Team No Job - The Great Escape 2007

Yosemite national park was not the first choice for our destination after San Francisco, we had intended to travel immediately south along the pacific highway to LA and then head across to Las Vegas to visit the casino’s and the grand canyon. We however decided due to the distance and the cost that it wasn’t possible to do that so we headed across to Yosemite straight after San Francisco for a couple of days.

Due to restrictions on young drivers in the US which meant that every driver under 25 had to pay a surcharge of $25 a day I did all the driving to keep the costs a bit lower. We used Alamo car rental and got a new Toyota Corolla to play with complete with cruise control which is my new favourite toy in a car, Lazy mans driving!! Driving on the wrong side of the road on multi lane highways isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be although we actually managed to avoid the main roads for much of the trip. The road up to Yosemite was very long and windy (I think I have mastered mountain driving now - It will prove useful when I get back home!) and it was a slow trip. We ended up taking the long way round to where we were staying as we weren’t exactly sure where it was but it allowed us to see some of the park.
We stayed at the Yosemite bug hotel and hostel, our accommodation for the two nights we were there was a tent cabin which gave it quite a wilderness feel. It was comfortable enough even if it was a little cold at night after the sun went down! There was however a lodge on site serving cheap hot meals which proved useful for dinner.

We spent one full day exploring the national park itself. Unfortunately there isn’t the wilderness feel to the place any more. It is all rather tame in the respect that there are two lane paved roads right through the valley and every service you could possibly want available in the village. The scenery however did make up for it. We thought that we may not be so impressed having seen what was on offer in New Zealand as we now count ourselves as scenery connoisseurs but it exceeded expectations. Yosemite has two of the tallest waterfalls in the world which are very impressive and the views over the valley also have to be seen. We spent most of the day exploring various trails through the valley, with transfers to each by a shuttle bus. If you don’t have to walk in America you don’t! As the evening drew nearer we went to visit some of the famous giant redwood trees which I have to say are the biggest trees that I have ever seen.

After Yosemite we crossed back across the flat plains of California to the coast. The things they say about American roads and corners are completely true. There sometimes isn’t one for miles and miles and miles which is where cruise control comes in handy, you just have to keep an eye out for stop signs that appear in the middle of main roads in the middle of nowhere on the odd occasion, very strange. Our first stop on the coast was the town of Monterey which seemed to be quite asleep when we visited, to be fair it was midweek and I guess it is still off season but there didn’t seem to be much going on. After Monterey the real coastal road kicked in. I had heard before coming out here that this was the best drive in the world and I have to agree that it is probably the best one that I have ever done, better than the Great Ocean Road in Australia. Around every bend in the road was a place that deserved a picture to be taken so very often we didn’t get very far down the road before stopping again for more pictures. The only major stop we took on the first day traveling down was at the Big Sur state park for more forrest walks to the top of the valley to take more pictures of the impressive scenery, In the afternoon I spotted a large bird of prey flying overhead which I though could have been an eagle, we came across a group of people who had found more of the birds flying overhead and we were told that these were in fact the endangered Californian Condor, very inquisitive birds who gave us some excellent pictures by swooping down and flying right overhead, further down the road was also a colony of seals, far too many to count, there looked to be hundreds, probably close to over a thousand just lazing about.

Further down the coast the scenery was less impressive and we only stopped in a couple of the bigger towns to have a look round, we spent a night in San Luis Opisbo as it was the half way point of the road and further down we stopped in the rich town of Santa Barbara and drove through the mansion filled suburb of LA, Malibu. Unfortunately our arrival into LA was at rush hour and it took a further 2 hours of driving to complete the last 20 miles to our motel.

We stayed in a motel in San Fernando on the outskirts of LA for 2 nights as Rich and I wanted to go the nearby theme park Six Flags Magic Mountain before we headed into LA proper. If any of you roller coaster fans are ever in the area of LA I highly recommend the park. It is billed as America’s extreme park and it contains 12 roller coasters of all shapes and sizes. Our favourites were Deja-vu which sent you flying around a corkscrew and a loop and up a vertical section before repeating the track backwards, X which is the strangest roller-coaster i’ve ever been on as the seats move independently of the train so you really hadn’t got a clue which way up you were for most of the time and Goliath which was just a very fast roller-coaster but probably exerted the most G force on the body. The park was completely empty as it was a thursday so the most we ever had to wait to go on a ride was 15 minutes so we definitely got our monies worth however our bodies were not particularly thankful for the punishment.

Well thats where I’m going to leave it, we’re now in LA and we’ll no doubt fill you all in on that later on,

For now I bid you goodbye
Chris

Hi everyone,

First of all I would like to thank all the people that sent me cards/emails/text messages etc on my birthday. I didn’t expect to get anything sent to me as I didn’t think it was possible(!) so it was a really nice suprise :o).

Right back to our news and an update on our week spent in San Francisco....
As Chris may have already mentioned, we managed to get an earlier flight to San Francisco, arriving an hour earlier to our hostel but still feeling just as knackered! 11 and a half hours flying does wonders for you, seriously! That night all we could think of was food and bed, so we wandered down past some rather ‘exotic’ bars near our hostel - ladies get in free with a guy (why a lady would want to visit one of these places is beyond me!), but we politely declined! - to a little italian restaurant round the corner. With one of our goals achieved, we headed straight to bed like true party animals!

