2014 USA Travel Diary Editted
Las Vegas: Day one:
We arrived mid afternoon into our hotel the Stratosphere on the end of the strip in Las Vegas. Checked into our room after a very long trip & got ready for dinner & drinks in the 107 bar which had the most amazing sunset view over the mountains & then we watched as a very dusty & dilapidated city came to life before our eyes. After a few appetisers & shots of Dutch courage (a blueberry martini & a salted caramel apple-tini) we went up to the 109 floor to go on the rides. OMG!! The big drop, one that spins out sideways off the edge of the building hanging over the city & a half roller coaster thingy that shoots you out & then dangles you pretty much head first over the edge of the tower! Talk about adrenaline rush! But we’re brave so we did them all twice, such a buzz! Then, because hey this is Las Vegas we went to a burlesque show & we hadn’t even left our hotel yet!! The show was called “Pin Up” and lucky for us they were having a red carpet event for their one year anniversary!!
Jack got some great photos with the star and some of the girls & the band, oh and I almost forgot, he got a photo with Bill Cosby at the airport in LA whilst we waited for our flight to Vegas!!
Pin Up was an amazing show, based on a calendar, some fabulous costumes & great music & dancing, we finally crawled into bed about 3 am!!
Las Vegas: Day two:
Slept in, a little! Then wandered out to explore the strip! We caught the monorail down to MGM & we had intended to walk over to the Hard Rock casino but decided to bail pretty quickly, it was ages away. We happened past a Hooters restaurant & decided to have a cultural experience & have a beer & hot wings as is the local custom. Then we started the strip. The strip is roughly 4 miles long, which is only a bit over 6 km, it took us 8 hours & we didn’t get all the way along!! We saw MGM & New York, New York, after we got spat out the other side of NY,NY, we saw the Hard Rock Cafe & needed a beer stop. The Bellagio was beautiful and required a coffee stop in their lovely pool area & then we saw the fountains choreographed to Frank Sinatra. Just amazing! Caesars Palace was next, which was massive! It just went on & on. From there we skipped across to the Venetian & Palazzo, WOW! I was expecting pretty trashy, I mean a recreation of the Grand Canal & Venice inside? But it was so lovely & we did the “gon-dola” ride & got the photo; we were sung to. Oh sole Mia? & something else fabulous. So lovely! Before our ride we had the most delicious snack-dinner- charcuterie plate, wine & slow cooked meatballs @ Wolfgang Puck, overlooking “St Marks Basilica” complete with violinist & carnival street performers. Following our gon-dola ride we ran over to the Mirage to catch the “volcano” light show & the down to the Wynn to get our tickets for “Le Reve”. Then we went to Gilles for a drink (not amazing) then back to the Wynn (so lovely, indoor gardens, fairy lights & whimsical flower sculptures) for Le Reve. Oh My God. Just the most phenomenally amazing show, well worth the $ we were on the edge of our seats for the whole show, the acts were so great and though the story was pretty dark at times it was really quite an incredible show, I don’t know if we’ll be able to top it!! We were so buzzed after, so back out onto the strip & grabbed some $1 beers from Casino Royal to walk along with. It felt like we had barely covered any of the strip, we managed to catch the monorail back to our hotel from the Pink Flamingo and into bed about 2am.
Las Vegas: Day three/four:
Up early (5am!) to catch a bus for our tour out to the Grand Canyon. Whilst the tour company where pretty disorganised & the tour guide was ok, our time in the canyon was simply breathtaking! On the way out we got to stop & check out the Hoover Dam & got some very interesting history on the area & the time it was built. From the vantage point that we saw the dam, it actually looked kind of small.(?!)
Flying into the canyon was one of the most amazing things I ever done, that feeling of our bellies dropping away as four thousand feet below the Colorado river ran was so amazing. Our little cruise along the river was very peaceful comparatively & then the ascent back out of the canyon, breathtaking! Literally!! Lunch was pretty rustic, in a created old west town, complete with country singer, wagon ride & duelling pistols, that we got to fire?!? Scary. The next two stops over looking the canyon at the skywalk where fairly anxiety inducing! There were no fences or barriers just a clean drop to the canyon floor, four thousand feet below, people standing on the edge taking photos, very scary! The skywalk was great to do, pretty amazing engineering feat, but I was very ginger walking out on that glass! Coming back to Vegas we decided that we would check out the Fremont St experience in downtown Las Vegas. We were so glad that we did! Apart from the fact it was St Paddies day weekend; the street was fabulous & appeared very much the old school Vegas that we were expecting! The light show was great we saw, Bon Jovi, the Who & the Doors on the screens, we saw the “D” casino & dancing girls and drank $1 beers & danced to the music, we had such a great night that we got back to our room about 2am again, only this time we needed to get up at 4am for our flight to New Orleans. The start the next day was tough & we both pretty much just slept on our two flights with a bit of time awake for free Wi-Fi at the USO in LA!
