litigation for several years after his death, however by the time it was distributed the amount had grown to $3 billion.
The centre was built over fifteen years on top of a hill overlooking LA. There were North, South, West and East buildings with multiple levels. The day was perfect so the view was stunning. Planes were taking off from LAX in the distance over the bay which was like beaten gold in the sun. Directly in front was the Highway 101 with multiple lanes of traffic in both directions. To the left was a patch of skyscrapers in Downtown LA and further out another cluster of skyscrapers which may have been Hollywood. The exclusive hillside suburb of Bel Air was just behind the centre. The centre was built from huge blocks of Carrara travertine – the same material used to build the Colosseum in Rome. The rough cream blocks looked stunning in the sunlight.
We went on a garden tour of the central garden which started with an amphora shaped hollow in the wall opposite a spring which sent water down a hillside channel into a circular pool fifty metres below. A row of trees was planted alongside the channel which was surfaced with millions of small stones. Inside the pool was a maze composed of three different coloured azaleas clipped into hedges in concentric rings. Around the outside of the pool had been planted gardens of different shrubs and flowers. Due to the warmth and recent rains many plants were in flower.
After the garden tour we headed to the beautiful cafe overlooking the gardens for a chicken salad and taco salad which were healthy and delicious. We headed upstairs where the art was housed and joined an guided tour with the theme of “East meets West”. We started with the Adoration of the Magi by Andrea Mantegna depicting a king presenting his gift in a porcelain cup (an item of value from the East). Then we saw a still life of lemons, oranges and pomegranate in a Ming Dynasty porcelain bowl by Jacob van Hulsdonck. There was a banquet piece by Pieter Claesz contrasting an exotic Venetian wine glass with a plain European wine glass. We saw a pastel of Marcel-Quentin de la Tour by Gabriel Bernard De Rieux with porcelain vases in the background. Then we saw Irises by Vincent van Gogh with very linear leaves influenced by Japanese woodblock prints. We moved downstairs to see a photographic exhibition by an Englishman called Felice Beato who had taken photos in the Crimean War, First Indian uprising, and the First Opium War in China.
After the tour we went back through all the galleries enjoying the amazing art that money had bought. Like the Spanish who had used some of the South American wealth to purchase art now on display in the Prado, so the wealth of America had been used to purchase many European and world masterpieces. We had seen this at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Hearst Castle and here at the Getty Centre. There was an excellent painting of “Animals entering the Ark” by Peter Brueghel the Elder, “Waiting” by Edgar Degas showing ballerinas in Paris, an El Greco of Christ, and many great Rembrandts including a miniature portrait of a rabbi. There were also works by van Dyck, Titian and Monet. We could have stayed longer but called it a day at 3.30 pm. We drove to the fashion district of Downtown but it was a ninety block district which was a bit overwhelming. We walked around a bit but it seemed to be a lot of cheap retailers, wholesalers, tailors and they were all closing at 5.00 pm.
After a cup of Earl Grey tea in a nearby cafe, we decided to move on as Downtown LA felt a bit edgy and it was now dark. We drove out to the Grove shopping centre which was a beautiful shopping area with a two storey trolley car transporting shoppers around and a Farmer’s Market area with small stalls serving different foods. We walked around soaking up the ambience and then had an amazingly delicious dinner at Monsieur Marcel. We headed home fat and happy after another great day in LA – it really is another cosmopolitan city of the world but the traffic is definitely a drawback.
On Friday morning we drove to the Getty Villa. It was beautiful driving along the edge of the beach and looking over the water and up the hillside at mansions of the rich on the other side. It was the same deal as yesterday with free entry and $15 parking.
The villa had been built by JP Getty as a reproduction of the Villa dei Papiri buried on the slopes by the eruption of Vesuvius above Herculaneum. Getty wanted to give the public an idea of how a grand Roman villa might have looked and felt. It had a small amphitheatre at the front and then a series of rooms around courtyards. The first courtyard had a fountain, a pool and a ceiling with a rectangular hole in the centre over the pool to let light in. The second courtyard was larger and had a rectangular pool with small statues along the long sides. At one end of the courtyard was a doorway leading into a garden with a blue and green mosaic tiled fountain with scenes of Roman gods. The third courtyard was much larger again with roofed and colonnaded walkways around it and a twenty five metre slim rectangular pool with fountains and surrounded by gardens with carved benches on mosaic floors and sculptures of animals. The courtyard walls had amazing paintings of plants, animals, windows, doors and patterns. The column capitals were also painted.
There were more antiquities on the second floor and as we walked up the stairs we noticed that the balustrade was carved out of the marble wall! In the rooms upstairs and downstairs were collections of remarkable quality - ceramics, glass, coins, bronze and marble sculptures, paintings, mosaics, jewellery, sarcophagi, mummified remains etc. The collections were focused on Etruscan, Greek and Roman finds. Some items were on loan from other institutions such the Agrigento Kouros (athletic youth) from Sicily. It was an exquisite collection in its own right, but to see the collection in a Roman villa on a sunny day made it unforgettable. We finished at 2.00 pm and had lunch of Mediterranean platter and chicken salad in the cafe. The food was fabulous again and we left via the fruit and herb gardens of the villa feeling very happy.
We drove to Beverley Hills where we stopped and had cupcakes and tea from Sprinkles where there was a long queue. The cupcakes had a bit too much icing for our taste but the young females in the queue seemed to love them.
Then we drove to Hollywood and Keith grabbed a last couple of DVDs before we had dinner at Juicy Burger. It was probably the best burger we had had in the USA. Then we had a walk along Hollywood Boulevard. It was a bit tacky but varied from spots with wax museums and adult shops to stylish bars and theatres with paparazzi hanging around. As usual there were plenty of people begging and lots of dodgy looking down and out types hanging around and apparently doing nothing. We only arrived back at the hotel at 10.30 pm and with chores and repacking for tomorrow we went to bed late but hoping for a good last day in the city of angels.
On Saturday morning we woke up late and then packed up our bags for the last time. We checked out of the hotel and then drove to Chinatown where we had a cheap feed at the Yum Cha Cafe. We walked around Chinatown which was buzzing with Firecracker Festival. Then we drove to the Citadel Factory Outlet Centre with an impressive exterior with an ancient Assyrian theme.
We spent a couple of hours there before heading off to Santa Monica Beach. The traffic was terrible and we only arrived at Santa Monica just as the sun was going down. We walked along the boardwalk to Santa Monica Pier admiring the sunset and dodging the skate boarders and roller bladers.
We faced the LA traffic again and drove back to the Mitsuwa Complex with the Japanese food court where we had another ramen from Santouka Ramen and a tempura sashimi box for dinner. After dinner we drove to the airport and returned the car. Then we caught the shuttle to our terminal where we checked in and went through security with surprising ease. We went to the One World lounge where we had a martini to celebrate the end of our year on the road.
We used some frequent flyer points to upgrade ourselves to business class and had a lovely meal with some great Australian wine (Voyager Estate Shiraz and St Hugo Cabernet Sauvignon) and a Glenlivet 12 year old single malt. It was a perfect end to our year away.
Sunday 27 February 2011
Sunday 6 February 2011
Week 51 - USA - Napa, CA to Monterey, CA
After breakfast on Monday we drove downtown to the Napa Visitor’s Centre where we got some maps and information, and then hit the road on Highway 29/128.
We had been given a couple of names of wineries to visit for scenery and we had been warned that wineries charge for tastings in Napa Valley. The valley itself was remarkably green considering it was the middle of winter. The floor of the valley was continuous wineries with a carpet of yellow mustard flower on the ground level and the trellised bare vines above. On both sides of the narrow valley the green rolling hills rose up with vines often riding up the lower hills.
