Back in 'Frisco'

We arrived feeling quite tired after our late night and early morning. Thankfully Tina & Johns friends, Tom & Judy were there to meet us. They live in Redwood city, just south of San Francisco, and we planned to spend our last night and 2 days with them, before leaving from home.

They had a van so we all went in one car together. They were just great tour guides. First stop was this general store in San Gregorio. It was on the old road that the stage coaches used to use. This store is apparently a bit of an institution.

It is the only business in town and besides basic and tourist provisions, they had a long bar and on weekends live music. Well it was really rockin' when we got there. The place was full of old hippies just hanging out with friends. It had a great chilled out vibe. I would happily have spent the afternoon there!

From there we followed the stage road until we reached Pescadero. A small town with some great local made timber furniture.

They then took us to the coast and Half Moon Bay Brewing Co for lunch. This place was packed outside with large firepits to sit around as well as the normal tables and chairs. They had a predominantly seafood menu and I had one of the most delicious salds I have ever eaten with a side of garlic prawns.... I want it again!!!!

Back in the car it was a drive of about an hour to Santa Cruz. All of us tourists dozed on and off throughout this drive. We arrived for a walk along the Santa Cruz boardwalk. Well this place was crazily busy and in a time warp. I expected a young Frank Sinatra to jump off one of the many rides. There were all the old ones, dodgem cars, old timber rollercoaster etc etc (just think of all the old fairs you went to as a kid) the main entertainment area was at least a kilometre long and had a chairlift from one end to the other. It was interesting to see this side of California that we have seen in many movies but we were also happy to leave it.

From there a stop to watch a great drumming performance at a Japanese Festival then on to the gorgeous town of Capitola. Again very very busy we finally found a park up a side street. We wandered down and along the river. There was this absolutely gorgeous area of small small houses that the path ran between the house and their back yards on the river. Most backyard were approx 6mx4m. The houses were super cute and quaint.

From Capitola you can see right across Monterey Bay, to Monterey in the far distance. Around the waterfront was the Venetian hotel. For them it is like Venice. Not really but lovely just the same.



Dinner that night was at Shadowbrook. It is in the most amazing setting. There is no way you would know it was there without the guidance of a local. From the carpark, it was either a small 6 person cable car or many steps and paths through a beautiful garden and waterfall to the restaurant below. From there the restaurant itself was on 4 levels finally arriving at the rivers edge. The building itself was predominantly timber with lots of glass. Rather than one big dining area, it was more like 5 or 6 small rooms and then the main bar/ light dining area. This is where we dined as we didnt have a booking and the smaller rooms were booked out.

This is Tina & John at the restaurant, with their friends Tom & Judy.

From Capitola it was at least an hours drive back to Redwood City. By the time we got back we were all exhausted. After our early flight out of Seattle and then a full day of touring we were exhausted. All of us collapsed into the hotel beds within 5 mins of checking in.

The following day Tom showed us through part of Silicon Valley. He was previously employed by Hewlett Packard and one of the stops was this house in a suburban street where Silicon Valley started. This was in Palo Alto, the next city to Redwood City. Its really like the next suburb. Palo Alto also has Stanford University where alot of the brains & $$ for the area come from.



Tom & Judy kindly had us to their place for lunch. They have a great garden, with many kinds of veges at the front and now with their children grown up, the backyard is an orchard.

In one of the trees they pointed out a birds nest. At first we couldnt see it but finally we could make it out. The nest was about the size of a 20 cent coin and sitting over her eggs was a hummingbird. They are so tiny and when flying look like a medium size moth.

This is a close up in cose you couldnt find it in the tree.

We had seen hummingbirds in another small town we were passing through. Cant remember the name but to say 'hicksville' might help you conjure up what it was like. We were in a great roadside cafe full of bib overall wearing locals saying things like "I got me some chaws to do today".

Part of the entertainment was eavedropping. The other was when John spotted something appear just through the glass next to my head. It hovered for about 4 seconds then darted off. We were in awe to have seen our first hummingbird. The cafe had feeders hanging from the gutters, full of sugar water, and the birds were coming in to sip from them. We saw about 5 or 6 that day. Amazing!

Anyway our last day had us at a high point in the Santa Cruz mountains overlooking Silicon Valley then back down to a very busy (it was Fathers Day in USA) restaurant for a snack before being dropped at the airport. The place was on the water, at the exit before the airport from the freeway. Sitting in there the view was across the water to the planes landing and taking off only a couple of 100 metres away. Certainly made entertainment.

