MONTEREY BAY

Kendrah and I had the weekend off together, so on Sat morning we set off for Monterey Bay. It's about an hour and a half from Palo Alto. And it's along the dreaded Pacific Coast Highway. Why, oh why can't I escape driving down that thing?

Fortunately, it's not as horrid as it could have been. And it was a warm and sunny day, so we lucked out, since it'd been raining all week here. We visited the aquarium there, which is huge and quite fun. I've never seen such big tuna fish in my LIFE. And they are U-G-L-Y. I never realized they were so aggressive either, since they are almost at the top of the food chain.

Alright, enough of a biology lesson on tuna, since most of you are probably losing interest already. Even though the shark exhibit was cool, my favourite part was the jellyfish exhibit. I love the way they float through the water and glow so bright.

Underneath my hand is a small sting-ray. The aquarium staff have removed the stingers, so no danger of any pain. They were weird to touch -super soft and a little slippery. But surprisingly playful. While I was petting the adult one, the baby sting-ray came over to say hello too (it's floating just about my hand).

This was outside the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company (restaurant). Remember Forrest Gump? This actor resembles him in a surprisingly (and slightly scary) way.

This is what I love best about living on the West Coast: a delicious (and inexpensive) lobster dinner. And the sushi, of course!

MUIR WOOD/STINSON BEACH

Kendrah and I managed to get a couple of days off together and so we continued our exploration of the Bay area. We'd already been across several of the Bay bridges (I think there are 4 or 5) but had yet to make it to the famous Golden Gate Bridge. So, on a Sunday, we decided to brave city traffic and head across the Bay.

The Golden Gate Bridge is, in reality, pretty cool looking. First, it's huge (I think it's 4 or 6 lanes wide) and second, it's a funky orangey-reddish colour. We found out that they start painting one end of the bridge each January, finish in December and then start all over again in January. Talk about monotony!

Anyway, at either end of the bridge you can stop at a vista point to take pictures. We got a great view of the city. In the distance, you can see the Bay Bridge, which we've been over a couple of times. Alcatraz is also visible and the city skyline is gorgeous.

Next up was Muir Woods. It's a national reserve that is dedicated to the protection of North America's tallest redwood trees. It was calm and cool in there -quite a change from the chaos of San Francisco.

This is the view as we looked up to the top of the trees. Absolutely huge.

Kendrah, posing underneath one of the redwood trees. They are so huge that it's possible to fit a car inside one of these puppies!

After we left Muir Woods, it was still pretty early so we decided to explore the North Bay area a little more before heading back to the city. We decided to try to find Stinson beach, located along the (dreaded!) Pacific Coast Highway. This time, however, it wasn't me driving and it wasn't pitch black, so the drive was significantly nicer. And what a gorgeous view!

It took about 20 min to find the place. Upon arrival, we found a cute little coastal town (population 486), surviving soley on the popularity of it's beach. It was sunny and clear, but quite windy down by the water. And despite the fact that it was only about 16 degrees, there were people SUNBATHING down there. This in a state where if it's less than 15 degrees, people deck themselves out in a scarf and mitts.

Hmmm......seems a bit contrary to me.

That aside, the beach was large, pretty and ...... prone to shark attacks?!?! I may not be coming back here once the weather is warm. Give me a shark-free great lake any day!

That's me, dipping my blistered feet into the chilly pacific

The last place we went to that day was Chinatown. Again. I'm in love with the place. I picked up some cute shoes (which I desperately needed since my sandals were ripping my feet to shreds), a new purse and a silk placemat/chopstick set. All, of course, for dirt cheap prices.
The last stop of the day was at a Tea House we stumbled on by accident. It's set up like a bar where you can taste any of the teas they sell. By the time we were done, I think we'd tried 6 or 7 different kinds. I ended up bringing home so lychee black tea....so yummy!

MISCELLANEOUS

I've been exploring the city and the surrounding area. One of the most exciting discoveries is that alcohol is so cheap here. Disgustingly cheap, in fact. Imagine my surprise when I went to the Rite-Aid to pick up some nailpolish and discovered an entire aisle devoted to liquor.

We spent a total of $30 on this stuff. The 60 of vodka was, by far, the best deal. I paid an entire $10.99 for it. Here's to cheap ceasars!