We started at the beautiful Domaine Chandon winery (tastings $18-$25!). We stopped at St Helena Olive Oil and tried numerous olive oils, vinegars, pasta sauces, mustards and a delicious Portuguese port (free tasting!) Across the road was the Rubicon Estate (tastings $30) owned by Francis Ford Copolla. It featured a restored mansion housing film memorabilia and a Tucker motor car. The mansion was like a museum with stained glass, antique carpets on the floor, and very old wine storage in the caves (cellars). We drove a little further to the turn off to the Newton winery which wandered a long way from the highway into the hills. It had a stunning location up high looking over the valley. We admired the sculptured cypress pines and the views but couldn’t find anyone around so we left.
After a picnic lunch, we went on to Beringer Estate, one of the oldest wineries in the Napa Valley. It also had an amazing old Rhine House, fully restored for reserve tastings ($30). They did give us a taste of their Cabernet Sauvignon which was very nice. We wandered around gawping at the stained glass wildlife scenes, parquetry floors, carved wood wall panels, and staircase. We paid a brief visit to the Castello di Amorosa, a winery set in an authentic looking reproduction of a 13th century stone Tuscan castle complete with moat and drawbridge.
Then we drove further and over the hills to exit the Napa Valley. The other side was gorgeous, with less traffic and we cruised into Healdsburg and had a walk around. It was a typical wine area town with expensive boutiques, French bakeries, gift shops etc but we walked to the Safeway supermarket where we bought a huge Tazo Earl Grey tea from a Starbucks kiosk inside. As the sun was setting we drove down the highway back to Napa with peak hour traffic in both directions bottling up the highways. We saw several large owls on the prowl in the half light.
We got back to the hotel and had a glass of wine before heading off to the Oxbow Public Market (a kind of gourmet food court) for dinner.
We woke up to another beautiful day on Tuesday, and after breakfast at the hotel we drove to Sonoma Valley to the BR Cohn Winery that Ted had recommended. The winery had been founded by Bruce Cohn and in addition to wines, sold olive oils, vinegars and other gourmet food products. We spent a good hour in the tasting room tasting several wines, chatting to Justin behind the counter, playing with the dogs, browsing through the wine related merchandise and admiring some Doobie Brothers memorabilia (Bruce Cohn used to manage the Doobie Brothers). We bought a bottle of 2008 Sonoma Valley Merlot (so that we didn’t have to pay the $10 per head tasting fee), and then went to the building next door where we tasted some olive oils and some vinegars, including a syrupy balsamic vinegar that had been aged for 25 years.
It was almost midday by the time we left the winery, so we decided to drive straight to Bodega Bay (where Alfred Hitchcock filmed “The Birds”) for a seafood lunch. As we drove towards the coast, the scenery changed and the few trees that remained were bent over from the force of the wind coming from the sea.
After lunch we saw some spectacular scenery as we drove up the coast to Russian River. Once we reached Jenner at the mouth of the river, we turned inland and drove through some redwood forests to the Hop Kiln Winery at Healdsburg in the Russian River Valley. The winery was housed in a triple kiln construction built by Italian stonemasons. Next to the winery was a dam with a cute stone duck house in the centre. The man behind the counter told us that otters had travelled up a stream into the dam to gorge on the catfish. We bought a bottle of 2008 Grenache and then headed back to Napa.
At Napa we went to Clemente’s to order some ravioli, malfatti (ricotta and spinach dumplings) and gnocchi with salad for dinner. Unfortunately, despite all the hype we didn’t really enjoy the pasta all that much!
We felt a bit bleary on Wednesday morning after too much wine yesterday. We had breakfast and headed down a different road to Muir Woods in bright sunshine. We said goodbye to the rolling green hills of Napa and crossed lowland marshes before reaching the peninsula above San Francisco. An exit took us off the highway into the wooded mountain.
We grabbed a map from the visitor’s centre and started walking beside a stream to the Cathedral Grove of California Redwoods – sequoia trees. They were very impressive, the large ones over one thousand years old. It was wonderful walking through the forest admiring giant stumps, burls, fallen over trunks and the towering trees above, blotting out the sun. We finished a loop walk and drove out of the forest and over the Golden Gate Bridge with breathtaking views over the bay, downtown San Francisco and Alcatraz Island.
We drove back to the Sunset District, parked the car and had a delicious lunch at Art’s Cafe. Then Keith drove back to Amoeba Music in search of some elusive DVDs and Suzie had a walk around the Sunset District. Suzie noticed a lot of supermarket trolleys full of homeless people’s possessions parked in the surrounding streets.
Next we drove out of San Francisco in peak hour traffic towards San Jose. The traffic wasn’t too bad and it was interesting travelling through Silicon Valley with its many technology companies and a lot of office space for lease. We reached the Great Mall of Milpitas and did some shopping before dinner. We checked into a motel down the road and did some domestics and repacking before bed.
We headed downstairs on Thursday morning to find that there was only coffee and pastries in plastic packaging for breakfast. We gave the pastries a miss and just had the coffee. Then we checked out and drove to Oakland to have brunch at a restaurant that Ted had recommended.
Oakland is one of California’s larger cities and has some significant challenges, including high unemployment, widespread poverty, and a high rate of violent crime. As we drove in to Oakland, we noticed large numbers of Mexicans standing on street corners waiting for work and the city certainly had a grittier, edgier feel to it. We drove to the Shan Dong Mandarin, a cheap hole-in-the wall restaurant in Oakland’s Chinatown. At the front of the restaurant was a lady laboriously rolling out pastry and making dumplings. When we sat down we were given a pot of Chinese tea and a bowl of hot and sour soup (white pepper and vinegar). We ordered some spicy chicken hand-made noodles and some special Shan Dong boiled pork dumplings eaten with a soy, vinegar and garlic dipping sauce. The food was really delicious and we enjoyed every mouthful.
After lunch, we drove to the university city of Berkeley (famous for anti-Vietnam war protests in the 1960s). We spent a couple of hours walking the streets surrounding the university and enjoying the afternoon sunshine.
We had a mango smoothie from the psychedelic caravan housing the Brazil Cafe and then we drove to the rugged, windswept Marin Headlands. We stopped at a lookout to take in the panoramic views of the San Francisco Bay and Golden Gate Bridge. Then we drove towards the Point Bonita Lighthouse, surprising a coyote on the way. We walked along a trail past some disused concrete bunkers to the lighthouse, only to find that the tunnel leading to the lighthouse was closed. The walk along the cliffs was spectacular - we saw harbour seals perched on rocks far below us, and deer grazing on the hillsides.
Then we drove to Muir Beach and stopped at the Pelican Inn, a charming Tudor style inn complete with low wooden beams, antiques, horse brasses and a roaring fire. Unfortunately, the rooms were too expensive ($207 after 25% discount), so we reluctantly headed off. We had a quick walk at Muir Beach to enjoy the sunset and then drove towards the highway where we found a room (at one third of the price) at America’s Best Value Inn.
On Friday morning we checked out and drove into Mill Valley. We went to Peet’s Coffee where we had a cup each of their Garuda and Sumatra Blue Batak. Their “small” cups were actually quite large and the coffee was “full-bodied” (strong), so by the time we finished the coffee we were wired!
After a quick look at the leafy suburb, we drove to San Anselmo to meet Ted at Hilda’s Coffee. We spent over an hour chatting with Ted over breakfast and then headed off to have a look at the Marin County Civic Centre that had been designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was an enormous salmon coloured stucco building with an arcaded facade and a pale blue roof. We really didn’t like it.
After that we drove south across the Golden Gate Bridge to the Mountain House, a restaurant and bar in the middle of a redwood forest. Ted had told us that this was a hangout for Neil Young and we planned to have lunch there. Unfortunately, we arrived there to find that it only opened at 5.00 pm!
