Venice Beach

Venice Beach is described as a haven for the artistic and creative...I would tend to agree with this, given some of the amazing street art, murals and musical performances...however i’d probably chuck in “...and for the pot heads and eccentrics!” really lovely vibe to the town, laid back and chilled out people. The promenade feels like how we imagined San Francisco may have been back in the 70s. 

The promenade is bustling with shops, bars and street performers. It’s really good for people watching and entertainment, but it’s a real mixed bag from talented musicians and artists to just a chap walking around in his speedos with a boom box on his shoulder or a chap selling two jokes for a dollar (good value though, it was one joke for dollar in New York). Note to anyone visiting Venice Beach, there’s lots of a street performance to see on the promenade, but if you are going to stop and watch you have to be prepared to pay!

Promenade near the beach

We started this morning by shooting some B-ball on the courts, just past muscle beach (a small caged courtyard with gym equipment and oily swartznigger wannabes)...I have to say Arran was looking like a semi-pro (playing basketball that is) while I tried to profile my best netballing skills! We ate lunch watching a couple of street basketball games. Apparently basketball scouts for the NBA regularly hang out here to spot potential future stars.
A really beautiful part of town is the Venice Canals area. Apparently its one of the most sought after property areas in LA. I’m not surprised, it’s seems like an idyllic setting – just off the main promenade and you receive an optional row boat for commuting to and from your house. A lot of celebrities are meant to own properties around the canal.

Lovely house on the canal

 The murals in Venice beach are pretty spectacular. We walked past one young chap beginning to paint a wall in the morning and by the afternoon it was finished with a queue of people queuing up to take pictures. Apparently the wall changes every day and anyone can go up and have a go.  There’s a massive mural of Jim Morrison just around the corner from his former home.

Jim Morrison, Speedway Street

We’ve spent most of our time so far on the beach – three miles of lovely white sands and blue sunny skies! There’s no better place for chilling out, listening to your iPod and reading a good book. 

Venice Beach

Looking forward to celebrating Hogmany here. It’s early evening now, so we’re just getting ready to go out for something to eat and some drinks before heading over to Marina del Rey to see the New Year in with fireworks and bubbly. Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas at The Biltmore

Had a great three day Christmas break at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, it was great having a little bit of luxury for a little while. It was incredibly strange spending Christmas in a hot, sunny climate, turning the air conditioning on instead of the heating - but a lovely change too!

Was great catching up with our families on Skype...can’t believe we hadn’t tried Skype before this trip, it’s a fantastic way to keep in touch (really cheap for calling landlines and mobiles too from overseas).
Christmas seems to be celebrated very differently over in the states. There doesn’t seem to be the usual back to back Christmas / feature type films on Christmas day or boxing day. Actually,  they don’t have a boxing day here. Most people return to work and it is referred to as “the day after Christmas”. Still, we managed to stay in the Christmas mood with Christmas tunes and movies on our laptop (it really can’t be Christmas until I have watched Elf a few times!).
Spent Christmas day watching Christmas movies and then chilling out in the sunshine in Perishing Square, just across from our hotel. We then had a lovely meal in the hotel’s restaurant (without any Christmas crackers though) followed by some drinks in the Cognac Room, it was very a stylish Christmas (and very filling!).

We checked out of the hotel this morning. We were sad to leave our comfy room, bedside coffee maker and onsite pool but it was time to go on to our next abode – the Venice Beach Hostel.
We took a local bus from Downtown to the beach. It took just over an hour but was dirt cheap at a $1.50 (better than the cab we were originally intending on taking) and dropped us off just outside our hostel. The hostel seems great so far and right around the corner from the beach. We will be calling this place home for the next eight nights. Really looking forward to spending the next few days just soaking up the sun on the white sands of Venice beach!

Oh the weather outside is...lovely!

We got up early today, as I couldn’t contain my excitement about checking into the Millennium Baltimore Hotel for Christmas! Our one true extravagance during our round the world break, I couldn’t wait to see the Christmas tree at the hotel and our hotel room (as lovely as hostel rooms are and sleeping in a van, it is nice to have a bit of comfort now and again!).
Apparently the hotel has been used in lots of films including Ghostbusters (where you first see slimmer) and Vertigo and has housed at some point, celebrities including JFK and The Beatles (apparently the Beatles were flown to the hotel’s roof by helicopter and they stayed there for a few days, in secret).
We checked into the hotel early afternoon and then headed out for the day in downtown LA.

