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

In the land of wonderful wildlife & giant trees

Tonight we send you our latest from an RV park at Fresno in central California. We left the heat of Las Vegas and stopped for lunch at a 1950’s style diner just north of Barstow. This diner was so authentic, right down to the waitress’ attire, the jukebox in the corner and the 50’s music blaring overhead. And the food was good and cheap!

We spent that night at Bakersfield before heading to the Kings Canyon/Sequoia national park, where we stayed the last two nights at the Azalea campground which was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! We had a fire pit which the kids loved, from the collection of firewood through to the roasting of marshmallows. We also had a bear locker. For those of you who are unaware, you are required to place all your food, toiletries and anything else with a scent - good, bad or otherwise (Rebecca wanted to put a few members of the family in by the end of the two days) - in the locker, as items with a scent can attract bears. Needless to say, we placed all such items in the locker except for our refrigerated food. Graham was adamant that no bear would break into a) our campervan and then, b) our fridge. Rebecca had her doubts but we are happy to say we had no issues with ‘breaking & entering’ bears or any other misbehaving animals!

Wildlife was, however, bountiful. A raccoon visited us on the first night on more than one occasion. It was so bold that it walked right up to Graham’s chair and wandered under our campervan. Maybe it had been fed by someone staying at our campsite in the past but we had already been warned how vicious these cute-looking animals could become, so we simply let the critter continue on its way, probably disappointed by our lack of generosity.

The next day, we visited the two biggest living things on earth, two Sequoia trees by the names of General Sherman and General Grant. They are really MASSIVE! They are not the oldest (being a mere 2,200 and 1,700 years old respectively – the oldest being about 3,200 years old) and are not the tallest (Californian redwoods are taller, for instance,) but are the biggest in terms of volume of wood. You are truly a midget next to them, as you will see from the photo below.

We had a surprise when we headed back to the car park after visiting the General Sherman tree, as a black bear was there ripping a big pine cone to pieces for its sap. The bear had no fear of humans at all, which is actually unfortunate for the bear. It is likely that the rangers will euthanize it, as bears which lose their fear of humans often become aggressive and a nuisance. Very sad, but it was great for the kids to see one of these beautiful animals in the wild.

Graham had another surprise waiting for him that afternoon while out gathering more firewood for our pit. He spied a deer with two fawns in the valley below our campsite and snapped several photos of them. We also saw countless squirrels scurrying around our campground which Rhiannon thought were very cute.

So today, we left the national park with wonderful memories of the wildlife we found there and headed back down the mountain (dropping 6,000 ft in half a hour) to arrive in the town of Fresno for the night (and to do some washing, shower and empty the tanks).

We head to Yosemite tomorrow for two nights within the park in the Valley and are very excited about this as EVERYONE says that Yosemite is a ‘must-see’. As in the previous park, we will be out of wi-fi range so will speak again once we head back down.

As always, take care,

Graham, Rebecca, Jack, Liam & Rhiannon

Graham & the kids discover fire at our campsite

(or Jack sending smoke signals...)

General Sherman tree (people are midgets at the base)

All of us standing at the base of the largest living thing in the world

"There's a bear in there..."

"If you go down to the woods today..."

One of the fawns Graham found behind our campsite

Viva Las Vegas!

Hi again,

We have just left the sweltering heat of Las Vegas and are heading back towards Barstow, as we make our way to the Sierra Nevada National Parks i.e. Sequoia, Kings Canyon & Yosemite.

Since we last blogged, we have spent a wonderful day viewing the Grand Canyon from its many lookouts along the South Rim. It is truly a jaw-dropping experience and makes you feel very small and insignificant in comparison. We were surprised to find that a forested environment surrounds the Canyon, expecting instead for it to be relatively desolate. The elevation here is about 7.700 ft and nights were quite cool.

We spied grazing elk and deer on our shuttle bus trips between lookouts, as well as condors and ravens soaring above and below us. There were many helicopters zooming through the ravines, some dragging what looked like baskets on long ropes behind them.