Thankfully it was only a short drive back to the coast and to Half Moon Bay where we managed to pick up some lunch from a couple of bakeries. We paid a quick visit to the beach and then started our drive south along the Pacific Coast Highway towards Los Angeles.
The scenery was really spectacular. The urban sprawl was replaced by wide, sandy beaches with rocky outcrops on our right, and yellow mustard-filled fields on our left. As the sun began to set, the famous San Francisco fog cast a haze over the coast. We drove into the resort town of Santa Cruz just as it became dark and found a room at the Santa Cruz Beach Inn. Suzie had picked up a hotel coupon book from a petrol station a couple of days ago, and with one of the coupons we managed to get the room for $50 plus tax!
We had a short rest and then with the help of yelp.com decided to go to Betty Burgers for dinner. We shared a delicious burger with lettuce, tomato, pickle, red onion, sautéed mushrooms, blue cheese and bacon, sweet potato fries, a bowl of chilli and a chocolate milkshake (our first milkshake in the USA).
After breakfast on Saturday, we drove to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It was an early 1900’s vintage boardwalk and housed an amusement park with giant rollercoaster, carousel and bright purple and yellow games arcade. We walked along the beachfront to the jetty at the end of the boardwalk. The jetty was lined with seafood restaurants and weekend fishermen. We heard some grunting sounds and when we looked over the edge and through strategically placed viewing holes in the jetty we could see large groups of sea lions resting on the jetty supports and frolicking in the water.
We walked back to our car and moved it to a parking lot at one edge of the downtown area. Then we walked along Pacific Avenue, the town’s main street enjoying the sunshine and admiring some of the cool galleries. After lunch we got into the car and headed south down Highway 1. This time the road was not directly on the coast and we drove past fallow fields and fields of artichokes.
We arrived at Monterey after 2.00 pm, parked our car in front of City Hall and then went for a walk. We walked through town and made our way to Fisherman’s Wharf housed on a large pier full of tourist related shops and seafood restaurants. The competition between the restaurants was fierce. As we walked along the wharf each restaurant was offering tasters of their clam chowder. We tried at least half a dozen samples and each one tasted slightly different. The water was exceptionally clear and we saw sea grebes, common murre, cormorants, and herons around the jetty. We left the wharf and walked along the waterfront to the historic Cannery Row, once the site of several sardine canning factories. The sardine canning factories were now replaced with expensive hotels and more tourist trap shops.
We continued walking along the waterfront enjoying the afternoon sunshine and spotting seals on rocks until we reached the aquarium. After finding out the opening times and ticket prices, we had a long walk back to pick up our car and start looking for accommodation. After checking into a room at the El Castell Motel on the edge town, we had a short rest before going out to dinner.
We had a look at yelp.com and decided to go to the Crown & Anchor Pub because someone had recommended the fish and chips. The Crown & Anchor turned out to be a British Pub with a strong nautical theme. It had low black wooden beams, horse brasses, plates with pictures of ships, coronation regalia and other English photos. We had fish and chips, Cajun prawn pasta with corn and bacon and salad followed by sticky toffee pudding for dessert. It was really much more delicious than we expected.
On Sunday morning we drove to the Monterey Aquarium, where we managed to find some free parking in a residential side street off Cannery Row. We arrived at the aquarium just in time to see the feeding show at the sea otter exhibit. We spent quite some time watching three very cute otters swimming and diving in a tall two storey tank. Then we wandered around a vast three storey tank housing the kelp forest exhibit. This tank was filled with towering kelp plants and a large variety of fish ranging from the large leopard sharks and giant sea bass to a shimmering shoal of tiny sardines. There was a feeding here while we were watching with the sardines gobbling the krill. We saw a feeding at a tank of larger fish and the highly entertaining common murre which Keith had thought was a sea duck. These small birds moved extremely fast underwater like penguins. There were some touch pools where we were able to touch starfish, sea cucumbers, sea urchins and rays/skates. We saw rescued beachside birds running around freely in another section. These were many curlews, oystercatchers, dotterels, waders etc which you rarely get close to.
At lunch time, we got a pass out stamp and walked outside into the bright sunshine to the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. This was a chain restaurant that we had seen in other US cities, with a theme based on the movie Forrest Gump. It had been recommended by Tom & Nicole at dinner last night. Inside the restaurant were lots of memorabilia from the movie, vintage posters and brightly coloured car licence plates. We ordered popcorn shrimp, chimi churri shrimp with rice and Louisiana shrimp with rice. It was very delicious. After lunch we walked back to the aquarium stopping at the Nestle Cafe for a famous Tollhouse cookie and ice cream on the way.
We spent another hour at the aquarium admiring the remaining exhibits including two giant octopi with ever changing skin colour and texture, beautiful backlit jellyfish floating gracefully, sea horses ranging from large to tiny and sea dragons cleverly disguised to look like seaweeds, turtles, moray eels, flamingos, penguins and other waterbirds.
Then we collected our car and drove along the scenic 17 mile drive at Pebble Beach stopping for numerous photos at the marked scenic lookouts. The highlights included deer on the golf course, Carmel Bay view at Lone Cypress, fat squirrels at Seal Rock and ocean views of beach, rock and kelp gardens all the way along. We turned off 17 mile drive at the Carmel Gate and drove through Carmel at Sea with upmarket houses and cypress lined streets all the way along the beach. There was serious money along here. Then we ran into the impressive restored Spanish Mission which only warranted a photo as we didn’t have time to stop.
Soon we were back on Highway 1 and heading down the coast with the sun sinking into the sea again. We stopped several times on this leg to Big Sur because the scenery became wilder and more stunning. Big Sur lighthouse crowned a lump of earth linked to the mainland by a thin strip of sand, Bixby Bridge built in 1932 spanned a small valley like an old aqueduct. The views up and down the coast were dotted with huge rocks in the sea or flat green fields covered in cows leading to cliffs, which reminded us of Scotland or Ireland.
We reached Big Sur after dark and settled on The River Inn with cabins next to the highway. Prices were more expensive here for food, petrol and accommodation but we had been forewarned by the Lonely Planet. We went to the River Inn restaurant where we had an amazing dinner of seared ahi tuna salad and fettucine with pesto sauce, chicken and artichoke. We wanted to try the artichoke as we had seen it growing and it didn’t disappoint, slightly bitter but a delicious foil to the bland chicken breast and creamy pesto sauce. We had a slice of home-made apple pie with ice cream for dessert and stayed in the restaurant for some time using the WiFi.
We had been given a couple of names of wineries to visit for scenery and we had been warned that wineries charge for tastings in Napa Valley. The valley itself was remarkably green considering it was the middle of winter. The floor of the valley was continuous wineries with a carpet of yellow mustard flower on the ground level and the trellised bare vines above. On both sides of the narrow valley the green rolling hills rose up with vines often riding up the lower hills.
We started at the beautiful Domaine Chandon winery (tastings $18-$25!). We stopped at St Helena Olive Oil and tried numerous olive oils, vinegars, pasta sauces, mustards and a delicious Portuguese port (free tasting!) Across the road was the Rubicon Estate (tastings $30) owned by Francis Ford Copolla. It featured a restored mansion housing film memorabilia and a Tucker motor car. The mansion was like a museum with stained glass, antique carpets on the floor, and very old wine storage in the caves (cellars). We drove a little further to the turn off to the Newton winery which wandered a long way from the highway into the hills. It had a stunning location up high looking over the valley. We admired the sculptured cypress pines and the views but couldn’t find anyone around so we left.
