Day 28 - Redwood

The Redwoods are native only to northern California because of the particular climate there. Temperate with little variation between summer and winter, and nightly fogs during the summer which keeps the area humid. Millions of years ago, woods like these could be found all over the world, but with the gradual lowering (yes, lowering - despite the climate changes in modern day, it's still cooler now than when we had dinosaurs!) of the temperature, this is the only area in which they now grow.

That doesn't mean they all grow in one spot! The national park focuses on hikers, and not drivers, so some the really good spots (including the world's biggest tree) can only be reached by hiking quite far on foot. We opted for one of the shorter routes, a walk just under one hour where we saw some great scenery and of course, huge trees:



To give a little perspective, here's a shot of Mattias next to the biggest tree we saw today, and one of the biggest in the forest. It wasn't actually dramatically bigger than some of the others we saw!


This tree is about 100 meters high, 7 meters in diameter at the base, and 1500 years old!

We saw some elks, but having seen enough moose, deer and reindeer in Sweden, we weren't too impressed. They seemed mostly domesticated as well and grazed without a care right next to people taking pictures. No, I much prefer this little squirrel:


After leaving the national forest, we set off east and slowly homebound! In this rather remote part of the state, there were no big roads going east, so we took yet another mountainous route. And what mountains! Steep climbs and hillsides covered with lush fir trees as far as the eye could see. There was little to no traffic and we took our time as the road wound through the mountains. We went alongside the Trinity river for a long time, along the bottom of a great valley. It made us think of a mix of Twin Peaks, old gold rush movies and Stand By Me. Absolutely beautiful!


Pretty sunset over the last of the hills before the country flattened out again.


Tomorrow we're going into Nevada again, and then on to Utah and Salt Lake City where we hope to get a glimpse of mormons.

Sleepytime!

Time for an update!

So, it's been a couple of days since last time guys! The night before last, we had problems getting a connection in our hotel, and yesterday we went to a late night showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince so we didn't come back to the inn until well after midnight and I was too tired to even look through the pictures.

A note on HP6... I'd give the film 4/10. Plus points for being quite truthful to the book in some respects, and for increasing that dark, ominous feeling that's been building up over the last couple of films. A HUGE minus for completely disregarding some vital stuff from the previous films. If you want to make a film adaptation that differs from the book, at least stick to the story throughout the films themselves!

Anyway, our experience was somewhere between hilarious and unbearable thanks to a man a couple of rows down who promptly fell asleep 5 minutes into the film and kept snoring extremely loudly through the whole show. Whenever there was a quiet (and therefore usually tense or emotional moment) bit in the film, the whole screen kept giggling and sighing at this guy. Several people went up to him (and his wife) and complained but nothing seemed to help. We'd heard that American audiences were a lot more noisy than Swedish ones, but this wasn't what we'd expected :)

Right, over the last couple of days, we've been travelling up the California coast. On Friday, we made our way slowly out of L.A. After an hour or two of suburbs, the country turned rather pleasant, this being the southern wine country of California. The road wound on through grape fields and sunny hills and we felt glad to be out of the city. We spent the night in the cute town of San Luis Obispo (the one without the internet connection). A few miles away lay the seaside town of Avila Beach, where we bought cheap, locally grown strawberries from a street market and watched the kids boogieboarding in the evening sun and surf. Avila had a long, lovely pier, and the walk to the end was well worth it, because we got to see some wild seals!


They were frolicking around the waves by the pier, no doubt hoping for food scraps from the people watching them. Unfortunately we didn't have any fish on us, but we got some good pictures all the same.

Yesterday morning we set off on Route 1 - the Pacific Coast Highway and the old main road before the inland interstate routes were built. One of the reputedly most scenic routes in the country, the road takes you right along the stretch of coast known as Big Sur. Through the early hours, the hills were covered with morning fog, and for a while we thought our entire drive would look something like this:


While the scenery was nice enough, foggy or not, we were very happy when it cleared up for the very best bits of the route. Here's a couple of pictures from a lookout point along the road. I think they give a pretty good idea of what most of the coast there is like:



The day was one of the nicest on the trip so far, and we have tons more pictures of this pretty area.

We arrived in San Francisco around 7PM, and because we were tired from all the driving, we just had dinner and went to the cinema.

Now, San Francisco... We really don't feel we did this place justice. It looks like a gorgeous city, and it had a cool feel to it, but we had too little time, and the wrong kind of time.

We'd read in the guide book about a 'scenic drive through the city' which sounded good. We've since come to the conclusion that the authors of these guide books don't actually travel anywhere themselves, they just sit on their fat arses and throw together some shit they found on the net along with some stock photography and laugh all the way to the bank.

This scenic route was supposedly 'well marked out' by some kind of sign with a bird on it. On our 1 hour drive, we saw a total of ONE of these signs. Secondly, there was some kind of sporting event going on, and half the streets were closed off and the traffic was horrendous. Also, you drive along the same roads as the trams, which added to the stress. While Mattias was completely absorbed in the traffic, I was doing my best to read the map, with the result that none of us saw any of the points of interest on the route. We did see the Opera House and something else that was big and white nearby, but the thought of stopping to take pictures, in the middle of all this traffic with absolutely no parking spots... No. Just no.

