Reflections

Wow! We’re home - home to face the bills and get back into some sort of routine, as well as to reflect on our trip. The last six weeks have gone so fast but, in a funny way, it also seems like a lifetime ago that we boarded the Qantas A380 plane (yes, Qantas were still flying then) and headed towards LA. So much has happened in that time, including:

- Liam breaking three pairs of sunglasses (including his mother’s);

- Rhiannon having photos snapped with Disney princesses on more than a dozen occasions;

- Graham only attempting to drive the RV on the wrong side of the road once and only hitting the side mirrors once against an immovable object (a major effort on his part);

- Jack purchasing more tops/t-shirts than his chest of drawers at home can hold;

- Rebecca limiting her shoe purchases to four pairs (a major effort on her part);

- Graham and Rebecca limiting the kids’ trips to MacDonalds to only three occasions in the whole six weeks (and none at all in the first three weeks);

- Jack being handed the kid’s menu in more restaurants than he will ever admit;

- and the whole family spying loads of amazing American wildlife, including one scavenging black bear, another scavenging racoon, a wandering skunk, a dolphin cruising the waves, a couple of grazing elk, a few soaring condors, several families of deer (and one on his own with mighty big antlers), even more families of prairie dogs (we have it on good authority that the ‘gopher’ like creatures that were digging up our Grand Canyon campsite are actually these little critters), mobs of seals and elephant seals, and countless squirrels.

The quote of the trip has to go to Rhiannon who, while on the plane flying home from Hawaii, asked

“How many sleeps are we at home for?”

Ahhh, maybe we need to start planning the next trip.

If only...

Aloha from Honolulu

Hi all,

Long time no speak, mainly due to the fact that we have spent some of the last week staying at places with no wi-fi and the rest of the time we have simply been too busy to sit and blog! So what have we been up to over the last week and a half?

Well, we spent our last day in San Francisco exploring the waterfront west of Fishermans Wharf and Ghiradelli Square, which was once that chocolate factory but is now a menagerie of shops and eateries, many of them selling those chocs. We then decided to slog our way on foot up one of the city’s notoriously steep hills (to burn up the chocolate calories we had consumed…) to Lombard Street. Lombard Street has the reputation of being the crookedest street in the world. This little street zigzags its way down the hill for a block (one way traffic only, of course) with a speed limit of only 5mph – you probably couldn’t do much more than that anyway, as there is too much tourist traffic.

We walked down the sidewalk (yep, we are using yankee terms now) and decided that we (meaning Graham) would drive Lombard Street the next day when we picked up our hire car. The next morning we did just that – after checking out and picking up our car, we headed to Lombard Street and drove down it, not once but twice. Graham passed with flying colours with no paint scrapped from the brand new Chevy. We next headed to the ‘painted ladies’, a famous row of Victorian-era houses that Rebecca wanted to see but which none of the kids (nor Graham, for that matter) were that impressed with.

Our next trip was a drive north across the Golden Gate Bridge (just to say we had done it, of course). It was here that the glorious weather we had experienced in San Francisco – who says the weather is lousy here? – and for most of our trip ended and the rain began. We viewed the bridge from a lookout in the car, as well as the pretty bayside town of Sausalito, before driving back over the Bridge and starting our journey south to Monterrey.

As the weather remained quite grey all day, we decided at the last minute to divert west to the shopping outlets at Gilroy (after all, you can still shop - rain, hail or shine) and spend the night there. The following morning, with the glorious sunlight back to greet us, we headed to Monterey.

Monterey is truly beautiful, with its lovely beachside settings and quaint weatherboard buildings. However, the boys will remember Monterey as the town where they tried to beat the clock at “laser maze” and find their way through the mirror maze, which the attendant made more difficult each time they entered the course.

From Monterey, we took the “17 Mile Drive”, a scenic drive through a private gated community which also included the famous “Lone Cypress Tree”. Rebecca and Graham took in the beautiful rugged coastal scenery while the kids wondered what all the fuss was about. “It’s just a tree…” Liam was heard muttering. The kids did enjoy seeing the seals, however, as well as a small herd of deer on one of the many golf courses in this exclusive community.

