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

Mammoth Lakes – a ski resort in summer

Mammoth Lakes felt like our first taste of real California vacation-land. There’s a massive ski and boarding scene in the winter, and this time of year it’s all about the mountain biking. So of course we decided to go for it and get bikes for us and trailers for the kids (or rather a trailer-bike for Lily, which she took to really well).

The only problem was, our RV park was at the bottom of the mountain, which meant that everything was uphill. We were in a pretty bad state after dragging 2 kids up a hill at 9000ft (it’s all the altitude to blame, y’know). Luckily the views were stunning. If we’d had any breath left it would’ve been taken away. The place has a real Alpine feel to it, there was even snow on the mountains at this time of year.

We did a long day out on the first day, with the cycle exertion, followed by a bus trip to the main lodge (another 1000ft or so up, where the cable cars run from) then another bus trip to the trailhead followed by couple of mile hike to Rainbow falls. It was nice, but the hike was a bit desolate because of the forest destruction caused by a massive fire a few years ago. It’s shocking how it can change the environment so completely.

The park where we stayed was nice, with sites nestled among pine trees, the ever-present smell of wood-smoke (from more controlled fires) and the company of lots of chipmunks, which kept the girls amused. Lily was chief chipmunk counter and reached a grand total of 24 after a few days.

On the last day in Mammoth we got absolutely soaked by a storm. As one of the guys on the buses said “we get 3 days of sun, then 3 days of this”. It’s not a bad thing as far as they’re concerned ’cause it’s exactly what gives them the massive dumps of snow in the winter and makes it so popular. Unfortunately for a family of 4 on bikes with only a hastily-purchased umbrella and Grand Canyon yellow plastic poncho to protect them, it’s not so good. We sheltered for about an hour in a doorway and a Starbucks before the price of the coffee ($5 for a cappuccino!) forced us to just go for it and damn the rain. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the bikes actually had mud-guards. By the time we got back to the RV Jen and I had muddy stripes on front and back, but the girls were both quite happy (and fairly dry, dammit) in the trailer.

Edited: August 3rd, 2010

Hot Rock Slog

It seems like a long time ago now, but back on the 23rd July, we were on our way to Mammoth Lakes, and Jen decided we should stop off in Lone Pine.

What’s in Lone Pine? In a word: Rocks. In two words: Movie rocks. Apparently many classic westerns were filmed against its backdrop of odd-shaped rocks framing views of distant Mount Whitney. Of course, neither Jen nor I (or Lily or Jasmine, as far as I know) had ever seen any of these movies, but who am I to argue with Jen. It seemed like a good way to break up the journey.

Unfortunately we arrived there about midday. The air-con in the RV had been playing up, so the girls in the back were already a bit hot and bothered. Also, I freaked out about driving the RV across the unpaved (and sandy!) desert track, so stopped about half a mile short of our actual destination. All this meant that we had to walk a mile in the baking sun to reach the rocks, and, given how much Jasmine likes the heat, I had to carry her on my shoulders too. What a sight: a family of four sweating their way across the desert at midday cowering under an umbrella and a cloud of sun-lotion.

When we got there the rocks were quite impressive, although I’m not sure Jasmine agreed.

Edited: August 3rd, 2010

Back on the road (again)

We set off bright and early, well, early, for the next leg of the journey; another 200 mile slog with a break in the middle to try and prevent the girls from driving Jen mad by constantly asking her to pick up whatever pen or crayon has just slid off the table as we’re driving.

We decided to do another Route 66 location: Barstow. After a bit of hasty Googling (did I say how well planned this trip is?) we settled on “The Mother Road Museum” as a good spot to spend an hour or so. What Google didn’t tell us is that it’s only open at the weekend. Luckily, Barstow itself was interesting – it had loads of the typical old 60′s style motel signs that I recognised – and there happened to be some sort of rail graveyard next door to the closed museum.


There were a selection of old Santa Fe railway engines sitting baking in the sun, so after having lunch in the van, we ventured out to clamber over them, try and avoid burning our hands and take some pictures of the well-preserved railway behemoths. We sold it to the girls as “let’s go and see those Chuggingtons”, which seemed to work well. It was a really nicely unexpected find and both Jen and I were snapping away for ages.

Our destination for tonight is Inyokern. A kind of nowhere-place (of which there are quite a few round here) that we’re only using as an overnighter. We arrived a bit earlier than yesterday, and the campsite turned out to be really nice. It’s a few degrees cooler, has wild rabbits running around, is well kept (there seem to be a lot of long-term residents) and has lots of shady trees (what a novelty)! That meant we could sit outside and have tea plus some more of my birthday ice-cream cake while the sun set behind the mountain. Another pleasant surprise.

Tomorrow it’s another slog to Lone Pines, then on to Mammoth Lake.

Heavy Drinker

I don’t know why, but I expected petrol to be as cheap as chips out here. So much so that I hardly factored in the cost of petrol to the trip. What a shocker: it turns out that the RV takes something like 40 gallons of petrol and costs $150 to fill up! Ouch. Combine that with the fact that you can almost see the fuel gauge falling as you drive, it feels like you’re literally burning money. Still, the cruise control is nice. I can basically set it to 60 mph, point it in the roughly the right direction and let it drive me. So now my only issues are going round corners and understanding the hand signals that Jen uses when trying to help me reverse.

Random picture

When I noticed Jen knitting away in the passenger seat at sunset I just had to take a quick picture. Rock and roll, eh?

Edited: July 22nd, 2010

Grand Canyon – Day 1

We made our first trip to the Grand Canyon proper yesterday. There’s a free bus shuttle from the campsite into the national park, and then a network of buses to various points on the south rim. We walked for a couple of miles along a paved path; it’s all very civilised, considering the fact you’re on the edge of a chasm. Every few yards there’s another view that makes you stop and ‘ahhhh’.

Needless to say it was breathtaking (although the girls were completely unimpressed!) even though the atmospherics weren’t brilliant as it was a bit hazy. There was a storm hanging around and you’re not allowed on the rim during lightning, because you tend to be a target! We were worried that after 24 hours of travelling we weren’t gonna actually be able to see the views, but in the end it held off ’til the night.




Jen’s booked a helicopter ride for my birthday tomorrow! Hopefully it won’t trigger the vertigo… I’m going to have an hour flight, then we’re all going to do a jeep tour down into the canyon. Should be fun.

Edited: July 20th, 2010

Arrival

Well, they certainly weren’t exaggerating about the temperature. Stepped out of the terminal and got hit by a wall of heat. As Jen said: “it’s like standing in front of the world’s biggest radiator”. And this was at 8pm. In fact even the local cab driver said it was too hot. He gave us some useful advice about making sure we drink plenty of water if we decide to go for a stroll down the strip. He also told us about a couple of kid-friendly places, and the fact that Rihanna is playing at our hotel complex on Saturday night so it’ll probably be heaving.

The room’s nice, it’s on the 34th floor with “oblique views” of the statue of liberty, Eiffel tower etc. We might take a trip on the tram later to see them, after we’ve checked out the hotel pool(s) of course. We arrived right around sunset, so managed to snap a few photos out of the wall-to-ceiling window:

The girls didn’t sleep very well at all, so nor did we. We all hit the sack about 9pm and went straight to sleep, but then they woke up at 2am, and spent the rest of the night mucking about. It was a relief to get down to breakfast at 7.

Edited: July 16th, 2010

Weather check!

Well, it’s gloomy and raining in London, but what’s the weather like in Las Vegas (at 3am in the morning…)

Edited: July 15th, 2010