California, The Coast and San Fran

Well again you'll be getting 2 posts close together because we are slack and are having far to much fun!!!

LAX 

 We flew out of NYC bound for Los Angeles. The flight as always, for me, was terrible. The turbulence was horrible. It's such an irrational fear but for me it's terrifying. Any who we landed safely, as always, making our way to collect our van for our road trip around California. As we headed for Escape campers we kindly asked a shuttle bus driver if he would be dropping off any other customers close to our location. He kindly stated yes and gave us a ride.......to nowhere near where we needed to be. We then hailed a taxi, told him the address of our location and he then refused to take us as the fare was to little and distance to short. Our first experience of LA, what the hell is wrong with people and this place. We then called the campervan hire location and Rafael one of the workers there was kind enough to come and pick us up. We hired out Moby, our whale painted van and headed straight up the coast on Highway 1. On the way we passed Santa Monica and Malibu beaches and then started the more windy road of Highway 1 before making our first stop at El Captain State beach. We were hoping to watch the sun set on the west coast of California but unfortunately the fog/hayes that loomed over the water would not allow us. We set up camp and snuggled into the back of the car for our first night of camping.

Just outside of Malibu

Waking relatively early we ate breakfast, strolled around the small beach and then packed up the van for the journey to Big Sur. The coast road was amazing. It reminded us a lot of the Great Ocean Road between Melbourne and Adelaide. With cliff and coast that meets the ocean which is eroding away due to the constant crash of water against the earth. We had no real plans along the way apart from stopping at vista points to take photos of the scenery and to our (especially Andy's) amazement we stumbled upon one of USA's and North America's largest elephant seal populations. These animals are incredible. Although it was not peak season there were still hundreds of seals along the beach, with juvenile males practicing their fighting in and out of the water, before the larger more dominant males arrive in late September for breeding. We could of stayed there for ages just watching these animals doing what they do without any interruption from humans.

Male Elephant Seal

One section of the Elephant Seal Beach

Juvenile males fighting

Juvenile males in the water

We continued to drive up the coast and made our way towards Big Sur. However we continually struggled to find accommodation along the coast road with a lot of the RV parks and State beaches full. We finally made our way to a camp site, Big Sur Campgrounds and Cabins which was lovely but also a little on the pricey side at $55 for the night. If we had more time this would've been a nice campground to stay a little longer. It was right beside a nice little creek/river and not to far away from plenty of hiking trails.

Big Sur Coast

Big Sur Coast

Just outside of Big Sur

Big Sur Coast

Setting off the next day was much like the day before, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of the coast road. Not knowing where to stay along the way we drifted inland and found Henry Cowell Redwood State park just north of Santa Cruz. The states park is host to a centuries old Redwood Grove with some of the tallest trees in the world. The tallest tree in the park is 285 feet (87-88 meters) tall and around 16-18 feet (5-6 meters) wide. This was just a small portion of what we were going to be seeing in the Sequoia National Park and Forest yet it still amazed us. We left the camp site and hiked around the trail before heading back to camp, as some dark clouds were looming, we wanted to have dinner and be ready just in case the rain came. Not long after dinner the rain started, so we curled up in the van and got some sleep. We needed it cause the next day would be frustrating to say the least.

Giant Redwood

Redwood 

Part of the Redwood Grove Trail

Driving from Redwood grove we headed back towards the coast for some more of the windy roads of Highway 1 and hopefully not too long of a day before our intended stop at Half Moon Bay just south of San Francisco. We arrived in good time to Half Moon Bay and drove into a RV park asking for any available spots, Nope, full. So we headed to the next park and same scenario, full. What was going on, school holidays, no it wasn't that. Just that time of year were tourists and families seem to take holidays and enjoy the coast. We were having no luck finding any accommodation in or around Half Moon Bay so we made our way to San Francisco hoping to find something there. Everywhere we were checking was way out of our budget, at least $100 a night and the frustration was starting to build from both parties. This moment of the trip was testing the relationship for sure. Not knowing where we were going or where we might be staying that night we called Escape campers in San Fran who pointed out some places to stay on the Great Highway or down on the Marina. However the problem with this was if you get caught it's a $200 fine, money we really couldn't afford to lose. The frustration continued to build, and after a couple of arguments we made the decision to stop. Finding the ever trusting McDonalds for their free Wifi to collect our thoughts. We scanned over the internet and found an RV park close and after some deliberation, was our final choice of places to stay. Not too expensive and only a 20-30 min drive from Downtown San Fran. Candlestick park was our home for the next 3 nights whilst enjoying San Fran, and for those of you who are NFL fans the home ground for the San Francisco 49ers was right across the street, too bad it wasn't football season.

