1.8. - Los Angeles
After breakfast we started off for LA and had on the way a stop at a car rental place to check out their deals. Nothing special. Our first stop was the LA cathedral a modern building which has elements that want to connect to the colonial style I guess. Parts of it I liked but not all of it. In the crypt they had a lot of empty spots for donators. It looked like an underground parking. We walked to the Disney Concert Hall which I liked a lot and walked around the building and also a short look inside, the hall itself is unfortunately closed except for concerts. We walked a bit on to a plaza and then had a small lunch at the cathedral. We cruised through Hollywood but unfortunately missed the good spot for taking a picture of the Hollywood sign up on the hill. Then we continued to the Getty Center, where we planned on spending the evening. Unfortunately, e had to find out that during the week it closes early. That way we only had a run through visit and had to leave again. We had some problems leaving the parking because the machine charged us 15 USD although the first hour should be free and we only spent 53min there. I guess no one ever made it down to the machine under 1h except for us. Then we drove up the coast to Malibu. There we could not go to the beach because all is full of houses, but we managed to have a short illegal stop at Santa Monica beach and took photos of the Baywatch place. Nowhere we could find some parking nor a decent restaurant, so we drove back to Laguna and had dinner in Corona del Mar. It was a great Thai place and the dinner was delicious. Satisfied and very tired we went back home.
2.8. - Laguna Beach
After breakfast we wrote some blog and spent a lot of time searching for a rental car and planning the trip on northwards. I finally found a good deal with AVIS, just a little bit more expensive than the cheapest company, which has terrible ratings. Later we went in the center of Laguna Beach and walked around. Sylvia bought us some nice souvenir T-shirts. Later we drove to Walmart and a nearby outdoor shop. We bought a 40 bucks Walmart tent, cheap sleeping mats some nice pots and an Esbit stove. As they only sold the stove and not the fuel bricks we additionally got fire starters. The stove we bought in the outdoor store and it was amazing how incompetent the shop assistants were there. In the end we had a very basic but somewhat complete camping gear. In the evening Sylvia cooked great pasta and we had a nice evening.
3.8. - Laguna Beach
We again spent some time planning the trip and later drove through the hills of Laguna, also up to Sylvias old house. Then Radka went to the hair dresser, a cheap place which did a ok but not great job. We drove on to Sylvias favorite German Deli and had Wienerschnitzel there. They also had Stiegl beer and Manner Schnitten there. The Mozart ball sweets were from Germany and sold at amazing 1,75USD per ball! We also got some goodies for our trip there. Then we went to AAA the automobile club, where Sylvia got maps and tour books for us. We got a huge pile and spent quite a while there because they did a detailed travel route for us and they took quite some time for doing that. Very well equipped we left and drove on to a book store. We bought a camping guide book for California and a LP for Alaska. In the evening we had a walk with a friend of Sylvia and a dog of friends of them.
4.8. - Laguna Beach
We packed our stuff and for lunch we invited Sylvia to a very nice Mexican restaurant at the beach. We had great Margaritas and the food was delicious. Then we had some rest and I soon went to Seline an old friend of Sylvia I had already met when I was in Laguna the last time. After that we went for some driving training and I got used to the automatic shifting. We also had a stop at a store to get a bit more food for the camping trip. Later Radka and I walked down to the beach but Radka did not like all the sea weed lying around there, so we did not spend much time down there and walked back through the center. In the evening we had salmon and spent a nice last evening together.