Really looking forward to catching up with our families on Skype tomorrow morning (hope all my little nieces are still up by the time we get to speak!) and then it’s off down to the Biltmore’s restaurant for a semi-traditional Christmas dinner (it’s going to be strange spending Christmas in the sunshine and warmth. Not to make you too jealous, but it’s 23 degrees at the moment!) I’m not sure if I can get away with wearing my elf hat in this establishment, but I will give it try!
Happy Christmas everyone and in the words of Tiny Tim - god bless us, everyone!

The Pacific Highway

Really enjoyed San Francisco and the Hostel we stayed at in Fort Mason. It was definitely the best one we’ve stayed in so far - it had a mini cinema onsite as well as a cheap cafe and huge lounge. The staff were all really friendly too...including the very loud, but funny, Chinese laundry lady.

We left just after breakfast on Thursday morning. On our way out of San Francisco, we drove up to the idyllic Twin Peaks part of town, to get some views of the city on a sunny December’s morning.

The drive back to LA along the Pacific Highway was beautiful. Amazing beaches round every corner and vista points for stopping and taking pics/stretching your legs every half mile...it meant we filled up the memory on our camera within a couple of hours.

Our final stop on Thursday was the Big Sur State Park, where we stopped off for a little walk along a secluded beach (equipped with its own waterfall!).

We had hopes of camping on the beach, but once we arrived we realised there was no way of getting our camper down there, so we set up camp a mile down the road. It was one of the nicest spots camping spots during our road trip, with good views of the pacific (and within ears distance of a very loud barking seal – bliss!).

Got up early on Friday morning to get a good start on the last six hours drive to LA – it was such a nice feeling making breaky in the warm sunshine for a change and not battling with extremely frosty temperatures of the mountains.

Main highlight during our drive home was stopping off at Malibu beach. Huge beach, which really makes you wish you could surf and had a spare few million kicking around to buy one of the amazing houses on the shoreline. 

Got back to LA early evening after clocking up over 2,388 miles on our wee RV overall. After saying goodbye to our camper, we checked into a cheap hostel for the night.

San Francisco

Had a fantastic time in San Francisco. Beautiful city, with some of the most amazingly ornate apartments and houses. It really is the hilly city, which makes for some fantastic views of the bay and city...but it is an uphill struggle during your walk home or anywhere for that matter!
The marina, just a stone’s throw from our hostel, had a great vibe. So many restaurants, bars and shops, it was probably our favourite part of the city. We had some lovely cold beers in the sunshine of the marina on our last day.

On the marina pub crawl

We only really had time for one main attraction so we opted for Alcatraz. Really glad we did, it was a beautiful day which made for fantastic city views and ferry ride and the tour was great. I was slightly disappointed, that tour guide “Vicky” (see “So I Married an Axe Murderer” film) was not on hand to give us the unofficial Alcatraz tour, but apart from that it was a great day out.

In the patrol yard on Alcatraz

Loved our time here, we would definitely come back and visit some of the other main attractions, like Golden Gate Park. At the minute, it’s probably our favourite city so far.
After our waffles and coffee tomorrow morning, we head start the last leg of road trip – the drive back to LA via the Pacific Highway.

Yosemite

Headed over to Yosemite Valley this morning. We quickly discovered during the short drive that we would need to start layering up again, as we headed up over 9000 ft!
A lot of the park was closed due to the icy and snowy conditions but we managed to take in some good sights during our drive, as well as stopping for a bit of amateur ice skating on the frozen lake – we weren’t the only ones skidding around in trainers, but we all felt a bit daft when a local chap skated past, doing all sorts of fancy ice skating tricks!

The drive through Yosemite National Park is a through road. What a great drive to work that would be...although, i’m not sure if you would have to pay the $20 dollars entrance fee each time. That would be annoying.
We then headed along the very twisty roads to our next stop – San Francisco. Beautiful drive through countryside’s of orchards and small farms. It was funny seeing a different backdrop, we got so used to the mountains and desert!
After sitting in a bit of a rush hour traffic jam, we eventually crossed the huge Bay Bridge and arrived in San Francisco early evening.
 