Well thats it for this trip.... we had a truly great holiday and lots of fun with Tina & John. As always it was not enough time to see all the things we wanted to along the way.

See y'all next time!!

xD&M

Last night in Seattle

Following from the previous blog, the boys happily set off for Safeco Field (the ball park). Mark was excited to begoing to his first A league baseball game.

We had bought the tickets before we left and the process of collecting them at the 'will call window' was apparently very smooth. Before they knew it they were directed to their seats and were ready for their first beers and to soak in the atmosphere.

They were in an area that had servers that would bring you food and drinks by the order so that they didnt have to leave their seats and miss any of the game.

Asking the guy what beers they had available, one guy close by piped up, "are you going to order a Fosters"? They assured his they werent and also that it was not a beer that was very popular in Australia. He agreed it was not very good. They got to chatting and Mark asked did he know the rules of the game, and could he help them understand it. His reply "I have been coming here for 30 yrs and learn a new rule every week ... welcome to the ball park"!

After an overcast morning, the evening was clear, so the roof did not need to be closed. Apparently the position allowed them to see all the action.

But while the boys are away, the girls will play!!

We were keen to go out for a drink and dinner but were also aware we had to leave for the airport the following morning at 6am. We were equally keen to find somewhere that had live music, preferably blues.

With some boring suggestions from the concierge, we did a little on line research ourselves.

We found 2 options (both were restaurant/bars)and chose the one with the cheaper cover charge as we could not have a late night.

Our choice was Highway Ninety-Nine. Tina was a little wary that I was taking her somewhere unsafe, as it was in an area we had driven through the evening before = under a freeway, next to the market (close at night), and underground. We figured as we were going there at 6pm and it was light until at least 9:30 we would be fine. An added bonus was we could walk there or if we got a taxi back it wasnt too far.

It was about 7 blocks and then 150 steps down through the market then under the freeway. Throughout this walk the streets were busy and most bars/restaurants we passed were very busy. We found it easily and walked in just behind another couple, to find we were the first lot there.

We propped at the bar with a drink, chatted happily with an Irish barman, and inquired about the music and food. Finding out the music didnt start until 9pm we figured we would catch a little only.

A couple of drinks later we made our way to a table for dinner. We were thrilled to see items we had only heard of and just had to try. Before long we had Fried green tomatoes, catfish bites & jambalaya in front of us. Very yummy!

The place was quickly filling before the band came on 'Rockin Jake'. They were great with lots of harmonica playing by Jake. They were visiting from New Orleans.

A couple came to sit at the table next to ours but realised it had a hindered view and on looking around the others available were far in the back. I mentioned we were only planning on staying another half hour of so, and if they took the hindered view table the could then move to ours when we left. Tina then started pulling the table closer to ours so it they would have a better view. Then the lady asked who else was with us at our table. When I assured her it was just us, she said "maybe we will just join your table". We were more than happy with this and introduced ourselves.

Before we knew it, another 2 hrs had passed, and we were still sitting there loving the music and chatting with Eugene & Sheila. They were visiting from Salem, Oregon and had been recommended this bar. I apologised at 11pm that we hadnt left earlier as previously mentioned. Sheila assured us "ýáll are great company" and they were happy we stayed.



Finally around 11:30 we could see little sleep being had as we still had to finish packing when we got back to the hotel. Before we left Sheila wanted to take our photo so we took some as well. Eugene was very cool and made this pose in all photos. i teased him of posturing like a cool dude, he thought this hilarious and assured me this was what you had to do...

They were great company and we had a great night.

The walk back, even though it included the stair climbing, was easy and uneventful. They boys had been long back and were practically tapping their watches wondering where we had been...

Seattle

As mentioned we took the ferry directly into Seattle. They leave from many points as there is alot of water around Seattle.

We leftfrom Bainbridge Island and it was only a 35 min trip.We arrived around 4pm, found the hotel fairly easily and were checked in, and out wandering the streets of the City before we knew it. It was surprisingly quiet for late afternoon. This city is about the size of Brisbane and is kept very clean. I saw someone steam cleaning the cement footpaths to remove grease & gum as well as any moss that may make it slippery.