5.8. - Laguna Beach – Big Sur
Right after breakfast we went to the AVIS car rental place where we got the tempting offer to be upgraded to a Ford Mustang. However, we decided to take the Chevrolet Cruize which is a nice car. Everything went fine and Sylvia guided us, driving in front of us until the freeway. There finally waved goodbye after 3 nice weeks with Sylvia and went on towards the north. It was a bit stressful, as there was a lot of traffic on the freeway but it was ok. Just in LA we missed an exit and thus had to search a bit until we found back on track. Our mission was to get a photo of the Hollywood sign. We got one nice shot from the distance from Western Ave. and one nice close one, in a bad angle though, from up at the observatory in the park nearby. After that we drove out of LA towards the coastal highway no. 1. There was a lot of traffic and after a long drive we finally made it to no. 1. The traffic eased and we had a nice drive up the coast. It is indeed a scenic road and we enjoyed. We had a coffee stop in a place where a church was on sale. I found that a bit strange, but it might have been a small church and it wasn't a nice building anyways. We continued up to Big Sur and started looking for a campground. The bigger ones were all full but our bet was a walk in campground where we were indeed lucky. It was also a self check in camp ground with payment in an envelope. It reminded me of Norway. The place was very nice and we pent the sunset at the beach 1km from the campground. Then we had our first Ramen Asian noodle soup dinner on our very basic Esbit stove, fueled with very dirtily burning fire starters. Our nice new pots got a nice black coating but it worked fine. While sharing the soup out of the pot with our fast food plastic spoons, we were watching three girls walking back and forth from the parking lot three times with amazing loads of luggage and camping gear. We went to bed soon.
6.8. - Big Sur – Bass Lake
We woke up after a surprisingly chilly night with only 10 degree Celsius in the tent. We prepared oatmeal for breakfast and went on northwards to the 17 mile drive. We had to pay an entrance fee and drove down to pebble beach. It was nice there but not exciting enough to justify an entrance fee for me. At pebble beach it was cold and windy, but somehow I had already decided before that I want to get into the water there. So I did. It was ice cold and I did not stay long in there. It was refreshing and also some entertainment for the other tourists. Radka drove part of the drive but then preferred to let me continue. After this we continued inland and had a lunch and shopping stop at Huricane. We went to Jack in the Box ad had a burger and everyone was asking how we got there or if we took a wrong turn. Then we continued until Bass Lake, near Yosemite, to look for a campground. We were lucky and got a spot. We has a bit to eat and then went swimming while the sun was setting. The lake was full of boats with water skiers so we stayed at the shore. Then we bought some quite expensive beer, Bud platinum, which we had at our tent site. It did not taste much better than Bud.
7.8. - Bass Lake – Yosemite
We got up early to be able to get a camp spot in Yosemite. We arrived at the campground reservations at 8:45 and were informed that Camp 4 had already a queue longer than available spaces. So we went to the Bridalveil Creek Campground where we got a spot. We set up the tent and put all our eatable and smellable stuff (including soap etc.) in the provided bear proof locker. They were very serious about that and the photos of bears breaking into cars looked very convincing. We drove on to the trail head for the Taft Point trail and walked there. This was a spectacular place with the rock going straight down at the edge. We sat there on the edge with our feet dangling down and enjoyed the amazing view of El Capitan and the whole Yosemite Valley underneath us. Some other tourists took pictures of us sitting there. Then we continued the round trip trail to Sentinel Dome. On the way I got very tired but recovered after a small lunch break. Up on Sentinel Dome we lay down and enjoyed the view of Half Dome and the area. Then we walked back to the car and drove on to Glacier Point. There we also got a great view of the valley and Half Dome. After that we drove back to the camp. We had dinner but no beer this time.
8.8. - Yosemite
We got up early once more as we wanted to visit the giant sequoias, which we missed the day before, because of the campground stress, and at the same time getting early enough down into the valley to get a spot at Camp 4. At the sequoias we saw deer on the way to the biggest tree they have there, which has a diameter of 8 meters at the bottom. It was an amazing tree and also other real big ones are there. We went back the 20 mile detour and drove down into the valley. There at the campground reservations they told us to go fast to Camp 4 as chances were good. So we went there and indeed it looked good. The only problem was that some 30 people were queuing in front of us and the ranger, Kirk Robins who looked amazingly similar to Fabio from Rio, took his time. We had to queue for 2h but got a nice spot, we booked for 2 nights. Behind us in line was a guy queuing from the village where the Huaba Buam are from and we spent the time talking to him and his friend. Kirk was also very serious about the bear rules and we put our stuff in the assigned locker. We soon realized that it was in the sun pretty much all day and went back to Kirk to change it. Later we walked down to the river which was great for swimming. There was a group of young people from Oakland who were spending their day right there in the river drinking beer. They also had some music and were actually already pretty drunk when we met them. It was a nice place and fun. Back in the camp we met our neighbors we were sharing the camp spot with. It was a Latino couple originally from Nicaragua and Mexico. They were nice and we talked to them for a while. Then we went to another camp where it was possible to take a shower. It cost 5 USD so I skipped it, as we went swimming ever day anyways. Radka insisted on having one. We had dinner in a buffet in Curry Camp for a change. It was expensive but the food was good. We also bought some beer for the evening and spent it at the fireplace our neighbors had lit. Later two guys asked us if they could use the fire to cook as we did not really “use” the fire. Pedro from Spain was traveling for a non determined time and Cory from the US was on his way to half a year volunteering in a national forest. We had a lot of fun talking with them. When our fire died out they asked our neighbors if they could use theirs. I liked Pedros quote, “That's what squatters do”. :) Soon after their dinner we went to bed.
