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.
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Week 49 - USA - Moab, UT to Phoenix, AZ
After breakfast on Monday, we headed north out of Moab and drove past the town of Green River. There was a lot of snow on the flat plain so in parts the countryside was completely white. Then we headed southwest past Hanksville and the Capitol Reef National Park with towering red and orange buttes and we stopped at one point beside the Fremont River to see petroglyphs of bighorn sheep and anthropomorphic figures carved on the red rock walls.
We passed through the small town of Torrey before getting on the Scenic Byway 12 towards Bryce Canyon National Park. We drove up to 9,600 feet on Boulder Mountain and just outside a viewpoint saw a small group of female deer. They looked in great condition but moved off when we stopped and got out of the car. The mountaintop was spectacular with deep snow, large green conifers, and bare birch trees and incredible views over the red mesas and canyons to other snow capped mountain ranges. We had just pulled out and gathered speed going downhill when we came around a corner to find a larger group of female deer including young ones standing in the middle of the road. We braked and they froze and then darted in all directions.
We stopped to have a picnic lunch at the entrance to the Calf Creek Recreation Area in the Escalante National Monument Park. It was warm down by the small river running through the canyon. We soaked up some sun while we ate our lunch. When we went down to the creek to wash our hands, we found some paw prints which may have been from a mountain lion and a fish shot off from the shallows.
After lunch we headed off again and at one point the road ran along a ridge with steep canyons falling away on both sides! We kept driving but had to keep stopping for photo opportunities so that we only reached the Bryce Canyon National Park at 4.00 pm. We scooted around the Sunrise, Sunset, Bryce and Inspiration viewpoints which offered views of different points around the Amphitheatre. From the canyon rim we looked down on thousands of different spires of red and orange below falling away for miles across the valleys. The scenery was magnificent. There were cliffs, canyons, mountains, mesas and pinnacles covered in a thick blanket of snow as far as the eye could see.
We exited the park thinking ourselves lucky to see three national parks over the last three days. The scenic road went through two natural rock arches in quick succession as we headed for Page on the edge of the massive Lake Powell, reputed to have a longer shore line than California. We arrived at 7.00 pm and checked into a Best Western without bothering to check anywhere else. We went out for dinner to Mexican Fiesta and bought lunch for tomorrow from the Safeway supermarket before retreating to our room.
On Tuesday, we woke up at 7.00 am, had a rushed breakfast in the hotel and then checked out. The drive to Monument Valley located within the Navajo Nation on the Utah-Arizona border took us about two hours. Monument Valley is one of the most famous American Wild West landscapes having featured as the backdrop in several classic cowboy and Indian films. At the entrance gate, we paid our park entry fees, and then paid a quick visit to the Visitor Centre to have a look at the gift shop and admire the views of the rock formations from the balconies.
Inside the park we drove along an 18 mile unpaved loop road to get a closer look at the monuments - sandstone mesas, buttes and spire rock formations. The monuments in the park all had names, and we had quite a bit of difficulty reconciling the names to the monuments. Obviously we were lacking in imagination! It took us an hour and a half to complete the drive. We had lunch and then decided to tackle the Wildcat Trail – a 3.2 mile trail that took us around the base of the West Mitten Butte and gave us a sense of how enormous the monuments were.. It turned out to be a very easy walk across some soft rock bed and sand dunes through the native vegetation including Juniper trees, yucca, Sagebrush, Russian thistle (Tumbleweed) and Navajo Tea.
After we left the park, we drove to the Grand Canyon National Park, a steep sided canyon carved out by the Colorado River in Arizona. The drive took us about three hours and the sun was just beginning to set as we arrived at the park entrance gate. The helpful lady at the ticket office directed us to the Desert View Point, half a mile from the gate where we arrived in time to see the canyon turning a rosy pink in the setting sun. From the Desert View Point, it was a twenty five mile drive to Grand Canyon Village within the park. We had dinner at the Yavapai Cafeteria and after viewing an expensive drab-looking room without WiFi, we decided to drive to the nearby town of Tusayan where we checked into a lovely room at the Canyon Plaza Resort and settled in for the evening with a bottle of wine.
We slept in until 8.00 am on Wednesday, had breakfast and then headed over to the visitor centre. At the visitor centre, a very enthusiastic local lady helped us so we knew what to do for the day.
We drove back to the rim and parked the car at the Shrine of Ages and walked to the rim trail. We walked along the rim stopping at every lookout, watching out for ice patches and trying to soak up sun. Every few hundred metres there was a polished rock sample with name and age and as we walked the rocks on display got older. The last rock was an Elves Chasm gneiss 1,840 million years old. Of course there were breathtaking views of the canyon with all its side canyons running off at right angles looking very good in the clear air and sunlight. We saw a lady with what looked like a TV antennae and she was waving it around in the air with faint crackling sounds coming from a battery pack she was carrying. We thought she might be a new age nut, of which there are plenty around – listening for aliens possibly. She left abruptly so we had no answers.
We reached the Bright Angel Lodge and turned down the Bright Angel Trail into the canyon to the Phantom Lodge down by the Colorado River. The trail zigzagged back and forth but unfortunately large sections were iced over and it wasn't long before Suzie fell over so we had to turn back. We did manage to get through a natural rock arch and saw a couple of cowboys bringing a line of mules up from the bottom. How they didn't slip over on the ice was amazing. We watched them but only one hoof seemed to slip at a time. Apparently there were two bridges over the river and the mules would not cross by the bridge with gaps because they could see through to the river below. Only the solid bridge was deemed safe enough by them!
We wandered on several miles further, but we had to walk a long way to get a different perspective as the panorama was so vast. Eventually we turned around and headed back to the Bright Angel lodge where we enjoyed a battleship burger and a tortilla salad. We had a look at the interesting display about Fred Harvey from England who started as a dishwasher and decided that there was money to be made from food services – particularly on the railway routes. He ended up building the Bright Angel Lodge and when he died they had 47 hotels, 23 dining cars on trains, and serviced one cruise steamer. As we walked out we saw a beautiful blue jay and followed it into the balcony of a tourist shop. We lost the bird but saw some great Grand Canyon photos including the California Condor. Keith bought some genuine imitation Indian stone arrowheads.
