American Wildlife

As anyone who has ever read this blog will realise, I love nature, wildlife both flora and fauna. In fact one of my earliest memories was thumbing through the nature section at the back of the AA drivers manual. I couldnt tell you what seven times nine was but my god I could tell you the difference between your tufted vetch and your common knapweed!

So it seems apt that on this last blog for the 2007 holiday I write a list of all the wildlife I can recall seeing while I was in California.

muir woods
moose
blue jay
chipmunk
ladybugs
black tailed deer
elephant seal
sea lions of pier 39
woodpecker (maybe the Ladder-backed?)
turkey
Californian condor
butterfly
American white ibis
Californian Ground Squirrel
mule deer

20 years after the Great Storm!

It's hard to believe that it's 20 years ago I bought my first house - how do I remember? Because nine weeks later the great storm hit and we had no water, no power and the fences had fallen down so how to keep two dogs in the graden!

It was a nightmare. We tried to get to work but being 22 miles away from work and in the epi-centre of the storm we shouldnt have bothered. It took seven hours to get to work and then of course we were told to go home (dont forget this was in the days before internet access and mobile phones - hard to believe eh?) It was a true nightmare and now whenever there is a lot of wind and rain in the night I cant sleep because I think that another storm is on it's way!

our last night in LA

This is our last day in the US and to be honest we are both ready to go home and in my case I cant wait to see and hug Harvey. For our last evening we went to the Napa Rose (Suzette's recommendation). This is a restaurant within the Disney complex next to the Calif adventure theme park. I wasnt ready for the shock of just how up-market this part of Anaheim has become. This wasnt or isnt the old Anaheim I was used to. The hotel is incredibly decadent and the restaurant was wonderful. Decorated on the Rennie Macintosh style it oozed quality but without being pretentious. The wine was the best I've probably ever had and the food was second to none. I had the most amazing pork chop with braised red cabbage and pear puree and Alan had the most amazing steak. I could get used to this kind of quality! Alan be warned ;)

...and so back to the bar

after a day out in the Californian Adventure we went back to the bar at our hotel to have a meal and a few nightcaps with Suzette and Lori. The last time we will see these guys for a while - even though we will keep in contact by email.

Californian Adventure

So we got up at about 10am and get this - it was raining!! Yes, it does rain in LA and this is proof! But it had stopped about an hour later and the sky was blue and it was warm which was good because we were in Disneylands next door neighbour the Californian Adventure. We visited this park when it first opened in 2001 and this is our first return. It's nowhere near as fun for us as Disneyland but is still a very good day out. I would say it's more for the adrenalin junkie which we are certainly not but even so we still enjoyed a couple of really good rides as well as some typical sea front fun fair games - I even won a couple of prizes!



The other difference with this park from it's neighour is that it serves alcohol. In fact it apart from a micro-brewery stand it also has wine tasting which seems hugely popular.

We then spent the evening in Downtown Disney where there were some superb halloween costumes (which is so popular in the US) .

....there's more

A hat is for every occasion!

Ever since I lived in Kingston as a kid, I've always been drawn over to the hat department of any store - in that case it was BHS. i simply love trying on hats. So off course when you go to a shop that only sells hats and then find other shops in Disneyland that also only sell hats what can I do? It's a compulsion.....

Complete Slob Day

So tired after yesterday, couldnt do anything, just read, did a bit of shopping and slobbed out - gotta get our strength back for another round of walking and rides tomorrow in the Californian Adventure! Cant wait!

and so onto our annual pilgrimage......

...... Disneyland! Advertised as the 'Happiest Place on Earth' but also a Mecca for people watching. I swear I saw a sumo wrestling mother there today amongst many other weird and truly wonderful. God knows we have our own set of weirdos in the UK but this place is people spotting at a premium (didn't I say that in last years blog?)

Anyway, onto the real reason to visit Disneyland - the rides. Sadly, our favourite ride ( Indiana Jones) has now shut for maintenance which threw us both as we always run over to that ride to start our day. The other disappointment was that the Splash Mountain ride closed while we were queuing up - I've only riden this twice because it always seems to break down!

The other rides we took in were The Haunted Mansion, The Matterhorn (3 times), Buzz Lightyear (see picture - twice), Star Tours, Snow White (what a waste of time!), Roger Rabbit, Pirates of the Caribbean and last but not least the Finding Nemo exhibit which is the old submarine ride (name escapes me) that's been re-furbed. When it re-opened last month there was a 3.5 hour waiting - we waited an hour as it's so popular (most other rides today were only about 20-40 mins) so was it worth it? Not sure. It's good, it's popular but it's only OK - perhaps I'm too old for this particular ride :0

I believe this is my seventh visit to Disneyland (eight if you count Orlando) and I think it's Alan's sixth (plus two visits for him to Orlando) and do we ever get bored of it? Do we hell - in fact we're off to the Californian Adventure on Friday (that's if we get over today - I'm knackered!) to get some more ooooh's and wooooh's and you never know I may even be pursuaded to ride the roller coaster :)

Off to the bar now for a couple of nightcaps - although I think I may fall asleep on with my drink in my hand - it's been a long day!