After a picnic lunch, we went on to Beringer Estate, one of the oldest wineries in the Napa Valley. It also had an amazing old Rhine House, fully restored for reserve tastings ($30). They did give us a taste of their Cabernet Sauvignon which was very nice. We wandered around gawping at the stained glass wildlife scenes, parquetry floors, carved wood wall panels, and staircase. We paid a brief visit to the Castello di Amorosa, a winery set in an authentic looking reproduction of a 13th century stone Tuscan castle complete with moat and drawbridge.
Then we drove further and over the hills to exit the Napa Valley. The other side was gorgeous, with less traffic and we cruised into Healdsburg and had a walk around. It was a typical wine area town with expensive boutiques, French bakeries, gift shops etc but we walked to the Safeway supermarket where we bought a huge Tazo Earl Grey tea from a Starbucks kiosk inside. As the sun was setting we drove down the highway back to Napa with peak hour traffic in both directions bottling up the highways. We saw several large owls on the prowl in the half light.
We got back to the hotel and had a glass of wine before heading off to the Oxbow Public Market (a kind of gourmet food court) for dinner.
We woke up to another beautiful day on Tuesday, and after breakfast at the hotel we drove to Sonoma Valley to the BR Cohn Winery that Ted had recommended. The winery had been founded by Bruce Cohn and in addition to wines, sold olive oils, vinegars and other gourmet food products. We spent a good hour in the tasting room tasting several wines, chatting to Justin behind the counter, playing with the dogs, browsing through the wine related merchandise and admiring some Doobie Brothers memorabilia (Bruce Cohn used to manage the Doobie Brothers). We bought a bottle of 2008 Sonoma Valley Merlot (so that we didn’t have to pay the $10 per head tasting fee), and then went to the building next door where we tasted some olive oils and some vinegars, including a syrupy balsamic vinegar that had been aged for 25 years.
It was almost midday by the time we left the winery, so we decided to drive straight to Bodega Bay (where Alfred Hitchcock filmed “The Birds”) for a seafood lunch. As we drove towards the coast, the scenery changed and the few trees that remained were bent over from the force of the wind coming from the sea.
After lunch we saw some spectacular scenery as we drove up the coast to Russian River. Once we reached Jenner at the mouth of the river, we turned inland and drove through some redwood forests to the Hop Kiln Winery at Healdsburg in the Russian River Valley. The winery was housed in a triple kiln construction built by Italian stonemasons. Next to the winery was a dam with a cute stone duck house in the centre. The man behind the counter told us that otters had travelled up a stream into the dam to gorge on the catfish. We bought a bottle of 2008 Grenache and then headed back to Napa.
At Napa we went to Clemente’s to order some ravioli, malfatti (ricotta and spinach dumplings) and gnocchi with salad for dinner. Unfortunately, despite all the hype we didn’t really enjoy the pasta all that much!
We felt a bit bleary on Wednesday morning after too much wine yesterday. We had breakfast and headed down a different road to Muir Woods in bright sunshine. We said goodbye to the rolling green hills of Napa and crossed lowland marshes before reaching the peninsula above San Francisco. An exit took us off the highway into the wooded mountain.
We grabbed a map from the visitor’s centre and started walking beside a stream to the Cathedral Grove of California Redwoods – sequoia trees. They were very impressive, the large ones over one thousand years old. It was wonderful walking through the forest admiring giant stumps, burls, fallen over trunks and the towering trees above, blotting out the sun. We finished a loop walk and drove out of the forest and over the Golden Gate Bridge with breathtaking views over the bay, downtown San Francisco and Alcatraz Island.
We drove back to the Sunset District, parked the car and had a delicious lunch at Art’s Cafe. Then Keith drove back to Amoeba Music in search of some elusive DVDs and Suzie had a walk around the Sunset District. Suzie noticed a lot of supermarket trolleys full of homeless people’s possessions parked in the surrounding streets.
Next we drove out of San Francisco in peak hour traffic towards San Jose. The traffic wasn’t too bad and it was interesting travelling through Silicon Valley with its many technology companies and a lot of office space for lease. We reached the Great Mall of Milpitas and did some shopping before dinner. We checked into a motel down the road and did some domestics and repacking before bed.
We headed downstairs on Thursday morning to find that there was only coffee and pastries in plastic packaging for breakfast. We gave the pastries a miss and just had the coffee. Then we checked out and drove to Oakland to have brunch at a restaurant that Ted had recommended.
Oakland is one of California’s larger cities and has some significant challenges, including high unemployment, widespread poverty, and a high rate of violent crime. As we drove in to Oakland, we noticed large numbers of Mexicans standing on street corners waiting for work and the city certainly had a grittier, edgier feel to it. We drove to the Shan Dong Mandarin, a cheap hole-in-the wall restaurant in Oakland’s Chinatown. At the front of the restaurant was a lady laboriously rolling out pastry and making dumplings. When we sat down we were given a pot of Chinese tea and a bowl of hot and sour soup (white pepper and vinegar). We ordered some spicy chicken hand-made noodles and some special Shan Dong boiled pork dumplings eaten with a soy, vinegar and garlic dipping sauce. The food was really delicious and we enjoyed every mouthful.
After lunch, we drove to the university city of Berkeley (famous for anti-Vietnam war protests in the 1960s). We spent a couple of hours walking the streets surrounding the university and enjoying the afternoon sunshine.
We had a mango smoothie from the psychedelic caravan housing the Brazil Cafe and then we drove to the rugged, windswept Marin Headlands. We stopped at a lookout to take in the panoramic views of the San Francisco Bay and Golden Gate Bridge. Then we drove towards the Point Bonita Lighthouse, surprising a coyote on the way. We walked along a trail past some disused concrete bunkers to the lighthouse, only to find that the tunnel leading to the lighthouse was closed. The walk along the cliffs was spectacular - we saw harbour seals perched on rocks far below us, and deer grazing on the hillsides.
Then we drove to Muir Beach and stopped at the Pelican Inn, a charming Tudor style inn complete with low wooden beams, antiques, horse brasses and a roaring fire. Unfortunately, the rooms were too expensive ($207 after 25% discount), so we reluctantly headed off. We had a quick walk at Muir Beach to enjoy the sunset and then drove towards the highway where we found a room (at one third of the price) at America’s Best Value Inn.
On Friday morning we checked out and drove into Mill Valley. We went to Peet’s Coffee where we had a cup each of their Garuda and Sumatra Blue Batak. Their “small” cups were actually quite large and the coffee was “full-bodied” (strong), so by the time we finished the coffee we were wired!
After a quick look at the leafy suburb, we drove to San Anselmo to meet Ted at Hilda’s Coffee. We spent over an hour chatting with Ted over breakfast and then headed off to have a look at the Marin County Civic Centre that had been designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was an enormous salmon coloured stucco building with an arcaded facade and a pale blue roof. We really didn’t like it.
After that we drove south across the Golden Gate Bridge to the Mountain House, a restaurant and bar in the middle of a redwood forest. Ted had told us that this was a hangout for Neil Young and we planned to have lunch there. Unfortunately, we arrived there to find that it only opened at 5.00 pm!
Thankfully it was only a short drive back to the coast and to Half Moon Bay where we managed to pick up some lunch from a couple of bakeries. We paid a quick visit to the beach and then started our drive south along the Pacific Coast Highway towards Los Angeles.
The scenery was really spectacular. The urban sprawl was replaced by wide, sandy beaches with rocky outcrops on our right, and yellow mustard-filled fields on our left. As the sun began to set, the famous San Francisco fog cast a haze over the coast. We drove into the resort town of Santa Cruz just as it became dark and found a room at the Santa Cruz Beach Inn. Suzie had picked up a hotel coupon book from a petrol station a couple of days ago, and with one of the coupons we managed to get the room for $50 plus tax!