Afterwards, we caught the free shuttle back to our car. Then we drove out along the Hermit Trail past where we had walked stopping at numerous lookouts. At one lookout the lady with the weird antennae was waving it around so Keith approached her and it turned out that actually she was quite sane and was tracking the 75 tagged California condors living in the canyon between here and Utah. We had a good laugh with her and headed back towards home. We did stop once more at Mather Point on the eastern side of the park to see the last sunset light up the canyon walls.
On Thursday, we packed up and checked out of the hotel. It was a beautiful day as we drove out of the mountains and down to Phoenix, to stay with Keith's cousin Tom and his family. As we approached Phoenix, we started to see the long fingers of saguaro cactus on the surrounding hillsides.
We had some lunch and then drove to Tom and Claudia's to meet them, their children Iain and Madailein, and the five dogs (Boomer, Izzy, Baxter, Lola and Jelly Bean). We spent all afternoon chatting to them and we were joined later by Uncle John and his dog Chloe. Keith and Iain played soccer while Tom cooked up the barbecue. The soccer stopped when Boomer knocked Keith over and Keith broke his sunglasses heading the soccer ball!
We had a delicious dinner of tri-tip steak, salad, spaghetti squash, corn, and Spanish rice with vermicelli. We drank a pinot noir, a zinfandel and a cabernet sauvignon (Charles Schwab – three buck chuck) and tried some of Tom's Guatemalan rum. It tasted like a smooth scotch.
We had a really relaxing day on Friday. We spent a leisurely morning playing with the kids and then headed out to the Mexican Ranch Markets to buy some supplies for tonight's Thai dinner. It was just like being in a Mexican supermarket - there were a lot of unusual ingredients and we found at least eight different types of dried chilli!
Back at home we met Tom and Claudia's friendly neighbours Rich and Linda and admired their beautiful red Corvette sports car and Dodge station wagon. We saw a rabbit at last light and then we went inside and started peeling and chopping in earnest. We started off by making some Thai green curry paste and Thai red curry paste in Claudia's food processor. After that, we put together the ingredients for a prawn tom yum soup and chicken and vegetable curry. In the process Keith broke a kitchen cupboard door and had to drive to Home Depot down the road for a bottle of Gorilla glue. On the way home he saw a coyote trotting along beside 7th Avenue. We fed the kids and after Claudia arrived home from work, we had the tom yum soup, followed by a red chicken curry and a green chicken curry. Despite several improvisations, the meal was delicious.
On Saturday, Tom was at work and Claudia took us shopping. We went to Kohl's down the road first and bought clothes until it was time to go home for lunch. We had a great time going through the clearance racks and finding pretty decent clothes for ridiculously cheap prices. Claudia, who is an amazing bargain shopper and makes Suzie look like an amateur, had a coupon so on top of the already discounted prices, we received another 15% discount!
After lunch, we went to some factory outlets a few miles away. After some more purchases of clothes and shoes we went home just after dark. Then we all went out for dinner at Chili's close by. We had guacamole, salsa, and corn chips, Buffalo wings, Caribbean salad, and baby back ribs with chips.
On Sunday, we had a family barbecue and early birthday celebration for Tom, with Uncle John, Aunt Maura and Lloyd (Tom's brother) and Rich from next door. It was a really beautiful day and we were able to sit outside on the patio for lunch. The food was delicious – marinated skirt steak, plantains with sour cream, pico de gallo, gallo pinto (rice and beans), avocado salad and Nicaraguan tortillas. We had pears poached in red wine and Tom's tiramisu birthday cake for dessert.
After everyone left, we had a big clean up and then spent the evening relaxing in front of the TV, booking our accommodation for Las Vegas and reading about the next stage of our trip.
Sunday, 16 January 2011
Week 48 - USA - Amarillo, TX to Moab, UT
It was very cold, windy and raining when we woke up on Monday morning. When we walked across the car park to the Big Texan Steak Ranch for breakfast there were patches of black ice on the ground. We chose the breakfast buffet option at the Big Texan and opted for fruit, cereal, and omelettes, pancakes and French toast made to order. While we were eating our breakfast someone else took on the 72 oz steak challenge! To our surprise, he actually managed to finish the steak and sides in a little over fifty minutes, receiving a t-shirt and certificate for his efforts. He did look kinda sick though towards the end – 72 oz is about 2 kgs and there is no bone!
We checked out of the motel, packed up the car and then had to spend twenty minutes in the freezing wind scraping the ice off the car windows. According to the thermostat in the car it was minus 7°C! Finally we got going and headed West on Interstate Highway 40. We stopped briefly at the Cadillac Ranch to take photos of a line of ten vividly spray-painted Cadillacs planted nose-down in a dusty field right next to the highway.
As we drove into New Mexico, we noticed a marked change of scenery. The flat gold empty plains of Texas were replaced by flat-topped mesas, purple rocky outcrops and plains dotted with green scrub. We arrived in Albuquerque with a spectacular range of mountains in the background highlighted by the setting sun.
We checked into our hotel and had a rest before dinner. It was so cold that we didn't want to walk too far for dinner so we ate at the nearby St Clair Winery & Bistro.
On Tuesday morning, we checked out and packed up the car before walking a few blocks in the crisp air to the Golden Crown Panaderia. We enjoyed the faux adobe houses and structures everywhere. They were all painted in various shades of adobe brown and were all low set giving the town a completely different feel and look. The original adobe was a mud brick used by the native Indians which lasted extremely well in the desert conditions.
The Golden Crown Panaderia was run by a character called Pratt Morales who had been in the army and then had been running the bakery for 35 years. The New Mexican bakery goods were outstanding. Every customer got a free biscochito (traditional New Mexican cinnamon and anise cookie).
