Adventures in the USA - Week #1!

Hi!

Well. Long time no gossip! Just got back on Wednesday from my month-long US tour! WHEW! It’s not the jet lag that’s kicking mah butt, it’s the whole big trip. We went to so many different places in such a seemingly short amount of time, I now have an idea of how bands must feel when they tour, and they have to entertain! Man. Course, they get paid millions for it and have staff to do everything from schlepping luggage to checking them in and paying for the hotels. Now that’s the way to go – just show up and have fun! All in all I think the trip was a success. I had a good time and I’m pretty sure the girls did too. Good to be back in mah own bed and get clothes out of a dresser and closet instead of a suitcase! Weeeee!

So work. Yep. Well, that finally, officially, finished on the Friday before we left to no fanfare, which was good. I vaguely remember being busy all day and even think I stayed late. But. There it was. Over and done with. Sigh. I put a lot of work into that gig. Maybe next time it’ll pay off. So the hunt begins anew! Sigh.

So The Trip! Was good. Not sure how to sum it up, perhaps will try week by week….. Ha! The trick is gonna be to remember everything!!! Cos it was four weeks and like 2 new cities a week with much fun had along the way…….! So will start with:

Week #1 Aug30th – Sept6th

30^th – We landed in LA where we picked up our rental car (Mazda 6, eh, it was ok, pretty speedy I must admit) and had a good drive alllllll over town, even got up to the Hollywood hills to have a good view of the Hollywood sign. I got to have my first Mexican take out meal in years of 3 rolled tacos with hot sauce, guacamole and a quesadilla with hot sauce and guacamole on the side – heaven. Makes my mouth water just thinking back and writing about it. Mmmmm. Then we aimed for Anaheim to find a hotel near Disneyland, which we ended up in a Holiday Inn like around the corner from The Happiest Place on Earth. Cooool. I have to say, we stayed mainly in Holiday Inns and they’ve really improved over the years, pretty nice for the cheap money. Points to Holiday Inn!

31^st – Was Disneyland where it was like 110 degrees. Bloody hot, but no crowds! We were there for the opening bell and by noon we’d hit every major ride. I think the longest we had to wait was for Space Mountain and that was like 20 minutes. Man I was impressed. I can’t remember a time when we’d had that much luck with crowds and rides and it wasn’t raining or 11.30 at night. We were hot and dead tired but very happy. We ducked off to the hotel for a few then made it back just in time for the fireworks, which are always the best on the planet. I love Disneyland.

1^st – Was touristy sightseeing – Hollywood, Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, etc. Yeah. Every time I “sight-see” in LA, am always so incredibly happy I don’t live there. It’s neat to scope out now and then but even neater to leave it!

2^nd – We flew off to San Francisco! I reallyreally dig San Francisco. Could spend ages there. We got into town and checked into our next Holiday Inn – they had the most amazing view, we magically got upgraded to a higher floor with views across the city. It was excellent. So we dumped our stuff and headed out exploring. Walked and walked and walked, which is pretty much what you do there.

3^rd – Was Pier 39/Fisherman’s Wharf, the seals that live there and Alcatraz (always pretty cool and creepy)! Pier 39 has improved a lot from, well, the pier that it just was; my god it’s a whole shopping mall now! With seals! After scoping out Alcatraz we headed back into town to the Boudin’s factory for lunch. I can’t highly recommend the place enough. Best sourdough bread on the planet and a really neat museum, and view of the bakers at work too. On our way back to the hotel from there we stopped in at the Buena Vista bar – where the Irish Coffee was invented. Gooooood. So good I had 2! After that we thought it would be a fantastic idea if we walked up what felt like the steepest hill in town (Hyde Street) to have a view down Lombard Street (the really cool and twisty street). So we got up there, took photos of the sun setting and the moon rising and decided we’d walk down it. Then walk back up it. Excellent workout. Then, satisfied we’d crammed in a year’s worth of hill walking in an hour, we headed back to the hotel where we died.

4^th – We headed over to see the ‘7 Sisters’ – the neat little row of restored Victorian houses near the pretty little park where they filmed a fair few things, easiest one to remember is that TV show “Full House”. Very pretty even if it was cloudy and a little rainy. Next we were off to the Golden Gate Bridge! That’s really pretty cool. When we arrived it was cloaked in fog but as the day moved along so did the fog and by the end of our visit the sun was shining bright blue. It was lovely. Such a cool bridge, if that can be said about a bridge. I mean, I’m still partial to the Brooklyn Bridge, but this one can be the way cool one on the West Coast! Then we headed back into town for a ride on a cable car. Coooool. We rode that around for a while until we came to the Cable Car Museum, which is really interesting and informative and where allllllll the cables live that control allllllll the Cable Cars! Neat! Then it was back into the center of town for a brief spot of shopping then finally back to the hotel. Whew.

5^th – Found us heading out bright and early on our little road trip to Monterey and Cannery Row! Once in Monterey we headed right for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, one of the coolest, most comprehensive aquariums I’ve ever been to – and I thought the Scripps Aquarium in La Jolla was cool! So we spent the best part of the day in there learning about jellyfish and seahorses and everything else that spends it’s time in the sea around Northern California! Then we got some lunch (non-seafood thankyouverymuch) and had a look around Cannery Row. Hmmmmm. I wonder what Steinbeck and his marine biologist buddy Ed Ricketts would think of the place now. It’s basically a big strip mall. Hmmm. Neat to see at least once I suppose! Then we packed up and headed south along the 17-Mile Drive which takes you along Pebble Beach and the most fancy pants houses on the most beautiful stretch of coast you’ve ever seen. Wow. You could just smell the money. Then we aimed for cool little Carmel, but because it was Saturday of Labor day weekend the traffic turned everything into one slowly shifting parking lot. So we had a drive down to the sea (or as near as we could get to it) then headed back out of town away from the traffic and money to continue along Highway 1 towards Big Sur (got there just in time for sunset – it was stunning, wish I had photos, no time to stop……) and finally coming rest in San Simeon and the last hotel in town with an overpriced room as everything in that part of the world was fully booked due to the holiday weekend. Eh, it did the trick and breakfast was included!

6^th – We turned the road trip inland to Highway 5 where we made a beeline for San Diego. What can I say about the drive along 5? It sucks. Very brown, very flat and veryvery boring, but speedy. So that evening found us lounging with margaritas with family! Ahhhhhhhhhh! It was fantastic.

So there you have it – Week #1! Told you it was action packed. It’s neat to think back on all we did because now being back here it seems like forever ago, but describing it all day by day makes it seem like it was just last week we were there (well, we kinda were!)! Ahhhhhh, was great. Tune in next week for Week #2! Hope you’re all well up there. Am sorry we blew through town so quickly, so much to do! And am sorry for not checking in from the road, it was difficult with no computer, or at best overpriced internet cafes. Thankfully my memory has improved over the last few months (hooray for the Nintendo DS ‘More Brain Training’ game!) and am able to go over the trip with details! Hooray for adventure!!!!!!

BYE!

J!