We quickly discovered that San Fran was not the best city for parking (and especially not for a camper!) so we decided to check into a cheap-ish hostel on the beautiful, San Fran Bay Fort Mason.

One night in Big Pine

Woke up to a fresh covering of snow this morning. Luckily our little RV seems to handle the snowy and icy roads well. We packed up early and headed back to Mount Charleston Lodge for breakfast. There’s a ski slope just a few miles past the lodge, so most of the hotel guests were all dressed up ready for a day on the slopes (we felt a little envious!). As it was still early, the road down from the mountain was still pretty snowy, we past a few snow ploughs on the way (both going in the other direction!). We saw a couple of cars that had skidded off of the road on our way down. We were very thankful for our hardy little RV!

Once we were off the mountain the weather changed dramatically – it was beautiful sunshine and clear tarmac roads the rest of the way.

Past a few interesting places today, including area 51, the signs on the interstate read “This road is patrolled by aircraft”, although we didn’t see any, we did see a very suspicious black car speeding down the one road leading into the desert. I don’t care what you say; something very odd is going on there! We’ve past fields on cacti all day but still not seen a stereotypical cartoon cactus.

Big day of driving, we covered about 300 miles and decided to rest for the night in a small town called Big Pine. After the last few nights of minus temperatures, it’s funny to actually be staying in a place where you don’t need to wear base layers, hats and gloves just to top up the van with gas! 

We went out for the night in the small town...there’s only one bar in town Rosi’s Cocktail Lounge, Steak and Spaghetti Restaurant. So we headed there for a bite to eat and a few drinks. 

Tomorrow morning, we head to Yosemite.

Mount Charleston

Much warmer today, managed to eat our porridge outside without jackets or hats on, bliss! Spent most of the day on the road. Beautiful day for a long drive; more amazing scenery and sights. We passed through two large Indian Reservations and a few nice small towns, including a place called Hurricane, where we stopped for gas and a bite to eat.

It was so sunny when we left Hurricane Valley...

 We made it to our destination, Mount Charleston at around 3pm (30 miles out of Las Vegas). We weren’t too sure where we were going to stay as it appeared a small, sparse town, but we soon came across a fully equipped RV campsite (Fletcher Canyon Campground). After a few nights of wild camping, we decided to treat ourselves to a night in a proper campsite. Best campsite we’ve stayed in so far, not only did it have showers and an outside grill, it also had full hook ups, so we could plug in our heater, lamp and laptop – perfect!
 

Updating the blog next to the campfire

The park was run and maintained by a really nice couple called Jim and Janine (Jim must have told us his name three or four times! lovely chap though). Jim went around on a quad bike making sure all the campers had everything they needed and offered us some firewood (I think we got special treatment as he liked people from “Scotchland”. Apparently we were the first Scotch people to stay. He was delighted).

After reserving our camp spot, we headed half a mile back along the road to a lodge we had just passed (Mount Charleston Lodge) for hot chocolate next to the open fire. Great way to end a long day driving.
Tomorrow we start our journey to Yosemite Valley.

Bryce Canyon

Got up early today, as we wanted to do a couple of trails in Bryce Canyon in the morning. It was -18 in the morning, so instead of tackling the porridge on the camp stove we decided to head to Bryce Canyon Village for breaky. Stopped at a place called Ruby’s Inn (a general store, post office, gas station, hotel and restaurant all in one), it was massive and obviously the hub of the village...it also appeared to be the only place open over the winter, in the area. After a big hearty breaky and lots of coffee refills, we headed over to the Canyon. There was even more snow at Bryce Canyon, our snowboarding gear would have come in very handy (I felt a little dismayed when I saw a couple coming off a trail with snow shoes and skis on!) still we managed to make do with what we had!

Where's your snowboard when you need it?

We headed to Sunset Point to get a good view of the Canyon from the top. It looked pretty amazing at that time in the morning and the lashings of snow made it quite a dramatic sight. You really had to go on the trails to take in the sheer enormity of the Canyon (and also to see some of the massive caves). We went on a 2.5 hour trail. You end up stopping every so often to take pictures – there is just so much to take in.
There are a couple of signs at the beginning of some of the trails that say something along the lines of “enjoy the trail, but remember the walk back up!”...oh how right they were. It was a bit of hike back up the canyon and the thin air (8300ft) made it a bit more of a challenge. Didn’t help that our water canister had frozen, so you only really had a slush puppy to sip on every now and again!