We had a short rest and then with the help of yelp.com decided to go to Betty Burgers for dinner. We shared a delicious burger with lettuce, tomato, pickle, red onion, sautéed mushrooms, blue cheese and bacon, sweet potato fries, a bowl of chilli and a chocolate milkshake (our first milkshake in the USA).
After breakfast on Saturday, we drove to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It was an early 1900’s vintage boardwalk and housed an amusement park with giant rollercoaster, carousel and bright purple and yellow games arcade. We walked along the beachfront to the jetty at the end of the boardwalk. The jetty was lined with seafood restaurants and weekend fishermen. We heard some grunting sounds and when we looked over the edge and through strategically placed viewing holes in the jetty we could see large groups of sea lions resting on the jetty supports and frolicking in the water.
We walked back to our car and moved it to a parking lot at one edge of the downtown area. Then we walked along Pacific Avenue, the town’s main street enjoying the sunshine and admiring some of the cool galleries. After lunch we got into the car and headed south down Highway 1. This time the road was not directly on the coast and we drove past fallow fields and fields of artichokes.
We arrived at Monterey after 2.00 pm, parked our car in front of City Hall and then went for a walk. We walked through town and made our way to Fisherman’s Wharf housed on a large pier full of tourist related shops and seafood restaurants. The competition between the restaurants was fierce. As we walked along the wharf each restaurant was offering tasters of their clam chowder. We tried at least half a dozen samples and each one tasted slightly different. The water was exceptionally clear and we saw sea grebes, common murre, cormorants, and herons around the jetty. We left the wharf and walked along the waterfront to the historic Cannery Row, once the site of several sardine canning factories. The sardine canning factories were now replaced with expensive hotels and more tourist trap shops.
We continued walking along the waterfront enjoying the afternoon sunshine and spotting seals on rocks until we reached the aquarium. After finding out the opening times and ticket prices, we had a long walk back to pick up our car and start looking for accommodation. After checking into a room at the El Castell Motel on the edge town, we had a short rest before going out to dinner.
We had a look at yelp.com and decided to go to the Crown & Anchor Pub because someone had recommended the fish and chips. The Crown & Anchor turned out to be a British Pub with a strong nautical theme. It had low black wooden beams, horse brasses, plates with pictures of ships, coronation regalia and other English photos. We had fish and chips, Cajun prawn pasta with corn and bacon and salad followed by sticky toffee pudding for dessert. It was really much more delicious than we expected.
On Sunday morning we drove to the Monterey Aquarium, where we managed to find some free parking in a residential side street off Cannery Row. We arrived at the aquarium just in time to see the feeding show at the sea otter exhibit. We spent quite some time watching three very cute otters swimming and diving in a tall two storey tank. Then we wandered around a vast three storey tank housing the kelp forest exhibit. This tank was filled with towering kelp plants and a large variety of fish ranging from the large leopard sharks and giant sea bass to a shimmering shoal of tiny sardines. There was a feeding here while we were watching with the sardines gobbling the krill. We saw a feeding at a tank of larger fish and the highly entertaining common murre which Keith had thought was a sea duck. These small birds moved extremely fast underwater like penguins. There were some touch pools where we were able to touch starfish, sea cucumbers, sea urchins and rays/skates. We saw rescued beachside birds running around freely in another section. These were many curlews, oystercatchers, dotterels, waders etc which you rarely get close to.
At lunch time, we got a pass out stamp and walked outside into the bright sunshine to the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. This was a chain restaurant that we had seen in other US cities, with a theme based on the movie Forrest Gump. It had been recommended by Tom & Nicole at dinner last night. Inside the restaurant were lots of memorabilia from the movie, vintage posters and brightly coloured car licence plates. We ordered popcorn shrimp, chimi churri shrimp with rice and Louisiana shrimp with rice. It was very delicious. After lunch we walked back to the aquarium stopping at the Nestle Cafe for a famous Tollhouse cookie and ice cream on the way.
We spent another hour at the aquarium admiring the remaining exhibits including two giant octopi with ever changing skin colour and texture, beautiful backlit jellyfish floating gracefully, sea horses ranging from large to tiny and sea dragons cleverly disguised to look like seaweeds, turtles, moray eels, flamingos, penguins and other waterbirds.
Then we collected our car and drove along the scenic 17 mile drive at Pebble Beach stopping for numerous photos at the marked scenic lookouts. The highlights included deer on the golf course, Carmel Bay view at Lone Cypress, fat squirrels at Seal Rock and ocean views of beach, rock and kelp gardens all the way along. We turned off 17 mile drive at the Carmel Gate and drove through Carmel at Sea with upmarket houses and cypress lined streets all the way along the beach. There was serious money along here. Then we ran into the impressive restored Spanish Mission which only warranted a photo as we didn’t have time to stop.
Soon we were back on Highway 1 and heading down the coast with the sun sinking into the sea again. We stopped several times on this leg to Big Sur because the scenery became wilder and more stunning. Big Sur lighthouse crowned a lump of earth linked to the mainland by a thin strip of sand, Bixby Bridge built in 1932 spanned a small valley like an old aqueduct. The views up and down the coast were dotted with huge rocks in the sea or flat green fields covered in cows leading to cliffs, which reminded us of Scotland or Ireland.
We reached Big Sur after dark and settled on The River Inn with cabins next to the highway. Prices were more expensive here for food, petrol and accommodation but we had been forewarned by the Lonely Planet. We went to the River Inn restaurant where we had an amazing dinner of seared ahi tuna salad and fettucine with pesto sauce, chicken and artichoke. We wanted to try the artichoke as we had seen it growing and it didn’t disappoint, slightly bitter but a delicious foil to the bland chicken breast and creamy pesto sauce. We had a slice of home-made apple pie with ice cream for dessert and stayed in the restaurant for some time using the WiFi.
Tuesday 1 February 2011
Week 50 - USA - Phoenix, AZ to Napa, CA
After breakfast on Monday, we said good bye to Claudia and the children and hit the road for Las Vegas. We stopped in at the supermarket to buy a picnic lunch and then drove through the desert landscape with hills covered in saguaro and jumping cholla cacti. Further on we saw forests of the Joshua tree before we stopped for our lunch in a truck stop. We drove on to the Hoover Dam and had a walk across the dam wall. From there it was only an hour drive to Las Vegas, where we checked in to the tired Riviera Hotel and Casino on the strip. As we wheeled our cases past the hotel barber salon, we saw a very plastic looking tanned Elvis-lookalike barber wearing a white suit.
We had a short rest in our room and then went out for some dinner. We met a Russian, Elena Valenska at the info desk and drove to Chinatown where we ate fresh healthy Vietnamese food and checked out the enormous supermarket next door. Driving home we could appreciate that Vegas was a neon town – it looked better at night than during the day. We had an interesting chat to Elena when we got back to the Riviera, she was living in Paris but was originally from St Petersburg.
On Tuesday morning, we went to the Peppermill next door for breakfast. The interior of the restaurant was dark and cool with beautiful art deco flamingo lamp shades and booths clustered underneath large shady trees (fake). We ordered a garden omelette and a Western fruit plate. When these came out we found that the omelette (which must have contained at least 4 eggs) came with a mountain of hash browns and the enormous fruit plate came with a small loaf of banana cake! Somehow, we managed to get through most of the breakfast (we took a doggy bag of grapes for later) and staggered outside into the bright Vegas sunshine.
We didn’t get very far – only making it to the Ross clothing store next door to the restaurant. We emerged a couple of hours later with bags of discounted designer clothing. We dropped these back at the hotel and then headed down Las Vegas Boulevard (The Strip).