New Orleans: Day three/four:
Arrive late afternoon from Las Vegas & go to “Zeas” for dinner. Jack had Thai ribs, catfish, shrimps, dirty rice, hush puppies (sole food!! LOL!) Sally had trout fillet, grits & snap beans, followed by sweet potato bread pudding with hard sauce & local micro brewery beers. So much food, we just fell into food comas! Hostel was very industrial looking, exposed brick & exposed beams & the whole building seemed to lean! But it was in the very beautiful garden district, on Carondelet St, surrounded by lovely antebellum homes with wide porches & flickering hurricane lanterns & only a block off St Charles Ave & the trolley car, perfect.
New Orleans: Day five:
Slept late, then had bagels and coffee in a cafe on St Charles avenue, caught the St. Charles St. trolley to Canal Street, the wind coming off the river was freezing!! I thought this was a warm city??!! Stopped by a tour shop & were up-sold for a city tour. Wandered down to the river front & watched musical paddle-steamers and barges cruise up & down the river until our tour was ready. Grabbed take away coffees (where Jack asked me, “want some sugar baby?” & the guy behind the counter said “mmhmm, now we don wan non’na that business here, we get ’nuff o’ that on tha weekends!” Haha!) & set off. Our 2 hour tour, turned in 4 hours, firstly by running late & then Eugene the tour guide LOVED to talk!! Heard some great stories about the history of New Orleans (though they all speak of the original French as these benevolent explorers??!) we explored the garden district & heard about the houses recovered post Katrina, the houses painted green for luck & the roof’s of the patios painted light blue to keep away the bugs!! (A trick we’ll be taking home!) We then skirted around the edge of the French quarter, “Vieux Carre”, along the French market & Decateur st, up Frenchman St & into the Treme. We toured through some more colourful (literally, houses were yellow, purple, green, blue etc) immigrant neighbourhoods (Irish, Haitian, Italian etc) then stopped for a look at the St. Louis no.2 cemetery & heard a quick story of the funeral practices of New Orleans. The trip travelled further into the botanic gardens where we stopped for cafe au lait & beignets with LOTS of powdered sugar. We also managed to have a super quick look through the sculpture gardens & get some photos. From the botanic gardens we went to the hurricane Katrina effected areas down to the lower 9th ward, which was up to 26ft underwater for 2 months. We saw all the houses being reconstructed by Brad Pitts “make it right” program & saw where the levee was breached & flooded into the town. Amazing to see the amount of disrepair the town is still in, almost a decade after the storm hit.
After the rather prolonged tour we jumped off at Frenchman street & hung out listening to some local bands playing jazz & blues, had a few beers & a cocktail before wandering out for a feed. On route we came across a BIG parade for St Patricks day & managed to collect beads, feathers, glowing things, condoms & all manner of assorted decorations to wander around the streets with! Finally we made our way to Bourbon St where the parade sort of stopped & we grabbed some dinner of beer & gumbo, before catching our trolley car back to our apartment that was a late night!!
New Orleans: Day six:
Bagels & coffee at our favourite little (free Wi-Fi) cafe, then trolley car to the WWII museum. A massive & really interesting (if somewhat biased) history of WWII (I’m not sure anyone else was in the war & it didn’t start until 1941?!) we then saw the Tom Hanks 4D film “beyond all boundaries” very good and the 4D experience of props and snow & bubbles & vibrating seats, was excellent. We then looked at all the full size War-birds hanging in the museum before heading to the French Quarter to just wander around. Our fairly aimless wandering lead us to a karaoke bar called the Cats Meow, where we had 1-for-3 beers & Jack finally got to live his boyhood dream of performing on Bourbon St!! He sang “Jack & Diane” (John Melancamp) & “When Doves Cry” (Prince) several beers later we wandered back up Bourbon St via some dodgy burger place & back to our apartment.