View from 8000 feet!

Bryce Canyon was also the first place we have seen any signs with warnings of bears, one said “watch out for bears when you’re enjoying your picnic”...as much as Arran wanted to see a bear, I managed to persuade him that it would be best to have lunch back in the car park in the safety of our camper.
After spending the day in the Canyon, we headed down the road to set up camp. Camped 60 miles South of the Canyon.

On our way to the next Canyon

We woke up early today, mainly due to the cold. We found out later from a Park Ranger it was -16 overnight, brrr! After de-icing the van (inside and out) and having some warm breakfast, we headed down the canyon. We stopped at another view point on the way, with views straight out of a Christmas card (it was so snowy, up to our knees at some points) and went on a short trail. All in, the Grand Canyon is fantastic place where you could spend a good couple of weeks camping (or staying in the lovely lodges) and working your way round all the trails and hikes.

I knew we shouldn't have left the chairs out overnight!

We saw a number of warning signs when we were in the Canyon, advising you to look out for elk or deer on the roads. We didn’t spot any on the roads, but we did see a couple of elks roaming around someone’s garden in the village and a couple of stags, hanging out in the grassy area near the information centre. Arran was being a bit cautious when taking photos, before a local walked past and said you could get pretty close to them without them minding, as they are quite docile. It was amazing seeing a massive stag just walking around in the village, but I guess if you live there, you’d get used to it. 

A local stag

Made it all the way to Bryce Canyon today, but as it was getting dark we set up camp for the night a few miles down the road at Dixie National Forrest.

The Grand Canyon

We started the day with a huge American breakfast at nearby diner;  then hit the road.
Lovely drive to the Grand Canyon, it was such a sunny day but you could still see a tonne of snow on the mountains (felt a little bit like a ski resort). On the way we stopped off at small town called Williams -  the first place so far Arran has had the petrol pumped for him, by the owner of the station (Bob), no less.

The Grand Canyon - view from the top

We arrived in the Grand Canyon late afternoon. It is one of America’s National Parks, so you have to buy a pass to get in ($25 minimum charge, but the pass lasts you a week). We felt a little irked paying so much for only one day in the Canyon, but once you get in and actually see the views, it’s definitely worth it. We decided to camp at the Canyon that evening. Most of the designated campsites were closed for winter, but we found one open. Not surprisingly (given the temperature and all the snow) we were the only people in the site. We got settled and made a quick bite to eat and some hot drinks, before heading over to the park’s main view point. Pulling up to the car park, there was a lovely (warm looking) log cabin and we wondered how far we’d have to walk to see the first of our views...not realising, we just had to walk across the car park and look over the small wall! Pretty amazing sight to take in – the sheer vastness of the canyon and the contrast of the bright red rock against all the snow.

Keeping warm next to the campfire

As the sun set, we decided to head back to the campsite, to ensure we still had a little light to cook in (I’m still haunted by the Kangaroo Rat incident!).
We picked up some supplies in the General Store on the way back including an extra torch, candles and firewood. Just as well did, as it was pitch black by the time we came out the store, (the light seems to disappear instantly round here; you really have to keep an eye on the time).
I successfully managed to make dinner under candle/head torch light while Arran made a campfire – first campfire of our road trip so far. Great end to a busy day.

The Breakdown

Of the van...not our relationship! Well, our trip was going just a little bit too smoothly, we had to have a hurdle at some point! When we picked up the van the chap said “the one thing you don’t want the van to say is - check all gauges” before quickly adding “but the chances of this happening are very slight, so don’t worry”. Guess what happened today! We left Vegas around 9am and had been driving for about an hour. Suddenly, on the freeway, while listening to some Flight of the Chonchoreds, the scary message flashed up...Arran’s expert driving skills came into play as he lost power steering and the engine died.

We then headed up to a gas station (straight out of 'Wrong Turn') we had passed a half mile back, to phone the free toll breakdown number. While walking through the interesting desert verge we saw many sights including tumble weed and another coyote! (it ran away as soon as it spotted us). The ladies at the gas station/deli were luckily incredibly friendly and helpful. The pay phone did not work so we had to use one of their mobile phones. It all got sorted out after a few phone calls and we had time to have a bite to eat at the Deli.