At least 600 people have died at the GC so Rebecca was a little nervous at those lookouts with limited railings. One lady told us that a four year old fell fairly recently at a particular lookout we were visiting. We stayed until sunset to watch the colours of the rocks change from brown and red, to pink and purple, before finally growing dark. The Canyon was a long drive to visit, but it is worth the effort to see this spectacular feature, one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

From the Canyon, we headed towards Las Vegas, stopping at the Hoover Dam along the way. When this dam was completed, it was the largest concrete structure in the world. It stills looks huge today! After completing a security inspection where big (and we mean, big!) police officers checked our RV inside and out, we drove over the wall, parked and walked back along its wall for a closer look. Here was where the heat hit us, after the relatively balmy weather of the Canyon.

We next drove on to Las Vegas and stayed in an RV park near Circus Circus, one of the casino/resorts. For any one of you who know Vegas, this meant we were close to the “Strip”.

You really have to see Vegas to believe it. It rises out of the desert in the middle of nowhere. We spent both nights we were there strolling and bus hopping along the “Strip” and taking in the sights and atmosphere. The kids especially enjoyed the free water fountain show at the Bellagio and the Volcano show at the Mirage. We didn’t make it back to our base until 11pm on both nights which made for very tired kids (and adults!) and very sore feet! Daytime was spent in the pool or the air-conditioned comfort of the shops.

So as we now head back west, we are looking forward to some cooler weather and a little more greenery in the scenery ahead of us. Tonight, we stay in the town of Bakersfield in Central California before heading to the national parks tomorrow.

Bye for now,

Graham, Rebecca, Jack, Liam & Rhiannon.

The Gang at The Grand Canyon

 Sunset at The Grand Canyon

The Eiffel Tower - Vegas Style

Water show at The Bellagio

Expolding volcano at The Mirage

Hi from Arizona

It is mid-afternoon and we have just rolled into a campground outside the Grand Canyon National Park gates. We can’t wait to view the GC tomorrow morning as it is renowned as one of the most spectacular natural sights on earth. Anyway, back to what we have been up to….

We spent Wednesday at Sea World and watched some great shows. While the Shamu killer whale show was awesome and the seal show was funny, the dolphin show – Mermaidia – was spectacular. The dolphins were unbelievably fast and agile, and the human acrobatic performers were just as good. We also saw a pet animal show which was also funny except some of the animals refused to perform their tricks, making it even funnier! What’s that saying; never perform with kids and animals…

Thursday was spent at San Diego Zoo. Although the zoo is in a lovely setting with many exhibits, many of the larger animals didn’t have as much room as they should. We were particular impressed with the polar bears, who decided to have a play fight in the water while we were watching them, and with the baby hippo (Mummy hippo was pressing her baby up against the glass which made for excellent viewing).

That afternoon, Graham wanted to visit the San Diego Yacht Club (assuming he could simply walk in the front gate uninvited) to pick out a suitable vessel for sailing back to Australia. Unfortunately for him (but luckily for the rest of family), Rebecca had already booked plane tickets home. After driving around the block many times before finding a parking spot (you can’t just reverse park an RV anywhere!!), we eventually found a spot. Whilst Rebecca was giving reversing directions to park, she started gas-bagging to a passer-by named Tom (does that surprise anyone?) Tom indicated that, as he was a member of the Yacht Club, he could get us in and show us around, which he did.

This yacht club literally has hundreds of boats moored at the marina, most of which would cost a house or two in Australia. Tom introduced us to his wife, Karen, and we ended up having dinner together at the Club. Tom has experienced an amazing life during his 89 years (yes, 89 but doesn’t look it by a long shot). He was a WW2 navy pilot with over 500 aircraft carrier landings - he has flown planes through the Grand Canyon and under the Golden Gate Bridge – and has travelled widely. Tom and Karen showed amazing generosity by refusing to let us pay for dinner, even after much protest. We exchanged details and may see them one day in Australia to repay the favour.

Friday saw us leave San Diego and start the long drive towards the Grand Canyon. After stopping at a dancewear shop Rebecca had found on the Web (saved a bundle on shoes and clothes for Rhiannon – dance shoes were less than half price!), we drove to Barstow, the town where traffic for Las Vegas goes to the left and traffic to the Canyon heads to the right.

We visited the much publicised factory outlets and were quite disappointed, with Rebecca stating that she had seen better bargains in Oz. Oh well, what else can you expect from a tourist trap?????