New Orleans: Day seven:
Up early for a quick pre-breakfast snack of bagels & coffee at our favourite sidewalk cafe, before heading to the New Orleans School of Cooking for a course in how to create some of Louisiana best dishes. Over 2 and a half hours we listened to great local history & watched as the cook created a piña colada bread pudding with hard sauce, gumbo, jambalaya & pralines as we snacked on fresh warm biscuits & coffee before feasting on the food cooked in front of us with pitchers of cold local beer & chatting with our table mates. Delicious!! After class we wandered through the French market & picked up some souvenirs & then had some more beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde, not all it was cracked up to be though!! After lunch we grabbed out rail tickets for the trip to Memphis & then caught the trolley car to the end of the garden district where we walked through the beautiful parks around Loyola & Tulane University & the Audubon zoo. We then caught the trolley car back to town & had an amazing dinner of oysters, crab claws, French bread & brilliant chicken & dirty rice at the Red Fish Cafe – such a great food day!
We then hot footed it to a history & ghost buster tour around the French quarter. Jack was very dubious, but the guide told some great stories & despite his ability to explain away the electromagnetic fields & orbs in photos & cold spots on buildings we heard some great history & he even enjoyed himself!!
New Orleans: Day eight:
Up early to get packed & have a quick walk around the garden district, see St. Louis no.1 cemetery & the Commanders Palace. Had a lovely window shop along magazine St & found a beautiful old theatre having a second life as a rug shop, then back to our little sidewalk cafe for one last bagel & coffee before catching the trolley car to union station for Amtrak no#58 the City of New Orleans straight through to Memphis.
Checked in late, straight off the train, to the Graceland RV park, at the end of lonely St, behind the Heartbreak Hotel, into a log cabin! Very kitsch, but so fun!! The night was absolutely freezing, but the showers were hot & the cabin was warm and we slept so well! The train trip was fantastic spent about half of the 8 hour trip hanging out in the viewing car watching all the rural townships & countryside roll by, a pretty cool way to see the country.
Memphis: Day nine:
Our first day in Memphis we of course had to visit the home of the King; Graceland. We did a self guided audio tour through the mansion and surrounding buildings, Jack loved the jungle room and themed rooms and now wants to theme our home in a homage to Graceland! I have drawn the line at shagpile carpet on the roof & walls! Whilst the actual home is quite small, the complex of Graceland is enormous, much bigger than what I recall and so busy. Lots of little side exhibits and gift shops and at least 3 diner style cafes, a radio station, the two planes, the Lisa Marie & Hound dog II, the hotel and RV park, memorabilia outlets and concert area. Next was the bus to THE Sun studio. This was almost like going on a pilgrimage for Jack. The tour was so great heard some very cool original tracks from assorted sun artists, got to stand in the recording room which is still used today for bands wanting to capture some of that sun studio magic and record at the legendary studio. Heard stories and tracks from all the famous artists that recorded there and then Jack got to see into the engineering room, old school control panels, tape decks, working sound engineers talking his language, was so gorgeous to see the look on his face! Then after chatting with his new best friend Curry, we decided to try and find Ardent Studios where Big Star had recorded some of their albums, though we were encouraged to catch a cab, we figured a half hour walk wasn’t too bad. Hhhmmm, over 2 miles later & at least an hour walking though some mildly unsavoury neighbourhoods, we finally found the studio, we were seriously about to give up! We walked in the door and the receptionist was so pumped that Australians had walked in, he was like, “y’all wanna meet Jodie, just hang wit him a lil’ bit?” We said sure that would be great, then out come this guy from the movie and takes us on this very cool, impromptu tour around the studio, asks if we knew Guy Sebastian, tells us about a great BBQ place up the road, poses for some pics, signs an autograph and off he goes! So fun, so random! So then we decide we’re actually starving, so we find this random little BBQ place, called 3 little pigs and have a ridiculously large serving of amazing dry rubbed ribs and beers before continuing our hike over 2 miles the other way back to the river front and Beale St. We’re feeling pretty wrecked by this point so we wander into B.B. Kings Blues Bar and listen to some fantastic live blues over another beer, just to rest and chill out a little. From there we wander a little further down Beale St; so many bars and really it’s not a proper night, without a neon light! We decide by this time were hungry again and find ourselves at the Hard Rock Cafe eating the most enormous hot brownie fudge sundae and drinking coffee before catching the courtesy bus back to Graceland.