After breakfast we walked around Old Town admiring the pottery, jewellery, moccasins and native art. There were miniature sculptures of animals and spirits called fetishes carved from different stones, shells and deer horn. There was a lizard carved from serpentine, eagles with folded wings carved from a sea shell, an Indian spirit carved from deer horn, and a tiny animal carved from a striking rainbow coloured rock. There were exceptional hand-made pottery vases and figures glazed with black from manure and ash with designs etched into the glaze. We also saw some great bear shape pottery and a couple of cow skulls with small turquoise pieces stuck all over the forehead and then sealed with lacquer. We resisted temptation and walked away with nothing.
We checked out the San Felipe de Neri church on the plaza which was established by the first Spanish settlers in 1709. We went back to the Golden Crown Panaderia for lunch to try their pizzas with special New Mexican crusts – we tried a Hawaiian pizza with a blue corn crust and a vegetarian pizza with a green chilli crust.
After lunch we headed for Santa Fe on Interstate Highway 40 with a brief stop at a Mormon monument to a battalion which had participated in the Mexican American War. At Santa Fe, we checked into the Villas de Santa Fe which was part of an international group of timeshare properties called Diamond Resorts. We headed out to walk to the supermarket and grabbed some groceries for breakfasts and chicken and salad for dinner so we could eat in like normal people for a change.
We had shredded wheat, banana and blackberries with a cup of Dilmah tea for breakfast on Wednesday. Even having breakfast in makes a nice change. Only a couple of Dilmah tea bags left but they have lasted us pretty well - all the way from South Africa!
After breakfast, we walked into town. It was a cold sunny day and Santa Fe looked fantastic. There were lots of great shops, art galleries, museums, and sculptures around town, all framed by the low set adobe brown buildings. We walked around the main plaza and took a side street where we ran into a theatre which had Norman arch windows, wrought iron grilles and a white dragon design running around the adobe roof. We found an amazing carpet gallery across the road and gawked at the amazing carpets from Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, and Kazakhstan. This place must have had millions of dollars of stock and they were displayed beautifully on walls and floor with light fittings which were also works of art. Suzie bought a purse on sale from Overland. It wasn't quite as cheap as we thought because tax had to be added. It's a real pain – you think that you are getting a really good deal and then you have to add tax (and in restaurants – a tip)!
We walked down to Tomasita's in the old railway station building for lunch. We wanted to try the New Mexico version of Mexican food. We ordered a jumbo plate between the two of us with a side salad. It had a taco, an enchilada, a tamale, red and green chile sauce, a stuffed chilli, beans and Spanish rice. There was also a sopapilla with butter and New Mexican honey for dessert.
We stumbled across Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery gallery which had a collection of incredible hand-made pottery by Indians from the nearby pueblos. Pueblo pottery is typically made from coiled clay and shaped by hand rather than thrown on a potter's wheel. The pots are usually painted and then polished with a stone before being painted with traditional designs. Each of the pueblos had their own particular style. This store had examples of Hopi (colourful designs on terracotta coloured clay), Acoma (brilliant white clay with black geometric designs), and San Ildefonso (black on black, polished on matte designs) pottery. We stopped by the chilli shop and admired the prints of all the different chillis of the world.
After breakfast on Thursday, we did some preparation for our next few legs, reading the Lonely Planet, our large map book and researching on the net. Our next few legs would take us into the southwest corner of Colorado to the cliff dwellings in the Mesa Verde National Park, then into Utah to the Arches National Park, and down to Monument Valley in Arizona on the Navajo tribal nation territory. From there we hoped to go to the Grand Canyon National Park, Sedona and on to Phoenix. We were excited but slightly nervous about the weather at this time of year.
We finished and walked a circuitous route around town to the Visitor's centre. The lady at the Visitor's Centre gave us some information about our first leg to Mesa Verde National Park and a couple of ideas for things to see in Santa Fe.
We walked to the mission next door which was closed. Apparently it was the earliest church in the USA being established in 1610. We walked past the Loreto Chapel to the Basilica Cathedral San Francis of Assisi with beautiful bronze doors and a modern looking interior. There were colourful painted designs in the arches and ceilings, beautiful stained glass windows, and a large marble baptismal font in centre. Back in the Plaza we walked past a lot of Native Americans selling stone jewellery and some pueblo pottery.
We went to The Shed for lunch. We had a chicken enchilada in a blue corn tortilla with red chilli and green chilli sauce (Christmas) and a pork stew served with a cheese enchilada in a blue corn tortilla with red chilli sauce. It was substantially hotter than yesterday's lunch and we both found ourselves sweating at the end. Northern New Mexican food seems to be more chilli-based than its Tex-Mex neighbour. Tex-Mex food seems to have more smoky flavours and tomato based sauces rather than pure chilli-based sauces.
We spent the afternoon walking around town looking for streets that we hadn't seen and soaking up the atmosphere on our last day in Santa Fe.
After breakfast on Friday, we packed up the car and headed north out of Santa Fe to Cortez, Colorado and the Mesa Verde National Park. We drove past a succession of Indian-run casinos (apparently they get tax breaks) and a series of Indian pueblos, some of which looked very run down with dilapidated trailers. Then the landscape changed to large rock buttes in beautiful hues of yellow, orange and red. It was below freezing and the ground was covered in a thick blanket of snow. We drove past a large lake and there were forests of snow covered conifers. We saw a large brown eagle with white head and neck on one of the trees.
We stopped for lunch in the pretty town of Durango. When we got back to our car after lunch we had a parking ticket! Luckily it was only $9. We paid it at the Council cashier a couple of blocks away and then hit the road again.
We stopped briefly at the entrance to the Mesa Verde National Park but there was no one there so we continued on to Cortez where we found a room at the Baymont Inn. We went to the Visitor Centre in town and saw some great photos of the cliff dwellings in the park.
We'd had a really magical day driving through the white snow in the bright sun. It was also a relief to find that the roads were clear and dry even though there was a lot of snow on the ground.
After breakfast on Saturday, we checked out and then drove to the Mesa Verde National Park. It was a cold crisp morning but there was no wind and the roads had been cleared.
