25thousandmiles – USA

We knew the minute we arrived in Laguna Beach that we had made the right decision.  We could sense the atmosphere straight away.  Laid back, friendly, big sandy beach, small secluded coves, attractive cottages and beach houses (beach mansions more like!) , cafes, no fog.  Why would you want to be anywhere else?

Our other option had been Newport Beach, not quite as far south of L.A. as Laguna Beach.  We drove through it on our way to LB and saw the hotel we had considered staying in.  We thanked our blessings, and instinct.  Newport Beach looked very smart, but also very upmarket.  I’ve never been to Monaco, but I’m sure Newport Beach attracts a similar crowd.  The hotel we had considered staying in (which I must say is only one of not many inexpensive choices) was a modern conrete monstrosity next to a giant shopping mall, 2 miles in from the coast.  Just so wrong.

The Tides Inn in LB was a totally different story though.  I would  describe it as a boutique motel – the rooms are great, the pool area attractive, comfy and relaxing, and it’s just across the road from a beach.  We had a room with a big kitchenette – none of your tiny studio rooms here though, it was wonderful!  We had a king size bed, which we think was even comfier than our own bed at home, loads of space to put our things away, a great shower and the kitchen was separated from the bedroom by an archway and breakfast bar.  It really was lovely.  Free wifi too, which is always a bonus.

Oh dear, I’m coming over all misty eyed just thinking about LB and I haven’t even got past our accommodation yet.

For our 5 nights there we just wanted to rest and enjoy a more relaxed pace after doing so much travelling.  We initially thought that we would visit some of the other places round about LB, such as Huntington Beach, Dana Point and San Clemente, but we never made it, and we didn’t mind.  In a nutshell we spent 4 days and 5 nights walking along the beaches and exploring the coves of LB, watching the sunsets, eating, drinking and getting to know the locals.

Our first ‘get to know the locals’ experience was when we decided to visit the Royal Hawaiian Restaurant and Bar, just across the road from our hotel.  The bar staff really loved to chat!   They have a cocktail ther called Lapu Lapu – gorgeous but potent.  They even took instructions from Angus on how to make his favourite cocktail – a woo woo (vodka, peach scnapps, cranberry, squeeze of lime and crushed ice, just in case you’re interested).  We got chatting to Bob, Doug and Jaimee, who had to disappear rather quickly, for reasons we’ll explain here.

Whilst in San Francisco I had been asked for ID twice when buying a drink.  Being 35 years of age I thought this was fantastic.  Who needs Botox!  However I realised when we were in LB just how strict the licensing laws are in the States.  This is what happened – a family came into the Royal Hawaiian for a meal and drinks.  From what I could gather, the parents ordered everything and when the food and drink was delivered Jaimee was pulled up because she didn’t ask the boy from the family if he was 21.  The family turned out to be ’mystery shoppers’ from ABC (Alcohol Beverage Control).  I realise that these things need to be taken seriously, but surely they could introduce some sort of system whereby you get 1 strike (like a warning) and if it happens again then it goes further.  Not in the States though.  Jaimee was charged by the police, she will have to pay a fine (of up to $1000) and the business is fined up to $3000.  It just seemed extemely harsh.

We were glad that we learnt all this info from Bob and Doug though, as we had been chatting to Jaimee earlier in the evening and she was so open and friendly.  We were talking about Europe and how she would love to visit the Greek Islands.  We decided that when we got home we would send her a guide book on island hopping .  However, we didn’t have to wait that long to get her spirits up – an hour later we bumped into Jaimee and her friends in Hennesey’s in LB!  We bought her a drink and had another good chat, then we all went onto another place for a boogie (I’m in my mid-thirties, I don’t know what these young ones call it!).

Needless to say the following day was spent recovering.  We managed to drag ourselves out of bed at some point and make it the 25 steps down to the sunbeds by the pool.  Damn, what a hard life.

Another side we saw of LB is the artistic vein which runs through it.  I believe that LB was always quite a bohemian haven in the past and you can see how that still lingers today.  There are lots of photograhpers, scultors, painters. musicians and writers.  Some have smart looking shops with big displays, others just sit down by the beach working on a painting or a song.  It seems to us that LB isn’t all about status, such as somewhere like Newport Beach, it’s more about character and community.

We left Laguna Beach vowing that we would go back.  There aren’t many places where we feel so at home and so welcome.  We really felt like we made friends.

Just to let you know, I am working on the photographs as I fight off the jetlag.  So keep an eye on the photos page and you will continue to see new ones uploaded as I work through them.

If you would also like to see the photographs in a larger size or see photos from our previous trip, you can view them at our 25thousandmiles.com flickr account here.