Memphis: Day ten:
After a bit of a lie in and some domestics we catch the shuttle bus back into sun studios where we just hang out for a bit drinking coffee and the most fabulous milk shakes before catching the shuttle to the rock and soul museum. A really well put together museum, curated by the Smithsonian institute. A great overview if the how blues, country, rock and roll, soul and the cultural, living and societal conditions merged over the years to create the sounds that have defined not only Memphis but American music and pop culture. From there we wandered down Beale St, found some great chicken and waffles (of course they go together!) and just explored the street, heard lots of music and saw all the fans lining up for the Memphis tigers basketball game in the huge FedEx stadium. In our wandering we stumbled across the Peabody hotel and sat down in the lobby for a coffee and got to see the march of the Peabody ducks! such a hilarious site to see, sitting in this beautiful lobby with ducks playing in the fountain and the duck master all dressed in his red suit and chains, tapping in the edge of the fountain with his cane whenever the. Mallard got a little frisky with the females! A lady standing by me commented that perhaps they needed a man with a stick to stamp out similar behaviour in the penthouse! aahh funny the simple things that can bring a crowd together!
We decided on an early night after the epic day we’d had previously and caught the shuttle back to our accommodation. W got back and chilled in our little cabin, having a few beers before heading out to one of the Elvis themed diners in the complex. How hilarious, there was (of course) an Elvis impersonator doing a free show to a room that pretty much resembled an RSL dinning area. We had some dodgy burger and chips in a basket and beers in plastic cups and danced to Ring of Fire, plus some other songs. The guy was a pretty entertaining performer and he came over and sang to me and then when we were dancing he came out to let Jack sing a line or two and Jack took off with the microphone and finished the song!! It got a round of applause and a comment of “I bet you need to keep him on a leash!” Very funny!
Memphis: Day eleven:
Up early to catch the shuttle to sun studio again for coffees and milkshakes. Then we wandered down to the Gibson guitar factory for a tour through the factory and learnt about the process of making a Gibson guitar, really very beautiful instruments. From there we wandered down to the riverbank of the mighty Mississippi and took a paddle-steamer river queen up and down the river, learning about history of the river and its life. We found ourselves a fan, the guy behind the food counter who just wanted to watch us and listen to us talk! A very sweet guy Michael Jordan, talking in his lovely southern accent. Jack got some great photos and I sat inside and listened to the stories, it was absolutely freezing on the water! After the cruise we wandered into Beale St and the surrounding streets where we had been suggested to eat and drink. Well, let the feasting begin… We ate coconut shrimp with orange dipping sauce and 3 different martins each. So yummy and with full strength, free pour drinks we made all sorts of plans and ideas on the back of receipts and napkins. From there we went for 50 cent oysters on the half shell, fried pickles and a chalice of beer, sounds terrible but the line was well out the door when we left and it was so good! From there went to an amazing restaurant called Flight, that brought your food and drinks as flights, 3 small samples in themes and wine matched platters. We had a flight of Riesling, something creamy tasting, maybe a Chardonnay? And a rose, fabulous, we matched that with a lobster and basil tortellini, yum! Following that we had a flight of Tempranillo, Malbec & something chocholety, that was matched with a flight of bison with chestnut purée, (our favourite) elk with macaroni (gamey) and fillet steak, mash & green beans (so tender & delicious!) of course we couldn’t stop there so we had a dessert flight, a southern bananas foster bread pudding, chocolate cheesecake and peach cobbler with buttermilk ice cream, yum! So by this time we are pretty full, but stopping past another bar we see that they have happy hour! We decide to go in for a night cap. After leaving there and waiting for our bus we see that coyote ugly on Beale is still open so we go in for a beer, finally we get to our bus and meet some random Aussies from Brisbane and sit up talking and swapping stories with them and drinking their scotch!!
Memphis: Day twelve:
A slow morning, nice little sleep in before packing our bags and checking out. One last look through the Graceland complex and a greasy breakfast before getting our transfer to the greyhound bus station, bound for Nashville. More when we arrive!
