Day 30: California!

Hey all!

So we're sitting in the Airport in LA and waiting for our flight.
Thought I'd update this cos I left out some stuff from before. Plus
we arrived 1pm to return the car and the flight to Fiji aint til
11:30pm..we are making ourselves cosy.

First things first, the weather in California is awesome but the place
itself is a real mixed bag! It's our last day in America *sniffles*. Can't believe it and yeah,
america has grown on me, I'm gonna miss it! But to catch up, so far
we started off in San Diego, just in time to celebrate July 4th on
mission beach; then moved along to the super beaches (venice/santa
monica/muscle beach) of Santa Monica just east of LA itself; cruised
down Rodeo Drive and visited malls in Beverly Hills; explored
Hollywood and visited Universal Studios; and now we're in San
Fancisco! Phew, all in a week:D

San Diego
So we arrived in San Diego after a very long drive from Flagstaff via
Pheonix. The fun part was when we passed a sign "next right Mexico"
and then a few miles down the road we end up at a "border control".
Haha, I thought I had taken a wrong turning somewhere but it was for
mexicans entering usa. So it was the 4th July celebrations and we
ended up meeting some random ladies from England and heading down to
Mission beach with some coronas and wine we picked up from the grocery
store. Not the most stimulating conversations I have ever had, but
just sitting on the beach with the fireworks in the background and a
corona in my hand kinda set a nice tone for my impression of
California. We didn't see much of San Diego but the area we stayed in
was really nice, trendy and lively in the evening. Think of Covent
Garden but with newer & nicer shopfronts and bars. The next day we
checked out and headed down to Seaworld which was amazing! Just how
they train dolphins and killer whales to jump and listen to their
trainer is absolutely great! The best shows were the killer whale and
dolphins doing their acrobatics, but there was also a cool night show
that was like a spoof of daytime shows, but with sea lions and
monkeys. All the shows had a "wet zone", where the dolphins or whales
were trained to splash a wave over the audience. Actually, also the
RL Stine 4D thing was pretty cool too, but you got abit wet. We left
San Diego in the evening and pretty much missed what the town had to
offer- I think I'd like to come back and explore some time in the
future.

LA
We rolled up in Santa Monica the following day and it was a similar
story. Great looking area with trendy bars and shops. The hostel on
2nd & broadway was just in a superb location! 3rd street was a long
high street "promenade" with loadsa great shops and a mall.

The first day in Santa Monica we headed straight for the beach.
Walked down the santa monica beach, onto venice beach and passed by
muscle beach. The weather was absolutely superb and walking by the
cool waves of water was awesome! Muscle beach is cool cos not only is
there an outdoor gym with muscle men strutting their stuff, but also
basketball courts with some real street ball games happening. We then
headed down to Hollywood via Santa Monica Boulevard and I have to say
LA itself is a bit of a dump. Not quite a ghetto land as I had
imagines but still a dump. As for Hollywood itself, there is one long
street called Hoolywood Boulevard, but again it is a bit of a dump
too! Some nice cinemas like the Mann Chinese theatre and also the
walk of fame, but all laced with grubby souvineer shops. Abit of a
dissapointment really, and I can only imagine what a bigger
dissapointment it would be for someone to come to "Hollywood" in
search of their big break in showbusiness. However, to cheer
ourselves up we decided to check out Hooters :) Now we were expecting
some kinda seedy gentlemans club with food. To our surprise we found
a family diner with girls with big breasts. Basically they actually
try to make it feel tacky but it was very much like the last scene in
that Adam Sandler film "Big Daddy". Hehe, the food was actually quite
nice though and not too expensive.

Second day we went up to Universal Studios which was really cool. We
decided to upgrade to the vip ticket so we could feel prententious and
skip all the queues. The rides like back to the future were really
dated but T2 3D was really cool still cos it used live action & 3D
glasses. Actually we've seen a lot of 3D stuff, like they had Shrek
4D there which was really good.