People kept on telling us that San Fran was the place to be although a tad windy. To test this theory we decided to head down to Baker Beach on the west coast of San Fran. Like any typical beach of course it was a little windy but nothing out of the ordinary. This particular area and beach were part of the Presidio, a military base from the founding of San Fran in 1812 until 1997. In 1904 it was fortified with several disappearing gun installations known as Battery Chamberlain, which one of the guns can still be seen today. This beach was nice to walk along and it also gave us a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Big Red crosses from San Fran to the north and a couple of days later we would have the pleasure of driving over another one of man's incredible structures. We walked along a few path's, drove around for a bit  and then headed down to the Pier area to browse. We parked the van at the escape campers location and sussed out something to eat. We stumbled across a joint called "The Codmother", a fish and chip shop from out the side of a van. Not a bad little joint but in my heart I would still say not as good as Australian fish and chips. Now onto Alcatraz. We had tried to order tickets online but it stated that nothing was available until mid July. Ah man. Decided to try our luck and scope out the ticket sellers along the pier but to no avail. Our hearts sank as this was going to be one of the highlights of our trip to San Fran. Visiting this amazing gaol which once held some of the most infamous criminals such as Al "Scarface" Capone and Robert "Birdman" Stroud. As we dawdled around the streets of the pier we got sucked into a vitality shop offering water massages. You laid in a cylinder and above you water spurted out of some jets onto your back moving up and down. It wasn't bad especially when we got buy one get one free but there is always a catch. It was a promotion for something similar to tense pads and other small massage equipment. We took the free massage and left the shop feeling somewhat relaxed. We made our way back to the RV park and sussed out some accommodation for the national parks. This was good as it put our minds at ease, instead of just turning up to the first in first served parks and hoping for a spot like what we experienced in the first few days along the coast. There will be more about that in a later post about the national parks.

Golden Gate Bridge

Andy Photo Pose

Together with Golden Gate

Golden Gate, It's not that Tall

The next day we went back towards the pier to see the famous street cars (Trams), Pier 39 and Lombard street which is known for it's hairpin style turns in the middle of a main stretch of road. We walked to Hyde street and began the hike up the hill. We could have taken the street cars up the hill but for a small fee we decided to use our free legs and just walk it. We made our way to the corner of Hyde and Lombard street and watched the jam packed street cars pass us by. Turning to the left there was Lombard street and all it's turns. Cars were constantly streaming through and navigating the turns and people who were not meant to be walking on the street itself. The side of the street was filled with hydrangeas and amazing apartments/houses and from the top of the street gave a great view of the ocean and of downtown San Fran. We made our way back down towards Pier 39 and stumbled across a Seal colony which is ever present here at the end of the pier. The seals frolicked about in the water constantly communicating with each other via loud barking noises. Our stomach's were feeling a bit hungry and where better to eat than "Bubba Gump Shrimp". This chain restaurant surprised us. The Garlic bread was so delicious and the fish and chips filled our bellies. Nom Nom Nom... During the course of our meal our server came to ask us questions regarding "Forest Gump" the movie. We (Andy) did pretty well accept for one question. How many Dr Peppers did Forest Drink before meeting the president? do you know? We continued to stroll around Pier 39 and then made our way to a sports bar near by to watch the Socceroos play Chile in the first game of the World Cup. A good game but disappointing for Australia with a 3-1 loss. Picking up the van from the car park we headed back to Candlestick park and sorted out the van for the next days travel to Sacramento.