Mesa Verde National Park was made up of canyons, mesas, and red rock formations. It was home to the Ancestral Puebloan people who built whole villages around the mesa tops and on ledges, niches and caves in the canyons. Once in the park, we drove straight past all the lookouts to the Chapin Mesa museum because there was a guided tour starting at 10 am.
At Chapin Mesa, we walked along a bitumen path with Ranger Sean Duffy to the nearby Spruce Tree House, the most well preserved of the cliff dwellings. The buildings built under the massive overhang housed 40-50 people in sandstone and mortar apartments up to three stories high. The buildings were beautifully fashioned with the sandstone bricks forming square or round buildings reaching up to the roof and walls of the cave and moulded to fit the shape of the surrounding cave walls. Tree branches or large flat sandstone slabs were used in the lintels over doorways. The exterior and interiors were painted in adobe reds and ochre. There were public spaces and communal areas for grinding corn making the entire area undercover a small village or pueblo. The buildings were three deep with a lot of smoke blackening on the roof of the cave. Doors were very small as the average height of an adult was five feet. We noticed holes in the floor with ladders sticking out. We descended into one of these kivas or ceremonial rooms built underground. It was a round room with a fireplace in the middle and a ventilation shaft opposite with deflector stones set into the ground in front. There was a smaller hole in the ground near the centre of the room which is the sipapu or opening to the underworld. The Puebloans believed that the cosmos was a series of worlds with devils and witchcraft in the lower worlds and light and good life in the upper worlds (sounds familiar).
After the tour of the Spruce Tree House we walked around the museum where they had an excellent video covering aspects of Puebloan history and culture. They also had great displays of stuffed birds, carved stone/bone tools, textiles, painted ceramics, weapons, jewellery and basket weaving including a large snare. Many of the items were in amazingly good condition, probably preserved in the caves.
We drove out along the six mile long Mesa Loop road and stopped at a series of lookouts and excavations of early mesa top pit dwellings and later above ground constructions. Interestingly they all contained the kiva ceremonial room underground construction. The lookouts were extraordinary because you were looking down into the canyon at points where the cliff dwellings were visible along or across the canyon. The largest cliff dwelling was the Cliff Palace housing approximately 150 people.
We stopped at the Sun Temple for a picnic lunch. This was a huge mesa top construction which was never completed. There was also no evidence of habitation. We enjoyed our lunch in the warm sun looking over the miles of golden canyon walls, white snow and green conifers. It was incredibly quiet and peaceful. We drove out of the park slowly stopping at a couple of viewpoints for photos of the snow covered plains below and mountain ranges in the distance.
We drove north on the highway into Utah where we saw some deer searching for grass in the snow. The landscape changed with large brown buttes, towers and walls rising out of the plain. In the setting sun the brown and red colours were magnificent. We reached Moab as it went dark and checked into our hotel.
On Sunday morning we drove out to Arches National Park for the day. The park is home to the world's greatest concentration of natural sandstone arches. It was also full of other amazing red rock formations – fins, spires, pinnacles and rocks balanced precariously on inadequate looking columns. We spent the day in the park driving around stopping at the view points and where possible hiking to view the formations close up.
Our first stop was the Park Avenue viewpoint which was a canyon lined with large red sandstone blocks reminiscent of skyscrapers. We had a short walk around Balanced Rock (a large balancing rock the size of three school buses), and then a more substantial hike around Turret Arch, North Window and South Window. We took our lunch with us on the next hike to Double Arch and while we were eating our lunch we watched icicles breaking off and crashing underneath the arches as they melted in the sun. After lunch we drove further on into the park stopping at the Fiery Furnace Viewpoint - so named because the rock formations look a fiery red in the afternoon sun. At the Devil's Garden Trailhead which was the end of the road, we went on a hike to the Landscape Arch (an improbably long and slender arch) with short side trips to the Navajo Arch and the Partition Arch. These hikes were a little more challenging because the bitumen path ended and we had to follow a primitive trail of compacted and very slippery ice over some boulders. We both fell over on the ice but nothing was hurt except our pride. Our last stop for the day was the Delicate Arch Viewpoint where it was just a short walk along a muddy slushy path to see the lone standing arch in the sunset which has become a symbol of Utah.
We drove out of the park as it got dark and stopped at Pasta Jays where we had garlic bread with artichoke and spinach ravioli with creamy tomato sauce, and Portobello mushroom stuffed with chicken breast, spinach and ricotta on a bed of spaghetti and tomato sauce. Then we went to the supermarket and bought dessert and some supplies for tomorrow's lunch. We weren't sure where we would be staying tomorrow night so we wanted to try to get an early start and maximise our driving time. We were planning to drive in a big loop and end up close to Monument Valley.
Sunday, 9 January 2011
Week 47 - USA - New Orleans, LA to Amarillo, TX
We woke up early on Monday morning and after a quick breakfast, we checked out and hit the road for Austin, Texas. We drove out of Louisiana through bayou country – lots of flat low-lying wetlands and marshes full of trees growing out of the water. At Baton Rouge we drove over the Mississippi River on an enormous bridge.
We stopped in Texas for lunch at Al T's Seafood & Steakhouse. They were still serving Louisiana specialties such as gumbo and jambalaya, but we saw some Texan-sized steaks on their menu and big bags of "crackling" for sale. The friendly waitress gave us a piece each to try, but in addition to the pork rind there was a big crispy layer of fat underneath – probably our fat allocation for the next two days. We settled for a burger and a large chicken salad. We hit the road again across the flat brown Texan plains. There were lots of billboards along the freeway advertising casinos, personal injury lawyers and fundamentalist Christian propaganda.
We arrived in Austin just after dark only to find that there was a convention on, however we still managed to find reasonable accommodation on the edge of downtown. We had a rest in our room and then went out to find some dinner. It was a ten minute walk into town and we walked along Sixth Street which was lined with bars playing live music and tattoo parlours. We walked around a couple of blocks and then headed back to a Tex-Mex restaurant on Sixth Street for dinner.
We were woken up in the middle of the night by some people in the room next to us. One lady was describing very loudly how she got her tattoos in jail! When Keith opened the door to our room, they were really apologetic and quietened down immediately.