9.8. - Yosemite
After breakfast we hiked up to the Columbia Rock where we had a nice view of the valley from the northern wall. We did not continue further to the two waterfalls as it was very hot and there wasn't any water anyways. Back in the camp we got in the car and drove towards El Capitan. Close to a parking lot we saw a small bear coming our way. I took some pictures walking backwards and told other people on the parking lot. The interested crowd scared away the small bear who was going pretty straight for the cars. Then we drove on a bit and had a good view of the wall and spotted a climber who was just a tiny little dot in this impressive wall. Then we went to the Bridalveil Falls. At the end of the path there were a lot of huge boulders and many people climbed further through them to a pool where it was possible to swim. We also did that but continued further to the upper pool with much less people. It was a nice spot but the water was freezing cold. We had a very short swim underneath the spray of this very high waterfall. Later we climbed as many others, back to a spot where it was possible to jump into the pool, which we did. We spent quite some time there and warmed up in the sun before climbing down again. Then we drove to the visitor center which had just closed and then to the shop to get some beer. We also visited the old Ahwahnee Lodge, which was nice. Back in the camp we found a garbage bag in our locker and note of the ranger to not leave garbage around and report to him. It wasn't our garbage but somehow we were the ones who got it by chance (1 out of 4). In the evening we had pasta with pesto and beer. Later it was not only beers but also bears. There were actually two or three bears roaming around and also through the camp, looking for food. One walked right by our tent and for some time, every now and then, suddenly people would jump up and scream “a bear!” and people would make a lot of noise to scare them away. It was exciting and our neighbor had to sit in front of his tent with a torch to guard the tent so that his girlfriend could sleep.
10.8. - Yosemite – Mono Lake
When we packed our stuff, we realized that a couple from Vorarlberg and Bavaria was camping next to us. We talked to them for a while and then continued packing. We cleared our name by telling Kirk that it was not us leaving the trash the day before and left. We refueled a bit at a quite expensive gas station to get safely over Tioga pass and started to climb up. It was a nice route! We had a stop at Tenaya Lake and went swimming. It was a very nice setting! Then we drove on to Mono Lake. Driving down towards the lake we could see the smoke of a wild fire in the distance. We checked into a nice RV campground which also had some tent spots and went to eat some lunch. Then we drove to the visitor center where we arrived just in time for a short movie about the lake. Then we drove down to a viewpoint of the tufa towers on the west shore which was nice. From there we continued to the very nice southern view point. A helicopter getting water for extinguishing the fires in the distance was going back and forth across the lake. There we also went swimming. It was an interesting experience as the water has a very high salt content an also contains a lot of other substances quite hostile to live. It was cool to float in the water but it burnt in the eyes and also tasted pretty bad. Besides the famous tufa towers there were also sand tufa formations. We stayed there until the sun set and had great light. A lot of photographers were waiting there for good shots. So did we. It was very nice. Then we went back to the camp and cooked dinner.