Alcatraz, that's all we got to see of it

Bubba Gump Shrimp

Top of Hyde st with Street Car

Lombard st

Pier 39 Seals

SF Carousel on Pier 39

An early start we hit the road for another warm day of car travel. We had the pleasure of driving over the Golden gate bridge, past six flags somewhere along the way and finished in Sacramento where Manny Ray Gonzales and Nate would be our host for the next 3 nights. Stay tuned for the next edition of California, being Sacramento and the National Parks. Stay safe everyone

Peace Out

Andy and Maddie xx

New York New York

Well some of you will have already seen the photos from New York and know that we are so far behind in updating our blog. Time just runs away with us and we find ourselves now sitting in Sacramento, California on our road trip through Callie, as it's fondly known by locals.

New York holy god what a crazy city. Everyone has their own experience in New York and ours will be uniquely different. We stayed in Jersey City at another Air B&B this time our host was Etienne and our house mate, Amanda, a science writer from North Carolina. The arrival to our place was not the nicest one, the cab driver who picked us up from the cruise terminal kept saying that the neighbourhood we were staying in was dangerous and had a very large drug community. When we pulled up at the place, there were about 6 youths hanging around on the footpath outside a house and the taxi driver suggested that we stay elsewhere, that these youths had probably killed at least 10 people this month. Ok so at this point I was feeling a little nervous, no thanks to the news, movies and TV painting a picture of violence and murder. However the cab driver was so wrong. We were staying in a quiet multicultural neighbourhood with families everywhere and surprise surprise, no guns, violence or murders. Etienne made our stay so easy and helped us out whenever he could. Once again another awesome experience with Air B&B.

I can barely remember New York, it was such a busy week. Every day we made our way in to Manhattan using the light rail, then the PATH train and usually the subway or bus to get to our destination. We had all these intentions of doing so much but I don't think we realised just how spread out the city was and how much time was needed at each tourist destination. So lets start from day 1...

Day 1: We had pre purchased the New York Pass which gave us access to all of the main tourist attractions as well as loads of tours using all forms of transport for the fraction of the cost of what it would be if we went direct to the attraction. Very very good value for money. We started our day by going to the Empire State Building. The stories we heard about the race for the tallest building in New York are fascinating. There was a period of time where the Chrysler building and Bank of Manhattan building were in a race to build the tallest skyscraper however what the architects constructing these buildings were so caught up in this race they didn't realise that the Empire State Building was quickly catching up to this race. About a year after the Chrysler Building was declared the tallest building, the Empire State over took it by over 200ft. The Empire State Building remained the tallest building in the World from 1931-1972 when the World Trade Centre was completed. We walked around the viewing deck of the building and could see all of Manhattan from a 360 degree view. It is a lot bigger than we thought. We then wandered to Times Square, I kinda feel like Karl Pilkington from an Idiot Abroad, I wasn't blow away by Times Square. There was loads of road works and building going on everywhere that I feel it took away all its glory. We took some photos and found the M&M store to Andy's enjoyment. We went to Discovery Times Square to see the Body Worlds Expo. If any of you have not seen the works of Dr Gunther von Hagens, a German anatomist, you're missing out. Get on it! He's fascinating.    

Downtown from Empire State Building

Gunthers Horse

Times Square

M&M's Store

Day 2: We did our usual hour journey in to the city but we decided to get off a stop early and go to the World Trade Centre memorial pools and see the new One World Trade Centre building which is not yet complete. If any of you have been here you will know it is a somber affair. Seeing all the names of the victims of this tragic event etched in to the sides of the pools was heart breaking. The pools are the largest man made pools in North America and stand where the twin towers once stood. Around the outside they have the names of all the victims from all the attacks on September 11 and the WTC bombing in 1993 and represent the largest loss of life from a foreign attack on American soil. You get a real sense of coming together when you see fellow Americans there. We had a conversation about the attacks with an elderly couple on the cruise. They spoke about the true American spirit and the coming together of friends and families to help the victims families and assist in the clean up where the towers were. They said that although there was so much tragedy and sadness there was also courage and hope. 

