Re: The road goes ever on and on - A Travel Thread

[Mrs Figg]

perfume then? Dior has some nice mens aftershave. Woody with an orange peel retrogusto.

[Pettytyrant101]

Dont drink or smoke- Lance

And yet somehow you manage to go on.

[halfwise]

Nope.... playing Clash of Clans. Dont drink or smoke so duty free is useless!

Don't smoke or drink? Your Strider mystique is fading fast...

[halfwise]

Though I didn't start drinking until about your age myself.

It coincided with starting to teach high school.

[Pettytyrant101]

Coincidentally I got into my drinking stride in High School

[Lancebloke]

Nope.... playing Clash of Clans. Dont drink or smoke so duty free is useless!

Don't smoke or drink?  Your Strider mystique is fading fast...

All part of my denial of heritage.

[Mrs Figg]

I dont drink or smoke either and theres nothing wrong with me.


(((((( ))))))





much

[Pettytyrant101]

[Mrs Figg]

[halfwise]

[Pettytyrant101]

{{{{toss me a bottle back here Halfy, I may be stuck here some time}}}}

[Ringdrotten]

Nice pics Ringo. I am currently sat in the departure lounge at Mccarran Airport so will be posting some more california/nevada pics soon. I missed out on Yosemite but did take a trip to Muir Woods and some other spectacular places.

Nice Looking forward to it! (don't take as long as I did )

[Bluebottle]

Everybody seems to be going to California. Is there a second gold rush?

Sounds fun though, Lance. Look forward to the pictures.

[Bluebottle]

Oh, it wasn't meant to be all that complicated.

Hah. Well, try to see it this way. If Ringo is not pictured by people around here as in Norcs flattering fanart, people around here imagine Ringo similar to Daniel Radcliffe, a movie star who seemingly make young girls hearts flutter. That's not too bad, is it`?

All I was saying was that both could be considered flattering, if looked at that way.  

Also, i mentioned this to ringo earlier, he looks like my dad in the 80's, not Harry Potter..

Hm, if Ringo's been compared to both your father in the 80s and Harry Potter, are you sure it isn't possible Ringo looks like both your father in the 80s and Harry Potter?  

The lawyer must be back because i didn't understand a Word of that ..

That was all.

Hei, forresten.

[Norc]

Okei... Now i got it, hei du

[Lancebloke]

Will do this in 2 parts as I cant be arsed to resize all these pictures to upload today.

Ok, so we flew from London in to San Francisco and got our car, spending the first night settling in and trying to make sure we stayed up late in an effort to avoid too much jet lag. Not fun driving in a different country with different road law, on other side on the road and in a city like San Francisco!

So, really starting from day 2 where we took a trip in the car to Muir Woods National Monument. This involved a drive over the Golden Gate Bridge



View back toward the city



For those that don't know, Muir Woods is home to a variety of plant and wildlife, including the giant Redwoods









Hard to tell from the photos (mainly the last one) but some of those trees are a few hundred feet tall... that gap in the tree easily fit me inside... and are a very old!! Unfortunately, technology hasnt got far enough for me to send you the smell of the place which I can only say was amazing. I have been in a lot of woodlands and forests and none had such a strong fragrance... was worth it for that alone!!

Ok, so back to the city. We stayed in Fisherman's Wharf and the main tourist attraction there is Pier 39, both for it's shops/restaurants...



...and the California Sealions that camp out in the marina.







Day 2 was our last full day in San Francisco and gave us a chance to pop over to Alcatraz for a visit.

Boat on the way there.





In the prison cell block





Some of the faces that have graced the cells



Grenade marks from a police/military assault during an attempted escape



Lastly, other than the resident, stinky seagulls, Alcatraz is also home to some of these little critters!



Moving on from San Francisco and heading South on route 1 which is the scenic route along the Pacific coast.





Our next stop was Monterey Bay where we stopped for the night and were up early the next day for a trip out to see some marine life. As seemed to be common most of the way along the Northern California coast, our first encounters were with the Sealions, one of which was camped right where we needed to board the boat!