The next morning we headed down to Pike St Market. Mark was very keen to see the icon fish stands. They were lots of fun to watch.

When someone ordered something, say 2 lb of sockeye salmon, the salesperson called out "2 lb sockeye salmon" then ALL the staff shouted out "2 lb sockeye salmon". This is then tossed by one salesperson from the front to someone behind the counter who preps and wraps it ready to take.

From there we wandered about 12 blocks to the old Expo district which has the Experience Music Project, which I was very keen to see. In particular it was the building that I was interested in. Another example of amazing architecture by Frank Gehry. It was like a rippled piece of metal that seemed to change in colour as you looked at it from different angles. Each piece was also slightly different in shape and size. Internally it had a strong feel of Federation Square for those who have been there.

It houses a museum providing opportunities for musical experiences as well as the Science Fiction Museum.

You can see in this picture that the building has several coloured 'pods' that are joined to make one building.

We took the elevator to the top of the sky needle to get a view of Seattle from high. It was surprising to see that the city didnt stretch too far. I was a little disappointed not the be able to see Mt Ranier due to heavy cloudy weather. (OUr days have been around 7C - 16C) Not particularly warm but Mark and I quite like that.

We caught the monorail back to the city centre. I spotted this guy offering shoe shines and grabbed the chance to have my very scratched and dusty shoes cleaned. He layered no less than 5 products on my boots. Rubbing them in with his hands as he said it helps the waxes warm and melt into the leather. When I asked the cost (half way through...) he said "just give me something to live on"! Lovely guy! Tina had hers done too.

The 'men' decided to buy American belt buckles. We left them to it and this is what they came back with. They were so proud with thier choices but were soon brought down to earth when the lady running the market stall handed them a mirror on a stick to hold out so they could see the buckles, as they could not see past their 'holiday guts'!!!

At one end of the city centre is Union Lake. We went for a drive in the afternoon and ended up having dinner at a lakeside restaurant. We were all keen to be sure we ate Dungeness Crab as it is a local delicacy. Between Crab bisque, crab & shrimp & artichoke dip, and crab cakes we soon had it covered.

Approx one quarter of Union Lake has house boat estates. They were so darn cute. Like real houses just floating on the water. They were mostly 3 or 4 deep from the shore.

For movie fans this is where Tom Hanks character lived when they filmed "Sleepless in Seattle".

Today Tina & I have shoppped us a storm and the boys went to the Boeing factory. They came back quoting things like "they make a 7?? in 3 days ready for painting".. I will leave it to you to ask for details if you want!!

This evening they are off to the Baseball at Safeco Field. (Mark is very excited and John keeps thinking its football he is going to, so may be disappointed!) Tina and I have happily had an hour or so break and will head out to find somewhere for dinner and a drink that hopefully also has some live music.

Wish us luck!

We leave very early tomorrow from the hotel, return the car and fly back to San Francisco. Tina & John have friends there who are picking us up. (Very kind of them) We will be staying in REdwood City for one night and fly back home late the following day.

We arrive home Tuesday morning, EST. If I dont blog again before them, I will finish up this trip when I am back.

Hope all are well and happy. Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

xxx D&M (& T&J)

Port Townsend

What a great town is Pt Townsend. A perfect laid-back town of small size. Apparently in the 70's-80's when San Francisco became too contemporary the hippies moved out and many moved to Pt Townsend. It was a bit like Castlemaine, Vic or Byron Bay (but colder).

This is our little hotel. Tina & John's room mid-level on the right and ours was the opposite side of the building.


These guys were playing on a street corner. Thier style was boot-leg blues. Very fun. We bought their CD to support them and we loved the music. They said they were on the road from New Orleans.

This is a rare old bar we found a decent coffee in. This one was City of Olympia. I believe it was about 90 yrs old, and used to be an old pool hall/ bar. Now its open early till late, with live music most nights. Alas we found it on our morning out of town so no night time visit for us there.

Washington State

Quickly after skirting the outer suburbs of Portland, Oregon; we crossed the border into Washington State.

Though still very leafy, the trees were changing from mostly conifer varieties to initially smaller and less visually interesting trees. Also the towns were less 'cute' and we soon were comparing Washington to Oregon unfavourably. We were keeping our eye out for a Tourist info Centre and followed a sign off the highway to 'tourist interest point'. All this got us was 'there's nothing to see around here man'...