Third day Oscar & I decided to go our own separate ways. He wanted to
goto the 6 flags magic mountain thing (which he says is absolutely the
best theme park he has ever been to, though he has been feeling ill
ever since!) and I decided to to explore more of LA myself. So I
dropped him off to the theme park in the morning and drove off around
town.

Graduating from LA school of driving
Driving in LA is a real tricky affair, not as least as the highway
management is as awful as it is. But other drivers are quite
malicious like when you try to change lanes they speed up like to try
and ram you. But anywaus, after having the car all to myself today
and cruising down the highways, I have to re iterate how crap the
highway management is! Roads are in terrible condition; signage is
absolutely diobolical in that if they are not covered by shrubs then
they actually have no continuation from one another; exits on the
interstate have no numbering yet so tracking where you are is hard;
and even with 6 lane interstates they intend to expand even more
lanes! :S It's like hard enough to change lanes as it is with maniac
drivers. The worst thing is that sections of the interstates are
pitch black with no lamps, no cat eyes and non reflective signs, so
driving up to pick Oscar up after the game was tricky! Anyways, even
with these slight hiccups I somehow managed to have a really nice
(&scratch free) day cruising the roads of LA. And if I can drive
here, I feel comfortable driving anywhere!

My Day cruising LA
It is nice to spend some time doing exactly what you want. So after
getting a bit lost on the way back into town after dropping Oscar off,
I managed to drive and navigate back onto the Santa Monica Boulevade,
Route 66 :) I decided to check out Beverly Hills so cruised down
Rodeo Drive and Sunset Boulevard. Basically think back to that film
Clueless, where there are palm tree clad streets, nice sunshine, and
massive mansion houses. I checked out the westfield mall in beverly
hills and temporarily forgot where I parked my car. The car park is
massive, so I had to get a parking attendant to whizz me around in his
golf kart thing whilst I clicked my car key. I was adament someone
had jacked my car but luckily found it like the other side of the car
park. Next I cruised back to Santa Monica and parked up (though the
car park was supposedly full), checked out the mall there and strolled
down 3rd street promenade. I have to say again, Santa Monica is a
great place to be! Great beach, great weather, great shops, great
food...what more do you need!? One thing that is great about
california is the parking. Well, there isn't like big open free
parking but every parking complex I went to was like reasonably price
or free for the first few hours, unlike New York which was trying to
tax us everything! In the evening I rounded to day off at the Staples
Center, home of the infamous LA Lakers...but that night I was there to
cheer the ladies NBA team on- yup the LA Sparks. Haha, actually the
previous day we came to see a game too and it was great! Though, I
can watch basketball all bloody day and not get bored- I just love the
game!

Sports
The funny thing before a bball game and the baseball game we went to
was the American national anthem before each game. Hmm, why oh why??
Haha, one observation is that the MLB and NBA are supposedly "World
Series"!? Haha, not sure how that can be since only American teams
enter them! So basically I'd say they like to sing their national
anthem because they believe they are competing against other
countries...of all had invitations lost in the post.

False Advertising
This talk of the self confessed, all american dominated "World
Series", brings my discussion onto advertising standards in the US- or
lack of it. For example, there was a memorable ad that started by
asking "Does your car give you 66 MPG?" as a sales pitch, then they
present a list of cars. Now at this point I was expecting cars that
actually gave you better petrol consumptin, but NO, just bog standard
30 mpg. In general shops will make outrageous claims and basically
not live up to it.

Interlude
Okay back to the bball, which I have to say were 2 great games where
the team I was supporting actually won (go sparks)! A fun thing they
have in the basketball game are the interlude entertainment when they
have a time-out or break etc. Like "name that tune", or "dance for
your dinner" where the outrageous dancers get a free pizza; or "silly
cam" where you pull silly faces on the big screen so everyone can
see.; and some kinda half time show like acrobats or break dancers.
Basically anything to keep the americans from falling asleep. Imagine
if they had the same for the football back home when there was a foul
or half time. So my suggested analogies for English football games.
Name that tune could easily be translated to british version, but
maybe with football anthems. Silly Cam would sought after the biggest
beer gut. Dance for dinner, would be renamed "danced for beer".