Our first stop was the Encore Hotel and Casino owned by Steve Wynn. It was filled with beautiful indoor flower gardens, bright red glass chandeliers and had a butterfly theme with mosaic butterflies on the walls and floors, and butterflies on the bright red carpets. We walked from Encore into its sister property Wynn Las Vegas which had a flower theme. We continued down the strip to the Venetian with its bridges, canals and gondolas, Bellagio with its musical fountain show every half hour, past Paris with Eiffel Tower, the MGM Grand with huge golden lion and crossed the road to Luxor with sphinx and pyramid. Then we walked back past the castles of Excalibur, the Statue of Liberty, Caesar’s Palace, and stopped to take in the fountain show at Bellagio by night. Our next stop was Treasure Island where we watched a pirate show and then we went back to Riviera to pick up the car. We drove back to Chinatown and had some great Sichuan Chinese food for dinner. We felt great after the meal and headed home to do diary and photos before an earlier bed.
We drove out of Vegas on Wednesday. It was very quiet as we drove out, as the strip comes alive late at night and doesn’t get going again until the next afternoon. It was a strange plastic kind of town but there was plenty to do and see with all the shows, casino entertainment, food and shopping.
We drove out on the flat hot plain and then wound over a mountain range and down into Death Valley. It took us two hours to reach the National Park Visitor Centre at Furnace Creek where we got a map, discussed possible routes to San Francisco and purchased a picnic lunch at the shop. We drove towards Badwater, at 282 feet or 86 metres below sea level, the lowest point in the USA. On the way we came across a coyote padding along parallel to the road - it looked very skinny. At Badwater, we took a couple of shots over the salt pan. It reminded us of Etosha Pan or the Salar de Uyuni except that Death Valley is surrounded by two parallel mountain ranges. Then we drove up to The Devil’s Golf Course which was a large salt pan in the middle of the valley. Unlike the other flat salt pans that we had seen, the surface was made up of lumpy salt pinnacles. Then we drove back towards Furnace Creek, taking the scenic winding road called Artists Drive. We had great views across the salt flats and of the surrounding mountainsides with green, white and pink coloured bands of rock. We went for a 2 kilometre walk at Golden Canyon, a gravel trail through a gorge cutting through gold, orange and red sandstone rocks. We had our lunch at the Red Cathedral at the end of the trail and then walked back to the car. We went past Furnace Creek and on to the Mosaic Canyon. We parked the car and walked a short way along the canyon which was lined with smooth water-polished light coloured granite and dark aggregate rock walls.
Back at the car, we decided to call it a day as we had a two hour drive to Ridgecrest, where we planned to spend the night. As we drove down to the main road we saw another coyote but this one looked magnificent in the late afternoon sun, with black, grey and red fur. We drove past a sea of sand dunes and out of the end of the valley where there was a lot more vegetation. We wound up and out of Death Valley and then down into another bowl shaped valley with sand bottom. We got some great photos in the sunset and kept driving, cutting it very fine with our petrol! We just made it to Trona to fill up. We arrived at Ridgecrest at 6.30 pm and checked into the Best Western. After we unloaded our bags, we walked to a nearby diner recommended by the receptionist. The food turned out to be very ordinary with instant mashed potato.
After breakfast on Thursday, we hit the road early. We crossed more desert plains and then massive mountain passes to get across the southern tip of the Sierra Nevada. All of a sudden it was greener with trees and rolling hills. We were driving through clouds and popping out above the cloud every now and then. We stopped for lunch opposite the San Luis Reservoir with clouds rolling up the hills from the water and blanketing us and then evaporating into blue sky. We saw citrus, fruit orchards and grape vines for miles along with nodding donkeys looming out of the mist. We passed a state prison complex at Wasco, saw a guy with “God, guts and guns made America free” on his shirt echoing the sentiment of the redneck south. There were signs on the road side at regular intervals “No to Congress created dustbowl” obviously farmers upset at restrictions to access to water. We passed the biggest stockyard we had ever seen. There were miles and miles of depressed looking cows awaiting slaughter in brown stinking mud as far as the eye could see. The stench was unbelievable and even though we were some way away on the highway it stayed with us for quite a while.
The flat straight highways make for fast travel and we arrived into the urban sprawl of San Francisco just after 3pm. We unloaded at Hotel Whitcomb in Market Street and took the exorbitant parking of $28 plus tax as there weren’t any obvious alternatives. The room was only $68 plus tax! We unpacked a bit and then headed out for a walk along Market Street and down Grant Avenue into Chinatown. As we remembered from our previous visit there were lots of colourful and dubious characters hanging around the streets. We walked around Chinatown until we got hungry and decided on House of Nanking which was recommended in the Lonely Planet, but served an overpriced Westernized bland version of Chinese. Luckily they served reasonable wine and we met a great couple, Ted and Iasmine who made it a very enjoyable evening. We walked back along Kearney Street to Market Street before saying goodbye and walking back to the hotel. It was the end of a good day and a milestone as we had made it from the East coast to the West Coast, and now there would only be short trips on the road.
On Friday, we walked across the road to Sam’s Diner where we had coffee, eggs Benedict and blueberry pancakes for breakfast. After breakfast, we walked the other way along Market Street to the Mission District. It took us quite some time to get there and along the way we passed some very dodgy characters. We passed several people who were quite openly smoking marijuana and one person smoking a crack pipe. There were several people pushing all their belongings around in shopping trolleys and other people having conversations with themselves. It seemed like there were more weird people than normal people in San Francisco! There were beautifully painted terraced houses along Guerrero Street known as Painted Lady Victorians. Some of them had fire escapes and they were painted in colours that highlighted and enhanced the fine architectural detailing on their facades.
We admired the Spanish Dolores Mission on the edge of the Mission District and then walked through the district with its striking murals, colourful shops and Latino feel. We stopped at a Chilean Bakery to try an empanada Pina - a delicious little pie stuffed with mince, onions, raisins, boiled egg and olives. It was actually more delicious than most of the empanadas that we had eaten in South America! We walked back into the centre of town where we had a quick look at Union Square and then went to the R&G Restaurant recommended by Ted and Iasmine for lunch which turned out to be cheaper and a whole lot better than the dinner last night.
After lunch we walked to the spectacular Ferry Building Market Place on the waterfront and admired all the gourmet food stalls. We continued walking along the Embarcadero to Pier 39 where we admired yellow daffodils and other flowers (how do they get them to flower in the middle of winter?) and stopped to watch the sea lions jostling for space on the pontoons. Then we walked to Ghirardelli Square where we enjoyed a fountain full of bronze turtles and frogs, had some meltingly delicious caramel chocolate squares and shared a cup of hot chocolate. The sunset over the bay and Alcatraz Island was spectacular and we also saw a few hummingbirds atop small trees getting ready to sleep.
We decided to start making our way back to the hotel and to our horror found ourselves walking up the almost vertical Russian Hill. At the top we saw cars and motorbikes negotiating the famous winding Lombard Street. We spent an hour at Union Square - Keith went DVD shopping and Suzie went clothes shopping – and then headed back to the hotel to drop off our purchases. We were pretty exhausted after our big day walking so we went back across the road to Sam’s Diner for dinner.
On Saturday, we walked down Market Street and decided to have breakfast at the slightly seedy looking L&M Diner which was run by three Chinese people. While we were eating our breakfast quite a few of San Francisco’s more eccentric residents came in. San Francisco has more crazy people on the street than we have seen anywhere in the world! The area around our hotel (Civic Centre) seemed to be a magnet for all the resident loonies and it was much worse than any other of the areas of the city. Three blocks away at Union Square, there seemed to be hardly any dodgy people. After breakfast we walked towards Union Square and did some shopping until it was time to walk to Chinatown to meet our friend Anne Shiau who we had met in the Pantanal in Brazil. For some reason, all the streets in Chinatown were really packed – maybe because it was Saturday or it could be the beginning of the Chinese New Year festivities. We met Anne at the Gold Mountain Restaurant and spent a pleasant couple of hours catching up over dim sum washed down with copious amounts of Chinese tea.
