San Francisco to Los Angeles and Home

A day in San Fran and then to the airport. Airports are the most dreaded parts on a long trip. We were at the airport 4 hours before the plane was scheduled to leave and were advised to take the earlier flight as all the flights were running late. So we agreed and went for the 3pm flight only to leave at 6 pm and just got to L.A. before the flight we were origonally booked on. At least we were in time for the A388 flight to Melbourne, a great plane and an enjoyable time. To all those who followed our adventure,thank you. We hope some of the photos were not too boring and the script accurate enough for you to paint a picture in your mind of our day. We had many emails from most during our adventure and can only hope you all obtained some pleasure from our blog postings. We had the most wonderful time. Until our next trip (2014) happy travels. Brian and Judy

San Francisco

Left the beautiful seaside town of Bodega Bay this morning for San Francisco.  The GPS in our little car did a very good job of directing us straight to the Omni Hotel in California Street, although Brian's prior homework plus a map were of great assistance also.

Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge was an interesting experience.  Many lanes in both directions, a toll point which did not take cash, and stopping was not allowed.  Fine? $481!!! The bill will go to Hertz from whom we rented the vehicle, and hopefully the charge to our credit card will be just for the toll and not the amount of the fine.

Tomorrow we board an American Airlines flight to LA, and then a Qantas flight to Melbourne.  Home to rest - we almost forget what home looks like!!

The constant requirement to "tip" is becoming quite annoying.  It is rare to have the right amount of small notes handy, and one must factor in the tip as part of the service price when gauging the value of something.  It would be far preferable if the employer paid higher wages and charged a higher price to the consumer.

The California Street Cable Car and a publicity photo for the Omni hotel.

The Oakland Bay bridge with traffic on two levels, on a warm and sunny afternoon.

This is a line for a Ferry to take weary office workers home.

California Street with a steep hill in the background.  Looks better in real life !!

Eureka to Bodega Bay

It is difficult to take photos whilst travelling in a car, but we were able to take the shots shown below.

Last night's accommodation at Eureka was excellent.  We would have liked to stay longer so we could complete reading the restaurant's wine list of more than 3800 wines!

We left Eureka and cut across from highway 101 to highway 1 which runs closely along the coast.  A very winding road, but great scenery.  There are many signs stating "Adopt a Highway" which are presumably designed to encourage individuals/organisations to provide financial assistance for the maintenance of roads.

Highway 1 was a relatively narrow road, although in excellent condition.  We found the ride hair-raising, with sheer drops to the Pacific not unlike the Great Ocean Road.  The majority of the route had no protective guard rails or warning signs.  At one point we estimated the road to be about a 2000 foot sheer drop to the ocean.  

After San Francisco we will have slept in 24 different beds if the Melb/LA and LA/Melb flights are included.  Our own bed and bathroom are looking inviting!  After tonight, we have one night in San Francisco, a flight to Los Angeles and then Qantas to Melbourne.

Another lunch stop in a typical Californian town, with good organic food.  More chowder !  This is at Fort Bragg.

Pacific Ocean is undermining some of the houses along the coast.  Near Bodega Bay.

The shingled houses all through this area.  We are staying here tonight.

Restaurant overlooking the bay.  The fog has just lifted.

Many push bikes on route 1 today, motor bikes like these guys, and countless RVs, trucks and cars.

Coos Bay to Eureka.

Today is the 11th of September in the USA - ie 9/11, so Americans were solemnly remembering that sad day.  Flags were at 1/2 mast and the ringing of the bell at St Paul's church was reported in the media.  You may remember the photo of the bell that we put on the blog which was given to the City of New York by the City of London.  It is in the grounds of St Paul's church opposite the World Trade Center.

The Oregon coastal scenery today was even more beautiful than yesterday.  Most of the road ran very close to the ocean, and many stretches passed through redwood forests with massive trees (both height and girth).    The majority were located in state and federal parks, with camping grounds and lookouts appearing frequently.