Disappointed we headed back up the highway. We had a state map with main roads of Washington but no other info and no accom booked. Finally about 60 miles into the state we turned off to the information centre that was predominantly set up for Mt St Helen's, but they were able to give us enough info to decide to head up the west side of the Puget Sound and then cross via water ferry into Seattle.

We spent a night in City of Olympia, the Capital of the state. (as mentioned at the end of the previous blog entry)

A basic over-processed breakfast supplied by the hotel, we found this great little cafe/bar for a rare decent coffee.

From here we only had about 130 miles to travel for our planned next stop of Port Townsend. Though disappointingly overcast (apparently very normal for this part of the world) we just loved driving along the side of the Puget Sound for mile after mile.

Eventually we arrived in Port Townsend. We chose to stay in the historical centre. It was a town with many many old buildings dating back to 1860's.

With bottles of wine to consume that we had bought along the way (too much to bring into the country on our return) we decided to stay in and get a pizza. We had a great night sitting on the verandah of our hotel in the Adirondack chairs and benches provided.

Bend and beyond...

As mentioned previously, we went to the local rodeo. It was actually in the town of Sisters which was about 20 mins out of Bend.

We chose to arrive in time for the Saturday night program of events. The carparking attendants were the "Sherrifs Posse" as you can see written on the horses blanket behind the saddle.

They would ride through the carpark on their horses and lead us where to park. It was a very popular event and the main carpark was full by the time we arrived.

Therefore, we were directed to park amongst the contestants. This is a classic example of the contestants rigs. The BIG truck pulling the trailer that seemed to house the horses as well as the crew in the front half of the trailer. It is a very big thing here and the contestants travel around through a series of rodeos until the finals in Vegas. on average they travel 40 - 50,000 miles per annum. Not fun I say!

There was a great atmosphere once we entered the grounds. This little booth was to sell the 'chits' to get a beer.

There was a nationally popular fun act with a one armed rider who rode around cracking a whip whilst the voice over told the story of the approx 6 million buffalo in the USA that once white man came literally reduced to only 200-300. Blah blah blah... anyway the upshot is... 2 buffalo came out... amazing creatures... more stuff happened too dull to explain unless you were there and drinking beer... (we had one or two)

The following day we sadly left Bend, even though the owner of the house we were staying in, rang and offered for us to just stay on a few more days as she loved Aussies... An offer very tempting but we soon realised to accept it was to sacrifice other opportunities to see new places as planned.

Therefore we headed out and before long we came to this amazing gorge on the Crooked River near Redmond, north of Bend. This gorge was not discernable until you were literally a metre from the edge.

Actually this was one of the signs at the carpark as we pulled in. Interesting!!!!

The gorge was 300 ft deep and pretty awesome.

From there we continued north up through Mt Hood region. This was at the top of the pass. As you can see we are close to the tree line. It was reasonably warm considering the temps we had been expereincing the previously few days.


Once through the pass we were able to see the next montain in this range which is Mt St Helens. This impressed particularly the boys due its 30th anniversary of erupting. We stopped for a great sandwich in a local general store. Fun guys there serving micro brews on tap so they dont have to drink and drive from other pubs!!!


From there we drove along the Columbia River Gorge which lies between the states of Oregon and Washington. It was a VERY wide and awesome gorge. One of our stops was the Bonneville Dam. We were thrilled to have timed our visit with when the salmon are heading up river. Since the dam is in the way they have built ladders for them to climb up. It was very interesting to see Sockeye, Chinook and many other types that we have only ever heard of, struggling their ways up river to spawn.



This is a side on pic of the Acadia for those who care!


Several stops along the gorge were to see waterfalls. This one in particular was spectacular and 620 ft high, the Multnoma Falls.

That night was arrived in City of Olympia which is the capital of Washington State. This was our dinner at Budd Bay Cafe. We all had wonderful local seafood. Dishes from tempura oysters, through blackened salmon (cajun spices) and linguine seafood.

A final note on Oregon. We LOVED it. Our time in Central Oregon was great and we loved the people, scenery & feel of the places we travelled through and stopped at. Would love to have more time here.

Beautiful Bend

Well we just loved Bend and Central Oregon. If ever I had to live in the USA this would be a fabulous town to live in.

This is also where we had our longest stop and our stay in the house on the river. It was just a perfect and relaxing way to take a break from our road trip which has meant several one night stops in a row.