WTC Pools

We then decided to walk up to collect our bus tickets that came with the New York Pass but unfortunately the office was closed so we had a chat with a bus tour guy and he allowed us to get on for the ride back to Times Square. Gotta love free stuff but we were very grateful we didn't have to walk or spend money and the guide was extremely knowledgable about the city. Etionne said on our first day that some how New York will suck your money out of you and most of the time you don't even realise. It was getting late so we decided to head back across to NJ to grab some dinner. It was possibly the worst meal we've had in NY and it was a bit expensive. So disappointed! We walked along the NJ water front for about an hour or so and took some amazing shots of downtown NY as the sun was setting. Its such a different city at night.

Lower Manhattan

Lower Manhattan 

Night Shot of Lower Manhattan

Day 3: We begun our day by hopping on a water taxi which took us from Battery Park near Wall St, passing Brooklyn bridge, then the Lady of Liberty and Ellis Island finally going to uptown NY and back to Battery Park. The guide was excellent and we learned so much about the city. We walked to the financial district and Andy had a photo with the golden bull which is said to bring you luck especially if you grab him by the balls. We wandered down wall street to catch a glimpse of the Stock exchange building and to enquire about hiring bikes for the afternoon. We were advised to spend a day on the bikes that a couple of hours wouldn’t be enough. We went in search of some lunch and stumble upon a little area that was all constructed from shipping containers. Shops, bars, boutiques and galleries. I could've wandered around for hours. We were chatting to a girl in a vintage clothing shop and asked her where we could grab a good bite, she recommended a pub around the corner. It would've been nice if we had the money but we did find a cheap tickets venue and bought tickets to see a show. We decided to see Once, my brother Jethro recommended it. We would've loved to have seen some big shows but again had we had the money NY would've been so different for us. We got 50% off the tickets which was a bargain. More about the show later. We went and found a whole bunch of food vans close by providing us with some delicious options. We settled on a kebab platter and one is always enough to feed us both. With full bellies we thought we’d catch the subway to Times Square again to look at some shops in particular Toys’R’Us. What a fun store. It had a small ferriswheel in it. The lego section was, excuse my french, fucking amazing! There was everything for big kids and little kids. We could've spent so much money in here. If only we had the space… oh and money hehe :) We grabbed a bite to eat before going to the show. Once was brilliant. It was a love story about a musician with a broken heart and a woman who befriended him who also had a broken heart, was still married and had a child. They developed a lovely friendship based around their passion for song and music. Every character on stage sung and played an instrument. All the characters stayed on stage at all times during the show and the set was minimal. The music was so awesome and the performances by the actors was impeccable. We were glad this was the show we saw. We ventured home very late and very weary.

Brooklyn Bridge

Shipping Container District

Statue of Liberty

Lady of Liberty

Wall st Bull

Wall st

Day 4: Rest day. Well earned I feel. We slept in and went for a walk around the neighbourhood. We booked flights home! Yep we have a date set for our return. It was a bit sad really. As much as we miss home and everyone at home we wish we could continue travelling. We also booked our flights to Mexico City. We will be meeting Bec Bec, a friend from Tassie, and travelling south with her. Very excited. 

Day 5: Heading in to Manhattan early we jumped on a north city tour bus which would take us to the American Museum of Natural History. We could have spent hours upon hours wandering around this place... It is Massive!! I particularly enjoyed the dinosaurs and I think Andy's highlight was probably seeing the Easter Island statue that features in the movie A Night at the Museum and is famous for saying "You dumb dumb, Gimme gum gum". The little things in life :) We came out of the Museum right on closing took one look at the sky. The heavens were about to open up a can on our sorry arses. We managed to jump on the subway in the knick of time. It's amazing to see that no matter what happens in NYC someone is always selling something for that moment in time. So one moment it's sunny and a guy on the street will be selling sunnies but in a moment it can start raining and that same guy is now selling umbrellas. Never in my life have I witnessed this.