When we arrived here in Eureka we had great difficulty locating our accommodation.  This was because we were looking for 3014 L Street instead of 301 !!

We have found it very difficult to find healthy food to eat.  Everything seems to come with "fries", tomato sauce (ketchup), mayo, and Tabasco.  Muffins and bagels seem to replace sandwiches where we would expect wholesome grain bread.  Last evening Judy ordered a salad with French dressing - the dressing provided was a bowl of tomato sauce!!!

Now only 5 hours and one stop north of San Francisco.

Roadworks are part of the daily sights on the Oregon Coast road down south. This is in Redwood country.

This RV was rather large, sides expanded in four places, small car on back to run up to the shop for a pint of milk, and a motor bike on the back for a quick dash into the Sand dunes. 

This is the accommodation for tonight. Many houses in this area are similar.  This one also has a superb restaurant, hope it is good !

Many of the streets facing east west are numbered with letters of the alphabet. This one is M street. We are staying in L street - makes it easy to find your way around.

Seaside to Coos Bay

We are so glad to have chosen to travel down the coast on Route 101 rather than the freeway Route 5. The scenery is very beautiful, with the Pacific Ocean on our right and spruce pines forming an arch overhead for some of the way.  There were lush green pastures with contented cows grazing, and an occasional warning of "Elk ahead" or "Tsunami danger zone".  Pockets of fog over the ocean made for great views.

Left Seaside township at 10 am this morning and arrived at Coos Bay at 4pm (still in Oregon).  It was an easy drive.  There were many, many cyclists travelling south, often dangerously close to traffic.  Also many caravans and RVs towing a vehicle behind.  Many parks and camping areas along the way, along with hiking tracks and off-road tracks to explore.

The temperature was 78F today and not a cloud in the sky - a glorious day.  The weather is expected to remain quite warm and dry until we leave the USA.

Whilst searching for somewhere where we could pull off to the right hand side of the road for lunch, we stumbled upon a real "find" - a very busy roadside outlet for fresh seafood and cooked seafood snacks to buy (see photo).  Delicious!  Brian ordered a crab burger, and Judy the highly valued clam chowder. Two customers thought our accent was Texan!

Tomorrow's drive takes us into California and towards San Francisco which is our final driving destination.

The fog seems to stay along the coast most of the day.

Lunch stop. Note the crab cooker in front.  As people ordered their whole crab or lobster, they would drop it in the boiling water, cook it and then into a bag being held by the customer. Not so easy when the rain, wind and sleet arrive, which they claim happens for 9 months of the year starting about now.  A slight exaggeration I think.

It is a beautiful coastline, with miles of sandy beaches and many inlets where locals fish.

On the road down south

Left Seattle today, and after some difficulty acquiring our Hertz rental car.  Travelled south on Interstate Route 5, which is a very fast moving  freeway.  At Olympia we escaped to Route 101 which took us to the coast and a very picturesque drive along a good freeway without much traffic.  This brought us to a town called "Seaside" in Oregon where we had pre-booked a suite at the Rivertide Suites - a great location and a perfect suite if staying for more than one night.  Good kitchen, washing machine and dryer, dishwasher, and good facilities which a traveller would otherwise not expect.

Took a walk to the beach (white sand!) and then to a very good restaurant for dinner.

Tomorrow morning we leave to travel further down the west coast.

Many bridges on the way down south from Seattle.

This is Seaside which is a popular vacation location on the west coast.

The beach at Seaside.  Note the fog rolling in as it does from the Pacific Ocean.

Note 

This is where we are staying tonight. See the widows viewing area at the top. This is where the fishermen's wives would wait and watch to see their husbands' fishing boats return after weeks out on the ocean.  Many did not return so it has become common to call these watching areas "widows  windows".

The fog rolls in from the west (view from our balcony).   Hope we get to see more beautiful views as we cruise down the coast!