After breakfast on Tuesday in the overcrowded dining room, we walked to the stunning pink granite Italian Renaissance Texas State Capitol. Like everything in Texas, it was bigger - fifteen feet taller than the US Capitol in Washington, DC. We entered the building through the South Foyer where we were greeted by life size marble statues of Stephen F Austin and Sam Houston. A guide conducted us on a short tour of the building and then we were free to wander around ourselves. Inside the foyer there was a beautiful terrazzo floor commemorating battles fought on Texas soil, a rotunda and a dome. On the rotunda floor was the Great Seal surrounded by the six seals of the countries (France, Spain, Mexico, Texas, Confederate United States and United States) whose flags have flown over Texas. Portraits of the Presidents and Governors of Texas circled the four levels of the rotunda, and two hundred and eighteen feet above us in the dome was a star measuring eight feet from point to point. We visited the Senate Chamber, the House of Representatives Chamber, the Supreme Court courtroom and the Court of Appeals courtroom, which contained beautiful antique oak and walnut furniture, drapes, and paintings. We left the Capitol building and spent a little time wandering around the Grounds admiring the flower gardens, fountains and monuments.
Then we made our way to the Visitor's Centre on Sixth Street where we got some information and a brochure containing a self guided walking tour. The walking tour started at the Texas State Capitol and finished on Sixth Street so we decided to do it backwards. We had just started the walking tour when it began to rain, we tried to keep going but the rain just got heavier so we decided to stop for lunch. It was still raining when we finished lunch so we walked back to the hotel to collect the car.
We drove to South Congress Avenue which was full of really interesting and unusual shops. We went to Uncommon Objects which had a great collection vintage clothing, accessories, home wares and antiques. We visited Allen's Boots which sold very expensive Western clothing, Stetsons and beautiful leather cowboy boots. There were also a few lots along the Avenue where fast food vendors were plying their wares out of shiny silver retro caravans (Air Streams).
We decided to have dinner at the highly recommended Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood. It was a twenty mile drive away and appeared to be in the middle of nowhere – but it was worth it. There was a big brick smouldering BBQ pit with big slabs of brisket, turkey, ribs and chickens cooking on racks over the coals and Germanic looking sausages hanging from hooks above. We tried brisket, pork ribs, turkey and sausage with potato and slaw. For dessert we shared a warm blackberry cobbler with ice-cream. It was all really delicious!
On Wednesday we walked into town to complete the rest of the walking tour we had attempted yesterday. Today there was clear blue sky and we started near the Capitol and worked our way south on Congress Avenue past the Governor's Mansion which had been burnt down by arson and was under reconstruction, and the old Capitol building ruins, also burnt to the ground. There was the beautiful Old Bakery building from 1876 which was now a tourist visitor centre. We saw St Mary's Cathedral built in 1874 and Millett's Opera House from 1878.
We wandered around checking out the old architecture including copper bay windows and cast iron store fronts. We stopped at the immaculately restored Driskill Hotel for a grapefruit juice and walked around the lobby and bar areas marvelling at the antique furnishings, stained glass fittings, paintings, trophy heads and sculptures. We continued on to the Second Avenue shopping district past old hardware shops, livery stables, grocery stores etc.
After lunch we set off to check out the northern area of Austin. We walked up Guadalupe Street past the University of Texas with an impressive clock tower, cheap restaurants and good street art. We stopped at Supercuts for Suzie to have a haircut and the lead story in the local paper was the closure of Macy's at a local shopping mall after 31 years. We checked out Trudy's Tex Mex as a dinner possibility on the way to walk through Texas University. The university was enormous with roads running through it and it took us a while to reach the travertine Lyndon Johnson Library and Museum. We saw a recreation of the Oval Office with memorabilia from the LBJ days – the tumultuous 1960's with the Cold War and the Vietnam War. There was a display of the gifts from numerous heads of state visiting the White House at the time. We sat and listened to a great humour exhibit (with a life-size animatronic LBJ doll) give excerpts from famous LBJ speeches including the hard of hearing drunk (I liked what I was drinking, better than what I was hearing), and Winston Churchill receiving the temperance union lady (We have achieved so little and there is so much more to do). We were kicked out at 5.00 pm and on the way back to the hotel we found a mobile phone on the road. The grateful owner gave us a giant chocolate éclair – as if we needed that!
We went to dinner at Trudy's where we shared their infamous stuffed avocado, a salad and flan for dessert. The stuffed avocado was battered, fried and stuffed with spicy chicken and cheese. One of the waiters warned us that "People do not come here for health reasons".
We had an easy day on Thursday as we were driving to Dallas to visit Keith's cousin Sonja and her family and we wanted to arrive after they had got back from school and work.
We checked out of our hotel late morning and drove out of Austin stopping on the way at a shopping centre for lunch. It was only a short drive to Dallas and we drove along the Interstate Highway 35 most of the way. Sonja and Mike live about twenty miles north of Dallas so we had wonderful views of the skyscrapers with the blue sky in the background as we drove past the city on the way to their house through a spaghetti of highways.
It was really great to see Sonja again as we last saw her with baby Jack (now almost fifteen) in 1997. We were meeting Mike and their other two kids Luke and Annie, and the squirrel hunter dog, Max, for the first time today. After we unloaded our bags, we had to head out almost immediately to take Luke to basketball practice, and then we drove on into town for dinner at Patrizio (Mike and Sonja's favourite restaurant). After dinner we headed back to Mike and Sonja's place where we spent a couple of hours chatting before turning in for bed.
On Friday, after Sonja got back from dropping her kids off at school, we drove into town to check out the JFK memorial.
We parked downtown and walked to the Sixth Floor Museum. The museum was housed in the old Texas School Book Depository, where Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal bullets from the sixth floor. It was an exhibit detailing the events leading up to, during and after the assassination. There were displays of memorabilia, detailed eyewitness accounts, original photographs taken by onlookers, documentary film and video footage.