Did the earth move for you?

I didnt feel a thing! We are sitting in the bar at the Hotel (now known as the Anaheim Maingate - thereby hangs another tale) and we realise that while we were in Long Beach there was an earthquake!!! Yes, an earthquake! 3.1 on the richter scale!! As I said - neither of us felt a thing!!

Long Beach

So off to Long Beach. A beautiful harbour (or is that harbor ;)) that we have wanted to return to since our first visit 7 years ago (can it really be 7 years?) It's just so peaceful and so well laid out depite the fact that in the distance it's a very important and very busy industrial port.

The famous Queen Mary lives here and it has a boardwalk with some wonderful little shops and bars.

We decided to go back to the Aquarium and it was far better than I remember. This place is spectacular and has some amazing exhibits of marine life. My favourites are the seals and the sea otters.

It's worth mentioning Millar who is now 27 years old. He is a harbour seal who was rescued as a pup and despite looking his age now (he is grey and has bad eyesight) he is still enjoying life to the full and still has fun with all his other seals and se lions - an incredible character.


We had lunch at the Yard House (named after the english yard of ale apparently) overlooking the collection of very nice, expensive boats. It has (it boasts) the largest collection of draft beers in the world - the photo only shows half the bar! The meal (not burgers, steak or a sign of a chip thank god) was fantastic, the location wonderful
and the weather was very warm! What else could you ask for!

Mainplace - one of the best malls I know

We sat by the pool for a few hours (now reading the hugely successful An Interpretation of a Murder) to top the tan up and chill (and get rid of hangovers) an then decided it was time for a BIG shop! We trundled off down to Mainplace which we know well. This place has all our favourites - A&F, American Eagle, Old Navy etc etc etc. We stocked our wardrobes up and then I spotted in this geeks shop a previously owned PS3 - of course Alan couldn't resist! It cost him $400 - that's £200!!! A bargain - they are £425 in the UK.

We then went to the bar and met some Canadians who are spookily aimilar to the English in their sense of humour.

A well earned day by the pool!

With all the travelling we've done and all the new sights we have seen it was a welcome change to just chil out and sit by a familiar (if not luxurious) pool in a familiar town. At this time of year the sun goes behing the building at about midday but it was so pleasantly warm that we both sat by the pool and finished our books. Mine was Restless - a fantastic, page turner of forties English spy networks which spookily enough mentioned the El Camino Real which is basically the Pacific Coast Highway which we had been travelling along for the last week. Spooky huh?

The downer is that the Angels are out of the playoffs - swept away by the B***dy Red Sox!!! Argh!!!!

We then went down to the bar and as usual the bartender was far too generous with her re-fills. We both felt a little the worse for wear on Tuesday morning.

A long, long journey to LA

We set out from Morro Bay at 09:30 in the morning, picked up some coffee and pastries on the way out. This was going to be a long journey - in fact almost the length of the British Isles.

The road isnt half as windy as the first part of this journey and is mostly freeway and open road but still with a lot of coastline to follow.

We finally arrived in Los Angeles and Hollywood at about 2pm - it took another hour to get through the infamous LA traffic jams to arrive in Anaheim at a few minutes before 3pm - the time at which we could check in - so a long day all round.

We ended the day with a quick trip round The Block (a mall we've been frequenting since we first came here in 2000) and then back to the Pickford Bar in the hotel to meet up with Suzette the bartender that we met last year. I'm afraid to say that we both had a little too much to drink - it really has been a long day!

Morro Bay

This is Morro Bay. Not much to comment on this unremarkable all American town but I suppose after Carmel and Tiburon most places are going to look pretty ordinary!

The only point of interest really apart from the noisy seals that come into the bay every night and sound off with each other is the very noticable monolith just off the shore. It raises over 500 feet above the sea and is the remnants of a long since extinct volcano.

The other well known land mark or some might say eyesore are three cooling chimneys located just the other side of the shoreline from the monolith. They really are ugly and I think that there are plans to replace these 'three stooges' with some far more aesthetic replacements.

We found a really nice local sea front restaurant that was full of local produce (Alan had an enormous piece of Halibut!) and was friendly, compfortable and the food was very good - and you could also see the seals messing around just outside the window!

One thing that should be mentioned is Harmony. A town just the other side of Morro. In America they have a tradition of when you enter each town stating the population and the elvation and the reason that Harmony is worth mentioning? It has a population of 18! Yes 18! I wonder who goes out there and changes it when there is a birth or death in the town? It's also worth mentioning that they produce some very good wine.