Seattle - Museum of Flight

Spent the day (6hours) at the "Museum of Flight" located on Paine Airfield about 30 minutes south of downtown Seattle.  

It was a very interesting day in a very large museum which had a mix of past planes through to Space Exhibits. Photographs, exhibits, actual airplanes, videos, and replicas gave us an enlightening picture of the relatively short history of aviation.  it is only one hundred years between the Wright Brothers and the current world of Space Stations and space travel.  Starting with the birth of aviation, WW1 and WW2 exhibits, the Airpark with the Concord and Airforce One, the Bush Pilots of Alaska, the Blackbird Spy Plane, FA18 Hornet cockpits, a section of the International Space Station used for training astronauts, and the actual Russian Soyuz space capsule, all made for an enlightening day. 

Plane over Seattle - from archives

One of the original Space Suits.

The Concorde.

Inside Air Force One.

Cockpit of Air Force One.

Inside the Concorde.

The Concorde.

Took 120 photos of all types of planes in the museum.  This is one of many.

Many of these photos I have taken for my Uncle Max who flew in WW2 and was one of the occupational forces in Japan after the USA dropped their Atom Bombs in 1945.  I will email the other 118 photos to Max when I get home.  

Seattle Day Two.

We took a tour to the Future of Flight - Aviation Centre and Boeing Plant.  This is a fair distance from the city, but a very worthwhile trip. The Boeing assembly plant is the largest building by volume in the world, and large enough inside to have its own climate.  The plant operates 24 hours per day for  5 days per week.

We were shown planes in various stages of completion from viewing balconies above - specifically the latest 787-9 and 787-8 Dreamliners.  The 747, 767, and 777 are also assembled in this same building.   Each Dreamliner plane uses more than 6 million separate components, which are made in various countries around the world.  Boeing expects the Dreamliner to be the most popular aircraft in future.  The guide claimed that the plant can assemble a plane in preparation for painting and testing in only 3 days.  

For lunch in Seattle we queued for the award-winning chowder at Pike Place in the market near the waterfront - difficult to find without asking at an information desk.

The Boeing Factory just north of Seattle - no photos allowed inside factory !

Motors on the Boeing Planes are GE or Rolls Royce like this one.

A futuristic cabin in a Boeing plane one day maybe ?

Carbon Fibre construction of the fuselage.d

Modern construction techniques.

Downtown Seattle, like many other cities across USA, is protesting about the possible intervention of America in another war.  Most are unhappy about spending billions of dollars fighting other countries' wars and then being criticised for trying to help.

The Public Market along the waterfront where thousands congregate to buy, eat and relax.

They say that this tiny Pike Place Chowder store has the best chowder in USA.  We tried it and perhaps they are right, although the chowder in Boston is hard to beat.  There is a permanent line all day to buy, but worth the 45 min wait.

It seems a poor planning decision to place a freeway right along the waterfront and restrict easy access for pedestrians and cyclists.  

Seattle

A relatively uneventful pass through immigration and 350 passengers waiting to board (the seats were all sold and occupied so none spare for the waiting list) saw us on board in good seats in plenty of time.  The water crossing in the large catamaran was very smooth, although initially through thick fog with the warning fog horn blaring.  Total trip was just less than 3 hours, with lunch provided on the way.

Our hotel here in Seattle is the worst we have stayed in so far - a long way from the action in downtown restaurants and shops, no breakfast, a disco/pizza joint downstairs, empty fridge, no glasses, no bottle opener/cork screw, no soap, etc.  on the plus side, there is a safe, and the bathroom and main room are quite roomy.  There is also WiFi access.  

We can't help but wonder how the election is going without our votes, but cannot yet access the progress voting.

More soon.

Our Catamaran being loaded with food and cases.

To show Reagan the powerful jet motors, pushing 350 people at 35 knots.  Not a bad craft.

The size of this cruise liner, if you can see it, is enormous.  We are now into river cruises.