Singing the blues.

After the pickup truck arrived we ended up in a small town called Kingmam, where the garage (after 2.5 hours) found the route of our troubles – a faulty fuel pump. Problem solved.
As it was late, we decided to spend the night in a nearby motel, for some much needed rest and showers! (hence the internet).
Tomorrow we are heading to the Grand Canyon as planned.

Arran & Emily

Viva Las Vegas!

First night in the camper was great, it’s a surprisingly comfy and cosy little van. We got up pretty early and made some big portions of porridge to set up for the morning’s drive.
The drive to Vegas was lovely, beautiful sunshine and scenery, once we arrived in Vegas, however, there was a sharp change in the weather. We arrived about 11.30am and it was drizzly and grey. Vegas does not look good on a grey Monday morning...it looks a little worse than Aberdeen’s Codonas Fun Beach on a good day!

After pulling up to the famous Bellagio Hotel in our mystery machine (it was funny having to drive around the various limos and fancy cars) due to another sat nav navigation error, we quickly rerouted to a nearby spacious car park to park up for the day (a stones throw away from the Las Vegas Strip).

Vegas Baby!

We spent the afternoon taking in the sights of the strip and the Miracle Mile Shopping Mall. After a bit of shopping and lunch we headed back to the camper for a bit of shut eye, at this point we feeling very underwhelmed by the sights of Vegas. This all changed when we headed out later that evening. If you ever go to Vegas, please try not to see it in the daytime. For the full effect and experience you need to go in the evening. Even though it was just as cold and drizzly when we headed back out at 8pm (once all the sparkly lights and neon signs are on full blast) the Strip looks amazing! There’s definitely a different atmosphere in town (it's less depressing seeing people drinking and gambling in the evening; it's more fitting somehow!).

New York in Vegas

My main highlight of Vegas was the Bellagio Fountain. Every half hour the massive fountain outside the hotel (the fountain used in Oceans 11) performs a show, the water moving in time to different tunes. It’s an amazing sight (wait till you see the video we took).
After hanging out in Planet Hollywood and taking in a band we headed over to a nearby sports bar for some much needed beers and curly fries. We then headed back to the camper for the night.

Paris Las Vegas hotel

Some things I didn’t realise about Vegas...

• You can drink on the streets at anytime of the day – every other person was wandering around with a bottle or plastic pint glass, even at 11.30am! 
• The overall smoking ban does not apply anywhere
• There was a distinct lack of police presence and bins! (unlike the other parts of the US we have visited so far!).
• Vegas does not look good in the day time...but hopefully if you visit Vegas you drink so much the night before you won’t see the city in the morning!

Arran & Emily

First night in the camper

Collected our campervan this morning. We got to pick our van from a selection of four. As the guy put it “the most important thing to consider is the paint job!” After deliberating for a bit, we selected the funky looking New Orleans camper. After a mini lesson in driving an American automatic and the vans "features", we hit the road.

We made a couple of wrong turns – due to the sat nav and the American-English language barrier, but we soon got into the swing of things.

On the road again.

We parked up for the night in a small town called Baker (80 miles west of Las Vegas). Upon parking up, we decided to cook up some dinner, despite it being a little dark and chilly. All was going well until I heard the fateful words from Arran – “I think I just saw something!” this mischievous Kangaroo Rat kept running around our feet, van and stove for the duration of the cooking...so I decided to leave it to Arran and get the laptop set up to watch a movie.

Quite glad I did, because within in minutes of getting into the van Arran spotted a coyote making it's way over to camp stove! Luckily a loud clap is enough to scare a coyote off, the Kangaroo Rat was a bit more cocky. Who would have thought our $1 can of Chilli would spur so much interest among the Mojave wildlife.

The Mystery Machine

After dinner, we pulled the van forward a bit to leave a good bit of distance between us and the verge of the desert...lesson learnt for next time!

Drinking in L.A.

Just arrived in L.A. today (Emily’s Birthday), spending the night in a cheapy hotel place and picking up our campervan tomorrow, which we’ll have for the next couple of weeks.

Manhattan Beach, L.A.

