Day 4 - Three Bridges

A trip to San Francisco today to see my friend Melissa and take a look around.

We managed to go over all three bridges today. Impressions of them...

1. Richmond  - this is a (very) long double decker bridge. No toll (not sure why)
2. Bay - has an island in the middle and we had to pay a $4 toll as we were going  into the city.
3. Golden Gate - very pink. No toll going northwards.

Chris took some photos - will upload them later.

Met Melissa in Emeryville. The local mall is a foodie paradise. The choice is incredible - burgers, fish and chips, thai, vietnamese, japanese, moroccan, mexican, jamaican, pizza, pasta, chinese and more but I can't remember them all. Sat and ate and compared the woes of the UK and US over lunch.

Bought a book on Hawaii which Melissa annotated for us with the best places to snorkel, visit and eat. Thanks Melissa!

Walked along to a local park next to the freeway with a large lake. Lots of joggers and dogs. Saw a red squirrel and lots of birds. A sunny day for a change...

Drove down to the bay in central SF and got a cable car up Hyde (very steep street). Sitting on the outside is interesting - you have to hang on tightly! Got a few photos. The Chinese man next to me seemed to be asleep - rather risky when there's nothing between you and the road.

Back home and checked in online for our flight to Hawaii tomorrow.  Have upgraded to premium economy - hopefully will have a bit more room than the last one and $59 each which seems reasonable.By checking in today we don't have to be at the airport quite so early. The flight is at 1.58pm and we have to take the car back. The sat nav has been brilliant - we wouldn't have coped without it.

It's been great staying with Zac, Diana and the children. We'd love to come back again - hopefully one autumn when the weather is better (basically more sunny). It's not really been cold but more sun would be good.

Looking forward to Hawaii tomorrow...we're staying in Waikeke for the first night and then a short hop across to the Big Island on Saturday morning, picking up a 4wd drive vehicle and then on to the Silver Oaks Ranch where will be staying for 9 nights. Hopefully some snorkelling and diving and exploring the sights.

Day 3 - Point Reyes

A very scenic drive to the coast on Wednesday. Passed through some tiny villages. Actually driving very near to the San Andreas Fault. Bakery in Tomales closed so popped into deli next door for some 'brownie bites' - very tasty.

On Point Reyes itself we saw lots of male elk with enormous antlers. Lots of turkey vultures and other birds.  Went to Hearts Desire Beach - very pretty. Looks a bit like the Lake District in places. Have uploaded a map of it.

Continued up to the northern part of Point Reyes and this looks rather like Scotland in places. Walked down to McClures Beach - turkey vultures accompanying us on the way - got quite close to one and then realised there was dead deer which they were protecting. A couple of crows were interested in it as well.

Almost had the beach to ourselves - only about 5 other people. Drove up Mt Vision Road - nothing to see at the top but a nice view on the way back down again. Stopped off in Inverness to get a sandwich for lunch and sat overlooking the estuary.

Southwards to Bear Valley Visitors Centre. This is a actually on the San Andreas Fault. Walked the earthquake trail. There is a fence there which moved 16 feet during the 1906 earthquake. Got photos of us in front of this. Had a discussion about what we would do if there was an earthquake whilst we were there. Chris thinks we would be ok unless the land liquifies!

A scenic, twisty and rather bumpy drive back to Sebastopol. Yummy home made fish pie for supper.

Day 3

Got woken up by a cat this morning. Apparently Spicy came and leaned on me (we're sleeping in the sitting room).

Zac got up at 5.15am to take his two daughters Emma and Isobel to ice skating practice before school.
Diana is going to cycle with Iain to school.

Slept well last night. No phone calls. Woke up a couple of times during the night and got up at 7am. Tom Thumb decided to be friendly and came into the kitchen when I opened the outside door and then followed me back into the sitting room and came and sat on the sofa next to me purring loudly.

Made the children's lunches - not something I am used to doing - cheese and branston pickle sandwiches.

Off to Point Reyes soon. Apparently there is a good bakery in Tomales on the way and also Marshall is a good place for lunch. Diana suggested setting the sat nav to get us there.

More later...

Day 2

Parcel of photographic stuff ordered from New York before we left turned up via UPS at 9.15am. Amazing you can order in one country and get it delivered in another.

Fed the chickens in the rain. They eat the kitchen scraps. Have to be careful not to let them outside as there are rats around. We are right in the countryside here - there's an old orchard above the house and there's a park further south. There are around 6 houses on this unmadeup road. Some new ones and some older ones. Horses, ponies, goats, cats and dogs plus apparently a racoon will come and eat the cat food if it is left out overnight. Hummingbirds in the summer but none at the moment. There are other birds.

Went out to lunch with Zac and Diana at a local cafe in Sebastopol. Then a trip to Santa Rosa to the organic supermarket Trader Joe's. They have a large selection of everything you can think of. Went to Best Buy to get batteries and a spare card for the computer. Prices are definitely more reasonable over here.

Apparently coming back we went over a fault line which Zac said is overdue for a 7+ earthquake. It's called Rodgers Creek, not the San Andreas - that's about 6 miles further west. If it happens all the local area will turn to mud...there was a bad one in 1969.

Weather - well the sun came out for a bit in the afternoon. Not much sign of a blue sky though.

There are two cats here - Tom Thumb, a formal feral one, and Spicy who has a short tail with a kink in it. Spicy is friendly but Tom Thumb is very wary. Too many people and too much noise.

