California Baby!
I don't like heights. So why Em and I feel compelled to keep walking up incredibly steep mountains I have no idea. After the rigmarole that was Vegas, we were only too pleased to get back into the countryside and into the wilds of Yosemite National Park. Yosemite is a bee-ute-i-ful park in the Californian hills- autumnal colours and incredible towering granite peaks make this a stunning place to visit. We stayed just out of the park at the Yosemite Bug hostel- a very cool place with live bands and warm beds. They also serve Guiness on tap which was seriously good news (but bad news for my new improved beer belly). To burn off the man boobs, we decided to go with one of the hardest walks in the park- up to the top of the Yosemite Falls. Towering almost 850m above the valley floor, the falls are apparently the second highest falls in the States. (If you come to America, every tourist attraction is the 'biggest' or ' tallest' etc etc- anything to pull in the crowds!) This was a seriously hard trek which, being a mere 3.5 miles, we thought wouldn't take too long... 5 hours later we finally hauled our sorry butts to the top. Unofortunately the falls were dry and they were more like a trickle- oh well! Like I said- I don't like heights, so we spent all of 10 minutes up there, took the obligatory pics and ran the rest of the journey downhill; this time taking just over and hour and a half!
Having rested our battered legs, we set off for San Francisco. We like it here! It's got that 1930's vibe about it with antiquainted trams and cable cars running all over the city's hills. There were three major highlights to San Fran. The first was our trip across the Golden Gate Bridge- boy, did we pick a good day for it... fog. And lots of it. In fact, we couldn't see the top of the bridge struts it was that thick! Of course we opted to do this on bike and when the associated rain decided to fall as well, we wished we'd taken the car! To make things more strange we met up with a couple of BA pilots on stop-over in SF- so there we were, on bikes, in the pouring rain and fog, on the Golden Gate Bridge talking about sailing in Suffolk with two BA pilots. Odd.
The second highlight was Alcatraz. This is well worth a trip- very emotive; and the audio tour of the prison cells is actually narrated by ex-prison guards and inmates. The tour showed you cells which had been escaped from and where prison guards had been shot dead in escape attempts. Nice.
Lastly, the Macy's department store sale was very kind to us. Em and I successfully spent the remainder of our budget on 'luxury items' such as Ralph Lauren suits, Nine-West boots and yet more Ralph paraphernalia!
We are now safely entrenched in Santa Cruz staying some new friends we met in Yosemite. Thanks to Laura, Chris, Cosmo, Anaiis, Ruby, Forrest and Amelia the dog for having us! We owe you one. We even got to see the latest Bond film, Casino Royale, at.. wait for it... a DRIVE-IN MOVIE THEATRE last night! Now, why don't they have these in the UK?! So exciting.
Having rested our battered legs, we set off for San Francisco. We like it here! It's got that 1930's vibe about it with antiquainted trams and cable cars running all over the city's hills. There were three major highlights to San Fran. The first was our trip across the Golden Gate Bridge- boy, did we pick a good day for it... fog. And lots of it. In fact, we couldn't see the top of the bridge struts it was that thick! Of course we opted to do this on bike and when the associated rain decided to fall as well, we wished we'd taken the car! To make things more strange we met up with a couple of BA pilots on stop-over in SF- so there we were, on bikes, in the pouring rain and fog, on the Golden Gate Bridge talking about sailing in Suffolk with two BA pilots. Odd.
The second highlight was Alcatraz. This is well worth a trip- very emotive; and the audio tour of the prison cells is actually narrated by ex-prison guards and inmates. The tour showed you cells which had been escaped from and where prison guards had been shot dead in escape attempts. Nice.
Lastly, the Macy's department store sale was very kind to us. Em and I successfully spent the remainder of our budget on 'luxury items' such as Ralph Lauren suits, Nine-West boots and yet more Ralph paraphernalia!
We are now safely entrenched in Santa Cruz staying some new friends we met in Yosemite. Thanks to Laura, Chris, Cosmo, Anaiis, Ruby, Forrest and Amelia the dog for having us! We owe you one. We even got to see the latest Bond film, Casino Royale, at.. wait for it... a DRIVE-IN MOVIE THEATRE last night! Now, why don't they have these in the UK?! So exciting.
posted by Ben Deacon at 6:47 PM
1 Comments:
Hi guys,
We took your advice and went to Yosemite. The hostel was awesome, couldn't believe how remote it was. The Park was pretty amazing too. first day there we hiked about 17 miles, almost got caught on the trail as it got dark, slight miscalculation there, but we made it back in time. We've never walked the 5.5 miles back to the lodge quite that quickly (1 and a half hours it took us). Nevertheless saw some great scenery and a few deer to boot.
Second day, for some unknown reason, we decided to punish ourselves up to the top of Yosemite Falls. It took us three hours to get up top. water was running, if only slightly. It was cold and windy as well, so we lunched quickly and then it was three hours back down. The legs have been burning ever since but it was well worht it. Since then we have been in San Diego, enjoying the beautiful weather and a excellent Thanks Giving dinner. The hostel is very chilled out. We're going to Tijuana tomorrow and then kayaking.
Hope all is well with you? Have a great time in Central America.
Keep in touch
Philip and Ida
P.S Ben, Ida bought me the Ray Bans as a Xmas gift. Couldn't resist.
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