We found a delicious sushi bar called Miyake, in downtown Palo Alto. The maki rolls were the most inexpensive I've found so far and the floating sushi boats were fun to look at. They had all sorts of treats to choose from. Good thing Kendrah can stomach all this raw fish, because this is the 3rd or 4th Asian restaurant I've dragged her to in the last week.

This explains the headache I had this morning. I asked for "a beer" and the biggest thing I've ever seen showed up. Four bucks....so I had 2.

Okay, so, it was a sushi bar with loud music and disco lights. And some weird traditions. About every 5 minutes, some random person yells out and a bunch of people jump up on their chairs, drop a tumbler of saki into their beer, and pound it back. Keep in mind, it's WARM saki. Beer mixed with saki......yummmm...... ?

We were at another bar later that night and this random kid (I think he was all of 15) made us some balloon corsages to match our outfits.

HALF MOON BAY


Kendrah and I decided to explore the coast a little. Palo Alto is surrounded on one side by the S.F. bay and is about 30 min from the Pacific Coast. So, we drove to this small town called Half Moon Bay. Think: Grand Bend, only a little less tacky. Very cute. The beach was gorgeous and even though the day was pretty cool -these wimpy Californians were wearing heavy coats and mitts!- the beach had quite a few visitors. I can only imagine how busy it must be in the summer.

PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY


So, I forgot to add this in earlier, but better late than never, right? Anyway, on our way from LA to SF, Jenny and I decided to take the scenic route: the Pacific Coast Highway. PCH #1. AKA The Beautiful Route from Hell.

Maybe I'm exaggerating, since, as you can see from the pictures, it was gorgeous. Absolutely breathtaking. Which is why, I'm sure, it's gained such a reputation and is heavily traveled by visitors to the area. And I'd recommend it again -if one has countless hours to devote to deviously twisted, dangerously narrow, sharply-inclining hills.

Alright, perhaps I'm not being quite fair. However, there are some things you should know about this place before you let me drag you down it (which I fully plan to do to at least one of my upcoming visitors....!)

1) It's beautiful (we've already covered that, and being the reasonably intelligent people that you all are, I'll leave it at that)

2) It's only beautiful during the day

3) Once you get on the damn thing, there is no way off. Seriously. Unless you can swim really, really well.

Therefore, if, like us, you begin the journey around 4 pm, you will be stuck driving about 140 miles of twisted, narrow, sometimes washed out roads in the pitch black. Which, I must admit, is fun. For the first 10 miles. Then I wanted out. But NO. Not happening. The so-called 5 hr drive from LA to SF took closer to 8 hrs with this "scenic" detour that we took.

Alright, enough of my complaining. Truthfully, it is a beautiful place and it is probably even prettier when one can actually see their surroundings. I'd recommend entering from the northern tip and driving just a little into it, then turning around and coming home. Unless you're a glutton for punishment, it's not exactly the preferred route to take to make it back to LA. But it was an experience. Think: a bobsled track with no walls, the pacific ocean to cushion your fall on one side, and mud walls/mountains on the other and you'll have an idea of what we saw :)

Really, I'm not bitter, I'd just NEVER DO THE ENTIRE THING AGAIN!!!!!

SAN FRANCISCO

The day after we arrived in Palo Alto, we headed to downtown San Fran to take a look at the city. We acted totally like tourists and took tons of pictures. We found a great sushi restaurant and looked for Chinese wedding dresses for Jenny. The city was pretty crowded and chaotic, but it was sunny and warm, so worth battling the crowds.

I know the picture is dark, but Chinatown was so cool I had to include the picture. The lanterns were hanging everywhere and there were sushi and noodle restaurants on every corner. We found some fun gifts for family and friends back home.

This is one of the views taken from the Trolley Car. It was a totally touristy thing to ride this around the city, but we couldn't resist. I was standing on the side and hanging on for dear life. And when another trolley car goes by, everyone on the outside has to squeeze themselves in, or else they'll get knocked off -that's how close they come to each other.

Jenny and I standing on one of the piers at Fisherman's Warf. The Golden Gate bridge can be seen faintly in the background.

A view of the city skyline from Fisherman's Warf

This was my favourite part of Fisherman's Warf. The fishermen bring in the fresh catch each morning and then the vendors cook the crab and sell them whole to anyone who's interested. It was a delicious dinner!

Alcatraz. We haven't done the tour yet, but perhaps when I have some Canadian visitors, we'll make our way to the Rock.