Through the rain, the Seattle Space Needle.

Customs as we arrived in Seattle.  Computer break down, everyone waits.  The joys of travelling.

Victoria

Vancouver Island is quite large.  At 460 km long and an average 100 km wide, it is the largest on the west coast of USA/Canada.  It relies on logging, fishing, agriculture and tourism for its economy.  

The climate in Victoria is mild with winter rain and summer drought, and temperatures rarely above 28 degrees Celsius.  The ocean is on 3 sides of the city.  Colourful flowers grow all year.  The pace is slow.  Whale watching is good here, since Victoria is home to 3 pods of Orca whales.

Victoria has the most restaurants per head of any city in Canada, and for the US is second only to San Francisco.

Victoria has a population of about 370,000, and 22% of those are retired.  Many from the mainland come here to marry, and later in life to retire.  There is a saying that Victoria has "flower beds, newly weds, and nearly deads"!

Fan Tan Alley is the narrowest street in Canada (see photo in yesterday's group of photos), down which a motorbike was ridden by Mel Gibson in the movie " Bird on a Wire". 

We visited the Royal British Columbia Museum and in spite of showers (???!!) we walked.  This was an excellent experience, with two floors of a natural history gallery and first people's gallery.  The feature exhibition was a fascinating description and presentation of the race to be first to the South Pole.

Tomorrow we leave by ferry for Seattle in the US.

Early morning coffee before we start the day's bus tour around Victoria on Vancouver Island.

This is the starting point for the Trans Canadian Highway, longest paved Highway in the world at 7821 km.   Starting on an Island and across to Vancouver by ferry seems strange !

Water craft on the harbour at Victoria.

The harbour with the raised bridge in the background.

Victoria Parliament Buildings.

More about Vancouver and Vancouver Island

Only about 3% of British Columbia is available for farming (the remainder is comprised of mountains, lakes, or unsuitable climate).  Only one house is permitted on each farm, and properties are small by our standards.

Average house price in Vancouver is $1m.

About 30% of Vancouver's population is ethnic Chinese.

Victoria is the capital of British Columbia (not Vancouver as you would expect)

We were transferred by bus onto the ferry bound for Vancouver Island (see photo posted on yesterday's blog entry.  This ferry was very large, with 6 stories (1 level for trucks and buses, and 1 for cars).  The trip took about 1.5 hours to Swartz Bay.

A bus then took us to the Butchart Gardens - a treat not to be missed (see photos on previous blog entry).  These gardens cover 55 acres which were lovingly created over time by Jennie Butchart on the site of her husband's disused limestone quarry.  They are now 100 years old and visited by 1m people each year.  The family still owns the property, which has been passed from generation to generation.  During the winter there are 50 full-time staff, rising to more than 250 in spring/summer.

There is a Japanese garden, an Italian garden, a rose garden, and a sunken garden, plus countless hanging baskets, fountains and statues.  The gardens are beautiful all year round, both day and night (illuminated and fireworks displays).

We tried to find a weed to take a photo for the record, but not one to be found!

Vancouver Island

We do not have time tonight to put any words down that would do these gardens the justice they deserve.  Perhaps tomorrow.

This is the sister ferry to the one we were on going to the Butchart Gardens and Vancouver Island. They pass half way on every crossing.

The start of the Butchart Gardens.

It started like this, beautiful.

Outstanding well worth seeing.

The Japanese Garden.

Some steps that Judy wants in our new rear garden.

Now look at this.  What a magnificent garden, can you imagine the hours that have gone into this.

This is the Butchart boat jetty.  Was very private but not today.

The Sunken Garden

And again.

And some more.

We need a water feature at the end of the garden!

The city of Victoria, largest city on Vancouver Island. Note the narrow Street on the right behind the guy with the dog. We will explain this tomorrow.

Thousands of flowers and many hours of hard work.

There are so many photos of these gardens, we were very impressed and have to stop somewhere.