The next day (Monday) brought our first real taste of San Francisco and I instantly fell for its quirky, eccentric charms. This city is not the cleanest we have seen and it definitely has its problems (the amount of homeless people is quite shocking), but the people are friendly, the buildings (excluding skyscrapers) are charming, and the whole city has a very eclectic atmosphere, which makes you feel right at home. After looking around a few of the shops I realised why you should always bring an empty bag with you to America, and proceeded to shop for a new birthday outfit.

After an afternoon spent pottering about, we were all still suffering with a bit of jet lag so we headed back to the hostel where we were given a free dinner (this happened on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays!) and then fell asleep pretty early - another action-packed night for team no job!

Tuesday required more shopping time, so I left the boys to themselves for the morning again - much to their relief as their present shopping for me turned out to be a whole, long, problematic, saga in itself (apparently), but you will have to ask Chris and Rich about that one! In the end I found a new top and shoes, so I was pretty happy with myself. Then in the afternoon when I met up with the lads, Chris decided to take me on a nice long mysterious walk to the Post Office of all places (I was very confused by this point!), to pick up some cards that had been sent to me...only to find that the collections counter closed at 2pm - Doh! Ah well, I said, at least I’ll get your present tomorrow morning. Only to be told that actually they couldn’t pick it up until the afternoon due to some complications. :o( Now if anyone has experienced one of my birthdays first hand you will know that this was disasterous for me as I do like to milk the day for all it is worth! So I went home empty-handed and not expecting anything to open in the morning :o(

Well the morning came very early as we had to be at the Pier for 9.30 to get the ferry out to Alcatraz at 10am. But the guys came through for me as always and managed to produce a card from each of them and one from Ginny that Chris had been carrying the whole way from London! (thanks to Ginny for being so damn organised x) and also one from Andy who had been travelling with us in New Zealand. I was pretty chuffed by this point, after expeting nothing and we all headed off to Pier 31 and Alcatraz in high spirits.

Once on the island we were taken into one of the buildings to watch a film about the history of the island. Apparently it used to be used by the US Forces as a military base, and then a military prison before later being transformed into the high-security prison that it is now famous for. Once inside the main prison block itself we were given audio headphone sets and left to explore the building ourselves. The prison cells were suprisingly tiny - literally enough room for a small bed, sink and toilet - and the ceilings were very low, giving it a rather claustrophobic feel. It was really hard to imagine that people actually lived in them for years on end. The cells used for solitary confinement were even worse with only a small window in the solid metal door that was usually kept locked. We got to step inside these ones, but once you are in there it is not the type of place that you really want to stick around in! After been taken all around the cell blocks and wardens office, with its amazing view of the San Francisco skyline, it was not hard to imagine why some prisoners went mad here, having to look at freedom just across the bay.

Back on dry land, me and Rich went to the post office to pick up my packages and we all met for lunch where I opened the cards and my present from Rich and Chris (a framed photo of us at Australia Zoo, and some cheesecake from the Cheesecake shop!).

In the evening we actually just walked round the corner from our hostel to a jazz and seafood bar that we had seen on earlier nights. There was a live band playing blues that night with vocals from Darlene Langston, unknowns but good nonetheless. After a few songs me and Rich decided to go halves on one of their CD’s, but when they found out it was my birthday they gave me one for free, and sung me happy birthday later in night! Plus I got a free cocktail off the waiter, so it turned out to be a pretty awesome night! I even got the boys onto the dancefloor at the end of the night for a bit of a boogie on down to R.J. Mitcham - an international recording artist he’ll have you know! - in a saloon bar. All-in-all, very enjoyable.

On the Thursday we got up late and wandered down to the harbour where we found Pier 39 - a wonderous place of bizarre tourist shops like the ‘cable car store’ and the ‘magical magnet shop! Then we took the famous tram ride up and down the hills of the city - slightly scary at times, especially when we had to stop and push the tram back from the brim of the slope so that we didn’t go rolling down to our deaths! In the evening we re-visited the pier for our first ever Hard Rock Cafe experience, and made the rookie mistake of ordering a starter as well as a main - the onion rings were almost as big as our heads!!

On the Friday we only had one tourist thing left to do - bike the Golden Gate bridge. We ended up arriving a bit late to the bike hire store, so we couldn’t travel down to Sauselito like we had hoped, but just had to bike over and come straight back again.

After braving a few rather steep hills we finally made it to the bridge, and realised how windy San Francisco actually is! It was a beautiful day but I swear at one point I almost froze over! There were some beautiful views from the other side though and it was definitely worth cycling instead of walking, especially to see Rich miss the exit to get off the bridge and go crashing into the verge! Luckily him and the bike were ok, but his beloved shorts unfortunately didn’t make it. Rich says his injury on his knee still hurts *sniff sniff*.

The Kaiserchiefs were playing in town on Friday night, so we thought we would pop down and say hello. They were hoping for an Angry Mob and they Predicted a Riot but the San Francisco public’s Heat had Died Down - apparently this was the Modern Way. Ricky exclaimed that he could Do It Without You, and Thank You Very Much for the English support, as he’d never been This Far Away From Home.

Saturday we picked up the car and left San Francisco for The Yosemite National Park.

Sorry if this ran on a bit, but if I can’t milk my birthday at home then at least let me write about it!
Laura :o) x x