Things have been great so far and seen some interesting places. Getting used to the long journeys now, which haven’t been all bad. Spent around 52 hours travelling across America so far and will be good to get our own wheels for a bit, and do our own thing. For a re-cap of that see the vid

Really hot in L.A. today, so decided to head to the beach to celebrate Emily's birthday and catch some long awaited sun.

Sunset Sangria

It’s been quite easy to get internet through free wireless services so far, which has been great – but that might change as we head out in our camper. Will try to keep in touch as best we can.

Arran

The Pit Stops

The last two stops on our trip - Kansas City and Santa Fe, New Mexico have been pit stops en route to LA, so both have been rather uneventful.
Kansas City was a funny place. It was very sparse and rather industrial. It wasn’t until we arrived in the city (and we had 10 hours to kill) that we found out the train station was the main tourist attraction! Don’t get me wrong, it was a very nice station equipped with a cafe, a self-playing grand piano (playing an eclectic mix of 2 Christmas song), a part time cinema and of course a tornado shelter...but you couldn’t spend more than an hour there. After a bit of walking along the main road you eventually arrive near a small cluster of pubs and restaurants called the Power and Light District (according to trip advisor this is the main place to go out and is meant to be hip part of town). We ended up going on a small pub crawl before deciding on a bar to settle in and watch a basketball game.

Kansas City

The overnight train to Santa Fe was a lot better than the Chicago one – it wasn’t as busy so we were allowed to leave our allocated seats and spread out a bit, having two seats to sleep on is a lot better (plus there were no chronic snorers this time!).
We spent most of the day hanging out in the observation deck of the train; saw some iconic scenery on the way to Lemy (our stop just before Santa Fe) like the Rocky Mountains!
 

Snowy New Mexico Desert

As the train didn’t go all the way to Santa Fe Amtrak arranged a connection bus for those travelling onwards. We got off at Lamy (a small town with a population of 120 people) and found another five people waiting for the bus. It turned out to be an old man with a jeep and a trailer at the back for our luggage. It was a bit like getting picked from the train by your Dad! It was good fun though, and the chap regaled the history of Santa Fe over the short 30 minute journey to our motel. Santa Fe is a lovely little town, apparently it’s great for skiing, really wish we had room to take our snowboarding gear!

En route to Santa Fe

Next stop LA, just in time for Emily’s birthday!

Arran & Emily

Chicago

They say you have to be super hard to stay in Chicago, because of the temperature extremes and I think they’re right...we spent a couple of wintery days in Chicago and I ended up wearing two hats!

It’s maybe not as cold as it is back in Scotland (I think it was about -1, both days) but it certainly was the windy city, which made the temperature a bit more extreme.
Sunday was our first day in the city. We arrived quite early in the morning after our 14 hour train journey. Although the train was comfortable, we didn’t actually get much sleep, mostly due to the John Candy like chap sitting in front of us – he sounded like he was snoring on behalf of everyone! When we got to the hostel we dumped our bags and headed out for the day. We spent the first day just taking in the architecture (some amazing buildings in Chicago) and the Christmas market.

The Wrigley Building

 The hostel was great. It was actually more like a guest house. It was located in the heart of Greek Town and run by a very smiley Greek guy and his family. It offered a really hearty complimentary breakfast which was a total surprise (I think a lot of blog postings from now on will include a note about the hostels and the quality of the breakfasts!).
Again it’s another city that you can walk around quite comfortably. We were going to use the EL train on our second day to get to the Lincoln Park Zoo, but decided to walk so we could take in some sights along the way. So glad we did. There were a couple of really nice (but extremely cold) beaches....they would be great in the summer months!

I’d say there are two main highlights from our time in Chicago – the first would be going up the John Hancock building (one of the largest buildings in the city) at night and getting amazing panoramic views of the city.

View from the 94th floor of the John Hancock building

And the second, would be eating a traditional Chicago town pizza. We went to a restaurant called Uno. It seemed to be the place to be for good pizza served by an elderly and hilarious waitress called Marta (who had worked there for 35 years). The restaurant was packed with locals and tourists...even though they warn you at the door that there will be an hour wait for food! It was well worth the wait (we actually only had to wait half an hour in the end) amazing pizza and lovely wine. We then stumbled home to the hostel for an early(ish) night – we had to be up early for our next train. 

Chicago Town Pizza

Next stop Kansas City where it’s apparently -7, I think I’ll keep my hats on.

Emily