One more afgter thought though- does a female basketball team have
male cheerleaders? Answer is no, instead they use kids.

Route 1
So, after our spell in LA and outskirts it was time to move north to
San Francisco, and what better way to get up there than by cruising
down scenic route 1! Just a spectacular drive by the coast line,
through twisty mountains and through little sleepy beachy towns. Just
crusing with the windows down, sunshine and freah sea air is
spectacular.

Word of warning though, part of the route 1 goes onto the highway 101,
so if you pass by Port Hueneme just before Oxnard/Ventura then don't
take the "coastal scenic route", cos there is actually no coast there
at all! Plus to get back to the highway there was a massive
detour...around the malls and new housing estates. Hmm, sounds like
the whole "scenic route" was a big advertising gimmick!

Spanish Villa Influence
But anyways, once we got back onto the interstate it was back to
beautiful views. We stopped off at Santa Barbara which again was just
beautful. Just being in California you can really see the Spanish
influence over the living and buildings. This is true to history
since Spanish settlers claimed California all those some time in the
past before Mexcio gave it up to the US of A as another state.
Anyways, the weather couple with the beach fronts and beautiful
buildings just remind me of a nice spanish villa (well what I'd
imagine as a spanish villa since I haven't been to one before). San
Diego, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara and now San Francisco all have
buildings with a pretty villaesque taste. All definetely somewhere
that I'd consider living.

Big Sur
Part of route one was spent driving through a really twisty moutain
side track and through the "Big Sur". After like 2 hours of twists
and turns we were feeling sick so stopped off at this grill in the
middle of the mountain and had a really tasty Buffalo burger. Tastes
a bit like beef but lighter.

San Francisco
So that brings us to our current and final stop- San Francisco.
Everyone we have met along the trip has told us how great San Fran is
but when we rolled up at midnight down Ellis Street with no Gas our
first impression (albeit a false one) was a negative one, but I have
to stress it has now since changed! First thing we noticed was the
very British temperature- cold, wet and foggy mainly due to the fact
San Fran was on the coast of the Pacific and very north. Second thing
we noticed when walking from our car to the hostel were the druggies,
beggars, needles and hoes :s Haha, basically we were staying in a
shithole, so reknowned later on we found Ellis street features in
a lonely planet travel book as a very dodgy area. Hehe, luckily we
weren't raped or mugged, the hostel itself was actually decent, and to
be fair none of the shady characters actually approached us.

In the morning we explored and literaly a few blocks East is the
financial district and really nice shops and a Hilton. It all reminds
me of England tbh, what with the weather and just the grubbiness of
downtown. We walked down to Fishermans Wharf and suddenly entered a
totally different world- a really nice cosy fishermans village with
the golden gate bridge and alcatraz as backdrops. Though the walk as
actually a mission what with the steep steep (steep) hills!!! No
exaggeration, cos San Fran is the hilliest place I have ever been.
There is one road called Lombard Street with the "worlds crookedest"
road since it is so steep they have to twist it round and round so
cars don't fall forwards! Even driving up with the accelerator on
full, the car struggles up some of the climbs. But anyways, the
first day was spent exploring before heading back to the hostel for a
free guided tour.

