San Francisco drive down to Los AngelesJan 9, 2007
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Chinatown San Francisco
Crookedest road in the world (at the top)
Marcia and a bridge
| Marcia: Hey everyone and sorry for the delay with this entry! It's taken us most of our first day in NZ to get it all sorted but we've finally got it! Our trip through California was so much better than we expected. The weather was perfect and the drive from San Francisco to LA is breath taking! More mountain driving than we expected and Nige was jealous I was driving all those windy roads you see on the movies! Fun but a bit scary sometimes! As the pictures speak for themselves I'll just give a brief description to accompany them: We met up with Nige's brother and girlfriend in San Fran, Matt and Merissa, and had such a great time with them. San Francisco is crazy with the hills, we couldn't believe people could actually park on some of the roads. Then drove down through the "17 Mile Drive" (Monterey to Carmel, Pebble Beach golf course and others) which was some of the most gorgeous scenery I've ever seen. We stopped in a little place called Morro Bay for the night in this cute little retro room with a wood burning fire place! Then on to Santa Barbara which was really cool and trendy. After a run on the beach and a coffee overlooking the ocean we got back in the car and headed through Malibu (right before the fires...phew), Bel Air, Hollywood and down to Long Beach where we stayed on an old ship called the Queen Mary. We arrived today in NZ after a great flight on Quantas (highly recommend) in the coolest hostel buzzing with tonnes of people doing exactly what we are! Oh...they just announced a free bungy give away contest on the roof top bar better go....(just kidding mom and dad my bungy days are over but we'll enjoy a beer up there anyway!) Miss and love you all XO Nigel: What to say that Mar hasn't already? Fortunately she's only left me 2 mins on the internet before it packs in and 36 hours with 1 hr sleep is not condusive to witty, descriptive prose. Anyway, err, 17 mile drive at Pebble Beach is simply the most frustrating place you'll ever go - 4 of the most stunning Golf courses I've seen (that I couldn't play) and multi million $ properties at every corner (that bit reminded me of home). I really just saw the trip down the coast as a way to get from SF to LA but it surpassed those expectations - our free upgrade to a Bentley Sport (pic attached) was a pleasant surprise (not much fun as a nervous passenger tho - tho near death experiences were in single figures so I can't complain). Stopping randomly at the side of the road to see rutting elephant seals on the beach was a bit surreal and Hearst Castle was amazing (in a totally-out-of-place sort of way) (can't be bothered to explain the history - look it up. It's not Windsor Castle tho) Disappointed with Malibu beach tho - expensive and overrated (in my humble opinion) and most of it burned down the day after we went thru. Queen Mary (the biggest ocean liner of it's day) in Long Beach was a bit different - we felt like royalty in one of their King State rooms (sounds grander than it was but worth a go nonetheless.) Hollywood is a hole but the surrounds are (typically) stunning. Had lunch in the Pig n Whistle on Hollywood Boulevard (where other stars also eat apparently - so that was nice). Anyway, the adventure is about to start in earnest - just landed in Auckland and we're off into the wilderness tomorrow to swim with Dolphins and Whales apparently - hopefully more updates soon (and Mar will give me longer on the internet to come up with some inspirational writings and some different superlatives (amazing, stunning, beautiful will get very tedious I know) I hope work is good... |
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