West Coast Craziness Day 1 & 2 - Travel/SF/Ave of Giants

seobaina

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 4, 2006
Hi all

Well, I've been back a few weeks so I guess I should start writing up this triprep whilst I can still remember.

For an intro please go here:
Intro

I shall start by saying that I completely failed to take any photos on the first day. VERY unlike me but it was just a travelling day so I suppose it's not too bad a thing. It's also why I'm combing day 1 and 2 though.

So the morning started nice and early for me with a trip to the airport at 7am. I was due to meet Andy at 8am and, as it happens, traffic was great so we were there in plenty of time.

Having met with Andy we headed to the USA always desk. We'd checked-in online so we got through very quickly. What was slightly freaky was that the woman on security looked at our passports and said "oh I remember you guys, going away together again huh?'. We looked at each other a little freaked but I guess you don't get many people travelling together who share a birthday but are not twins *shrug*.

Anyway, we got through quickly, boarded the plane (we were sat near the wing) and had a very smooth flight. I like US Airways because they try to avoid turbulence, and I'm terrified of turbulence. They (apparently) will fly higher to avoid it. Certainly we didn't really have any. Smooth flight. As a nervous flyer I preempt and take tablets so I attempted to watch Hitchcock but kept falling asleep. What I saw was very, very good.

We landed in Philadelphia and it took a little while to get through immigration but not too bad. They opened up the USA ones when the line for non US citizens became way too long. Anyway, we grabbed some lunch, shopped a little then boarded the next plane to San Fran.

Best thing we did whilst waiting was buy some travel pillows. They were on offer at 2 for $22 which we though was ok cause they are very comfy. I'm so glad we did it because there is no entertainment on the internal 6 hour flights and I was soooo tired. I'd only had 2 hours sleep the night before (last minute printing, sorting etc). I slept for the first 2 hours but then the next four DRAAAAGGGEED! I couldn't get comfy and I was bored, etc. Andy gave me his iPad with the new Disney animation app, which did entertain me for a while, and I read for a while. I think we'd both just got to that restless point though.

Again it was a smooth flight, with just one random bump, and we landed ahead of time. The baggage, however, took ages to come off so by the time we got our bags we were back on the original schedule.

Having taken the air train to the Alamo desk we were relieved that the line in front of us was only 2 people long. I'd used the Brit Alamo link so nearly everything was included. I was very glad Andy was with me though cause the guy behind the desk was desperate to sell us the last insurance. He tried every trick he could to freak me out and in my sleepy state he actually started to succeed. In fact, he did succeed cause I carried the doubt with me for days. Anyway, Andy luckily stood by our initial decision and stood up to the guy and we walked away with our original deal.

We got to the garage and the woman looked at our booking, shrugged and said, take the silver one just over there. I'm sure we were upgraded for free cause we had booked an economy car and this car was not economy. It was just all on it's own in the section but I didn't see which section it was. I think she just figured she'd send that one out and clear the area.

I LOVED our car (well my car ;)). It was comfortable, easy to drive, quick to respond. Loved it! The journey to our hotel (the El Camino Inn, Daly City) was only 15 mins but it feels longer when you're tired and don't know where you are going. We did eventually find it and the hotel was lovely.

I should probably say motel. It wasn't luxurious but it was clean, roomie and the staff were friendly and helpful. The only downside I'd say is that it didn't have air con so we got pretty hot during the night. Our room had a queen bed and a single.

After a slight trauma where Andy found his skin toner had leaked all over his sponge bag :rotfl2: we got to bed about 24 hours after we'd met at the airport. Long day but successful.

Day two coming up.....
 
So Day 2 started early as we wanted to get going. It was about 8am when we checked out but we felt pretty good, having got to bed west coast time by midnight. Andy had a little jetlag but not too bad and I felt fine (I normally get it coming home). The weather was overcast and it had been raining (so much for sunny California) but we were on holiday so we didn't care.

This was our motel:

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And my gorgeous car (a Hyundi):

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We drove straight to a local Target. The idea was that we would get some snacks for the car but we were in there an hour. Best thing... the escalator for trolleys, we loved it lol. We also bought a TON of sweets to take home and, in my case, some dog and cat treats for my furbabies.

At the check out the lady looked at us and asked if we had chocolate or rather m&ms in England. To be fair it was a reasonable question as I'd bought about $30 of m&ms and hersey caramel kisses, and Andy had $50 of candy :blush:. We tried to explain that we did but we didn't do those flavours or Halloween specials. I think we could have bought more but we were pacing ourselves ;) .