It took us about 10 minutes before we saw our first humpback whale feeding. You might notice in some of the pictures that there are also a lot of sealions feeding. Apparently this is a relatively new thing whereby the sealions and the whales feed together. Always easy to tell where the whales would pop up and the sealions would always appear first.





A little further out and we came across this humpback calf playing



And this whale which is known as chomper... got a picture of him chomping!



We went further out where things got sparse and a little boring, however as we headed back in we came across 2 very rare sights. The first of which was what you can see a very small part of in the pictures below





A humpback megapod... we estimated between 20-25 whales in the same place which is incredibly uncommon.





The other thing is something I captured on my go pro (sorry... wont be sharing due to my policy of not getting family in pictures). Can you guess what happened?



One of the humpbacks decided to breach... i.e. jump... between our boat and another not far away. The splash is the result of a 40 tonne humpback whale hitting the water no more than 50 feet away from us.

A good end to what turned out to be a spectacular finale! I even got sprayed be a whale that came up to investigate the boat and was about 5 feet away!!

We moved on the following day, carrying on down route 1 and through an area known as Big Sur and contains some of the most spectacular scenery I have seen.









Above the clouds





The route is one you have to really concentrate to drive as the road is very windy and, like above, at some points you are very high up. Not a good place to have an accident.

The last place we stopped in part one of my journey was Moro Bay. We only stayed here to break up the journey south, however it was actually quite nice. A lot of big waves and therefore lots of surfing (what else to do in California?). Also has the big rock which is kind of the landmark of the town... a bit like a mini Gibraltar.






Part 2 to follow.. possibly not until next weekend.

[Mrs Figg]

those are fabulous Lance!  
I love the look of Moro Bay and Big Sur. and those wales so close!, Looks like you had a spectacular trip. I would love to be able to smell that forest, perfume of warm wood resins, lovely.

[Pettytyrant101]

Superb pictures Lance. They seem to have a sea-lion plague however, damn things are everywhere, still good eating on a sea lion and plenty fat to fry up

[Lancebloke]

Still plenty more pictures to come... think I am at the end of week 1 so far... maybe not even that far. I will also try and edit some of my video footage and drop a video in at the end if I can.

[Pettytyrant101]

[Mrs Figg]

coolio

[azriel]

Fantastic photo's Lance ! really enjoyed that Adored the sealions & the Whales ! The woods were stunning.

[Forest Shepherd]

You drove right past my neighborhood! (I live inland from Monterey Bay about 20 minutes).
I like seeing local things from a foreigner's perspective, it puts them in... well perspective!

Did you stop by in Monterey or Carmel-by-the-Sea? It's a well-to-do area (rich and kind of snobby at times) that has lovely views and tons of art galleries. Monterey also has a Fisherman's Wharf and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Anyway great pictures Lance!

P.S.
I would add that technically the "clouds" along the coast are fog banks. Best to be accurate with our nautical knowledge and all that.
If you drive down from San Francisco most of the distance from Davenport to Santa Cruz is often fogged-over by the afternoon during the summer. There's a highway on the inland side of those mountainy-hill things (you see them to your left driving down Highway 1) from where you can see the fog spilling over the top of the hills like a giant waterfall. It's pretty cool.

[David H]

Nice pictures Lance!

Those sea lions are thugs. They're very agressive. They steal people's boats, and sometimes sink them with their weight. And don't inhale when you're down wind. Just don't!

At Alcatraz, did they mention about the 2 years when the island was forcibly occupied by Native American activists in the early 70's? I know a guy.....

[Forest Shepherd]

Ah yes, they symbolically offered to pay the price for the island that the government had offered the natives way back when. It was like 10 dollars or something.
Of course it all broke down eventually what with San Francisco non-Indian druggies and hippies showing up. And some girl fell to her death somewhere on the island. Political movements are only straightforward, honest, and easily-understood once enough of the actual details involved have been collectively forgotten by society.

Edit:
I looked it up, and apparently the occupation did result in many changes in government policy. Native American groups also hold an Un-thanksgiving day there every Thanksgiving.