Leaving Carmel

On the twisting and winding journey along the coast road we passed many beaches and many breath taking cliff tops as well as some interesting wildlife.

We passed the very famous Big Sur. This is just a little off the coastal area and is a river with a lot of forest surrounding the river and many camp sites. This is where we saw some wild turkeys crossing the road - we never did find out why the turkey crossed the road :)

We saw a colony of elephant seals - so near you could if foolish enough touch them! These seals were almost hunted to death but have now made such an amazing recovery that this colony alone has some 2000 members.

.....and so off to Morro Bay some 140 miles away.

A Perfect Day?

We both decided that today we may actually try to chill out. The last few days have taken their toll. The first plan was to cycle round the headland but we firstly couldnt find the bike hire shop and secondly didnt feel that up to it - and guess what? Carmel is also very hilly!!

So onto plan B. With limited time in the amazingly beautiful town we decided to look around the shops and town and then maybe sit on the beach and chill. It worked out well. We found the Carmel Cheese Shop that Alan has been talking about for ages and bought a baguette, some very special cheeses, some salami and a couple of bottles of beer and headed off to the beach. It was really warm until about 4pm when the wind really started to get up. The picnic was superb (apart from some determined squirrel) the view was amazing and what made it perfect for me was I met a Gordon Setter with his owner and spoke to him about our common interest for ages. The picture show's Duke who is an amazing 11 years old and despite being from another continent felt, sounded and acted 100% Gordon!

...and so onto Carmel by the Sea, Monterey

So that was Tiburon and I loved it. It had nothing to live up to as we'd never heard of the place until this year but Carmel was different.

We left Tiburon along the the Pacific Coast Highway crossing the Golden Gate Bridge - can you believe it only costs $5 to cross this magnificent piece of iconic engineering? It costs over double this to cross into Wales!!!

Everyone knew and said they loved Carmel. What could be so special? Could this place really be that NICE? Oh yes! This tiny seaside town (which incidentally is next to a town called Seaside) totally lives up to it's repuatation. Is it any wonder Clint Eastwood once lived here and indeed was once the mayor of this little idyll.

The streets are clean and there are flowers and welll kept plant borders wherever you go - even the shopping mall looks like an entry in the the Chelsea Garden Show.


The shops are without exception niche and there are many galleries which can only mean decadence! The cars range from between Bentleys, Porsche, Maseratti and Jaguar to an amazing collection of well preserved classic cars. This places ouzes money - even more so than Tiburon.

The journey along the coast road to get here took us past some wonderful beaches and coves then then onto true Steinbeck country. There are acres and acres of fruit (mostly strawberries at this time of year) and vegetables with the familiar sight of fruit pickers beding over in the fields - so familiar to anyone who like me loves Steinbeck. This is also the home of Cannery Row.

So onto our very nice hotel/motel and then onto the well renowned Hog Breath Inn which was once owned by (you guessed it) Clint Eastwood. The food was fantastic (horrah! Vegetables at last). I had the chops yum and Alan had the over-sized steak. I'd recommend this place to anyone who comes here. It's small, friendly, tucked away and the food and drink is superb!

A walk in the woods was certainly no walk in the park!

Alan has his usual holiday ailment - a cold so although we'd planned to go to Yosemite today we had to call it off as he felt so rough (although American cold remedies do seem to work well). So instead we decided to go to Muir Woods which is only ten miles or so away.

The journey there was interesting to say the least. We just kept travelling up and up on ever more winding roads with amazing views across the Pacific. We arrived at Muir Woods and decided on a trail to follow.

The sign said a little over three miles walking in about two hours piffff! I can do three miles in under an hour - or so I thought!! The trail just took you up and up and indeed up. There were steps, there were narrow paths there were sheer drops! This trail was not for wimps - they warned of steep climbs but by the time we got to the top I felt as if we'd climbed a mountain - and of course Alan didnt feel to well so we were wheezing like 40 a day smokers on the way down.

The surprising thing about this wood is the quietness. There is hardly any wildlife on the way up, there is no bird song, no flowers, no rodents - very strange. On the way down however the woods did seem to come alive. We spotted two chipmunks, a deer which I believe was a Mule Deer stag and a woodpecker but the weirdest thing was the lady birds (or lady bugs as they are known as over here). In just this tiny area near to the end of the trail were thousands and thousand of ladybugs - only the photo will do justice - although to be honest it may not. I have never seen anything like this in my life.

We then decided to brave the Pacific Coast Highway to look at Stinson Beach. We walked along and stayed there for a while (and the attached photo is certainly one for the ladies - eat your heart out Baywatch!) and felt refreshed

Back then to the Lodge for a couple of well earned beers in what is exceptional weather for this time of year - wonderfully hot and to think it's raining back home - shame!