With the car full of snacks (we did buy drink, pringles and fruit too) we grabbed a starbucks before heading out. This made Andy VERY happy because they'd already started the Pumpkin Spice Latte there, weeks before we do in the UK.

We then drove through San Fran to the Golden Gate Bridge. I got slightly irritated by other drivers here because it's only a 15 minute park (where we were) and people could see we were trying to park but they'd sit in their cars having a chat, eating etc :angry: . Finally we got a space and went to see the bridge.

There was quite a bit of sea fog but it added to the mystique.

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Andy looks superimposed on this picture, which started off a running joke for the holiday where I'd actually only pretended that Andy had come with me.

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I love San Fran so even though it was overcast we were both thrilled to be there. And it was still hot.

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Having shopped and bought Ponchos, just in case, we drove over the bridge. There was no charge as we were travelling out of the city :grin:

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We decided to stop on the other side of the bridge too and it was much sunnier on this side. I let Andy out as it was very busy and he went to take photos. Ironically, however, I found a parking space right next to where he'd walked too :)

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By now it had turned into a gorgeous day.

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Our plan that day was to head straight up to the Avenue of Giants. That meant we didn't have a lot of time to spare but we decided to stop in Sausalito to take some pictures and get another Starbucks. We knew we had a four hour drive to the next 'stop' on our plan so we thought the coffee would be a good idea. We ended up spending an hour in the little town.

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At the Starbucks we got talking to a couple from Seattle who were on a cruise ship tour. The woman worked for Starbucks so she and Andy had a long chat :)

We then wandered around the shops. I bought some postcards. Andy bought a Tintin statue and the world's smallest duck :d: By the time we'd wandered around we'd finished the starbucks drinks but oh well. It is a lovely little town/village.

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Having stretched our legs we got back on the road, heading north to the Avenue of Giants. Whilst travelling I finally remembered we hadn't written down our starting milage, so we took a photo. It's not quite our starting milage but it's not too far off it:

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Three to four hours later we arrived at our first stop within the redwoods; the drive-through tree. It's about $5 per car to get into this small park but it's fun and an experience.

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I drove through it and Andy filmed everything. I don't have a picture of us driving though cause obviously we didn't have enough hands but you can get the idea of the size from these pics:

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The area is beautiful too

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From here we headed down through the Avenue of Giants. It wasn't very successful because 5 miles in the road was closed :( so we only managed to drive part way along before we had to head back to the interstate :(

You can see, however, why Spielberg took references from this place for Jurassic Park. It is beautiful and I hope to go back sometime.

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A couple of hours later we reached the coast again and we stopped at Carson Mansion.

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You can't go inside the mansion (I think it's an exclusive club) but we wanted to see it because it has influenced the look of haunted houses in so many movies. It is also the influence for the clock tower at the station in Disneyland.

We drove up the coast for a little bit before stopping for dinner. We knew we had about 4 hours drive to go before Grants Pass so we figured we'd stop about half way. The coast is a gorgeous drive.

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This was a really long driving day but we knew we'd have a few of those if we wanted to get everything in, so we were prepared.

Just before sunset we found this gorgeous beach at Redwood Creek. The only people who were around were a couple of surfers packing up for the night.

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It was just stunning with lovely beacj one side of the road and a lagoon on the other. So picturesque.

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We headed on to Crescent City where we planned to stop. It was getting dark the whole time and the sun had set by the time we reached the city itself.

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In Crescent City, Andy decided he wanted to try Dennys for the first time. We love Dennys and it became a staple stopping place because we knew it would be open and not expensive. Turning into the Dennys I did have a heart attack because they had a steep slopping drive and my car went CLUNK very loudly and bounced us. I thought I'd killed the car but we got away with some scrapping on the underside - luckily no dents etc.

After eating and checking that there wasn't a pool of oil under the car, we drove on for 2 hours to Grants Pass. Andy fell asleep in the car which I didn't blame him for but was hard work because I was tired and needed distractions to keep me awake. This is where I took and passed 'USA extreme driving part 1'.

The two hour drive was all in pitch black, through a wood, with deer and elk and very, very bendy. In a car you've only been driving for a day that's a challenge. Especially as everyone that did come along (not many cars to be fair...maybe 4) liked to sit on my bumper until I let them go past and then they would slow down and come in behind me. This again because a theme....cars liked to sit on my bumper (and yep I drive fast) but didn't ever want to pass me....very, very irritating! But I passed and we made it safely.

Our hotel that night was the Super 8 which was fine. Clean, simple and nice beds, that's all we needed.
 
Long drives.


Glad to see you started the TR. I'll be along for the ride. I love driving holidays!
 


Thanks guys, sorry real life got in the way. Just about to post the rest of day 3 and day 4.
 

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