Strangest tour ever
Basically the tour was conducted by a Economics lecturer who claimed
that by the end of the tour would "change our lives". Now at that
point I was waiting for the free bibles and was looking for the
quicket fire exit. But no, he was actually okay and the tour was very
interesting. He laced in lots of history and his theme was "irony" or
something like that. Anyways, by the end of the tour of downtown we
all went to his office and he cleverly tied all the visited sights to
his preaching talk. Basically about an economist called " Henry
George". Now, in the simplest terms (since I have no clue otherwise),
he posed the question: "why should anyone pay someone else for use of
the land?". For example, how can someone claim a part of land to be
their own and then charge another human being for that plot of land
whether for building permission or for rent etc. Now this was very
deep and stimulating and me and Oscar we talking about it for the rest
of the night even though we have no clue about economics! Just the
moral concept made sense. The Earth is inhabited by humans, we should
all share the land and spread any money we make off of it.

Haha, okay you are now thinking I have been brainwashed. I'm gonna
stop talking about it now, but I liked it anyways.

Yesterday we started off the day with a visit to the Asian Museum of
Art, which houses a massive collection of ancient
chinese/japanese/korean and south west asian stuff. Very interesting
but I would have liked more modern art. We also drove down to Coet's
Tower which gave us a bargain city scape view of San Fran with a mere
$3.75 fare for the elevator. We then moved out of shothole Ellis
Street and into a hostel closer to the lovely Fishermans Wharf. The
only problem were the communal showers. Now the hostel is in an old
navy Fort so the showers are fully communal. Haha, very intimate
though luckily I was alone when I showered. Later on we had the
highlight of our visit to San Fran.

Bike ride
So we figured we wanted to see the golden gate bridge, the fog had
just cleared and sun was out so we also wanted to cross it. So we
decided to hire some bikes and cycle up and across it:) It was an
awesome bike ride! Great views and going downhill with the frsh sea
air was refrshing. The funny bit was the wind! It was so windy on
the bridge that once you came to a pillar the way the wind funneled
around the pillars blew you off your bike! Haha, very scary but fun
none the less. Also since crossing it meant we were rewarded the most
stunning views of San Francisco from a small town called Sausalito.
Again very picturesque town and very much a european villa next to the
coast. After some nice dinner we headed back to the Pier on San Fran
side via a ferry. I have to say my thighs were aching for the rest of
the night and Oscar was having trouble walking straight :p (you
awake?).

Stupidman
That evening we decided to take it easy and rest our legs by watching
Superman Returns in 3D at the local Imax. Every major city in America
seems to have an Imax. However it was the mosy awful film film ever.
Crap story, crap acting and compared to the load of 3D shows we've
seen, crap 3D! Basically a crap film so do don't watch it. Plus it
is 2 and a half hours of torture.

Last full day in America :(
That brings us to today- our final whole day in the states. Today we
went to the exploratarium which is like the science museum. Fun but
not that stimulating. We also explored Alcatraz which was okay but
nothing special. It's now 7:30pm and in a minute we are leaving for
our 8 hour drive back to LA and tomorrow we fly to Fiji. Finalising
some stuff on the internet cos not sure if we can get any in Fiji.

Diet
So far I have refrained from weighing myself for lack of self
confidence, but I swear I have put on weight! Oscar has a beer belly
now that I didn't notice before but he may have brought that from
england. So we checked our bank balance this week and I have to say
it is not good news :s I've spent like $4000 in the US! Yeah, kind
more expensive than I thought. So we have to save and skimp and rough
it for a bit. Last night on the drive back to LA we inititated our
first money saving scheme: sleeping in the car. Haha, suprisingly
comfortable though I woke up with a crick in my neck. Had a strange
dream too where we tried to upgrade our flight to 1st class by Oscar
wearing a lighted hat thing and doing a all dancing all singing
routine to impress the female clerk. Yeah my dreams are strange. We
haven't found a shower yet so had to brush our teeth at the airport.
Haha, all part of the experience. My second phase was: peanut butter
sandwiches. Yup, gotten sick of jam cos it is sooo sweet over here!