We eventually left the route for some quiet side streets and did some fun/scary driving on those extremely steep streets that San Francisco is so famous for. We had to take it really slow to not literally scratch the front of the car when we crossed a street (obviously the streets are like steps, because the streets crossing them have to lie flat as well!), coming from that kind of angle. Sadly, I was too busy digging my heels into the carpet and holding on to my handle to get any good pics :)

Eventually, we ended up in a large park area overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, downtown and the Alcatraz prison island. It was calm and pleasant there, and we had lunch in a cozy little park café and watched the people of San Francisco being all recreational on their day off. At last, I could get my camera out!

Downtown S.F. Note the steep streets!


Alcatraz island:

Golden Gate Bridge:


Look at those low clouds! If that wasn't the Pacific Ocean underneath you might think this was high up.

We left the city behind, promising to return sometime and really spend some time there. However, the rest of the day wasn't bad either!

We hadn't booked a hotel, which was good because we ended up driving much further than we thought we would. Route 101 took us through Napa Valley and the real wine country, and into the mountains and a taste of the Redwoods. The road was so beautiful, smooth and empty it was pure joy driving. Most of the woods were pine and leafy, but here and there we saw some Redwood trees. Look at the car in this picture, and compare it to the tree next to it. We think this is probably a tiny example of a Redwood tree :)


Have a look at this:


You might ask yourself, what is that big SUV doing driving so close to that bus? Actually, this is something we see every day when driving. It's an RV (recreational vehicle, a camping truck, husbil) truck pulling the family car along. Yes, they actually tow their big fat cars so that they can use them for shorter trips while camping and sleeping in that big old camping truck. It's crazy! Also, they completely ignore any towing/truck rules on the freeway and speed along at 65mph/110kmh with the car bumping along behind it!

Just as the sun started to set, we reached the coastal areas again after driving through the inland forests all evening. Our first hint of that was once again those low clouds:


Now we're in a very comfortable inn in Eureka, and tomorrow we're off to the actual Redwood Forest National Park to have a look at the world's largest tree. We'll see if it fits in a picture at all :)

Until then.

Day 24 - Universal Studios, L.A., California

Today was devoted to exploring the Universal Studios theme park. Located just outside the city center of L.A., the park is nestled between Universal City (where all sorts of merchandise and food can be found) and the actual sets themselves.


What then would be more fittingly than to take a tour "behind the scenes" in Hollywood. The first ride we went on was a mix between a ride (with collapsing bridges and subway stations, and an immersion of the train into water), a sneak peek of active sets (Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives) and a tour of old sets. Here's a shot of Bates' Motel from Hitchcock's Pshyco :)


They had a Norman sneaking around, putting a body in the trunk of the car and threatening the crowd with a knife. Below is a part of the set of Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds:


As you can see, they destroyed an entire jumbo jet (not to mention many, many cars...) to make things extra realistic.

The park was just the right size and level of excitement for us. Less kids than at Disney, of course, and the rides were a bit scarier and more fun. We took the Jurassic Park flume ride and somehow managed to sit in the seats that took the entire splash of the 84ft (25m) plunge at the end. We weren't dry until hours afterwards!

The Mummy rollercoaster was an extremely thrilling and fast ride that left us breathless. Onward then to the less dramatic but still cool shows of pyrotechnics from the firefighter movie Backdraft, and a slightly silly tour of the special effects set.

After a surprisingly healthy and good meal, we queued up to watch the live show Waterworld, inspired by the movie. The film may not be Oscar material, but the show was certainly nothing short of awesome with a mix of big water splashes and explosions. The guy who was playing the part of Kevin Costner actually looked a lot like him too! Here's the bad guy falling burning off a tower:


Big bada boom at the grand finale:


We rounded off our 7 hour visit with Terminator 2: 3D and Shrek 4D (including moving seats, more water splashing and an uncanny illusion of spiders running over your feet!). While these shows were obviously made specifically to boast 3D effects, they left me thinking that the future of films is not in spectacles.

Anyone who knows anything about film history will be familiar with the many failed attempts of adding extra dimensions to movies. There have been experiments with scented cinema (look up Smell-O-Vision if you don't believe me), super wide screens and of course 3D itself which first appeared in the 50's when movie creators would go to any lengths to win back their audience from the television sets. So far, 3D has always fallen flat after a couple of years every time it's resurfaced. I'm hoping that this time around won't be an exception.

To me, going to the cinema is viewing a good film in the setting it was intended to be seen in. To me, it's the difference between seeing a band live on stage, and hearing it on an old cassette tape. Bearing that in mind, I never wanted a band to jump down to me in the audience and start poking me with their instruments, and I don't want to smell their breath. I need the perfect blend of a dark, quiet room, a comfortable seat and a large screen to be able to reach that cinematic Nirvana where you're completely absorbed in the movie, whether it be with its story, the acting, or simply the pictures in front of me. With a 3D movie, it's all about the spectacle, and it becomes a sort of interruption with a pause where you're meant to 'ooh' and 'aah'.