Mark and I sat out in the front yard of the house in the sun enjoying the morning sunshine in the cool air.


The first day Mark & I didnt go anywhere, just sat around the house and dozed the afternoon away. The following day we all had a great day out. A bit of shopping in The Old Mill district we found this great scooter outside a visitors centre.

Tina and I doing a little shopping.

Central Oregon is surrounded by the Cascade Mtns. Many are still snow capped. This is a pic of Mt Bachelor taken from within a shop. Such beautiful weather but we were reminded by the locals this was the first sunshine of the year!!

On our last morning Mark & I headed down early to the dock of the house we were staying in. Though you can't tell from these pics it was about 1C at this time of day. If you look closely you may note the the frost on the timber and the mist coming off the water.

I did say it was early morning. We took this ourselves (prior to morning showers!) but it shows a bit of the river from a different angle. The Deschutes River was flowing at a very decent rate.


The property was mostly wooded with local conifers and was cleared only around the house. This was the track from the dock heading back to the house.


Photos of the house.

Oregon is also known for its microbreweries. There are apparently over 100 in the state. We visited one in Bend. The Deschites Brewery and enjoyed the most delicious burgers and beers. The only reason we didnt just set in and spend the rest of the afternoon there was because we had planned to go to the local rodeo. Yee haa!



We have found the people of America very welcoming and friendly. Everywhere we go we are greeted and treated well. Just yesterday morning Mark & I were in a local espresso diner for a morning coffee. There was a truckie in there we were chatting to. He asked would we be here all day. We asked did he mean in town, to which he answered, "no, in the diner... I could sit here all day and listen to you speak"... funny!

We still havent managed to get the hang of tipping and have found ourselves going back to leave our tips after paying and leaving. Bad form but we are trying...

Hope all are well.

xD

Crater Lake

Apologies up front for so many photos, but its the easiest way to explain and saves lots of typing.

Taken from the back seat. We were excited to see there was still some snow around even though it is officially summer here.


Beautiful Crater Lake. Deepest Lake in the USA, 7th deepest in the world. It is only fed by snow and rain, no rivers feed into it and it has no outlet.

This island is in the middle of the lake. The lodge we stayed in is only open 4 months of the year. This area gets the highest snow fall in USA averaging 570 inches a year. There is no skiing so it only opens in summer.


These cute rocking chairs were outside to enjoy the view. It starting snowing about 1 min after this pic and the wind was icy cold.

The lodge where we stayed.


Tina and I (the old ladies) sitting in front of one of the fire places in the guest lounge. We were chatting to 'Dave' who was a tool salesman from Maryland. You can see how massive the fireplace is.

Waiting for our pre-dinner drinks.

Bark was trimming different parts of the guest areas. Here under the staircase.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner. again the service was too fast for our liking. Dinner was Mark's Bison rib steak. Also Tina and I had delicious Wild Alaskan Salmon and John Alaskan Halibut with blue cheese and horseradish sauce. Needless to say we have enjoyed good wines with all meals.

We were all sharing a suite at this hotel. Before we went to dinner John left on what he thought was the exhaust fan in the toilet. When we came back we realised it was not the exhaust fan but the heater in the bathroom. The results were it was literally like a sauna in the room. The inside of the bathroom door was too hot to touch!!!! The heat then flowed into the bedroom area and soon we had to open the window to the 0C temperature just to survive.

We thought we had it handled and soon were in bed. Not alot of sleeping happened as the room was also overheated for our liking. I got up around 1am to open the door to the corridor just to let some cool air in and create a cross ventilation. We also had 2 x windows open to try and cool the room. We ended up leaving the 2 windows ajar all night to eventually get some sleep.

Though we knew it was snowing a little we did not realise how much. We woke to this beautiful scene. About 4 - 6 inches of snow fell overnight.

A couple of guys who rode their bikes up would have had a rude awakening when they wanted to get on them to leave. One had a sheep skin seat... would have been frozen I reckon.

Welcoming hotel/lodge sign.

Lodge front door.

The boys couldn't resist this photo opportunity!!!

Its interesting to compare the first photos we took where the trees had no snow, to the snow laden trees we saw on our way out.

This snow was unexpected and unappreciated by the locals who said winter had not lost its grip yet and they were well and truly over the snow.