Then we walked to the nearby Victory Tavern for lunch. We spent such a long time chatting over lunch, that we had to rush to go and pick up Annie and Luke from school. After we got back to Mike and Sonja's house, we left the others and walked around the lake to the supermarket where we bought fruit, chocolate and wine. It was just getting dark when we walked back to the house, and on the way we saw lots of coots and ducks in the beautiful sunset over the lake.
Back at the house, we helped put together a salad while Mike grilled some steaks on the barbecue outside. We had a lovely dinner with lots of laughter and we spent a pleasant evening catching up.
On Saturday morning, after various children had been collected (Annie from a sleepover and Luke from hockey practice), we had a lovely big breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs and tortillas together. We spent a leisurely morning and then headed out to watch Jack's ice hockey match. The game was on an oval ice rink with two teams of six players wearing a lot of protective gear. It was very fast-paced and physical with the players constantly slamming into the barriers and each other and sliding across the ice. The game was very exciting and Jack scored three of the goals in a 6-3 win.
After the game we all drove to Fort Worth (Cow Town) and it was very touristy, but had excellent stockyards with Texas Longhorns and horses to ride, a stockyard maze, Cowboy hall of fame, mechanical bulls, Indians and cowboys galore, and associated paraphernalia. After the kids had made it through the maze and Annie had ridden a horse, we left for Joe T. Garcia's Tex Mex restaurant around the corner where we had the best Mexican food we had ever eaten. We started with corn chips and salsa, followed by nachos topped with tomatillo salsa and cheese, enchiladas in rich tomato sauce, corn tortillas, flour tortillas, beef, chicken, onions, capsicum, guacamole, rice and refried beans with a smoky pork flavour. We shared some sopapillas for dessert. These were deep fried tortillas with honey and cinnamon. We drove home with a detour round a massive traffic jam and relaxed in front the gas fire in the living room.
After breakfast on Sunday, we said goodbye to everyone and then headed off. It was raining very heavily so we made slow progress. As the morning progressed the temperature began to drop and we found ourselves driving through sleet which turned into snow. The roads were icy and the countryside was white. Just before lunch we came out of the other side of the cold front.
The sun was shining when we arrived in Amarillo but it was still bitterly cold. We drove through Amarillo and then decided to drive back to the highway to check out the Big Texan Inn opposite the Big Texan Steak Ranch - an "Our Pick" restaurant in the Lonely Planet. We had seen signs for the Big Texan Steak Ranch's 72 oz steak challenge (the steak is free if you can eat it together with all the accompaniments in less than an hour) all along the highway. The facade of the motel resembled a street in an old West town and the room was really nice with chunky wooden furniture, fringed bed linens and curtains, all decorated with the Texan five-pointed star.
At 7.30 pm we walked across the car park to the Big Texan Steak Ranch. The inside of the restaurant looked like a big barn. There were light fittings fashioned from cartwheels and antlers and animal heads mounted on the walls. Neither of us felt up to the steak challenge – opting instead to share a 21 oz steak with sides of coleslaw, okra, cowboy beans and green beans and we tried a couple of delicious tender smoked beef ribs. While we were in the restaurant, a man attempted the steak challenge with much fanfare and applause. He gave up after about forty minutes having barely made a dent in the steak. Sitting at the table next to us were three old timers from Illinois who were heading to New Mexico to do some quail hunting. We all left the restaurant at the same time and they showed us their six hunting dogs (setters) in their custom built truck. Each dog had its own compartment filled with hay.
Monday, 3 January 2011
Week 46 - USA - Charleston, SC to New Orleans, LA
On Monday, after a final breakfast in the hotel lobby (including some wicked sticky cinnamon buns with pecans), we checked out of the hotel and started our drive to Savannah. We drove south out of Charleston, to the islands which were cut off from the mainland by inlets and tidal marshes. It was a beautiful clear day in contrast to the snow the day before.
It was a short drive to Johns Island, where we paid a short visit to the Angel Oak, a Southern live oak estimated to be 300-400 years old, standing 65 feet (20 metres) tall, measuring 28 feet (8.5 metres) in circumference, and covering an area of 17,000 square feet (1,600 square metres) with its canopy.
Our next stop was Wadmawlaw Island, where we paid a brief visit to the Charleston Tea Plantation. Unlike the other tea plantations that we had visited on this trip, the tea plantation was on flat ground, there seemed to be no gaps between the tea bushes, and the bushes were a uniform height with perfectly flat tops. Inside the Visitor Centre we found out that the tea was harvested mechanically. We went to the viewing gallery in the Visitor's Centre where we could see the spotlessly clean factory and tea processing machinery. After a brief look at the gift shop, we were on our way again.
We stopped at Beaufort (pronounced "byoo-furt") for lunch. After lunch we walked to the water's edge and then had a short walk along the town streets lined with antebellum homes and magnolias draped in Spanish moss. It was really cold so we were pretty keen to get back in the car for our next leg to Savannah.
It took us a little over an hour to drive to Savannah from Beaufort. On the outskirts of the town we stopped to check out the rooms at a brand new Hampton Inn. The room was really nice and because it was new, the price was really good too. The only downside was that it wasn't within walking distance of the Historic Centre. We drove on into town, checking out another couple of options along the way, but they were more expensive and not as clean and nice. We climbed down a couple of flights of stairs to River Street, had a short walk along the riverfront, and then decided to have dinner and go back to the Hampton Inn.
After breakfast on Tuesday, we drove to the city. We parked in the Visitor's Centre and walked around town from square to square. The historical centre had a small green square every few blocks and each one had either a fountain or a monument in the centre of an area of grass dotted with large shady oak trees festooned with Spanish moss. It was very picturesque in the sunshine and each square offered a couple of good photographs from the monument, fountain or sculpture to the impressive surrounding buildings with shutters, iron work, Greek/Roman columns and capitals, and antebellum architecture. We walked to the edge of the Historic District where we found the large Forsyth Park with a beautiful fountain next to a great Civil War monument. It was so cold that there was ice hanging off the white sculptures in the fountain.
