California 2.0

The Rock

So our last entry left you all hanging and thinking about the mischievous deeds Antoinette and James would be up too when they hit San Francisco. The city itself is relatively small, by city standards, with approximately 750,000 residents, but there is so much history in San Francisco you do not know where to start. We were located right in the heart of the downtown district in an ok motel, but the location is what got us really excited.

After crashing hard in the afternoon after the long and busy drive composing of aggravated Americans, lost Asians and totally awesome Australians [we give you one guess to figure out which group we were part of] we booked ourselves tickets to one of the city’s most famous landmarks and tourism hotspots, Alcatraz. We decided to walk in the morning, as the map made it look easy, but we have both sworn never to say another word about how geographically boring Perth is compared to this place. After many ascents and descents through the hills of central San Fran, including a waddle through the ‘crookedest’ street in the world, we arrived at the iconic waterfront district and were en-route to the small island in no time.

Alcatraz has so many stories to tell, and the island itself has changed its persona more than a hermaphrodite on drag night, but just walking around the grounds was enough to make you appreciate how isolated the prisoners of Alcatraz were. The cellblocks were eerily quiet as everyone was cruising around buckled to the voices of the audio tour and getting the insights of former wardens and inmates into the daily happenings on The Rock. There were stories of retribution, foiled escape attempts and gory details of prison life. The views to San Francisco were brilliant and the prisoners would have been able to enjoy what is one of the best views of the city if it were not for the 6m high brick walls and barbed wire surrounding their ‘recreation yard.’

The Golden Gate Bridge

After our Alcatraz experience we headed back to our temporary home to recoup for the next two days in the city. We jumped on one of the ‘hop-on / hop-off’ buses and headed for the Golden Gate Park, a massive man made expanse of huge trees, shrubs and grassland. In the latter half of the 1900s the Golden Gate Park was transformed from barren sand dunes into the lush and beautiful retreat it is today. We have also walked the span of the Golden Gate Bridge, checked out were the ‘hippy movement’ began, discovered the joys of antique arcade machines on Pier 45 and strolled the streets of central San Francisco taking in the epic Victorian and Edwardian style homes that colourfuly dot streetscape after streetscape. San Francisco is the sort of place you could spend a month and still not see everything, but with this just being the start of our trip we needed to keep moving. If we were to come back it would be with a lot more money in our back pockets to take full advantage of the insane amounts of boutique retailers and one-of-a-kind shops that we just do not have back home. When it was time to say goodbye to San Francisco it was time to say hello again to mountain country and we set out for Yosemite National Park.

A grassy meadow in Yosemite Valley

The three and a half hour drive rewards you with massive slabs of granite rocks sprouting vertically into the bright blue sky on either side with lush forests, meadows and rivers at every turn. The sights here are unlike anything we have ever seen before and the pictures we have burned into our memories do the place more justice than even the most high-resolution panoramic shot of the valley. The next day we wound our way down through Fresno to Kings Canyon National Park and took a hair raising ride down into the valley, which [for those of you playing at home] is not as much fun as it sounds in a 17ft camper van on steep winding roads with loads of blind corners, but once we got to the valley floor and were enveloped by the walls of granite we quickly forgot the potential drama of the downward journey.

Giant Sequoias at Kings Canyon.

Going back up was a little easier and after cruising through some fog we arrived at a patch of forest that is home to some of the biggest trees in the world, the Giant Sequoia. These trees are massive. Standing 30m away you still cannot get the entire thing in a picture frame and the biggest one, General Grant, is estimated to be between 1600 to 2000 years old. Feeling insignificant when standing next to these natural giants is all too easy and these fire resistant behemoths have withstood more than any human will ever experience and really define the word awesome.

We have seen so much in the last five days or so and we just hope it all sinks in over the long drive we have in the next couple of days to Los Angeles, five and a half hours away, which we will be calling home until our next major stop. Disney Land, but do not tell Antoinette she might pass out.

‘Till next time,

Antoinette and James.