Thursday 25 December 2008

Road Trip USA. A short stop in San Francisco

We only had a day in San Francisco but we made the most of it. The Alcatraz tours were sold out so we did a harbour cruise instead in order to see it from the outside at least.

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This is the famous Golden Gate Bridge - or as much as we got to see of it anyway - apparently thick sea fog is normal in San Francisco.

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The old cable cars were fun, running on the steep San Francisco streets that you see in the movies.

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Our motel was an experience. We stayed out of town in Oakland to try to save some pennies but we gathered when we got there that it was in the 'not so great' side of town, which is probably why it was so cheap. The receptionists sat behind bullet proof glass, there was an armed guard at the entrance to the carpark and signs in the room advised you to keep the door locked and dead bolted at all times whilst inside the room. Nice! Our stay passed uneventfully though so the security measures are obviously working.

Road Trip USA. California & the giant Redwoods

Oregon to California

Back on Highway 101 we crossed the border into California and headed to the giant Redwood forests. Now these trees are amazing. Up to 52 feet wide and 350 feet high, and up to 2000 years old. Unbelievable.
We went on a few walks in the forest and drove our car through a tree!

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We booked ahead to ensure we could camp in the forest itself with these majestic trees and were astounded when we got to our appointed site at the size of the 2 gigantic tree stumps in it.Here's a photo of Mike climbing one for scale, he looks child-sized in comparison to the stump!

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These trees are so majestic and humbling, it was a truly awe inspiring experience seeing them.


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It's easy to see why tree hugging is popular here!


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The campsites in America are great. Well laid out, clean, great facilities and a Ranger service that is excellent. You can get free guided walks with the Rangers every day and they do Ranger talks around the campfire in the evening. We went to the talk taking place whilst in the Redwood forest on the geology of California, and more specifically earthquakes and the "Big One" (the anticipated earthquake that is going to wipe out most of the west coast of America). It was really informative and I have to say, I'm glad I don't live in California with the constant threat of earthquakes and tsuanamies.

As we drove through California we saw the effects of the wild fires that we had been watching on the news first hand. We rounded a corner and were suddenly in smoke so thick we couldn't see past the end of the bonnet. Scary. Apparently the fires had been burning since the beginning of July, after a lightening strike.

Road Trip USA. Crater Lake National Park

Oregon

We left the coast on a detour to Crater Lake National Park, which took us on a gorgeous drive through the countryside and farmland of Oregon. The lake is astounding, a perfect azure blue. We spent a day driving around the edge of the lake and hiking to the top of a nearby peak.
We'll let the pictures speak for themselves.


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Snow in August!



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Road Trip USA. You call this summer?

Washington State to Oregon

Our camp craft improved after our first night, but the weather did not. We continued around the Olympic Peninsula, stopping for a night in the Hoh rainforest where the weather was pleasantly warm during the day but bitterly cold at night and I had my first go of driving the car which was quite scary, but I didn't crash and didn't worry Mike too much so I was quite pleased.

We crossed the border into Oregon and were greeted with a scorching 90 degree day and thought that we'd finally made it to summer. We camped at Cape Disappointment, which I thought was a rather harsh name for a beautiful little beach with a lighthouse, and cooking dinner was proving no problem now (we had bought a new stove after the first one broke on the second night - lesson #1 it's false economy to buy the cheapest campstove).

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As we'd had such a great day we thought we'd stay another day and hang out at the beach. Wrong! We woke to a cold, grey sky and rain so we went to Astoria instead - there's nothing there. But we did get some shopping done and treated ourselves to thermorests as the nights are so cold, and foam mats are really uncomfortable; camping could easily become really miserable. We also bought a an extra blanket - we were sleeping fullly clothed, with woolly hats on. It was quite comical and certainly not what I was expecting in America in August.

We continued to Cannon Beach, further along the Oregon coast, where we walked on the beach, under grey, grey skies and ate fish and chips inside the restaurant as it was too cold to eat outside. Our next stop was just outside Newport where we found the 2 campgrounds full and we ended up in a motel. Now I wasn't complaining - a proper bed, warmth, a shower, TV... but things just weren't holding up to expectations. It was cold, grey, we had to stay in a hotel and the Pacific Coast road doesn't run along the coast very much so we had spent a lot of time looking at pine trees. We were in great spirits though, as it's all part of the adventure, and we had high hopes that now were were in Oregon, where the spectacular rugged coastline is supposed to be, that the road would start hugging the coast as promised, the weather would improve, and that we would be able to find campgrounds with vacancies further on.

A few photos of the Oregon coastline:

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Road Trip USA. Day one: Things can only get better!

Washington State

Having started day one of our road trip full of myself about how easy camping is and how wonderful I would be at cooking on a camp stove, I came to realise that all is not as rosy as imagined, but I am getting ahead of myself, I will start at the beginning.
The day started well enough, we picked up the car and Mike drove away, getting the feel for a left hand drive and being on the wrong side of the road. It's weird being a passenger on what should be the drivers side of the car.
Using our new GPS, "the GPS Lady", as she was known, directed us to Walmart to stock up on everything we would need for 3 weeks of camping - tents, food, sleeping mats, a camp stove, pans etc, and then we were off, living a long time dream of Mike's to drive the coast road from Seattle to LA.
Mike did a great job of following "GPS Lady's" instructions and avoiding the mad Amerian drivers as they swerved without indicating, wherever they wanted across the 5 lane highway. We didn't see a lot on the first day but that was planned, we just needed to get out of Seattle, (a lovely, very hilly city with a few interesting museums and the Boeing factory and not a lot else -we had fun though), and out to the Olympic Peninsula.
Our first night's camping was left to chance as we hoped we would just happen across a sign posted campground along the way, which we did. We camped right on the sea's edge in a beautiful spot where we could hear the waves crashing and the ships horns out to sea. If only we could see it.


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We went from glorious sunshine, with not a cloud in the sky, to dense fog in a matter of seconds as we rounded a corner. So suddenly in fact that we thought we might have stumbled into a forest fire (of which there were many burning across the West Coast). It turned out that it was only seafog but it gave new meaning to the phrase 'fog like pea soup'. We could hear the ocean but not see it, and we could only just see our fellow campers (in their gigantic RV's); it was mightily chilly, but a good spot none the less for our first night on the open road.

Here started the trouble. I had planned what I thought would be an easy, tasty meal of tomatoe sauce, veg, pasta and sausage. How wrong could I be. We put the water on for the pasta and one hour later we were still waiting for it to boil. A strop and a few tears later about my inability as a camp cook and how were we going to survive if we can't even get water to boil on the first night, we abandoned the pasta idea and thought that sausage sandwiches might be a bit easier. The sound of sizzling sausages at least drowned out the sound of Mike's stomach rumbling, and then he confessed that he had just discovered he had the stove on the lowest setting whilst trying to boil the water, that's why it took so long. Men!

So to bed on the first night with full stomachs, our woolly hats, thermals and a full set of clothes on to stave off the freezing cold. Camping is great!