Not having our fill of drooling with envy over expensive mansions with million-dollar views, we moved on to Carmel. We prowled its streets, picking out which home we preferred above the rest, before driving the scenic, winding (and very long) road through Big Sur to San Simeon, where we came upon a colony of elephant seals lying on the beach beside the road.

The next day saw us drive further south and, after a huge lunch at Pismo Beach in a restaurant with more varieties of pies than you could poke a stick at, we reached Santa Barbara, a picturesque city nestled between mountains and sea. We stayed the night in a motel directly opposite the beach and spent the following morning longboarding (Jack and Liam), chasing longboards (Rhiannon) and strolling the boardwalk and pier (Graham and Rebecca with kids in tow).

That afternoon, we headed to Santa Monica to walk the pier at the end of Route 66 before finally reaching our hotel for our last three nights on mainland USA (whew!)

The following day was spent doing those sorts of things you like to do just to say you’ve done it but probably won’t ever do again, such as visiting:

1 – Venice Beach (boys enjoyed longboarding here, Rhiannon continued to chase them)

2 – Rodeo Drive (where price tags are not shown on clothes in shop windows but we did spot a Bugatti Veyronne which Graham wanted Rebecca to buy him for Christmas)
3 – Beverley Hills (just another expensive suburb)
4 – Hollywood Walk of Fame (saw the sidewalk stars, rest is just plain seedy)
5 – Hollywood sign (stopped for a happy snap before hitting the freeway for the traffic snarl back to our hotel)

Our last full day in LA was spent doing last minute shopping and cursing the traffic snarls. Graham and Rebecca agreed that LA had nothing on San Francisco; a much nicer, prettier and definitely cleaner city. Also unlike San Francisco, LA was not a city they were keen to visit again (except maybe Disneyland. After all, who can ever get enough of the ‘happiest place on earth’?)

So after an early morning flight, we arrived in beautiful Hawaii for the last leg of our trip, completely unaware of the surprise in store for us. When we checked in to our beachside Waikiki apartment block, we were upgraded to a multi-million dollar oceanfront unit (a similar unit in the complex is currently for sale for USD 3 million…), with amazing unobstructed views of Waikiki, from Diamond Head to the harbour.

Once we managed to tear ourselves away from this view, we hit the beach, pool (and for Rebecca, the happy hour Lava Flow cocktails) and shops. We have also hired a car for a day to explore the island of Oahu, where we decided to trek to the top of Diamond Head Crater, a steep trail made even harder in thongs (we didn’t realise how strenuous and long the trail was and stupidly wore thongs and beachwear.) However, we all made it to the top to see the great views over Waikiki on offer. We next drove around the island, stopping for coconut shrimps at a ‘shrimp shack’ on the north shore as well as the surfing (not swimming!) spot of Sunset Beach, before heading back towards Honolulu.

Tomorrow will mean our last day of enjoying the sun and sea of Hawaii before we head to the airport Thursday morning for our flight home to Sydney. It has been a huge trip, quite busy at times but one where we have all seen breathtaking vistas, met wonderful people, and experienced a myriad of activities together which have provided great memories for our family.

See you soon,

from Graham, Rebecca, Jack, Liam & Rhiannon

Lombard St - the 'Crookedest' Street in the world

The Painted Ladies (the houses - not Rebecca)

So this is what twins would look like!

 The Lone Cypress (at the back)

 Hundreds of Elephant Seals parked on the beach for the night

 Santa Monica Pier

 Jack's saving up for one of these!

 Notice the similarity in bicep size!

One of the local stars (or just a wannabe) in the Hollywood Hills

 Not a bad unit to be upgraded to!

 It even has rainbows...

...and nice boats at the marina in the distance

From the mountains to the bay...

Hi again,

Well, Yosemite certainly lived up to its reputation as a place of scenic wonder. On the drive into the valley, we stopped to ‘ooh’, ‘aah’ and snap pics of El Capitan (the largest sheer face of granite in the world), Bridalveil Fall and, of course, Yosemite Falls (the highest falls in North America and the fifth highest in the world. Yosemite Falls is usually dry by Autumn – or Fall, as the Yanks call it - but due to recent rainfall, it was actually flowing which was great to see. We also saw ‘Half Dome’. True to its name, it’s a huge half-dome shaped wall of granite which has claimed many lives from adventurous rock climbers (and others who were just plain crazy!)