We stopped for lunch and then continued walking to River Street, the historic cobblestone street along the Savannah River. In the daylight we could see that River Street was at least two storeys lower than the rest of the streets in town. There we saw the riverside and converted cotton warehouses in the daylight. The street was lined with sweet and souvenir shops targeted at tourists and there were also tourist river boats offering cruises on the Savannah River. We saw an old pirate's tavern which supposedly inspired Robert Louis Stevenson in the writing of Treasure Island and the First African Baptist Church (which was closed) before we stopped at Mabel Francis Potter's Cupcake Emporium for afternoon tea of a red velvet cupcake topped with cream cheese frosting.
We arrived back at the car having enjoyed walking around Savannah's historic squares immensely, and drove past our hotel on Abercorn Street to a shopping centre where we did a bit of window shopping before having dinner, followed by a warm cinnamon bun with icing and pecans (unbelievable) from Cinnabon. Afterwards we watched a guy making the "Cinnabons". He spread copious amounts of butter onto a big rectangle of pastry, dumped a mountain of cinnamon sugar on it, rolled it up and then cut it. They went into the oven with icing to be added afterwards. No wonder they tasted so great!
We drove back to the hotel and collapsed into bed earlier than normal because we wanted to get an early start for the drive to Mobile, Alabama.
On Wednesday we hit the road after breakfast. We drove out of Savannah on Interstate Highway 95 until for the first hour or so and then we headed inland on a couple of lesser highways. We had to keep slowing down as we drove through small towns. This was the most interesting part of our journey. We drove past more trees draped with Spanish moss, marshland, pine plantations, vultures foraging on the side of the road, lots of Baptist and Gospel Churches and some dilapidated mobile homes in trailer parks.
We stopped for lunch at Granddaddy's BBQ at Thomasville. We tried fried green tomatoes, smoked chicken salad, pulled pork with tasty house BBQ sauce, and fried okra followed by pumpkin pie. It was all really delicious and our first taste of eating at a real home-style BBQ as opposed to a chain restaurant.
We hit the road again after lunch and at Tallahassie (capital of Florida), we turned onto Interstate Highway 10 on which we drove all the way to Mobile, Alabama. On the way into Mobile, we drove past an enormous car dealership containing seventeen acres of brand new Honda, Toyota and Hyundai vehicles. After ten hours of driving and one time change (the clock went back an hour), we arrived at Mobile at a little after 6.00 pm. We had decided that we were going to push on to New Orleans the next day so we drove out of town a little way to check out some accommodation options. After checking out a few places we went back to the Hampton Inn, where Jennifer the friendly receptionist dropped the room rate by $30 and then unasked, gave us an upgrade to a suite. After checking in, at Jennifer's suggestion we went to Carrabba's Italian Grill where we had a delicious meal washed down with some lovely red wine. It was a great end to a long and tiring day on the road.
As it was only a short drive to New Orleans, we slept in on Thursday, and had a leisurely breakfast before checking out of the hotel and hitting the road. We drove out of Alabama and through Mississippi to Louisiana. Just after we drove into Louisiana, we stopped at a Tourist Information Centre where a helpful lady gave us a map of New Orleans, some helpful tips and recommended a Best Western hotel a little way out of town because all the down town hotels were either fully occupied or prohibitively expensive because of New Year and the huge Sugarbowl football game. We checked into the hotel and dropped off our luggage before driving into town.
We stopped "Uptown" and had a delicious lunch at a tiny little cafe called The Milk Bar. It was owned by Inta (from Australia) and Kevin (from the UK) who were really friendly and eager to chat when they found out that we were from Australia. Inta was really helpful and went out of her way to suggest some jazz clubs and places to eat around town. After lunch, we spent a couple of hours browsing at the nearby Borders bookstore because we had some discount coupons to use.
Then we drove to the French Quarter where we had some difficulty finding somewhere to park as the roads were really busy and all the parking lots were full. Finally we found a metered parking space near the French Market, parked the car and went for a walk. We walked along Decatur Street looking for the Information Centre only to find that it was closed. We had a quick look at the Mississippi River before heading into the middle of the French Quarter to Bourbon Street, a historic tourist –trap street spanning the entire quarter. The upper end was home to bars, restaurants, souvenir shops and strip clubs. As soon as we walked on to Bourbon Street, we were accosted by a charming hustler and before we knew it we had donated $20 to Food for Life and we were each sporting a New Orleans baseball cap! We walked along Bourbon Street, past all the flashing neon signs, bars blaring loud music (jazz and cover bands), restaurant spruikers, strippers having cigarette breaks, beggars and street entertainers to the much quieter and less touristy neighbourhood of Fauborg Marigny. We walked along Frenchmen Street which had a number of live jazz bars, cafes and restaurants. We had a delicious dinner at the Middle Eastern Mona's Cafe and then drove back to the hotel.
New Orleans had a very different feel from anywhere we had already been in the USA. It was much warmer and humid, much like Brisbane and was the first place where we didn't need our coats. It was extremely wet and low lying and driving over the massive highway bridge to New Orleans made it feel like an island (although it is in fact on a thin strip of land between the Mississippi River and the huge Lake Pontchartrain). There was a very Bohemian undercurrent – there were many strange people around and lots of evident poverty. For example a lady was begging for money (panhandling) inside the Borders store. There was a strong musical element also visible everywhere in the street with bars and buskers producing music.
On Friday, we had to rush to breakfast before it finished at 9.00 am. Outside it was raining, so we decided to have a lazy morning reading and sending emails and go into town later. At 2.00 pm we were collected by the Triple J minibus organised by the hotel to take us into town and the French Quarter. Our driver's name was James and the Triple J was named for Jesus, Joan (after his late wife) and James. James dropped us off at Bourbon Street which already had a festive feel about it. We walked to the edge of the French Quarter to Port of Call which James said had the best burgers in New Orleans. Other people obviously thought so too because it was full inside and there was a big queue outside. Luckily, because we were happy to sit at the bar rather than wait for a table, we were able jump the queue and place our orders in a relatively short time. The food was really delicious – our burgers were perfectly cooked and instead of the usual fries, they came with a baked potato so we didn't feel too guilty.