Hope you like them :0)

P.S. they won’t be in any particular order.

Before I continue I must mention that I am now back on Scottish soil. It’s Sunday 4th October, 9.30pm.  I’ve got work tomorrow.  I’m still in denial.

So, let’s continue our roadtrip!

Monterey was pretty uneventful, apart from being chilly and foggy.  The morning was brighter though and as we made our way towards ‘17 Mile Drive’ the weather was getting better and better.  This is where we found ourselves walking along the 18th hole of the world famous, championship Pebble Beach Golf Course.  Angus was so excited I thought he might cartwheel across the green.  It was friendly and unstuffy but had so much class and even though I’m not a golf fan I was very impressed.

The journey along 17 Mile Drive is like moving through a beautiful watercolour painting.  It’s wild and serene all at the same time, with sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean and…..  Ok, I’m full of cliches, my vocabulary can’t do this place justice.  On one side of the road was a fantastic wild coast, full of sea birds and sea lions, on the other side were some of the biggest, most stunning/ostentatious/vulgar (depending on your taste) houses I’ve ever seen.

If you leave 17 Mile Drive at the Carmel Gate, it brings you into the town of Carmel-by-the-Sea, a very quaint, pretty chocolate-box type place.  It’s probably most famous for Clint Eastwood being the mayor at some point.  I did have a really good look for him mum, but I couldn’t find him.  We stopped for a short picnic before continuing on our way to San Luis Obispo (SLO).

I must admit that I fell asleep during some of the drive between Monterey and SLO, which is a shame because  this section of Highway 1 is one of the best.  Wild coast, waves battering the rocks hundreds of feet below and windy roads right on the edge of the steep cliffs.  Again, Angus’s photos will say more than I can (they’ll be availble very soon).

We checked into our accommodation in SLO at about 4.30pm, which was good as it meant we could get settled and then have an evening out.  Although when I say get settled I mean in the most basic sense.  We were staying at a hostel for the night.  Private room (We’re too old for anything else) and shared bathroom (can cope with that for a night), but we were informed on arrival that we had to check out by 10am and to strip the sheets off our bed and put them in the washing basket before we left.  Okaaay.  Beer o’clock then.

Buffalo Grill was our first stop – the smallest burger they do is a half pounder.  Following a meal for four we stumbled across The Library, a bar/club type place that served the strongest vodkas we’ve ever had.  I had to get extra glasses of Sprite to weaken it, which was free by the way.  Three hours later, once we’d digested some of the food and vodka, we went the the Frog and Peach, a pub rather than a bar, with very loud live music.  We loved it!  We had a good chat with some locals, and one guy from Fresno, whose mouth gets him into all sorts of trouble I’m sure.

I opened my eyes at 9am and realised that we had been fairly sensible the evening before as we didn’t feel too bad.  So, after stripping our bed (I wondered if I should dust the furniture too) we loaded our Jeep and headed to Laguna Beach.  Our last stop on the roadtrip, but having five nights in the sun, by the beach, felt like a whole other holiday.

That’s for the next blog though.  If you don’t want to wait for it all I can say is that Laguna Beach is a chilled out town with a myriad of rocky beach coves, artists shops, very friendly people  and a real community feel – especially when they are getting done over by the ABC.  Stay tuned if you want to hear more.

 Join us on a complete journey hanging off a cable car (tram, to me) through the streets of San Francisco.  I’ve speeded up the movie, not so it runs quicker, it’s I just find it funny hearing Di laughing like  a chimpmunk :0)

A few movies from San Francisco for you to see.

Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz

Sea Lions

Driving Lombard Street

We’re sitting by our hotel pool in Laguna Beach, enjoying the sunshine and I’ve realised that I haven’t even told you about San Francisco and the famous Highway 1 yet!

We spent 4 nights in San Francisco, which is a good amount of time to see quite a bit of the city – any less time would be a struggle. These were our first impressions of SF:

• Cold and foggy – as we drove into San Francisco we should have been able to see our first glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was shrouded in thick fog, which is very common on this part of the coast.
• Fantastic public transport system.
• A ridiculous number of homeless people/bums/drop-outs – the first encounter we had with a San Franciscan was with a homeless guy who wanted to help us carry our bags from the car.
• There seemed to be a lot of areas that you don’t want to walk around, especially at night.

That mostly seems a bit negative, but over the next few days San Francisco really grew on us and by the time we left we decided that we would definitely love to go back.  It has great architecture, delicious food, wonderful scenery and a vibrant atmosphere.

For the first couple of days we took the easy option of a hop on-hop off tour bus – a good way to get familiarise yourself with the layout of SF and the different neighbourhoods.  This particular company took you over the Golden Gate Bridge, so we did this twice to make sure that we got to see some of it through the fog.