After lunch, we walked back to our hotel to collect our car to drive to Ted and Iasmine’s house (the couple that we had met on our first night in San Francisco) in the eastern suburb of Orinda. They had invited us to dinner. We drove over the Bay Bridge but as it was raining and overcast, we couldn’t really see anything. We stopped at the supermarket on the way to their house to buy wine, flowers, chocolate and dessert and then drove up into some leafy hills to their house. Ted wanted to show us the area so we went for a drive around the towns of Orinda and Lafayette and finally we drove into the Berkeley Hills along Grizzly Peak Boulevard. At the summit we were rewarded with spectacular views of the whole bay area. The fog cleared slightly so we could see the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Back at Ted and Iasmine’s house, Ted grilled some steaks while Iasmine cooked asparagus and we chopped and sautéed onions and mushrooms. Dinner was really outstanding and we had a wonderful time chatting to them. It was midnight before we finally left and drove back to the hotel.
We were woken up at 6.00 am on Sunday by the shrill ring of the bedside phone. The phone stopped ringing before we could pick it up and we managed to go back to sleep. We woke up again after 8.30 am, packed up and checked out of the hotel.
Then we drove to the Sunset District to have breakfast at Art’s Cafe which Ted and Iasmine had recommended and had great reviews on the internet. The cafe was run by Korean Americans and was the size of a shoebox. There were no tables or chairs – just one long diner bar where everyone sat side by side on stools and watched their breakfast being cooked right in front of them. The menu had a strong Korean influence with tofu, Kim Chi, teriyaki beef or chicken, Korean hot bean paste and rice options. We shared the lunch special (teriyaki beef with Kim Chi and rice), a side of hash browns, French toast with whipped cream, banana and walnuts and pancakes with banana and walnuts. The food was really delicious and cheap.
After breakfast we drove to the Haight –Ashbury neighbourhood - famous for the “Summer of Love” in the mid-60s when thousands of hippies converged upon the neighbourhood. We walked along Haight Street which had a strong alternative hippie vibe with its colourful murals and psychedelic shop fronts. There were lots of restaurants and bars, vintage clothing boutiques, alternative bookstores, “head shops” (with drug paraphernalia displayed prominently in the windows) and independent record stores. When we looked down the side streets, we saw a lot of beautifully restored Painted Lady Victorians dressed in brighter colours than usual.
After we had walked up and down Haight Street, we walked into the lush green Golden Gate Park. To our surprise, there were quite a lot of trees in flower even though it was the middle of winter. We walked past the Conservatory of Flowers and past a park where a free swing dancing lesson was in progress, to the boathouse at Stow Lake. At Stow Lake we saw the usual ducks and seagulls and some striking Canadian geese.
It was after 3.00 pm by the time we got back to our car. As we drove out of San Francisco the sun came out and we had some great views over the greater Bay area. It was a short drive to the town of Napa where we managed to find a cheap room for a couple of nights at the Wine Valley Lodge.
We had a short rest in our room and then went out for some dinner. We met a Russian, Elena Valenska at the info desk and drove to Chinatown where we ate fresh healthy Vietnamese food and checked out the enormous supermarket next door. Driving home we could appreciate that Vegas was a neon town – it looked better at night than during the day. We had an interesting chat to Elena when we got back to the Riviera, she was living in Paris but was originally from St Petersburg.
On Tuesday morning, we went to the Peppermill next door for breakfast. The interior of the restaurant was dark and cool with beautiful art deco flamingo lamp shades and booths clustered underneath large shady trees (fake). We ordered a garden omelette and a Western fruit plate. When these came out we found that the omelette (which must have contained at least 4 eggs) came with a mountain of hash browns and the enormous fruit plate came with a small loaf of banana cake! Somehow, we managed to get through most of the breakfast (we took a doggy bag of grapes for later) and staggered outside into the bright Vegas sunshine.
We didn’t get very far – only making it to the Ross clothing store next door to the restaurant. We emerged a couple of hours later with bags of discounted designer clothing. We dropped these back at the hotel and then headed down Las Vegas Boulevard (The Strip).
Our first stop was the Encore Hotel and Casino owned by Steve Wynn. It was filled with beautiful indoor flower gardens, bright red glass chandeliers and had a butterfly theme with mosaic butterflies on the walls and floors, and butterflies on the bright red carpets. We walked from Encore into its sister property Wynn Las Vegas which had a flower theme. We continued down the strip to the Venetian with its bridges, canals and gondolas, Bellagio with its musical fountain show every half hour, past Paris with Eiffel Tower, the MGM Grand with huge golden lion and crossed the road to Luxor with sphinx and pyramid. Then we walked back past the castles of Excalibur, the Statue of Liberty, Caesar’s Palace, and stopped to take in the fountain show at Bellagio by night. Our next stop was Treasure Island where we watched a pirate show and then we went back to Riviera to pick up the car. We drove back to Chinatown and had some great Sichuan Chinese food for dinner. We felt great after the meal and headed home to do diary and photos before an earlier bed.
We drove out of Vegas on Wednesday. It was very quiet as we drove out, as the strip comes alive late at night and doesn’t get going again until the next afternoon. It was a strange plastic kind of town but there was plenty to do and see with all the shows, casino entertainment, food and shopping.
We drove out on the flat hot plain and then wound over a mountain range and down into Death Valley. It took us two hours to reach the National Park Visitor Centre at Furnace Creek where we got a map, discussed possible routes to San Francisco and purchased a picnic lunch at the shop. We drove towards Badwater, at 282 feet or 86 metres below sea level, the lowest point in the USA. On the way we came across a coyote padding along parallel to the road - it looked very skinny. At Badwater, we took a couple of shots over the salt pan. It reminded us of Etosha Pan or the Salar de Uyuni except that Death Valley is surrounded by two parallel mountain ranges. Then we drove up to The Devil’s Golf Course which was a large salt pan in the middle of the valley. Unlike the other flat salt pans that we had seen, the surface was made up of lumpy salt pinnacles. Then we drove back towards Furnace Creek, taking the scenic winding road called Artists Drive. We had great views across the salt flats and of the surrounding mountainsides with green, white and pink coloured bands of rock. We went for a 2 kilometre walk at Golden Canyon, a gravel trail through a gorge cutting through gold, orange and red sandstone rocks. We had our lunch at the Red Cathedral at the end of the trail and then walked back to the car. We went past Furnace Creek and on to the Mosaic Canyon. We parked the car and walked a short way along the canyon which was lined with smooth water-polished light coloured granite and dark aggregate rock walls.
Back at the car, we decided to call it a day as we had a two hour drive to Ridgecrest, where we planned to spend the night. As we drove down to the main road we saw another coyote but this one looked magnificent in the late afternoon sun, with black, grey and red fur. We drove past a sea of sand dunes and out of the end of the valley where there was a lot more vegetation. We wound up and out of Death Valley and then down into another bowl shaped valley with sand bottom. We got some great photos in the sunset and kept driving, cutting it very fine with our petrol! We just made it to Trona to fill up. We arrived at Ridgecrest at 6.30 pm and checked into the Best Western. After we unloaded our bags, we walked to a nearby diner recommended by the receptionist. The food turned out to be very ordinary with instant mashed potato.