Nashville: Day twelve:
Arrived in Nashville about 4 hours later to a very dodgy neighbourhood; managed to flag a cab after speaking with a very unhelpful security guy. So the cab driver says, this is a very dodgy area, why did you book here? Be very careful, you need to catch cabs every where, don’t walk and don’t take the bus, however it is a good spot, very close to downtown! So we check in to the Drake motel, “where the stars stay”, dod-gy! Clean enough, but only just! So after dumping our bags & cleaning up, we catch a cab into downtown, where the cab driver asks, “Why are you staying at this sketchy motel?” “Make sure you don’t walk anywhere or catch the bus, stay within a block of the motel, any further than that and you’re in the projects, though it is very close to down town! Only a $7 cab fare later in the middle of downtown, 2nd & Broadway, we checkout the bright neon lights of Nash-vegas! Dinner is at Joe’s Crab Shack, Jack eats a whole lobster & I had mahi mahi, plus local beers, yummy!! After dinner we had plans to checkout Broadway & listen to some music, but as we were walking into dinner we noticed a huge line up for what looked like a club across the street. Jack decides all the buses parked out front are tour buses & we stick our heads into see if we can get tickets for anything else & they say come on in, CMT is taping for 2 up & coming country music stars, we just need an audience, it’s free!! Brilliant! We head on in. Jack has a ball checking out all the camera & sound equipment & then there’s the music, so much fun! We bump into some people on the dance floor & they’re so excited by our accents that they tell us to come & hang out with them at a club on Broadway called Rippy’s on Wednesday night at 9 o’clock to watch “Nashville” they’re all extras in it & meet up every week to watch it! By about 9 the free show is over & we head up to Broadway & walk into a little bar for some Monday night honky tonk & end up buying the CD of the singer, so looking forward to listening to it!
Nashville: Day thirteen:
Very lazy wake up Tuesday morning, decide to buy tickets to the Grand Ole Opry, then decide its safe enough to walk to the corner for a Macca’s breakfast. While we’re sitting there drinking coffee & eating muffins, it starts to snow!! We thought it was cold! Great, we’ve packed for a summer holiday!!? After breakfast we head into town in search of warm clothes & on the way in the cab driver asks us why we’re staying in such a sketchy motel!? & to definitely not walk in this neighbourhood!
Downtown, we grab a snack in the Hard Rock Cafe to get out of the snow & decide on a plan for the day. Next door to the hard rock is the Opry store & they tell us to head out to the Opry Mills, an outlet store next to the Grand Ole Opry, plus there’s a big hotel with restaurants. Brilliant idea! Half an hour later we are in an indoor tropical paradise, complete with waterfalls, a riverboat ride & lush garden. And it was warm!! After wandering around for a bit we found the outlet centre & spent a few hours wandering through, looking for warm clothes until Jack found…the Bass Pro Shop… Well, he was in fly fishing heaven & pretty much every other outdoor pursuit! & more excitingly for me, heavily discounted winter jackets! After our shopping afternoon, the weather has broken momentarily & the sun is shining, we head over to the Grand Ole Opry. What a fabulous evening! Watching 6 acts over about an hour & a half during the on-air show, was just awesome & Jack even got our names read out! My heart nearly stopped! We will have to try to get a pod cast when we get home. After the show we grab some dinner back at the massive hotel & on a whim decide to check if there are any rooms here for the night as our motel really is very dodgy! There is!! But only one night is available as there are 10,000 people checking in the next day for a massive convention. Such a beautiful room, a very good choice.
Nashville: Day fourteen:
Wake up in our beautiful room in Opryland and go down for breakfast in the middle of the rainforest! Our waitress thinks we are fabulous, because Jack has been to the Philippines & talks to us for ages! After brunch we head over to the outlet again and wander around for a few more hours, before heading back to downtown Nashville. We wander around a bit, Jack finds a “Rocket Soda Shop” that is filled with 300+ sorts of fizz, candy, vintage signs and pretty cool actually. Then we find the boot shop…it ends up taking us 3 days to decide on which boots we want, there are so many, by the time we actually purchase the staff recognise us when we walk in!! After extracting ourselves from the shoe shop, Jack sees on Facebook that a Melbourne girl is playing in Nashville, so we head there for dinner (amazing, pulled pork sliders & sweet potato fries, yum!) and listen for a while, we end up buying her CD as well! From Puckett’s we head to Rippy’s to meet our new friends and watch our first episode of Nashville. Funny night, there was a collective cheer every time someone’s hair or shoulder or passing shot was on the screen. There was a photographer floating around taking photos, which we ended up in, being “The Australians”! Our new Face Book friends have also uploaded photos of us with the “cast!”