One of our favourite days was when we went walking through Chinatown and North Beach (SF’s Little Italy).  We love seeing different areas, enjoying the cafe culture and doing a bit of people watching.  We didn’t expect to see Arnold Schwarzenegger though.  We were sat outside the North Beach Restaurant enjoying a refreshment and we heard a passer-by say that he was in there.  We then noticed lots of suited, serious looking guys milling around and a big vehicle with blacked out windows waiting outside.  Sure enough, about 15 minutes later out walks Arnie, with cigar in hand.  Unfortunately when the bodyguard saw that Angus had a professional looking camera, he said rather menacingly “please don’t do that, Mr. Schwarzenegger is on personal time”.  So, we didn’t get a photo!  He’s not as tall as you might think.

The real highlight for us though was a visit to Alcatraz.  Do not go to SF without going there!  It was fantastic and on the day we were there, one of the ex-inmates (Darwin Coon), who has written a book, was there signing copies.  It was quite strange, after doing the tour, to have a guy who had spent 4 years in there sitting talking to me.  He didn’t say very much and although on a normal day I would have had 1001 questions, my mind was blank!

Actually, there was another highlight – going to watch the San Francisco Giants (Baseball) at AT&T Park.  That was excellent – brilliant atmosphere, friendly people.  Unfortunately they lost to the Chicago Cubs, and it was quite an important game for the Giants, but we still had a ball (sorry, terrible pun).  Angus then thrashed me twice at pool – everyone has bad days!  I also have to brag that on that evening I got asked for ID twice when ordering drinks at the bar, so that felt like a little victory to me.

I think that the only area we were a bit disappointed with was Haight-Ashbury – the iconic sixties home of the hippies.  There are definitely lots of hippies still there, but to me most of them seemed to be young people, wearing clothes made from hemp, asking for change.  Are they genuinely homeless, or is it just “cool” to hang about the area like that because of it’s history?  It’s maybe unfair to pose the question, but the area just had a bit of a fake feel to it.  There are some interesting shops and cafes (I had the best pastrami Sandwich at Rockin Java), plus Amoeba Records is located there – the biggest collection of vinyl I’ve ever seen under one roof.  Would still recommend a visit – draw your own conclusions.

Our trip down Highway 1 commenced the next day, but I shall save that for another post as this is getting too long!

Ok, we’ve been dealing with either no internet connection or some of the worst wifi on the planet for the last few day, so apologies for the lack of updates on the site!

I have managed to upload a few photos though, they are completly un-edited, raw and not  been touched in any way so pardon the roughness of them. I thought it would be better to get at least something up rather than nada!

Were about to embark though on our final few days of rest (woohoo no driving!) and I’ll spend some time getting some good shots  uploaded for you to see.  Hopefully I’ve managed to get a few good ones.

It’s a while since I actually blogged so I thought I’d give you a bit of an update while we have our lunch in the Rockin’ Java Cafe in the Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco (it’s still full of hippies).

You’ll have seen our videos of Yosemite National Park and Angus will post some photos on the site, but I just wanted to give a brief description of our time there.

When we were at the Grand Canyon I thought to myself that the over-used American word “Awesome” should be reserved for use only when describing the Canyon, but then we got to Yosemite. Wow. Double Awsome! Staying over at Tuolumne Meadows in the tent cabin was a great experience – we really felt like we were in the wilderness (as close as you can get without hiking further into the park).

I drove us over the Tioga Pass, which runs through the park, the next day. The scenery was amazing – sheer granite rock faces, forests, lakes. It really is a breathtaking place. We really hoped that we’d see a bear, bobcat or something, but all we managed was a few Golden Crested Ground Squirrels! Cute little things.

We were able to spend the whole day in the park and gradually worked our way over to Midpines, about 20 miles west of the park, where we were staying at the Yosemite Bug Rustic Mountain Resort. What a place! We were supposed to be in a tent cabin again, but we decided to upgrade to a private double lodge for a bit of comfort (actually only the same price as the tent cabin the previous night!).

We had a brilliant evening in the lounge/bar – listening to live music again and making more new friends. The band, Jezzebelle, were Katie and Gary from Dublin. They are touring around California promoting themselves. They are an excellent acoustic band. It turned out that they would be in LA on Sunday 27th Sept so we are going to have an extra night in LA so we can all meet up at The Joint.

We were all feeling pretty rough the next day, but we were up and about quite early so that we could drive over to San Francisco.

I shall save that for the next blog!

Cheerio.

A quick selection of video clips through Yosemite National Park.