Life’s a beach – finally

The race southwards towards the sun and warmer temperatures continues. Jen has just about stopped complaining about the cold as we reach Morro Dunes, well, once the ubiquitous morning fog has cleared. We’ve got a couple of days here as our stays get longer and we’re covering less ground. It’s a pretty basic site (with terrible internet again; that seems to be the norm) but it’s very close to the beach, which is nice when the sun comes out. We’ve been promising the girls a beach now for quite a while, and they finally get to break out the bucket and spade.


On the second night we went to the local harbour, which for a change was actually close enough to walk. The local fishing trade seems to be wholly supported by the slew of restaurants surrounding the harbour judging by how busy they all were. We stopped at the first one we saw, and had a really good fish and chips. It seems to have become the girls new eating-out favourite; I’m surprised there’s so much of it about. Obviously English cuisine is finally finding it’s way in the world. Unfortunately we misjudged how big the portions were (2oz pieces?) and only got a 5 piece meal, so we were pretty much fighting over it. Jen also had a lovely bit of clam chowder from a bread bowl. Looks like she’s gotten over her shellfish allergy (which I always thought was more of a hangover-allergy anyway).

Next day we had a 2 hour long slog down to our next stop at Santa Barbara. We just went for it this time, rather than stopping off anywhere on the way. The drive was much easier, highway 1 seems to have calmed down a bit from those hairy-scary days north of San Francisco, so it went pretty quickly.

Edited: August 13th, 2010

San Francisco – Glad to be Gray?

Well, what a shocker. After mumbling and grumbling for all that time about the heat, when we hit SF we were in for a shock… a damp, cold shock. Much to Jen’s horror, San Francisco (at least for the 3 days we’re here) is colder than Preston! That officially makes it ineligible as a holiday destination. She is not amused (especially so because she didn’t pack any warm clothes).

Weirdly, on the first day here, after leaving the gray, cold RV site and getting on the bus and then the BART (their tube), we emerged into a warm, sunny central San Francisco! It’s the same kind of localised fog that we found in Point Reyes. It can hang over one area like a damp blanket, while another nearby location is sunny and fine. We made the most of the sunshine by letting the girls muck about in a playground in Yerba Buena, then blew it by splitting up so Jen could get some shopping in while the girls and I went to see Toy Story 3. If we’d have known the weather was going to get worse, we probably would’ve saved that ’til another day.

On the second day we did some shopping in cool Hayes Avenue, a street that apparently used to be under a fly-over until the 1989 earthquake. It’s all the better for being out of it’s shadow. Then we hit Japan Town, which seemed a bit odd (going to Japan Town while in America?!) but we all found something to enjoy; me: some cool toy shops, the girls: the Sanrio Hello Kitty shop and Jen: a new designer bits-and-bobs shop. We finished up with some good Japanese food and headed back to the chilly RV (where luckily the heater works better than the air conditioning).

Today we ventured on the cable cars up the famously hilly SF streets to Fisherman’s Wharf. To be honest it was a massive disappointment, simply because it wasn’t much more than a gigantic tourist trap. I’ve not seen so many silver-faced-pretending-to-be-robot beggars in one place for a long time, and living in London that’s saying something. Still, we got to see the (stinky!) sea-lions on Pier 39, and had some good seafood in the Blue Mermaid. We didn’t quite make it to Industrial Light and Magic offices in the Presidio district, but made our way wearily home instead.

Being back in an urban environment has really taken it out of us. Looking forward to seeing some hopefully sunny beaches over the next few days. Can’t say any of us are particularly enamoured with the place, but that’s probably more to do with the weather and our lack of options when it comes to exploring ’cause of the kids.

Edited: August 6th, 2010

Not quite beside the seaside

Next stop Point Reyes. This was to be our first sight of the Pacific. Or so we thought. As the sat nav took us closer and closer to our destination, we were playing “who’s first to spot the sea” until we realized we were almost at the campsite and the sea was still 5 miles away!