Today was a fantastic, fun spectacle which is just what you need sometimes, but I'm certainly hoping that the future of cinema will honour other virtues of film :)

(Anyone need essays written on the topic of the future of cinema are welcome to send cheques, 50€/page is a reasonable price, no?)

Day 23 - L.A., California

Another day mostly spent in the car.

Even though we waited until 11am to move onto the freeway, it took us far too long to get to our first stop of the day: the beach. The city of L.A. turns into the city of Santa Monica before reaching the ocean, and the Santa Monica beach is every bit as lovely as it looks in Baywatch. Unfortunately, Pammy seemed to be off duty and we had to make do with a slightly overweight, balding guy for a lifeguard. Have a look at this beach though:


Don't you wish you were here? It wasn't crowded at all, and the sea was soothingly cool and the air was warm with a breeze. Just below sweaty hot and one hundered per cent perfect.

We had the best hamburger so far (and we admit, we've had a few) at the lovely Mary's on Santa Monica blv. The place was gay friendly and really cool. Mattias reported disco balls and ABBA music in the men's room, and our check came in a silver stiletto shoe :D

From there on, the day started going slightly downhills. We took a little spin around the blocks trying to find a parking spot near the Hollywood walk of fame (the stars, you know) and just as we went over a crossing, a man who had parked right on the corner flung his door open and we slammed into it. Miraculously, his car was perfectly fine, and I think we were more worried about him making a fuss than what happened with our car. At least a life of lawsuits flashed before my eyes when I heard the horrible noise of car against car.

Anyway, our little darling now has her first beauty spot, a cute little dent just behind the right hand headlights. To be honest, with some of the city driving that goes on here, we're surprised it hadn't happened before. Nearly all cars have scratches and bumps here. And not to worry, we went for the extended insurance which covers this sort of damage.

A little shaken, we started off down the walk of fame, in what we realised 15 minutes later was the "wrong" direction. After many blocks of "who the hell is this, the most famous person we've seen so far is Drew Carey..." the stars ended and we had to walk back to where we started. Only about a block away in the other direction were the real stars, and the famous slabs of concrete with hand- and footprints on them. After comparing hand sizes with 50's movie stars ("my god my hands are massive!"), we stumbled across Michael Jackson's star:


People were crowding about it, taking pictures and putting down little tokens of love. Apparently it was completely mental there the days after his death.

Our final sight for the day was Mulholland drive. It's not only a pretty poor David Lynch movie, but a very attractive address housing people like Jack Nicholson and Paris Hilton. It's a long, windy road up in the Hollywood hills, streching over into Bel Air. There are lots of scenic views and surprisingly enough plenty of parking spaces. The views themselves were lovely, the driving was mad. People zoomed around in their huge SUVs that took up all of their lane and half of ours, at twice the speed limit, alongside sheer drops that made me feel faint and hold on tightly to my comfort handle.

Here's a view of downtown L.A. from Mulholland drive:


The famous Hollywood sign:


Sunset over Mulholland drive:


Tomorrow we're going to Universal Stuidos. I'm not sure how much of a photo opportunity it is, but if I see something cool, I'll snap away.

Later, dudes.

Quick note from L.A.

We're checked in to our inn on the outskirts of L.A. It's hard to actually say where the city begins, because the suburbs are made up of lots of small cities that have grown together, but at least it says 'Los Angeles east' on the map where we live. It's about 10 miles (16 km) from downtown and Hollywood, and as we found out, that means an hour on the highway in rush hour...

The traffic here is truly terrible. Still, there's hardly any other option than to drive. The city is huge, and even though they have a subway system, a lot of people who LIVE here don't even know it exists. We've decided to give that a miss - we've heard it's not the safest of places.

"The L.A. tube can be very fatal
Somehow we forget to pray to the angels
And the angels make sure that our hearts are devoured
Make us jump from the Eiffel Tower"

(At least that's how I think the song goes)

We checked into the inn and almost immediately left for downtown and Santa Monica where I have a guitar case waiting to be picked up (especially ordered for dad - it's for a 3/4 size acoustic guitar which would be near enough impossible to find in Sweden). At 4.50PM we thought we had plenty of time to reach the shop. At exactly 6PM we rushed up to the store only to find it closed minutes earlier. It took us literally an hour! This was rush hour though, so we'll try to travel outside of those times tomorrow.

We're here for three nights, so we have two full days to explore the sights. One day will be spent at Universal Studios (they have a theme park) and the other we'll see the Hollywood sign, Santa Monica Beach, the Walk of Fame and all the other must-see stuff. Not sure what we'll do first though :)

We have free internet again though, yay!

I'm sure there'll be more here tomorrow, and pics too.

PS. The weather here is lovely! On the Nevada/California border and through the Mojave Desert it was once again around 42C, but down here by the coast the thermometer hovered around a pleasant 30C in the hottest hours, and what felt like around 22-25C once the sun had set. Perfect!