Month: September 2017

Thursday September 28, 2017.
Reached Vancouver mid-to-late afternoon yesterday in time to shop for risotto and move into our apartment on the fifth floor of Robson St in the heart of the CBD.
And this morning the sun was shining again and we took in as much of the city as we could for showers are forecast for tomorrow.
To the initiated Stanley Park is as beautiful as ever—but for us it is quite a sensation. Wack in $3.50 along with your car licence number and you can spend all day in any of the tens of carparks near the best vantage spots. Gorgeous trees and jewelled waters sparkling in the sunshine do make for a magic day. But lo, rising out of the middle of the park is the giant Lion Gate bridge across to north Vancouver and you wouldn’t ever know it was there!
Leaving Stanley we made our way to Gastown in the city’s old part. Travelling along a dump of a road I asked the navigator if we were actually in Gastown. “Yes” was her reply until a few streets further over we eventually reached the hub with the statue of Gassy Jack the steam clock and all.
Being such a perfect day we also took in Chinatown and plan for dinner in our apartment tonight.
Tomorrow Granville Island, but it may mean getting spray jackets out of the bottom of the suitcases; especially if we make our way there in an aquabus.

Sunday Sept 24

From Portland Oregon our current location having left the coast passing through Albany and taking a WEB (well earned break) over the weekend in the state capital. Oregon has had serious fires this summer and so visits to Columbia River Gorge and the snow covered Mt Hood are not accessible. So it is the rose garden and Washington park for us today.

We have come across many beautiful scenes during our trip and you can only nick a pic here and there in order to tell the story. Like on day 1 we actually saw a hummingbird right in front of us taking nectar from a bush as we parked the car; then there are the Aussie Eucalypts in many corners of California together with the occasional bursts of bottlebrush (Kings Park special) and finally some better shots of the spectacular Oregon coast

 

Tuesday September 19 Santa Rosa
With this Ca area you get two wine locations for the price of one; Sonoma and Napa. We arrived here from Santa Clara a little after noon yesterday and spent the afternoon at the Charles M Shultz museum ( Shultz being the creator of the Peanuts cartoon strip) emanating from this city for a worldwide newspaper audience for generations. Quite the perfect museum and in every sense a dedication to a classic artist/businessman and at the same moment a decidedly passing time warp. Can’t buy gifts for the grandkids—-who is Linus? and Charlie? And Snoopy?
But now for the perfect Tuesday weather to compare Margaret River with the American wine icons.
Both Sonoma and Napa provide quality visitor centres and plenty of staff to point out their favourites on local maps. Only one winery served food and that was a 125 year old Italian specialty vineyard with a Tuscan style deli groaning with meats and cheeses hanging from the rafters—-and doing a power of sandwich and platters business to the extent they simply couldn’t take the money quickly enough. All the other vineyards are denied by state statute from serving meals or doing weddings because it takes business away from the town cafes and hotels.
So apart from the area crying out for a red tape removal crusader both areas are spectacular, and very approachable with turn-out lanes at every entrance.

After the Pacific coast south yesterday we thought we must take in San Francisco; an absolutely stunning day around 22c with not a cloud in the sky. For those of you reading this who have driven the coastal route it should be noted that the road is closed (due to rock and mud falls closing off all roads from Santa Barbara to Big Sur. 

Here we are back again. Got the pictures right this time but the words are now playing up. From the top City Hall San Francisco; easy to hug a tree that is wearing a knitted jumper; who’s the market manager then? We must be the last bunch to do the Fisherman’s Wharf with a view of the fleet from our dining table and finally the Golden Gate Bridge from Chrissy Park picnic grounds. P.S. I tend to feature rather more than I would like but Isabel’s iPhone takes the best pictures, especially in the Californian haze.

Los Angeles Sunday Sept 10, 2017
A top day, sunny and amazingly clear and on a Sunday you can travel this giant metropolis just as you would using Google maps at home. Santa Monica Pier, Venice Beach and the canals, Sunset Blvd, Rodeo Drive, Wilshire Blvd and lunch on Montana Drive. Top shelf.

On the road Monday Sept 11, 2017
We began in earnest our drive up the Californian coast stopping off at Santa Monica at the Pacific Palasades overlooking the beach and pier, followed with a speedy drive along Malibu Beach. Bette Midler singing “You are the wings beneath my feet” must have been dubbed for the movie for all the 6 lanes of traffic would certainly drowned her out. Malibu is crammed with 2 storey ticky-tacky homes and low rise apartments fronting the beach—but how they ever sleep is anyone’s guess.
Santa Barbara was next on our list and a place we’d like to spend a lot more time but while we enjoyed a late lunch at the downtown Hofbräuhaus the Monday night motel prices escalated to the absolute ridiculousness, so we hot- footed it inland to Santa Maria. Great mountainous scenery all denuded of trees and presenting like a post summer ‘beige’ landscape.