11.8. - Mono Lake – Golden Pines
After breakfast we drove to the north shore of Mono Lake, to Black Point. We started walking up the black volcanic hill, but it was very hot and so Radka soon turned around and I continued alone towards the top. Near the top are fissures which are basically slot canyons. I was able to find them and they were quite impressive. Very narrow and deep. The cool thing was also that there were no people up there. Arriving back at the car again my feet hurt from the hot small stones as I was walking in sandals and meanwhile it was boiling hot. Then Radka tried to drive a few miles again, but I overtook before we went on the highway. Our next stop was Bodie, a former mining town which is now a ghost town. It happened to be the friends of Bodie day, and so it was packed with people. There were also quite some people dressed up like in the old days. Overall I would have preferred it with less people and no additional entertainment. We walked around for quite a while and had a hot dog there before we went on with Radka driving again a few miles. Then we went for gas just across the border to Nevada, a hint of the campground lady, and continued on route 4. It is a very nice mountain road with some passes and there again Radka took over until it got to narrow for her. The road was indeed a bit crazy. Very narrow, windy and steep. Then we started looking for a campground. Somewhere on the way, at some devils view point, we met some Berkeley students and had a short fun conversation about the Europeans perception of the US. We found the Golden Pines campground, though the sign still had the old name on. It was nice and the new owners were very friendly. They even let us use their telephone to call Mara in Berkeley. We cooked dinner and did not relax eating it so much because of a lot of mosquitoes and wasps. We soon went to bed.
12.8. - Golden Pines – Berkeley
In the morning, everything was smoky and we had an amazingly red sunrise. There was a wild fire just 10km away but we were told that it is already under control. We skipped breakfast because of the little animals and went right to the nearby Calaveras Bigtree National Forest. There they had some really nice huge sequoias, however the biggest was cut down around 1850. People were angry about that and the area got protected. The stomp remained and they used to have dances on top of it. Later they built a pavilion on it which even became a small school for a few years. It eventually broke down and now it is possible to walk on the stomp. It has an amazing diameter of 10m at the base! With the trunk someone built a bowling alley, in one piece, which however broke down. After visiting this nice park we drove on down the mountain and somehow missed a good place to have breakfast. We ended up stopping the car next to the highway and having breakfast in the hot car. We drove on through the rather boring low land landscapes towards the coast. We wanted to enter San Francisco from the north and due to some wrong information at a gas station lost our way in Petaluma quite bad. We ended up in a residential area where some nice people drove in front of us for 5 minutes until we reached the right road again where they told us how to go on. Finally, we arrived in Point Reyes National Seashore. We drove to the visitor center and asked for driving times to San Francisco and the lighthouse. Unfortunately, it was clear that we had to skip the lighthouse if we wanted to give back the car today, which we wanted. So we drove the nice coastal road but it took a long time indeed as there was a lot of traffic. When we got on the freeway it was an even bigger traffic jam to get onto the Golden Gate bridge. The bridge was cool but we were already a bit stressed. We had to take a rather expensive gas station to fill up the car and it was still quite some way through downtown. Finally, we made it and arrived at AVIS at 18:15, 15 min before closing. Everything went ok, we just took quite some time to pack our stuff. It's really hard to pack all the stuff a car can carry so easily for you in a way that you can carry it yourself. We managed but with all the additional camping gear we were a bit overloaded. We walked to the BART (local train) station and it was a nice walk through downtown. People were looking at us carrying all that stuff. We had to wait a bit for the train and also change once, but it was a nice ride and we talked to nice people. Then we walked with the help of my map screen shots to Maras place. No one answered our knocking but then someone came by from the back yard. They were having a BBQ there and we were invited. So we got to know Mara and also some of her friends. It was a nice evening and a great welcome. Later we got to know her flatmates Avi and Caitlin. All are very nice and we got along well and it was a nice evening.
13.8. - Berkeley
In the morning Radka had one of our Instant Ramen soups and I had a hot dog from the BBQ the day before. Then we went to Philz Coffee and had a great drip coffee. I think that in the US it kind of makes sense to drink drip coffee. They have a lot of choice and in many places it tastes quite good. Then we went to another famous place, the Cheese Board, which was unfortunately closed. So we gave the Virginia bakery a chance which was also very good. Then we walked to the university campus downtown. We walked around and also went up the Campanile, a tower that looks a lot like the one in Venice. We had a nice view of Berkeley and the campus actually reminded us of LKH and Ruckerlberg area in Graz. Then we relaxed a bit in the meadow in front of the big library. We also had a look inside the library, which was nice. Then we bought a relatively pricy Kebap to go, which was in the end not very exciting but ok. We also went shopping where we witnessed security chasing a guy who just tried to steal a vodka bottle, which ended in a short fight, with the thief loosing. We had the Kebap in the garden and then had a rest until Mara came home from work. We had a beer together and then went to a Cambodian restaurant in Oakland, which was good. Then we went to a bar where they were playing and dancing Salsa. We had a Margarita there but did not dance. After that we went home.
