Go West, Young Man!
The next leg of the USA trip will take me down the West Coast, all the way from Seattle down to San Diego. Once again I’ll be back on the road, but this time I’ll be on four wheels, not two (if at any time I end up on two wheels I could be in real trouble :-)
It also gave me the chance to catch up with old friends (that’s friends I’ve not seen for a long time rather than aged ones - wouldn’t want to cause any offence :-) Kristie who I first met 9 years ago (!) in Northern Laos was once again back in Seattle and was kind enough to put up with me for a few days and took some time to show me the sights. The first impressive sight was the location where she was living - basically on the shore of Puget Sound with the waters lapping at the back door and Seals, Orcas and Eagles making up the majority of passing traffic.
As some of you may know I’m a big coffee fan and so a trip to the world's first Starbucks was a welcome start to the first day in Seattle - followed by Pikes Place Market, The Troll under the Bridge, a variety of cool parks and interesting neighbourhoods. Seattle has notoriety for lots of rain but it held off .. At least for the first day and even after that it didn’t cause any real problem. I am from England after all :-)
From Seattle I took the train down to Portland Oregon to meet up with Tyson. I met Tyson in Buenos Aires last year. The chance to catch up over a couple of beers was very welcome. And from here I rented a car for a week. Before I began the long drive south, there were still a couple of places that I wanted to visit north of Portland - Namely Mount St Helens and Mount Rainier. Stunning volcanic scenery deep in snow, and I MEAN deep. The snow plough had been out in some areas and cut channels to provide some access, but left behind banks of snow 4m high by the side of the roads. In places only the roofs of houses could be seen sticking out of the snow!
This meant that in the National Park areas there was only VERY limited access and in both cases I had to back track out of the park. After a few days in the snowy Cascade mountains I was ready to hit the coast where I would spend most of the southbound road-trip. The only other major inland detour was along the McKenzie River Valley to Bend Oregon and on to Crater Lake (more snow). Only a short detour before returning to the coast and the MIGHTY Redwood Forests.
The whole stretch of the Western coast is truly beautiful. Wild and rugged, (but enough about me :-) both the Oregon & North California stretches are dotted with small port towns & fishing villages. My southward journey did coincide with the annual migration of the Gray Whales along that coastal stretch but despite lots of stops with time to stare out to sea, I didn’t see any.
Most of my overnight stops were in the small port towns although I did of course spend a few nights in San Francisco. Enough time to visit the usual tourist haunts: Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier 39 and the Sealions, Lombards Street - “The ‘Crookedest’ Street in the World”, Twin Peaks, Chinatown and lots of the local neighbourhoods. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get out to Alcatraz as you have to book at least 4 days in advance! Good job I got a nice new zoom lens on my new camera.
From San Francisco I was southbound once again and heading for LA. Still a few stops to make along the way though (including Manchester - Population 462). I called in at Santa Cruz, home to the old boardwalk Fun Fair seen in movies such as ‘The Lost Boys’, ‘The Sting II’ and a few others. I passed by Santa Casita and Santa Maria, but was VERY tempted to take a detour to have a look at the town of Santa Claus! (I knew he existed, I just knew it! :-). Other stops included : The beautiful coastal road known as Big Sur, Monterey (superb Aquarium here - I’ll post a video at some point. Very impressive Jellyfish exhibits.), Santa Barbara and the end of the road for the car - LAX Airport. I’ll be meeting Chika here and then we’ll be on the bus to Santa Monica.
A few more pics...