This is Lombard street -otherwise known as the "crookedest street in the world". It is insanely twisted and has gorgeous flowerbeds on either side of it. I've never seen anything like it!

Kendrah, Jenny and I on Fisherman's Warf, our first day in San Fran

HOLLYWOOD

After Mexico, ANYTHING was looking better, so we started to head north through California. Negotiating LA traffic was an interesting experience. Massive highways and exits on the left and right (which are so confusing sometimes), but the traffic was really no worse than Toronto at rush-hour. With our rather inadequate map, we managed to find our way to the Kodak theater. We were unaware of our timing, having been on the road for 3 days already, so we didn't understand why there was so much activity and confusion when we got there. Finally, we clued in that the Oscars were on Sunday and we'd stumbled onto the crews setting up for it all. Pretty cool, if I am going to be honest. All in all, a fabulous stop for sure.

Part of the LA downtown skyline


The classic picture taken in front of the Hollywood sign. I know it's not real close, but we were getting sick of diving and didn't want to try to find the hill.

The Hollywood Stars. Even though many of them were covered by the red carpet, we still found some fun ones to take pictures of.

This is the start of the red carpet for the Oscars. It extends down the street in front of the Kodak Theater and the press/public line the sides of it to take pictures of the stars. The rehearsals were going on the day we were there, so there were lots of limos around, but sadly, we didn't get to see any stars. We did have a great time poking our noses around the setup though!

Obviously, a fake Oscar. This one read: "World's Best Nurse" Not sure it can get cheesier than that!

ROADTRIP

Distance traveled: 5182 km
Thoughts on Roadtrip: Will this road NEVER END?

We left Ontario on Feb 28th in the morning. Ran into a bit of a problem at the US border -Jenny's school hadn't sent her the correct documents to obtain her work visa. So, after being let into the country, we headed to Chicago so Jenny could drop off her car and pick up the paperwork. Port Huron Customs assured us that we just needed to "cross any border ma'am" in order for Jenny to reapply for her visa. With that in mind, we changed our "boot it across the country as fast as possible" route to the more scenic "it's slightly longer, but hell, we'll get to see Mexico and won't be driving through snow" route.

We headed on our way and were bored for most of the drive through Illinois, Missouri and New Mexico. Arizona was much prettier and the people were all quite friendly. In fact, I'd consider living there in the fall/winter. It was sunny and about 20-25 degrees. But I'd be out of there the first of May, I think. The guy at the souvenir shop told us it goes up to about 40 degrees. Yuck.

Missouri and Arizona and New Mexico were so warm, we had to dig our sandals out. Not such a big deal since we'd left behind -10 degree weather and about a foot of snow on the ground. In fact, I wasn't complaining at all that I got to ditch the sock and show off my new pedicure!

This was one of the random tourist stops we made in Arizona. It's Montezuma's Castle -and although people now know he never lived this far north, as the guide goes, the name has stuck. The cliff was full of caves and ledges and the people who lived here used these secret caves to enter and exit the castle.

The sign read "Fry Bread". We were hungry and it smelled good, so we took a chance. Turns out it's exactly like elephant ears/beaver tails. They sprinkle honey and cinnamon on it. Quite tasty.

This is the view from the highway running through Flagstaff, Arizona. It was a beautiful town and such a weird little oasis. We drove through desert to get here, then suddenly were surrounded by huge evergreens and mountains and lush green grass. Then, just as suddenly, we found ourselves back in the desert.

Mexico did not go as well as planned. "Just cross any border" my ass. Jenny was flatly refused her work visa, mostly, we think cause the customs agents had no idea what to do with a Canadian making entry into the country via Mexico. And crossing the border was chaotic and a little scary. At customs, they were searching a car near ours and found a suspicious package of white powder. Seriously! As if someone would bother trying that when they have drug dogs and customs agents everywhere! Fortunately, my car -which was packed with my worldly possessions- slid though the search. Our customs agent, while a little confused by our story, was nice and seemed to believe us. Probably because we looked so scared at the prospect of being searched that he realized the only thing we were trying to hide was our underwear.

Waiting in line at the Mexican border. Chaotic and confusing. People wander between the cars selling fresh fruits and vegetables and hot nuts.

We left Mexico as quickly as we'd entered. It was an ugly and unexciting border town and we still had the state of California to drive through. Next time I go to Mexico, it'll be to a resort. Guaranteed.