Tanya's Blog

Most of the day was spent driving from Los Angeles to Big Sur. We left Phillip’s around 9:00 and picked up a bit of traffic getting through Los Angeles but being able to drive in the car pool lane helped a lot.

We didn’t try to go up to see Hearst Castle which I have on good authority was the inspiration for the dining hall at Hogwarts although we did stop in the parking lot. Managed to find a few more license plates for  my collection.

We stopped at  some incredibly cute and picturesque places along the way, Los Alamos (not the one in Mexico) and Harmony. Harmony’s claim to fame is being the smallest town in California, population all of 18. Word to the wise though if you are in dire need of a pee break do not choose to stop here, they have porter potties and pretty grim at that. Fortunately they also have a wine estate with an excellent Pinot Gris and rest room (this trip is soon going to be named “how I saw America from the inside of a rest room”- for the record it wasn‘t me who needed the loo desperately but the youngest member of the group).

Yup, that’s all of it

Sadly the weather didn’t play ball and it felt very  much like driving through Misty Cliffs in Scarborough only much more of it. We stopped at Napenthe for what turned out to be a very expensive glass of wine and beer – R100 and R50 respectively, eeek.

The entire place is like a fairy tale.

We made camp at the Big Sur Campground making good use of the laundry. Have no idea how we managed to have two full loads after 5 days but we did. Left the washing drying in the dryer and after J & T  had rescued their ball from the river below (much hilarity involved) we headed off for supper at The Big Sur Bakery, again expensive but the food was really good. Jessica and Tamsyn had the hamburger special, Wouter the tuna and I the roast chicken.

The campground’s rule of no noise after 22:00 was surprisingly adhered to despite the park being chockablock full with loads of kids and dogs. That is something we’ve noticed rules seem to be followed as a matter of course with very few violations.

Wouter had organized tents and sleeping bags to be delivered to Phillip’s, the tents are a little on the small side but the sleeping bags are divine, really soft and warm which was a good thing ‘cos it gets cold up on the  mountain and the mattresses we have aren’t the softest.

For once it was me who woke up early and got the hairy eyeball and much whinging from the peanut gallery – payback is a wonderful thing.

Sandra made seriously yummy omelettes for breakfast with tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese and green peppers, that girl can cook. Suitably fortified we made our way to the La Brea tar pits, utterly fascinating.  They had an exhibit of wolf skulls they’d found, hundreds of them lining the wall and a mammoth skeleton which gave a new meaning to big, those fellas were huge.

a tar bubble

Almost there…

J, T and I opted out of going around the automotive museum figuring why waste the entrance fee on 3 gals who really have no interest in cars. Instead we hunted for a loo and browsed the 99c store.

Then it was Hollywood, baby!

Seeing how we’re all major Johnny Depp fans it made sense for our first task to be finding his star. Not as easy as it sounds, we managed to see every single star (most of whom I’ve never heard of) before we eventually found his.

The street was teeming with tourists and people dressed up as various characters from movies, they freaked us out a bit, which doesn’t bode well for Disneyworld. I don’t really get the whole ‘let me have my picture taken with some weirdo dressed up like Darth Vader”. Incidentally Tamsyn was most disgusted when Darth Vader took his helmet off, kind of ruined the moment. Authentic Mexican tacos for lunch (which weren’t as unpleasant as I thought they might be) and it was on to Madame Tussauds.

Turns out we have no problem having our picture taken with wax figurines that are freakishly life like. We had such fun interacting with Zac Efron, the crew from Star Trek, Simon Cowel and of course Jack Sparrow (to name but a few).

Having decided we’d seen enough of the glitz and glamour we headed back to Phillip’s for  a swim (J & T) and relaxation. Supper ended up being pizza and then it was off to bed.

Once again I was subjected to early risers – all three of them this time, I was not a happy camper.

