California part 1

Greetings once again! This blog update comes fresh from mid-California where it is remarkably warm. Both Duncan and myself today were commenting on how we've never experienced an October where we were able to sit outside at 9pm in just shorts and tshirt. It's a far cry from the autumnal chill which we're accustomed to back home in Scotland. We last updated you from Los Angeles and were about to head head out into LA and visit some of the more touristy things. Well, it was a little bit of a let down. Thay day in LA experienced the most rainfall since 1916 according to the weather reports that evening. We went hunting for the giant Hollywood sign and we found it, but it's not really as big or exciting as I had it in my mind. Perhaps the rain dampened our overall experience. We went into the Hollywood district which we'd been informed isn't actually a particularly well-off or attractive area. There was a "black ho-down" as Duncan called it - a gathering of hip-hop enthusiasts crowding round a stage while the camera crews gee'd up the audience ready for the live performance of someone we had no idea who they were but was clearly quite well known. Driving round LA was fun as the bumpy roads and rain reminded us somewhat of home. We visited a few up-market areas round Beverly Hills and stared out the windows at shops we had no idea what they sold.

That evening we visited old church friends from Aberdeen who had just had a little baby girl, Agatha. It was fun to catch up with them and talk about all the strange oddities of American life that they've encountered in the last year they've been living here.

Thursday 7th October we headed for the Pacific Coast and Highway 1 up to San Francisco. We started in Santa Monica where we'd heard Baywatch was filmed. Sitting inactive in a car for 45 days causes you to lose any muscle tone you once had. Running on a Baywatch beach, nice white un-muscly bodies on show, we didn't exactly fit in, but it was fun anyway. Heading north along Highway 1 we really felt like this was the dream. We had been looking forward to this drive for months and it didn't let us down.

Cruising through Malibu with the windows down and the California beaches lapping the side of the roads was very enjoyable. We made it up to San Luis Obispo for the evening where we found a farmers market. Along the route we'd stopped in Santa Barbara for some seaside ice-cream. Camping here was easily the most expensive we'd found. However in the morning we headed down to Morro Bay and found a quaint little kayak store with rentals. We popped out into the estuary and floated alongside harbour seals intent on showing us how to truly relax - floating around on their backs, seemingly un-interested in us whilst still being fairly inquisitive.

Iris, who was running the shack, was the most Californian person we'd met - with the Southern Californian attitude of no-time-to-sit-around-and-relax, she couldn't have been more different - she told us about a little rock festival going on up the coast that we should visit. Sent away with the instructions of "dance with some hippy fairies for me" we thought we knew what Jade Rock Festival was about. Less of the musical rock and more of the geological jade rock greeted us. There were plenty of free-spirited individuals there and we listened to a fairly hill-billy rendition of Swing Low Sweet Chariot. Later in the afternoon we hit the milestone figure of 10,000 miles for the trip, midway along the Big Sur. There was a chill breeze in the air as we looked over the road down to the sandy shores below. Waves would crash on deserted beaches, while in others elephant seals would lie lazily soaking up the sun. The winding roads that hugged the shore would bring another great view each time we turned a corner. One such beach was inaccessible to tourists and while it seemed a great shame to leave it untouched, there was something about the great beauty of the pristine sand and the waterfall which crashed down and into the ocean.

That evening we stayed in Monterey, in a park, in the middle of the city - it was a proper campsite, but seemed a little odd - I can't imagine a campsite working in a park in the middle of a Scottish city. The following morning we drove round Pebble Beach before continuing up the coast to Santa Cruz where we unexpectedly met our soon-to-be host for the next few days. I'd been saying to Duncan all trip long that I wanted to bump into someone over here that I wasn't expecting to see. Alyssa had said she'd be at Santa Cruz but it was still a surprise to see her there. From there we drove north into San Francisco which by now was basking in the early evening. I'd been to San Francisco twice before when it was foggy and so had never seen the Golden Gate Bridge and now it was too dark to see all of it. Getting lost in a city which apparently doesn't allow left turns anywhere can be a source of annoyance on a busy Saturday night but we managed to find our way into Ripon where we were staying a few days.

Sunday in Ripon saw us being put to work with Crossroads Grace church, who had teamed up with 2 other local churches to get to work in the nearby town. Suited out in a lovely bright green tshirt, about 1,000 people of all ages set about to clean up the streets, weed plant beds, lay bark and do little odd-jobs in old folks homes. There was a mini-concert in the park afterwards as we both did our best to stay cool in the near 90 degree heat. Monday we headed into San Francisco to see it all by daylight. This was a big day as we dispelled our 2nd Californian myth - it never rains in LA; and, it's always misty in San Francisco. We took the trolley car down to the Wharf and walked all the way over the Golden Gate Bridge and back again. We took a big trek up Lombard Street - a widely photographed windy hilly street. It is a nice city, if a little odd and eccentric. It was also surprisingly warm for a coastal hub for foggy days.

That's you up to speed until Monday 11th October. More has happened since then, but tiredness catches up with you and the unfortunate necessity of re-typing the blogpost due in part to my near-philistine understanding of how to operate a Mac computer starts to irk, so the past couple of days will have to wait. The formatting is also pretty shady, so I hope it reads properly!