Nashville: Day fifteen:
Late start, caught a cab from our (you guessed it!) dodgy motel and had brunch at a Greek pasta place downtown, pretty good actually. From there we went to the Ryman auditorium and did a back stage tour and Jack recorded his first country single, a magnificent rendition of the song made famous by the one, the only, Garth Brooks, “I’ve got friends in low places” he did it in 3 takes and we now have our very own copy to cherish forever! We were feeling pretty buzzed after that adventure so we stopped by the famous “Tootsies Orchid Lounge” on Broadway to hang with other artists and lots of drunken public, great fun and they even did a version of I’ve got friends in low places though, clearly an inferior version, still a very good effort! After a beer or two there we headed a few doors up to “Robert’s Western World” a place recommended to us by more than a few locals, grabbed the house special “fried boloney sandwich” with hot chicken & fries and few more beers to wash it down. Listened to a pretty cool band set up, but then had to run over to Bridgestone arena to watch our very first ice hockey game. Nashville Predators Vs Seattle Sabres. Nashville won 6-1, so we are of course now predators fans and have an excellent “got bit” T-shirt, puck and ball cap, like any decent fan. After the game we wandered back to Robert’s Western World to listen to some funky rockabilly and are now the proud owners of another CD to catch up on, we did get this one signed though! Would be pretty cool to see her if she came out to oz.
Nashville: Day sixteen:
Our last full day in Nashville and we woke up to quite a lovely morning. Outside our “dodgy” hotel they were shooting a commercial for Guess Jeans. We saw 7ft models wandering around the car park, a breakfast tent had been set up and the place had a bit of buzz. We went up to the front desk to call our cab and across the road a guy was being arrested for being in possession of drugs, he was handcuffed and chatting with cops in swat jackets while a skinny white girl, sort of skulked around the edges. We know it was a drug deal because one of the homeless guys floating around selling Christian newspapers (al la the voice) filled every one in on the story as we all watched from across the road. High end photo shoot on one side and a drug deal on the other, dodgy motel, wat u talkn’ ’bout!
From the motel we went to Pucketts for breakfast and had such a yummy southern breakfast buffet. Warm biscuits, soufflé, grits, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, hash brown casserole, country potatoes, pancakes, fruit and French toast bake with pecans and maple syrup, yuummm!!
From Pucketts we wandered to the country music hall of fame. Although we were a bit museum ed out it was a great exhibition and we saw some really cool stuff. In the same complex we also found a print shop still working with rollers and templates and stencils, making very iconic posters and some really beautiful artwork. You could watch the printers creating the posters through big windows, Jack loved it! After the museum we went for a walk along the river and sat atop a bridge overlooking the city, not a very pretty city but it had a great feel. Dinner was then at Joe’s Crab Shack again where we ate a pound of crawfish, gulf shrimp, Louisiana sausage, corn and potatoes and a couple of margarita, just to wash it down! We wandered back to Robert’s Western World to listen to some more honky tonk before heading up to the boot shop to purchase our 4 pairs of cowboy boots! And they are beautiful! Packing could be a challenge!?
Nashville: Day seventeen:
Woke up to pouring rain. Caught a cab to the airport and guess what the cabbie said “what are you guys doing staying in such a dodgy hotel?!! 10 or so hours later we are still travelling to San Francisco with an hour still to go on our flight! However the layover in Atlanta was pretty good, coffee and cookies in the USO & a dodgy Krystal’s lunch deal. Actually not a bad airport all up, surprisingly well organised! More when we get to San Francisco!
After a seemingly very long flight, we arrived late into a cold and rainy San Francisco. In order to sort our plan of attack, we dropped into the USO and had a quick coffee and a snack before catching a shuttle bus to the Fitzgerald hotel and our “petit” room. Very sweet little place, plus, warm, clean & a hot shower, bliss! A guy we’d spoken too on the flight had suggested going to “Lefty O’Douls, a baseball bar on Union Square, close to our hotel. Here we could check out tourist drunks & local drunks, listen to music (questionable keyboard music!) & get a late night feed! What a perfect plan! A hot roast roll and beers later we fell into bed, ready to explore the city the next day!
San Francisco: Day eighteen:
Bed & breakfast! Woohoo, slow morning of checking out our options, whilst snacking on oatmeal & bagels. We decided on the hop on, hop off bus to get a bearing of the city & booked an Alcatraz excursion for the next day. Finding our bus stop was a bit challenging but we happened across a beautiful church with an amazing choir that we snuck in and listened too for their Sunday morning worship, beautiful way to start our day. We finally found our bus and managed to get a deal of two days for the price of one, bonus! We then travelled through the VERY hilly streets of San Francisco, learning about the art, architecture & history of this beautiful city, it was a glorious, but windy day & we made our way down to Fisherman’s Wharf for the famous clam chowder bread bowls, delicious! We were absolutely stuffed after sharing just one, so we walked it off in a shed that contained antique, but working arcade games, very cool! Next we wandered down to pier 39 where we watched the sea lions, lolling on the pontoons, hundreds of them! Our next bus stop was the Golden Gate Bridge! So fantastic! we walked about a third of the way across and got some great photos, a really amazing experience!