The plan for the day was to go to Walmart, find breakfast and then go through to Phillip and Sandra’s. Walmart was fun, like our Makro back home but kind of super sized. Actually everything in America feels super sized (and nothing really tastes right).  We decided to grab some rolls and fillings from Walmart and have a mini picnic on the beach.

(Dipping toes in the Pacific Ocean (it was cold!!)

Dobby enjoying the beach

Kind of felt wrong paying $15 for a picnic on a pebbly beach, still the rolls with turkey, lettuce, cheese and tomato tasted damn fine.

Next stop Phillip in Los Angeles.

Much to Tamsyn’s delight their complex has a pool, much to my delight we didn’t do much but sit around and talk and later on had a very yummy steak BBQ.

(San Diego time – 18:28)

Some bright eyed and bushy tailed twit woke me up at 6 this morning.

After raiding the mini-mart (Tamsyn and Jessica couldn’t cope with the idea of starting out the day without breakfast) we headed out to San Diego Zoo.

Poppet (our friendly navigation lady) patiently recalculatd the route when we took a wrong turn and had us at the Zoo well before opening time. Even with a coupon that gave us $4 off each ticket it still came out to around R1k (gads). The zoo is amazing though and I saw a number of animals I’d never heard of, let alone seen. Course none of the pics I’m about to post are of them, those critters just won’t stand still. Having said that I got the distinct impression many of the animals were putting on shows for the gawking passers-by.

Grizzly Bears

Spotted Otter

Sky lift

Mamma and baby

Gerenuk

For lunch we had sandwiches from the Zoo restaurant with a choice of potato salad or coleslaw as a side dish. Don’t care for the potato salad much, doesn’t taste anything like ours at home.

I am amazed though at how friendly and helpful Americans are, it really is so much fun being here.

After the zoo came the Museum of Natural History and the Space and Air Museum. The latter was more interesting for Wouter than us but we handled it like troopers, tried to keep the whinging and moaning to a bare minimum.

Amelia Earheart (and our *gnome*)

(you’ll have to turn sideways to view this one, haven’t worked out how to rotate an image in wordpress)

Ended the day back at the hotel with Tamsyn and Jessica swimming while Wouter and I raided the mini-mart for beer and bubbly.

*And being an idiot I told Jessica we didn’t need sun screen as the sun wasn’t out when we left. I am paying the price – distinctly look like an over ripe tomato.

Amsterdam – Minneapolis = 8 hours

Charging at Minneapolis

Minneapolis – San Diego = 4 hours

(total time awake since Thursday morning = 48 hours)

Mission Valley Resort

CT – Schippol Airport = 11 hours

Eating a snack at Schippol Airport

(Just by the by the airport has a casino, not that I was allowed to go in)

‘k no actual trains but lots of planes and oh the crying baby! Poor thing hasn’t shut up since around an hour ago, not the kid’s fault, but not exactly conducive for fun flying either. We are currently on Delta Airlines on our way to Minneapolis with just under 4 hours to go. Then it’s a 2 hour layover before we get on yet another plane for San Diego. Oh goodie *sarcasm* (the joy of flying is starting to pale somewhat)

Delta Airlines

It is currently 18:02 my body time, which means I’ve been awake since 6am yesterday morning – total hours awake so far – 36 (movies watched – 5) and no sleep in sight. Wouter and Tamsyn on the other hand have slept like, I want to say babies but judging by the one on this flight, not a good analogy.  Lets just say they’ve managed to sleep enough to feel moderately human, on this flight and the previous one, Cape Town to Schippol. (I envy them greatly). Jessica is more like me finds it hard to sleep on a plane, she did manage a few hours on the Schippol flight but that’s all so far.

Not much to report really other than the best airline meal so far has hands down been the lunch Delta provided. Salad with a dinky tub of balsamic vinaigrette dressing, choice of chicken or veggie lasagna (Jessica had the chicken the rest of us went for lasagna) very tasty on all accounts, roll with butter, cheese and biscuits and for dessert 2 yummy chocolate chip cookies.

Cape Town International Airport