After breakfast on Thursday, we hit the road early. We crossed more desert plains and then massive mountain passes to get across the southern tip of the Sierra Nevada. All of a sudden it was greener with trees and rolling hills. We were driving through clouds and popping out above the cloud every now and then. We stopped for lunch opposite the San Luis Reservoir with clouds rolling up the hills from the water and blanketing us and then evaporating into blue sky. We saw citrus, fruit orchards and grape vines for miles along with nodding donkeys looming out of the mist. We passed a state prison complex at Wasco, saw a guy with “God, guts and guns made America free” on his shirt echoing the sentiment of the redneck south. There were signs on the road side at regular intervals “No to Congress created dustbowl” obviously farmers upset at restrictions to access to water. We passed the biggest stockyard we had ever seen. There were miles and miles of depressed looking cows awaiting slaughter in brown stinking mud as far as the eye could see. The stench was unbelievable and even though we were some way away on the highway it stayed with us for quite a while.
The flat straight highways make for fast travel and we arrived into the urban sprawl of San Francisco just after 3pm. We unloaded at Hotel Whitcomb in Market Street and took the exorbitant parking of $28 plus tax as there weren’t any obvious alternatives. The room was only $68 plus tax! We unpacked a bit and then headed out for a walk along Market Street and down Grant Avenue into Chinatown. As we remembered from our previous visit there were lots of colourful and dubious characters hanging around the streets. We walked around Chinatown until we got hungry and decided on House of Nanking which was recommended in the Lonely Planet, but served an overpriced Westernized bland version of Chinese. Luckily they served reasonable wine and we met a great couple, Ted and Iasmine who made it a very enjoyable evening. We walked back along Kearney Street to Market Street before saying goodbye and walking back to the hotel. It was the end of a good day and a milestone as we had made it from the East coast to the West Coast, and now there would only be short trips on the road.
On Friday, we walked across the road to Sam’s Diner where we had coffee, eggs Benedict and blueberry pancakes for breakfast. After breakfast, we walked the other way along Market Street to the Mission District. It took us quite some time to get there and along the way we passed some very dodgy characters. We passed several people who were quite openly smoking marijuana and one person smoking a crack pipe. There were several people pushing all their belongings around in shopping trolleys and other people having conversations with themselves. It seemed like there were more weird people than normal people in San Francisco! There were beautifully painted terraced houses along Guerrero Street known as Painted Lady Victorians. Some of them had fire escapes and they were painted in colours that highlighted and enhanced the fine architectural detailing on their facades.
We admired the Spanish Dolores Mission on the edge of the Mission District and then walked through the district with its striking murals, colourful shops and Latino feel. We stopped at a Chilean Bakery to try an empanada Pina - a delicious little pie stuffed with mince, onions, raisins, boiled egg and olives. It was actually more delicious than most of the empanadas that we had eaten in South America! We walked back into the centre of town where we had a quick look at Union Square and then went to the R&G Restaurant recommended by Ted and Iasmine for lunch which turned out to be cheaper and a whole lot better than the dinner last night.
After lunch we walked to the spectacular Ferry Building Market Place on the waterfront and admired all the gourmet food stalls. We continued walking along the Embarcadero to Pier 39 where we admired yellow daffodils and other flowers (how do they get them to flower in the middle of winter?) and stopped to watch the sea lions jostling for space on the pontoons. Then we walked to Ghirardelli Square where we enjoyed a fountain full of bronze turtles and frogs, had some meltingly delicious caramel chocolate squares and shared a cup of hot chocolate. The sunset over the bay and Alcatraz Island was spectacular and we also saw a few hummingbirds atop small trees getting ready to sleep.
We decided to start making our way back to the hotel and to our horror found ourselves walking up the almost vertical Russian Hill. At the top we saw cars and motorbikes negotiating the famous winding Lombard Street. We spent an hour at Union Square - Keith went DVD shopping and Suzie went clothes shopping – and then headed back to the hotel to drop off our purchases. We were pretty exhausted after our big day walking so we went back across the road to Sam’s Diner for dinner.
On Saturday, we walked down Market Street and decided to have breakfast at the slightly seedy looking L&M Diner which was run by three Chinese people. While we were eating our breakfast quite a few of San Francisco’s more eccentric residents came in. San Francisco has more crazy people on the street than we have seen anywhere in the world! The area around our hotel (Civic Centre) seemed to be a magnet for all the resident loonies and it was much worse than any other of the areas of the city. Three blocks away at Union Square, there seemed to be hardly any dodgy people. After breakfast we walked towards Union Square and did some shopping until it was time to walk to Chinatown to meet our friend Anne Shiau who we had met in the Pantanal in Brazil. For some reason, all the streets in Chinatown were really packed – maybe because it was Saturday or it could be the beginning of the Chinese New Year festivities. We met Anne at the Gold Mountain Restaurant and spent a pleasant couple of hours catching up over dim sum washed down with copious amounts of Chinese tea.
After lunch, we walked back to our hotel to collect our car to drive to Ted and Iasmine’s house (the couple that we had met on our first night in San Francisco) in the eastern suburb of Orinda. They had invited us to dinner. We drove over the Bay Bridge but as it was raining and overcast, we couldn’t really see anything. We stopped at the supermarket on the way to their house to buy wine, flowers, chocolate and dessert and then drove up into some leafy hills to their house. Ted wanted to show us the area so we went for a drive around the towns of Orinda and Lafayette and finally we drove into the Berkeley Hills along Grizzly Peak Boulevard. At the summit we were rewarded with spectacular views of the whole bay area. The fog cleared slightly so we could see the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Back at Ted and Iasmine’s house, Ted grilled some steaks while Iasmine cooked asparagus and we chopped and sautéed onions and mushrooms. Dinner was really outstanding and we had a wonderful time chatting to them. It was midnight before we finally left and drove back to the hotel.
We were woken up at 6.00 am on Sunday by the shrill ring of the bedside phone. The phone stopped ringing before we could pick it up and we managed to go back to sleep. We woke up again after 8.30 am, packed up and checked out of the hotel.
Then we drove to the Sunset District to have breakfast at Art’s Cafe which Ted and Iasmine had recommended and had great reviews on the internet. The cafe was run by Korean Americans and was the size of a shoebox. There were no tables or chairs – just one long diner bar where everyone sat side by side on stools and watched their breakfast being cooked right in front of them. The menu had a strong Korean influence with tofu, Kim Chi, teriyaki beef or chicken, Korean hot bean paste and rice options. We shared the lunch special (teriyaki beef with Kim Chi and rice), a side of hash browns, French toast with whipped cream, banana and walnuts and pancakes with banana and walnuts. The food was really delicious and cheap.
After breakfast we drove to the Haight –Ashbury neighbourhood - famous for the “Summer of Love” in the mid-60s when thousands of hippies converged upon the neighbourhood. We walked along Haight Street which had a strong alternative hippie vibe with its colourful murals and psychedelic shop fronts. There were lots of restaurants and bars, vintage clothing boutiques, alternative bookstores, “head shops” (with drug paraphernalia displayed prominently in the windows) and independent record stores. When we looked down the side streets, we saw a lot of beautifully restored Painted Lady Victorians dressed in brighter colours than usual.
After we had walked up and down Haight Street, we walked into the lush green Golden Gate Park. To our surprise, there were quite a lot of trees in flower even though it was the middle of winter. We walked past the Conservatory of Flowers and past a park where a free swing dancing lesson was in progress, to the boathouse at Stow Lake. At Stow Lake we saw the usual ducks and seagulls and some striking Canadian geese.
It was after 3.00 pm by the time we got back to our car. As we drove out of San Francisco the sun came out and we had some great views over the greater Bay area. It was a short drive to the town of Napa where we managed to find a cheap room for a couple of nights at the Wine Valley Lodge.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)