14.8. - San Francisco
We got up early and had a small breakfast before heading to San Francisco together with Mara on her way to work. She dropped us near the Golden Gate Park and we first tried to find a cafe in Haight street but most were closed and so were the shops. So we went into the park and walked it down quite a bit. Then we took a bus to Haight street again and had a coffee, muffin and bagel. There were a lot of Hippie store around but most of them quite expensive. It was fun to look around though. We took another bus downtown and then went up Powell street and zigzag through China town. We had Chinese food for lunch and then went up Telegraph hill. We skipped the expensive tower and the queue as it was almost the same view from around the tower and second it was quite foggy and that even more on the top. We went down the Filbert steps to Levi's plaza and then on to Fisherman's Wharf. It was so touristy that we asked ourselves what we were doing there. Fortunately, we found a reason t be there. There were a lot of seals around and it was fun to watch them. Then we went back along the piers to the ferry building market place. That was quite an exclusive place. Pretty exhausted from the long day we took the BART back to Berkeley. In Berkeley we went straight to the Tripple Rock Brewery and had a pitcher and a burgers. Back home we got to talk to Caitlin and her research work in the labor movement. Then we had a look at Craigslist to find a possible shared ride to Portland. Unfortunately we did not find one so we had to get a Greyhound ticket. We were just about to go to bed when Mara arrived back from a baseball game where she'd been with friends.
15.8. - Berkeley – Greyhound Oakland
In the morning it was time to say good bye, as all three had to go to work. We had quite some presents for Mara in form of maps and Guidebooks. Avi left a bit later and so we got to talk to him for a while about his work in the dark biology lab he was doing for a week already. Then we packed our stuff and wrote blog. Then we went shopping to get some glue to fix my sandal and to find film rolls and a new comb for Radka. We were successful except for the film rolls. Then we had a nice pizza in the Cheese Board for which we had to queue quite a while. An interesting concept there is, that they always only have one pizza of the day, so it goes fast, except if someone wishes to have it without onion, as we for example. They also had a live band there which entertained us while waiting and eating. We also got something sweet to go and had a coffee with it back in the flat. We finished packing and walked to the BART. We took a train to Oakland and arriving there we had a strange welcome. A strange guy told us that he had a gun since 6 month and that it was a good thing to have here and that we should enjoy Oakland. We walked on. On the way to the Greyhound station more strange people were around. The station itself was by far the most run down on the whole journey. The security check was only verbal which did not make us more comfortable. There were a lot of strange people around and the smell of weed was all around. On the toilet I met a guy with a plaster on his arm and a bloody nose. With all those nice people we had to wait for more than an hour. The bus fit perfectly to the station. It was awful and very run down. People were free to choose their seats. We found some together. The only nice thing was that the bus driver was introducing himself and telling a bit about the journey to Sacramento. He also let us know that we were riding with a pro. Two rows behind us sat a disgusting, extremely fat woman who was stinking so intensely that it was really hard to take. The guy behind us was talking to her for a while but then left to sit somewhere else. Two hours later we arrived in Sacramento where we had to change the bus. We had the rest of our pizza and the sweet stuff from the bakery. The station was a bit nicer, but still a lot of strange people. After 1,5h it was clear that unfortunately also the stinking woman was going our direction. The bus was full and someone was so nice to change the seat so that we could sit together. After us came the stinking fat monster and I felt pity for the poor guy to next to whom she squeezed into the seat. Again it was two rows behind us but this time across the corridor which made it a bit better. In the last row a disabled man was lying but as the bus was full the bus driver had to make him sit in order to fit everyone in. On the bus we talked to a crazy US-Italian from New York who said we should better go to Vegas instead of Alaska because we would freeze there. Another nice guy told us about the Hemp Fest in Seattle and another guy we talked to was traveling all over the US with just his keyboard and one shopping bag with his cloth and other belongings. The night was one of the worst on a bus. It was barely possible to lean back the seats and in every station all the lights were turned on so that it was very bright. We did not sleep much.
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