Back on the bus after a fairly long wait and onto Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood. The birth place of the hippy movement, the hippies are still there, all looking a bit more drug addled and homeless than peace and love!?! Stopped into a cool record store (the famous Amoeba Music) that was in a converted bowling alley, picked up some vintage vinyl which will be fun to listen too. Found a gorgeous shop front that had 6 little shops inside, selling homemade, cakes, raw juice, Russian potato pockets, spices and reasonable coffee. Jack had a potato pie and I had a brownie sandwich with peanut butler through the middle – awesome! I loved it, a very cosy, community based space, a cool idea.
After refreshments there, Jack spotted the “Fizzary” a soda store with over 900 types of fizz! A pretty cool store actually and he picked up a vintage looking bottle of creaming soda which he consumed as we wandered back through the vintage shops and dazed hippies to the bus stop! We caught the bus back to our hotel and then headed out to a fabulous Indonesian restaurant called Borobudur. Fresh and perfect and delicious, an excellent end to our evening!
San Francisco:Day nineteen:
A lovely breakfast and out to the bus for repeat photos at the Golden Gate Bridge and then a windy, but fabulous drive across the bridge, a brief drive through Marin county and back across the bridge. A brief (very cold!) stop in golden gate park, though the museum was closed and then the bus back to Haight-Ashbury for a coffee and French toast with ricotta, strawberries and honey and an organic croissant for Jack.
Another stop to the Fizzary for a bottle of creaming orange soda and back on the bus heading for pier 33 for our ferry to Alcatraz. The rain had set in fairly well by this point and we sat in the under cover part of the bus. The tour guide was so loud in that compartment & then water started dripping through the joins in the roof! Then it started to thunder & the rest of the passengers moved down stairs. By this time, every time the bus went down hill water would cascade down the stairs in a waterfall into the bottom level of the bus then when it went up hill water would roll in a wave back down the bus!
Once we arrived at the wharf we hiked through the rain back to the right pier and waited (in the rain) for our ferry. We were pretty cranky and soaked by this stage and planned only to stay for a half hour or so on Alcatraz. Well, the audio tour was fabulous, the gardens beautiful and view exceptional. The rain cleared and we had the most amazing photos and views of San Francisco as the sun was setting! Plus our shoes and clothes had mostly dried and we were feeling much better. After the ferry back to San Francisco, we had a wander through the pier 39 area and saw the sea lions again and then found a bar doing happy hour that gave you 40 tickets to play on the arcade games. We had a ball and won some plastic bracelets and a Chinese finger trap! Gold! After dinner we grabbed a cab back to our hotel, which was a crazy ride, the driver just about launched us over every hill, pretty fun!
San Francisco: Day twenty:
Our last day in San Francisco. We organised an overnight bus to L.A so had the day to explore the city a bit further on foot. Checked out of our favourite room to date (the “petit” room) and stowed our bags with the hotel and wandered into the CBD intent on checking out a store we’d seen from the bus windows over the last few days. On route we wandered past the fabulous art shops and wandered into one with a piece that caught both our eyes, luckily it was sold (plus it was US$100,000 & was pretty massive!!) wonderful gallery though and we ended up purchasing a book signed by the artist, of posters from operas that had played around the world. His name was Olbinski and we just loved his art work, so unusual, we both saw such different things in it, our new book is beautiful. We eventually made it to Williams Sonoma, a gorgeous shop, so much great stuff, I loved the big windows and stone kitchen, the table settings and some of the beautiful napery, Jack loved the building and found some little nick-knacks to take home with us. I think that’s our wedding registry sorted.
From there we wandered to China town, (one of the biggest outside of Asia) and had some long awaited vegetables and soup, a very yummy lunch, pho for me & a beef and noodle stir fry for Jack.
So far the day was glorious, we walked down to the ferry building and wandered through the markets, found some (bad) coffee and looked through the gorgeous food stalls. Salted pork products, fungus and mushrooms by the bucket load, all crazy varieties, cheese rolled in nettles, artisan bread and loads of great local products, alas nothing we could bring home.