We then drove to Calico Ghost Town campground a few miles out of Barstow, where we stayed the night in a real desert setting amongst, what we assume to be meerkats and desert quails. Staying at the campground gave you free entry into the Ghost Town where the kids panned for gold/silver, and we visited the old mines and settlement – quite a buzz for the kids.

We then pushed on to Needles on the California/Arizona border. This town is built on the Colorado River and is around 400km inland. The river is about 75m wide here and seems to be a haven for boating. There were still some huge powerboats using the river when we pulled in late in the afternoon. Quite a few of these were 30ft+ and towed on 3 axle trailers by big V8 pick-ups (quite the American dream!) The kids enjoyed a splash in the pool while Graham & Rebecca watched the river traffic. Whilst eating dinner we saw a skunk walk by and had to keep Jack from following it for fear of him being sprayed and stinking for the remainder of the trip. Graham & Rebecca also saw another creature, either raccoon or coyote, walking along the riverbank later that night. It was too dark to tell which it was.

Which brings us to today. We left Needles and drove through “Indian country” (Rhiannon is disappointed we haven’t seen any as yet, especially as she now has her very own feather headdress) to where we are now – the Grand Canyon Camper Village. Liam is not happy that we have not continued on to visit the Canyon this afternoon but, after four hours driving/navigating, Graham and Rebecca needed some down time. Anyway, the Canyon has been there for million of years and we can’t see that changing overnight.

Until next blog,

Graham, Rebecca, Jack, Liam & Rhiannon

P.S. As Rebecca sits here and types away, little gophers are popping up from the ground as they build new entrances to their networks beneath us.

Killer Whale Show at Sea World

Rhiannon doing her best squaw impersonation at Calico Ghost Town

Panning for something....anything!

Gophers or groundhogs

Graham, Rebecca & Tom at San Diego Yacht Club

Dolphin (Mermaidia) Show at Sea World

Baby Hippo at San Diego Zoo

31 foot of pure grunt!!

 

Campervan of Chaos rolls into San Diego

Hi again,

great to receive your lovely (and amusing) emails and comments, especially those regarding American food,  princesses and our potential driving skills! Would love to answer you all individually but we are struggling just to find enough time to write this blog!
Anyway, we have not failed in the driving department. We picked up the campervan yesterday and Graham has been practising his braking skills to avoid hitting a crazy driver(only one glass broken so far in the van). Rebecca has not ventured to the driver's seat in the van as yet but she did practise her yankee driving with a car we hired and only mistook the windscreen wiper button as the indicator button once. They are on opposite sides of the steering wheel, after all. Anyway, back to the campervan.....

So far, Graham has been designated van driver (calmer in traffic) and Rebecca the navigator (better with maps). Even with the help of GPS (and a few less than useful comments from the three backseat drivers like, "why did you miss the exit, Dad? You only had to cross four lanes"), our journey has been interesting. The series of overpasses, underpasses and everything in between on the freeways of LA and San Diego are reminiscent of Dr Suess' story, "The Zax". One freeway we travelled on was ten lanes each way and everyone (expect us, of course) exceeds the speed limit. We are pleased to report that we have not lost the side mirrors yet, although Graham did have a close shave with a school bus in LA, much to the bus driver's amusement.

But back to our journey... after stopping at a skate shop on the way to San Diego, where Jack purchased a longboard which Graham and Rebecca both didn't see as the 'bargain' Jack was - and still is - convinced it was, we arrived in SD around dark hoping to score a nice RV park with an available site which amounted to more than a patch of bitumen. Lady Luck was on our side (or rather, Rebecca had done her homework) and we scored a site in a lovely 'kiddy-friendly' park, close to Sea World and with pool/spa, play equipment, beach, etc. to get the kids out of Mum & Dad's hair. After all, you can still get under each other's feet in a 31 foot campervan.

As we arrived quite late last night, we spent today grocery shopping (had enough of takeaway where EVERYTHING is so processed and loaded with fat), exploring our home for the next few nights (i.e. the park) and lazing around the pool. Tomorrow, we head to Sea World to be splashed by Shamu, the killer whale, hopefully not to become its lunch.

Until next time,

adios mis amigos!

Graham, Rebecca, Jack Liam & Rhiannon