We next headed down into the valley and registered into our campsite. All we can say is that we must have scored the campsite with the best view in Yosemite Valley. Backing onto the Merced River, with easy access to the water, our campsite had unparalleled views across to Half Dome and other surrounding granite mountains. We would have liked to stay there a lot longer than our booked two nights but alas, we could not, so we made sure we made the most of our time there! The boys even perfected their long-boarding techniques on the winding roads within the campground!

The day after our arrival, we explored the valley on a couple of walking tours; one through the meadows for more views of the towering granite masterpieces that surrounded us and another to observe Yosemite Falls up close. We had found the shuttle bus system at the Grand Canyon to be very efficient and the system here at Yosemite was just as well run, taking tourists from stop to stop around the valley floor quickly and efficiently. The rangers program was also very well run and interesting. There was an amphitheatre in our campground where the rangers held talks every night on different aspects of Yosemite. The first night, we watched one on the changing seasons within the park and the second night’s talk was on the bears, which we all found to be especially good.

After a spot of shopping at Yosemite Village, Graham, Liam and Rhiannon headed back to our campsite while Rebecca and Jack continued to browse. When Rebecca and Jack were returning a little while later, they came upon a Mule Deer grazing next to the pathway only a few feet away from them. A ranger, sitting in a car nearby, motioned for them to move along. We have since found out that the only recent death in Yosemite has been from one of these deer. And this one had decent-sized antlers! We didn’t spy any bears in this park but saw loads of squirrels everywhere, including an especially fat one which climbed into our fire pit. Luckily for him, we hadn’t lit it yet!

So it was with a little regret that we said good-bye to our beautiful campsite by the river and headed west to spend the night in a town called Manteca, before driving on the next day to San Francisco.

San Francisco…. Rebecca fell in love with the city as soon as we arrived, saying it had a nice feel to it. After we said goodbye to our campervan (we had enjoyed our time with it but had also had enough of it after 18 days!), we checked into our hotel in Fisherman’s Wharf and headed down along the water for dinner. The following day – yesterday- we set out to explore the area. We undertook a bay cruise, travelling under the Golden Gate Bridge and skirting around Alcatraz Island, and spotted a couple of seals in the water along the way. We next had lunch along the wharf where Rebecca talked Graham and Jack into experiencing Clam Chowder in sourdough bread with her – a Fisherman’s Wharf specialty. It was yum! A visit to the Wax Museum followed which the kids all enjoyed, although Graham and Rebecca were the only ones who ventured into the Room of Horrors section…

Today, we jumped on a cable car (where Jack and Graham hung off the side but didn’t fall off) and travelled to the shopping precinct of Union Square. Here, Rebecca was fortunate enough to escape from the pack for a couple of hours to shop. While trying on a pair of boots in Macy’s, Rebecca spotted the celebrity, Jessica Simpson, there to promote her own fashion and perfume lines. Rebecca snapped a quick pic for Graham and Jack before going back to her business of trying on footwear. After she met up with everyone again, the group headed back to Fishermans Wharf via the Embarcardero precinct for a rest before dinner.

Tonight, we dined at a wharf restaurant called “Pompeii’s Grotto”, which Rebecca found on the net. Everyone enjoyed their meals; good fish, great wine, and even the kids were happy with their choices! We finished off the night by catching another cable car to Chinatown (even Liam hung off the edge this time!). We wandered through Chinatown before heading back to our hotel to put the kids to bed and write this blog.

We have one more day in San Francisco before picking up a hire car and starting our journey south along the coast to LA again. Until next time, hope you are all well,

Graham, Rebecca, Jack, Liam and Rhiannon



Upper & Lower Yosemite Falls (can you see them?)



The view from our Yosemite campsite

(the kids are the midgets in the bottom right corner)

One fat squirrel making a quick getaway from our firepit



The kids at Pier 39, Fishermans Wharf

Catching the cable car to Union Square