Somehow Jen and I had both gotten confused over how close (or not) the site was to the sea. Turns out it wasn’t at all. You really needed a car, or a 5 mile hike to get there, so we were kinda stuffed. Instead we settled for a day of chilling and laundry, finished off with a campfire and marshmallows. I’ll give you one guess which bit was Jasmine’s favourite. As it was a Saturday night the campsite had a guest storyteller in, so the girls had bedtime stories of Purple Monkeys told around a roaring fire. Not bad for a “quiet day”.


The next day on the way out we hit-up Point Reyes lighthouse; contender for the award for America’s Stubbiest Lighthouse. To get there it was an interesting drive across 15 miles of landscape which could’ve easily been in Scotland. It was also our first taste of The Fog, a thick, well-defined blanket of grey that sits, unmoving at a certain height over the landscape. The lighthouse itself is cunningly placed _below_ the fog line, so you approached it from the top of a hill shrouded in thick fog, and descended 300 steps to the lighthouse in the clear.

While we were there we were lucky enough to spot a gray whale from our vantage point on the cliffs. They’re quite frequent visitors during spring, but this one just seemed to be stopping by for a snack. It definitely made the journey to the diminutive lighthouse worthwhile.

Edited: August 5th, 2010

Middle class, middle-aged heaven

Next stop: Napa, the wine region. Calistoga to be precise. We couldn’t get through to the RV site to make a reservation, so just turned up hoping for the best. Unfortunately our visit coincided with a big dirt-bike race, and those dirt-bikers love their RVs; no room at the inn. Luckily, the guy who broke the news helpfully told us that if we could “dry camp” (survive without water, sewer hookups) for the night, we could borrow a corner of the field. And if we left earlyish in the morning, we might not even have to pay. Result!

It turned out to be a nice spot, next to a garden with loads of sunflowers, and the next morning we took off early for breakfast in Calistoga without paying a cent. We stopped off at a small farmers market to spend our money on cucumbers and strawberries instead.

I wasn’t really into the whole Napa thing, it really seemed like a middle class, middle aged wine theme-park. We didn’t actually venture into any of the many wineries, apart from Hall that Jen wanted to visit to check on the progress of their Frank Gehry installation. Turned out it was cancelled, so rather than spend $40 on a bottle of wine to be polite, we just went down the street to fancy pants supermarket Dean & Deluca (which Jen had spotted on the way in) and then set off for Point Reyes.

Edited: August 5th, 2010

Yosemite Valley

This was our second night in the heart of bear country. At every turn you’re reminded that it’s an offense to leave any food or “scented items” in a container that’s not properly bear-proof. Apparently they rip open car doors and RVs like wet paper bags to get to food. All the bins (or should I say trash receptacles) are bear-proof too, with a special latch that requires some dexterity and opposable thumbs to operate; and yes, it confused me a couple of times.

Unfortunately we didn’t see any real bears, even though there was apparently “activity” in some of the campsites we were at. In case you’re wondering, in the event of a bear encounter you should make lots of noise, banging together pots and pans, make yourself look larger, and throw sticks and (small) rocks. Sounds like good advice for life in general.

Yosemite valley has a bit more of a developed feel than Tuolomne. Even though the campsites themselves have no power or water, there is a shop, a taqueria, a pizzeria and a pool at the oddly named “Curry Village” centre. Many of the trails are at least partly paved, which is actually a good thing when hiking with a 3yo. Some of the people I talked to had been coming for more than 10 years, the process of getting the sites as soon as they become available being a part of the ritual. I’m not really surprised; they go for the spots down by the Merced river where there’s sandy shores and it’s calm enough to swim or raft. A pretty good spot for a holiday in anyone’s book.

We hiked one of the easiest trails to Vernal Falls. It’s mostly paved, but even so we passed some struggling Americans. By the time we got to the falls proper we were struggling too. Mostly because of having to carry Jasmine up steep, wet steps hewn from the rock itself. We decided not to go up the (steeper, wetter) steps to the top of the falls. As Jen said “maybe next time we’re in Yosemite”.

Edited: August 3rd, 2010

The Big Breakfast

The best thing about the Mandalay Bay has gotta be the breakfast buffet. Anybody for an 18 inch crab’s leg with their fry up?

Edited: July 18th, 2010