Then it rained..and rained..and rained. We attempted to sit it out, but it had set in, so we ventured out, tried walking up the hill, was akin to trying to walk up a waterfall!! We were aiming for some beautiful bronze cathedral doors we had heard about, eventually we scaled the (highest!!) hill in the city, saw flames & smoke coming out the back of a cable car that had broken down going down the hill, all the people had to get off and try and hail cabs, no cable car rides for us this time! We finally climbed to the top of Nob hill, and found a large cathedral with doors that were ok, inside though, wow!! An art installation was hanging. Red and blue ribbons hanging from the roof, along the length of the nave, fluttering gently with movements inside the building. There was a beautiful and very moving multi-faith AIDS chapel, a complex, contemplative labyrinth behind the pews and as it turns out, yoga is practiced regularly in the space. A really beautiful, peaceful place and I’m so glad we found it, actually very restorative after all the long days of travelling! We also saw a huge Masonic building/museum(?) unfortunately it was closed, so we only got to look through the windows. The cathedral and Masonic building weren’t far from our hotel, so we wandered back (thankfully it had stopped raining!) past a secret society meeting of the Bohemian Club grabbed some dinner at a diner, lemon chicken soup. Interesting but filling! Then had a flight of wine before catching a cab to the greyhound station for our overnight bus to LA.
Los Angeles: Day twenty one:
Arrived safely in LA after our remarkably comfortable overnight bus from San Francisco, straight into a waiting cab and to our hotel.
Arriving so early, we thought we’d have to leave our bags and wander the city, but amazingly we got to check in & were showed and in bed by 7am!! Amazing! Especially after a long bus trip! After a few hours kip, we had Breakfast and found our way to union station. We discovered the original Los Angeles, ate tacos and beans in a side alley (everybody spoke Spanish!), brought Mexican wrestling masks and little hand finished leather pouches for souvenirs.
From there we made our way to universal studios on route to Burbank and Warner bro studios. Had a great wander through the universal shopping strip, got some souvenir photos and had a beer in the Hard Rock Cafe.
Our adventure to the Warner bothers studio, and aim of seeing the Ellen show, ended up to be a bit of a wild goose chase, but we tried, just means we’ll have to go back to Ellen’s show to try again!
Just as we were coming to terms with not getting to see Ellen, it started to rain, we managed to duck into a tiny Italian cantina just in time for happy hour! A few wines and new friend later, it had stopped raining and we attempted to make our way back to our hotel. We took the “scenic tour” (long way) via a few local buses and a train before arriving back in the city to check out the walk of fame, Mann’s Chinese theatre with the famous hand prints out the front, the Dolby theatre and peered through the darkness up at the Hollywood sign in the distance.
Treated ourselves to a huge chocolate and ice cream Sundae at the famous Ghirardelli’s before catching the train back to our hotel with a quick I Hop dinner.
Los Angeles: Day twenty two:
Our last day! Enjoyed a slow breakfast and finished our packing. We had a great day long tour organised, that would finish in perfect time for us to get to the airport for our flight home, but 20 minutes before we were to be picked up, it was cancelled, eek! What to do? After our disappointment of missing out on seeing Ellen, we managed to book onto an afternoon tour at the Warner Brothers studio.
On the way there we found a great open top tour of LA. The tour took us along the beautiful, winding Mulholland drive, we saw LA from a great look out, saw the Hollywood sign, the Hollywood bowl and some fabulous houses. We went along Rodeo Drive (short, empty?!) saw a $2 million dollar Bugatti, went through a 5 way intersection in Beverly Hills, (the driver with the best insurance goes first!) through the Hollywood hills (saw where the opening scene of M*A*S*H was shot, saw famous homes (but none of their owners!) cruised along the sunset strip, saw the Viper room, the Go Go Club and the train carriage diner, where Elvis tipped a waitress with his car keys. At the end of the tour we were running behind so after being dropped near the Dolby theatre on Hollywood boulevard, we sprinted to the train station to make our way to Burbank in time for the Warner Brothers tour. So glad we made it. What a fantastic tour! We saw the studio where Big Bang Theory is filmed, all 4 batman cars (+1 bike)! A Harry Potter exhibition, we both got sorted by the sorting hat, such a strangely anxious experience!! Jack was sorted into Hufflepuff and I was sorted into Gryffindor. We saw Ellen’s parking spot and her studio offices, sat on the couch in Central Perk and Conan’s live studio. A brilliant tour, highly recommend!
Caught a bus and train back to our hotel, had our last plate of chicken and waffles for dinner at the iHop across the road from the hotel, grabbed a town car to the airport and caught our flight home.
We arrived home, relationship and sanity in tact. Thanks to all the amazing people we met on this trip.