Dumb Dumb, you give me Gum Gum

T-Rex

Day 6: So we decided to hire bikes and take advantage of the numerous bike paths around the city. I really didn't think it would take as long as it did. Once again NYC deceived us. Setting the pace, I lead us through the chaos over the Brooklyn Bridge, once on the Brooklyn side we grabbed some ice cream and a quick drink. We rode to Williamsburg Bridge and back over to NYC. We were happily riding along the bike path on 1st Av, it's busy Friday arvo traffic, people wanting to escape the city for the weekend. In the corner of my eye I saw a cyclist, with no helmet, crossing an intersection on a red light in to oncoming traffic. My thoughts at this moment.... HOLY FUCK THIS GUY IS TOAST!!! We've not really had to put our nurse hats on to many times on this trip but thought this may be an occasion where we would be needed. This guy was so fortunate. He had a bit of bark off and his bike was scrap metal but thankfully he was in one piece. The driver that hit the cyclist on the other hand was extremely shaken up. An elderly gent minding his own business on his way home. He thought he'd run the guy over. Andy and I turned our attention to the driver once the paramedics turned up. The shittiest thing about this whole scenario is that even though the cyclist was at fault in this instance it is still the fault of the driver. The paramedic was telling us that a person could jump out of a tree on to your car and it would still be the drivers fault. What the? So we hung around to make a statement to the police and keep the poor old chap company. He was very grateful we were there. Finally we went on our way and headed for Central Park (which I kept calling Stanley Park). We rode around for about one and a half hours. taking it in. What an amazing place to have right in the middle of the most chaotic city in the world. A little piece of heaven. To sneak away on a lunch break or go for a run after work, play with the kids or have a snooze. Whatever it may be what a awesome place to be. By this stage we had been on the bike for about 5 hours and were pretty tired and sore. We returned the bikes and decided to check out Grand Central Station (Terminus). Very tired and not paying to much attention we got on the wrong subway train which was bound for Brooklyn, Whoops! We jumped off at the next stop and the info lady was kind enough to let us go out and back on to the right platform. Now its peak hour at this point so we squish on to the train and hold on tight for the next 15 mins. Getting off at Grand Central during rush hour is something that everyone visiting NYC should experience. There is no way to describe it. The station itself is an eye saw! Such beautiful architecture and history. But to see the continuous flow of human traffic is phenomenal. I love people watching and what a place to do it. hours of entertainment.

Central Park Boating

Central Park Lake

Central Park

Grand Central Station Clock

Grand Central Station

New York Streets

Sunset in Lower Manhattan

Well that about does it for NYC. It's in a nutshell and I'm sure I have missed so much out. I'm not very good at writing. but I do hope those who read our blog are enjoying what we write about. We both agree that if we were to do NYC again we would stay closer to Manhattan and we would do it with a few more $$ in the bank

We hope you are all well. We miss everyone

Peace out  

USA Bound

An early morning start and we headed to the Montreal train station bound for the USA. Our first stop being New York, but more importantly our cruise for the next 10 days. After around 3-4 hours on the train we arrived at the border of the USA where we were greeted by Border Security for Passport checks etc. We were going to be fine of course however the guards still managed to make us feel a little nervous although we had nothing to be nervous about. Mind you the Border Security guys are pretty intimidating which of course is their job. After paying our fee into the country and being cleared we were now officially in the United States of America. The train journey took around 10 hours rushing through the country side of New York State before finally arriving at Penn Station Manhattan. We managed to navigate the crazy subway system to get to our hotel in New Jersey.

Waking up hoping to see a clear day for sailing we were a little disappointed to see a blanket of smog or fog or whatever it seemed to be blocking our view of New York. We made our way to Cape Liberty via taxi and driving into the port there was our glorious vessel for the next 10 days, The Explorer of the Seas. Wow was all I could say, at the start, to marvel at such a huge ship. Like aviation I often wonder how such big aircraft fly in the sky, this huge vessel made me wonder how does one construct this to make it float, whilst at the same time thinking who cares, I am going on a huge cruise ship and how much fun it was going to be.