After lunch we spent a few hours wandering around the French Quarter. We paid a visit to the National Park Visitor Centre on Decatur Street. There we found that as there was no parkland, the park rangers were actually jazz musicians and there was a schedule of free concerts that they performed.
We stopped at the Cafe du Monde (a New Orleans institution) for cafe au lait and beignets (a square doughnut coated liberally with icing sugar). The Lonely Planet had suggested it was overrated and we had been put off earlier by the lengthy queues, however to our surprise, we really enjoyed the experience especially as we were entertained by a talented street jazz band while we were there.
We walked to Jackson Square which was all lit up and surrounded by tarot card and palm readers. Then we continued walking around the Quarter for a couple more hours before joining the queue outside Coop's Place for dinner. While we were in the queue we met some locals and some Texans who were all very friendly. By the time we were allocated a table, we had a list of restaurants to go to and things to eat in New Orleans, Austin and Dallas. Coop's was a no-nonsense Cajun country shack with wobbly garden furniture and plastic cups but the food was delicious. We shared a Cajun taster plate which included seafood gumbo, rabbit and sausage jambalaya, red beans and rice, spicy shrimp Creole and fried chicken with a bottle of 2008 Tercos Malbec from Mendoza.
By the time we finished dinner, there were a lot more people in the streets and Bourbon Street was crammed full with revellers drinking in the streets (legal in New Orleans) out of large plastic novelty drinking vessels. Some of the drinks were notorious for their potency – in particular the "Hurricane" (a fruit punch and rum drink) and the "Hand Grenade" (ingredients unknown, but billed as New Orleans' strongest drink) served in a long plastic tube shaped like a hand grenade. There was a real carnival atmosphere. Almost everyone was wearing strings of shiny plastic beads (bling) which were being thrown from the balconies of the bars lining Bourbon Street, and some people were wearing carnival style masks, crowns and headbands with feathers. Adding to the chaos were the thousands of young fans who were in town for the Sugar Bowl (a game between two top ranking college football teams) on Sunday.
We'd had enough by this time and we called James from Triple J. He collected us and we arrived back at the hotel just in time to see the fireworks going off at midnight on the TV in the lobby. We'd had a really good day. Despite the rain in the morning, it only rained intermittently during the day and we had managed to walk around without being rained on.
The sky was grey and it was raining when we woke up on Saturday morning. After breakfast we drove into town and parked on Carondelet Street just outside the French Quarter. On the map this is in the CBD but the place was absolutely deserted and a bit eerie. There were rows of buildings with for sale signs on them and everything looked a bit rundown. We had been surprised by the appearance of some suburbs from the freeway. Many houses were still in a state of disrepair and looked like they had been bombed! Apparently when Hurricane Katrina struck many people had either no insurance or insufficient insurance. Most people who were able to recover money from the insurers left and never came back. This meant that rates collection revenue to the city council dived and services were severely cut back. Hence many of these houses are still ruined and deteriorating today.
We walked up to Mother's restaurant near Canal Street but there was a huge queue so we walked into the French Quarter and joined the shorter line outside the Camellia Grill. It was a large diner with extremely professional staff. Our waiter Will barked out orders to the grill chef a few metres away and the food flew out.
After lunch we walked through the French Market and then along the "Moon Walk" – a little path way along the Mississippi River. Unlike previous days it was quite cold and windy. We were only wearing light t-shirts and were unprepared for this, so we were pretty happy to retreat into a shopping centre on the edge of the French Quarter. After doing some window shopping, we decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel for a rest before dinner.
Later on we drove around in the area near our hotel looking for somewhere to eat. Unfortunately all that we could find were fast food outlets. All of the staff at both these outlets and all of the customers were black.
We woke up earlier on Sunday morning and drove into town after breakfast. It was a much nicer day with sunny clear skies but outside there was a chilly wind. We parked at a parking station that was much closer to the French Quarter. Then we walked into the French Quarter to begin the Lonely Planet walking tour. The walking tour was quite short and took us through streets that we had already walked along, but on the way we saw buildings and architectural features that we hadn't noticed before and took some detours down a couple of interesting side alleys.
We started the tour at Jackson square which led on to the Ursuline Convent, the oldest building in the Mississippi River Valley, and then to Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop where legendary pirate Jean Lafitte ran his tavern (which was purportedly a front for his illegal slave trading activities). We walked along Royal Street enjoying the bright coloured eighteenth century Spanish colonial architecture and fabulous wrought ironwork, stopping to peek through the windows of antiques galleries. We walked past a couple of literary haunts such as Faulkner House, the home of William Faulkner where he wrote his first novel "Soldier's Pay" and Avart-Peretti House where Tennessee Williams wrote "A Streetcar Named Desire". We finished the walk in about two hours and decided to make our way to the Croissant D'Or for an early lunch.
After lunch we walked to Canal Street to catch the historic St Charles Avenue streetcar which took us on a long journey with lots of stops (including Loyola and Tulane Universities) to Audubon Park. We walked one mile through Audubon Park to the Audubon Zoo. It was well set out with lots of great information boards and all the animals looked in great condition. There were some fantastic exhibits including the Asian Domain (with replica Indian temples and sculptures), Reptile Encounter, African Savannah, Louisiana Swamp and Jaguar Jungle (with replica Mayan ruins). We spent three hours there and only left when they closed for the day. One of the highlights was all the wild waterbirds which flock to the zoo to get fed, from pelicans to herons to ducks. Other highlights were the white alligators, bobcats, Cape hunting dogs, Amur leopards, white Bengal tigers, porcupines, white rhinos, various colourful frogs and a giant sloth trying to find a tree to climb up.
We caught the streetcar back and got off just before we reached the French Quarter. We walked to Mother's Restaurant where we shared seafood gumbo, crawfish etouffee with cabbage and turnip greens and a side order of the restaurant's famous baked ham. We had a slice of pecan pie for dessert and bought a couple of cookies to take back to the hotel.
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