Tuesday:
Rusty and Martha Bolton are friends of ours from 50 years ago in Perth and they happened to now live in Visalia which is en route to the redwood forest…..our next destination. We took them to lunch and got the local low down on Sequoia national park ready for the following day.

Wednesday:
It was an all-day affair gawking at the giant redwood trees, driving thru winding forest roads and like every tourist destination in the US besieged by legions of locals let alone imported tourists;; but not so on this mid-week occasion. Our pics will tell the story of the forest.
But our being duped by a very credible bloke of about 50 or so must be told. The biggest tree General Sherman lives down a steep winding pathway about a couple of kilometres from the carpark. Along the way there are plenty of seats for puffing seniors to rest as they make their arduous way back up to their cars. Admiring the general this bloke happened to mention that if we simply continued a further couple of hundred metres down the track they have a shuttle bus to take the elderly like me back up to the top carpark. “You’re kidding me” I retorted…….” “No, no, no” the guy feigned “that’s the dinkum truth”
A further 200metres down the track we came upon a small carpark—-but definitely no shuttle!
But parked in a no standing zone was a big white Dodge SUV, engine idling. I approached the driver with his colourful bandanna on, to thumb a lift up the road. “No speaka de English” he said and planted his foot to take off. “Stop, stop, stop I shouted, wishing to apologise for alarming him. With the kerfuffle another bloke (who incidentally spoke English) arrived on the scene to sort this matter out. Turns out they are Polish and happy to give a couple of Aussies a lift back to the carpark—-right up to our vehicle. We thanked them profusely and in matter of 10 minutes we were seated at a brilliant restaurant in the woods some three k’ms down the road
It was reported the next day that a middle aged man had suffered a heart attack climbing the pathway to the carpark and was medivac’d to a local hospital.

Yosemite pics below

Thursday:
Yosemite beckoned from our overnight stay in Fresno with another quite brilliant sunny day. More winding roads perfected for tourists to take every advantage of getting pictures at all the ‘turnout’ off-road parking spots. Unique granite peaks form mountainous scenery around every corner. Like El Capitan a 3,000 foot high sheer granite wall that beggars belief. The pics will tell a better story.
And as you do, we lunched at the cafeteria with some folks from Wisconsin and Las Vegas. In the late afternoon we made our way to a little country town of Merced and stayed in a broken down motel I swear was run by a lady called Norma Bates.

 

Friday:
It was back to the coast for us to continue the Pacific coast adventure and we landed in Santa Clara, dropping off for a bag of embroidery silk threads in Alameda and a look at the new Apple building which houses 22,000 staff in Cupertino ( but it will be a couple of months before the visitor centre is open) so we visited the old Apple premises at Infinite Lane.
The chauffeur took up the offer of a weekend off and so we booked a little motel for 3 nights.

Saturday:
Got a sleep-in to 7.15 showered and breakfasted before driving Miss Isabel to Carmel by the Sea and thence southward to San Simeon and the Big Sur. this being the first day the sun was hidden behind a rolling sea fog for most of the day. So instead of a ‘wow’ around every corner we lamented the weather had robbed us of that’W’ factor.
We did spend idling time at a brilliant restaurant over the ocean waiting for the sun to burn off the cloud and fog. Strangely the pics aren’t bad with the iPhone UV filters cutting thru.

All told we have clocked up 1813 kilometres at speeds between 25 and 85 Mph. All very exciting and another expectant day in San Francisco tomorrow

Friday we travel to Auckland and after day-use of an hotel, back on the plane to LA arriving just after 12 midday on Saturday September 9. We’ll spend the weekend at Manhattan Beach before travelling the length of the Californian Pacific Highway and the coastal route thru Oregon and Washington State to Vancouver and the capital of BC, Victoria.
Early on in our journey we will digress inland to Visalia and the Sequoia national park—home of the giant Redwood trees. We will also attempt the forest trails drive through the Sierra Nevada mountains in our rental car, which it is said, is the best off-road vehicle of all.
Yosemite National Park is next on our list before heading back to the coast near San Francisco, the Napa Valley, lobster bisque on the wharf and check out Apple in Silicon Valley.
After nearly a month of touring the Pacific coastline we board Explorer of the Seas in Seattle on October 6 and sail across the Pacific back to Sydney, arriving October 29.

I

Hug a big tree

As familiar as Sydney Harbour Bridge

Autumn colours in the Butchart Gardens in Victoria B.C.