We dropped off our bags and headed onto the ship. We stepped aboard and made our way to our cabin before exploring the ship. Plenty of things to do on the ship as we strolled around including basketball, soccer and volleyball court, Casino, Ice skating rink, Bars galore, Theatre, Movie screen, Arcade, Putt Putt golf, relaxing by the pool, a gym and spa, restaurants and plenty of Jacuzzi's. We set out from New Jersey Port and hopeful of seeing a glimpse of New York City but to no avail due to the humidity and the fog/smog that loomed around the city. Our first stop was to be Bermuda, but first we had a day and half on the water.

Maddie and the town Cryer

Main Street of Hamilton

Us and Our Ship

Deck 5

We spent the next day on the water and we explored the boat some more before just taking the time to relax after being on the road for around 3 weeks and then arriving in Bermuda the following day.
The boat docked around 8am and after breakfast we headed off the boat and onto a ferry from Bermuda Dockyard across to Hamilton (The capital of Bermuda). A small and colourful city we strolled around before heading back across to the dockyard and back onto the boat. In the case of Bermuda and the other islands we were about to arrive at it would have been nice to have more than just the one day to explore these areas. It just didn't feel like enough time to see the culture of some of these places. We headed back out to sea for a full day on the water before arriving in Philipsburg, St. Maarten.

Here we jumped onto a bus for an excursion which included kayaking and snorkelling. We were dropped off at Pelican Beach and headed out into the water on a two man kayak, making our way around a rock wall and onto Flamingo beach for 1 hour of snorkelling. A small reef with small pieces of ship wrecks lying on the bottom was there to explore as well as some fish life. Of note we saw our first dragon fish and even got to swim with a sea turtle, that was cool. The weather once again did not bless us and it rained whilst snorkelling and was overcast most of the day so the colours of the coral, water and fish were not on full display. We headed back to Pelican Beach for a finishing beverage before heading back on board and next stop, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Sunset of St Maarten

Sea Turtle 

Puerto Rico, or officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is the 51st state of the USA, however if living in Puerto Rico you are unable to vote as an American citizen unless you move to the mainland USA. We arrived early and no shops were yet to open so we walked around the inner city and made our way to Castillo San Felipe del Morro the 16th century citadel. Similar to that of the Citadel in Quebec city this particular Citadel had both structures from the spanish era of the 16th Century and that of the 20th Century from WW2. Once again only another short stay gave us enough time to stroll around the city of San Juan taking in some of the spanish culture before boarding the boat and heading to Haiti.

Bang Bang

Crazy Cat Lady

Citadel

Citadel from the ship

San Juan

Archway of trees along a walkway

Streets of San Juan

Coast of San Juan

After spending the night on the water we arrived in Labadee, Haiti. We thought we were going to see another city, on another island and we were a little disappointed when we arrived at a private beach owned by Royal Carribean. It was nice to sit on the beach all day but we did want to see Haiti and it's culture but we were also advised that it would not be a great idea to venture into the main city. After spending the day on the beach and soaking up some much needed sun we headed back to the ship for the return journey to New York.

The cruise enabled us time to recharge our batteries a little and in between stops we had the pleasure of meeting some lovely people from around the globe. In particular Peter and Maree from Johannesburg, and Steve and Jen from Long Island. We spent most of our mornings enjoying breakfast with Peter and Maree and the last few nights dinner with Steve and Jen.

A night out 

Towel Dog

Our wonderful and talented room attendant, Joseph from Haiti. Every day he would fold a towel animal for us. It made coming back to our room that little more exciting. He certainly knows how to make extra tips. He was a vey lovely guy and it was a pleasure to meet him.
 

Towel Elephant

Towel Monkey

Sunset on Deck 5

Sunset

The days on the ship were spent relaxing by the pool and sitting on the deck whilst enjoying some of the onboard activities. We played Putt Putt a few times, shot some hoops on the basketball court, had cocktails on the 14th floor bar, played arcade games, went to an ice skating show, game shows of a night time, shuffle board on the deck and even learned how to play craps in the casino. Probably not the smartest idea in the world to learn another gambling game but rolling the dice was fun, except when you lose.

So that was our cruise adventure. A nice experience and glad we had time to relax before hitting the road for 4 months.

Hope everyone is keeping well

Peace Out
Andy and Maddie