Final impressions of America
So we leave this evening and I have to say I am gonna miss this place
loads! Travelling across from New York seems a distant fond memory
but I do remember still stepping out of 52nd street station like a
country bumpkin and looking up in awe at the tall tall skyskrapers.
Each city is so unique and each State is basically a country in itself
with unique climates and surroundings. It's strange cos we are so far
from home but it still feels like home, like we are still in England
but on some strange long day out. I think it's mainly waking up and
spending time with a familiar face every day so it just seems like we
were going out in Londond. Just happens that everyone has a strange
accent. Favourite places that I'd like to live in are New York and
somewhere on the Coast of California like Santa Monica or maybe even
San Fancisco. Places I'd love to come back and visit are New York,
Santa Monica, San Francisco and Las Vegas :D But the fact of the
matter is that America is so vast, its just hard to tell you in one
paragraph what it's like. All I know is that I was expecting big
things for my first time in America and it has totally lived up to my
expectations. 2 observations though. First everyting is big...real
big! The cars are bigger, the skyscrapers are bigger, the roads are
wider, the food portions are greater, fat people are fatter and fit
people are fitter. Everything is engineered to be bigger or
underestimated to make it seem bigger! Like show sizes are UK-1; their pint is smaller than our pint; their mile is smaller than our mile etc. which is all engineered to give them feel bigger and better, like they have bigger feet and bodies; like they have had more beers to drink; and like they have driven further. Silly billys. Second observation is that shop clerks are generally more friendlier than back home in Tesco's etc. Maybe they feel it is just part of
their job but I just find that they seem to enjoy and respect their job. Most of the time in UK shops they seem unhappy with their job or something.

Favourite memories
New York: Stepping out of 52nd street station and looking up in awe at
the tall tall skyscrapers like country bumpkins. Getting our photo
taken with 2 police officers then walking down to Times Square.

New Jersey: Rolling up to our first motel on the way back from 6 flags
towards New York.

Boston: Celebration dinner at Skip Jacks with beautiful view of church
contrasted with massive black shiny skyscraper, and my favourite meal
out here so far!

Niagara Falls: The friendliness of the chinese hostess at the hostel;
first sight of the falls themselves and also standing under the
waterfall and getting drenched in the "Cave of the Winds" attraction.

Chicago: Our first baseball game supporting the Chicago Cubs. They
lost but it was exciting and I wanna get a jersey still!

Denver: Meeting a cool biker dude from Portland in the hostel and
going for a drink. Great conversation about American history.

Las Vegas: Walking down the strip both on 1st night and 2nd day by
myself. Just visiting all the casinos like bellagio, venetian and
ceasar was awesome! Also entering the Poker tournament was fun!

Flagstaff: Meal at for pizza with Oscar & Clara was fun and tasty.
Grand Canyon: The Bright Angel Trail trek we did down the side of the
steep moutain. It was scary on the way down cos we started so high
and was recommended for 2-4 hour trek. We did it in an hour and forty
minutes:)

San Diego: Seaworld!

Santa Monica: The first day walking down Santa Monica Beach; Venice
Beach; watching the outdoor street ball on muscle beach area and
having a nice cold corona outside in a bar.

Los Angeles: Both basketball games at the Staples Centre supporting
the LA Sparks

Route 1: Stunning views and stopping of at the picturesque Santa
Barbara. So many of the most beautiful beachy towns in California
still have a pretty Spanish villa feel to them.

San Francisco: Bike ride across the Golden Gate bridge and over to the
picturesque town of Sausalito

Music
Mainly been listening to the radio which has more adverts than songs
but I did pack a few CD's. Orson cos they are from Califronia and the
songs are super sunny! And Sergio Mendes for some Latino flavour on
Route 1 matches the spanish villaesque scenery. But I picked up the
soundtrack to Dumb & Dumber in Santa Monica and it is really really
appropriate since the film was so great (probably still my favourite)
and they road trip to Aspen.

Bye!
So this is goodbye from America for now. Hope everyone is having fun
and I'll be thinking of you whilst lying on the white sandy beaches.

Take care & speak soon!
John.