Home made pizza for supper and Diana's friend India came over afterwards. She was brought up in Hawaii and was telling us the best places to visit on the Big Island.

Lots of stars visible tonight - could see Orion and Cassiopeia. Hopefully that means good weather for tomorrow. Managed to stay awake until 10pm. Think I am ok for jetlag. Chris had a nap about 5pm.

Diana has suggested a trip to Point Reyes tomorrow. An attractive coastline and national park about an hour away.

Hello America

Well we've made it.

Yesterday was a very long day. Up at 5am to get to Heathrow for 8am. Traffic bad so arrived by about 8.30. Checked in and got one of the last two pairs of seats available - between other people. Yes - why didn't you use internet checkin I hear you say.  We wanted to but because we got a round the world ticket which was based on an Air new Zealand one we couldn't do online checkin for the Virgin one. Hopefully we will be able do online checkin for the remaining flights.

Flight very crowded, rather uncomfortable and long. Watched a couple of films and listened to music. We're going to check seatguru.com in future to see which are the best seats on an aircraft. Rather bumpy as we came in towards San Francisco.

Immigration friendly - took all 10 fingerprints from us. Bags took quite a time to arrive. Customs scanned our bags because we owned up to having sweets and branston pickle in them. Took the airtrain to get to the car rental place. Peter from Tawian gave us a satnav and told us to choose our car. A Mazda 5 or a Kia - we went for the Mazda, switched on the satnav and headed out. Highly recommend satnav if you have no idea where you are going. Went over the Golden Gate bridge. Weather bad - raining heavily for most of the 2 hour journey.

Arrived safely at Zac and Diana's house and the twins Iain and Isobel came out to meet us. Zac told us they've had 6 inches of rain here recently and some houses have been flooded.

I crashed early as not feeling brilliant after the flight. 5pm here is about 2am in the UK. Chris managed to stay awake until about 7pm.

A couple of phone calls and texts during the evening/night. Some people didn't know we were away.

Feeling much better this morning. Had breakfast with the family whilst the children got ready for school. Zac built this house and moved in about 18 months ago. It's great - high ceilings, wooden floors and light and airy.

Hoping to go out for supper with Zac and Diana to meet my friend Melissa and her husband this evening. Diana recommends a bistro in Sebastopol and will organise a babysitter after she comes back from yoga.

More tomorrow....

Goodbye England

We're off tomorrow!

Just finishing off a few last minute things now. Have to get up pretty early as need to be at Heathrow by 8am and it will probably take about an hour and a half. The sun has come out here and the snowdrops are starting to come through in the garden. It feels like spring could be on the way. Have heard that it may be cold again in Feb but we will be in NZ by then and hopefully enjoying lots of sunshine.

Have setup a link to the flickr account which will show a selection of photos on the right hand side of the blog.

YouTube

I have added a link to YouTube so we can upload videos. My id is ecox67 if you want to search for them (first one is just a test). Will also try to upload them here.

Nearly off...

Only two days to go now. Have booked a car for California - with satnav so we can find our way out of SF.
Purdey the cat is now having her own holiday with my parents. The flat seems empty without her (apart from all our bags which we need to sort out)
Gerardo has moved in today. Bought a few presents to take with us - Dee wants pegs!
Just need to finish off our packing over the weekend and see exactly what we need to take. The weather in California is similar to here at the moment so need some colder/wetter weather clothes.
It's 30 degrees in NZ and sunny. Can't wait!

Preparations Continued

Preparations are well under way. Have been selling stuff on ebay, recycling, freecycling and binning stuff. The money is useful and it gives some space for Gerardo's things. Amazing how it all accumulates.

Have had a couple of emails from Heather (Mum's friend) in Queensland, Australia. She has kindly agreed to put us up for a few days in Cannonvale which is very near Airlie Beach which is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. Have also managed to find a dive boat to take us out for 3 days on the Great Barrier Reef. Flights from Brisbane to Prosperine (the local airport) and pretty reasonable too - only AUS $109 (around £70). Starting to get excited about this part of the trip as well.

Have found a website called Undercurrent which gives reviews of dive operators all around the world so will be checking various ones in different countries.

Spoke to Dee in Napier, NZ last weekend. Apparently it is around 30 degrees there at the moment. Looking forward to seeing her in mid Feb.

Purdey (the cat) will be moving to my parents on 21 Jan and Gerardo will be moving in on 22 Jan.

I just hope all the snow has gone before we leave. More snow today (2-3 inches) and Gatwick airport runway closed and flights delayed/diverted. We go from Heathrow T3 so fingers crossed for 25 Jan. Chris's brother Zac and family managed to get home to California last sunday from there. We're flying with Virgin on VS19 which leaves Heathrow at 11am if all goes well.

NZ Campervan

Have booked our campervan. We will be travelling in more luxurious conditions than last time. This one even has a solar panel to heat the water if we go 'freedom camping' ie not at a holiday park and is bigger than the previous one. Bill from Scotland has come up trumps.

Preparations Continued

Preparations are progressing well. Now sorting out a campervan for NZ. Spoke to one of the rental companies last night and apparently there is a shortage of 2 berth campervans this year rather than the larger ones. Bill (from Scotland originally) is going to ring me back tonight with their availability from the 35 companies they deal with.

3 weeks today we will be in California. The time is going to disappear really quickly now.

Gerardo is moving into the flat on 22 Jan. We have to take Purdey (our cat) to my parents some time just before then as she is going on an extended holiday where she is sure to be very spoiled but may come back thinner as they have stairs and we don't.