May
31
2010
. . . Mike thinks he’s found his musical soul! :
You know you gotta have soul!!
May
29
2010
Morgan Hill used to be the world’s largest producer of mushroom until a few years ago, and by way of celebration they hold an annual Mushroom Mardi Gras! Honest. A 2day local festival of food (containing many mushrooms!), local drinks, live music, art (whatever that is?!) and other stuff! They close off a few streets and everybody hits the sunshine (80 C) and has a jolly lovely time!
Its also “Memorial Weekend” all over the states, which is like our Remembrance Sunday, so Monday is a public holiday and Tam and Robin are loving the idea of a three-day w/e!! hence the camping.
We’ll be doing this for a couple of hours before heading off with Tam and Robin camping for 2 days in San Juan Bautista (St John the Baptist). A beautiful old ‘western town’ it is quite small but lots to do, eat and drink! And they have a proper Steakhouse in a former brothel. Mmmm, salad bar!
May
29
2010
Spent Tue and Wed nights camping near the shore of Millerton Lake, near Fresno. Beaut lake manmade in 1944 when California damned to provide local water for local people!! Having put the tent up in the rain (Hello: California here!!) we went into local town called Friant, and guess what? – no bar! So we hit the pizza joint and a couple of beers and watched some basketball on TV. Oh yeah, and on the way there we got a blowout and had to change the tyre: It all happens here!
Earth or the moon?
Weds-day went for a fairly easy 2hour walk along the waters edge and into the hills – great views, now avail on our Photos page! After that we took a drive out in our rented Toyota Yaris Sedan (easy on the gas pedal!!) and actually found a proper Roadhouse. So we stopped for a light bite and a beer – the kinda place where you are given free Monkey nuts and told to throw the shells on the floor! Loved it! went on from there into the ‘burbs of Fresno - nothing spesh, and then back again to Sheri’s Roadhouse on way back to the lake: lit a fire in the pit provided, eat out and chilled.
Struck the tent Thu am and headed back to Morgan Hill for a comedy night at the local Playhouse….all very quaint!
May
24
2010
Long time no blog sorry all!
Had a great time in San Fran – managed to walk all the way up the big hill that you see in the films. We didnt really intend to but we were $4 short of the cable car fee!! Got the Holiday Inn for $56 per night which is tres cheap!!
We walked up to the Ferry Building which is a good local landmark along the waterfront…strolled down to the famous Pier 39 which is full of tourist gift shops, chain eateries, and ice cream shops! Not our bag, baby, so went on to the area where the sealions famously hang-out. They’re cool but collectively they stink! Went to the Thirsty Bear brewpub for dinner which was a great place. The best bar so far. 9 beers inc 2 based on English beers (which were a good effort). Had a Sample Tray of all in 5oz (1/4pint) glasses (see pic)
Drinks are in me!
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On day 2 we retraced our steps but on the Trolley Bus and Trams so went up to China Town for lunch (about 10 non-Chinese out of 250 eating!). Then wandered through Little Italy for a beer. PM we went to Castro which is the gay area and went to a couple of bars, inc one where we joined in a quiz night hosted by a drag queen!
May
18
2010
Bitten the bullet as they say and we’ve hired a car for 3weeks as the (very!) local transport around this area “leaves a bit to be desired”!!
So driving to San Francisco this morning (about 100miles) spending 2 nights at the Holiday Inn (half-price, get in!) near the Civic Centre in a good location to ‘go green’ and foot it around SF! If we get it all done we’ll walk the GG Bridge, ride the Trolley Buses, flirt with the gay area, stroll Pier 39, take an SF Bay boat trip, visit the aquarium, the ferry Building market, lament Armistead Maupin, and get a snow-cone!!
Then, on Day Two….Visit as many of the many ‘Cisco brewpubs and micro-breweries as we can as its American Craft Beer Week and there will be offers-a-plenty! Mmm, Beer!
May
15
2010
So I was 41 yesterday hence no new post. Although I wanted to share my happiness at being 41 with you all, I was too busy sharing a bottle of champagne with Jane to do anything else! Until we opened another bottle!!
A big TA to those who sent messages via Facebook though. That took about 2 hours to type back.!!
Today – May 15th – we went to four wineries in the local vacinity which was, as expected, informative and quite tasty!! Most of the tastings were free, and yes we did end up buying a doz bottles of a cheeky little red! The views from these vineyards is stunning! – there will be photos on this site come tomorrow!
Now, at 6 in the evening, we are sitting on the balcony (still big sun and about 75degC!!) with Robin playing guitar (fairly well btw) drinking some American (hard) cider before heading off out to a piano bar for the rest of the evening. We are hoping to go either to San Fran (70mile north) or Santa Cruz next week for a couple of days….car hire may be the way forward although keen to use the buses and/or Amtrak: we’ll see.
May
13
2010
So, settled quite nicely near San Jose, CA; about 70miles south of San Fran, in a place called Morgan Hill. Yes, we know it sounds like it should be a soap like Knots Landing or Falcon Crest, or Dawsons Ridge! Its actually quite pleasant, what-ho! Kind of like a big Shrivenham. Plenty of bars and coffee shops and restaurants; inc a brewpub which makes a very goood raspberry wheat beer. (Honest, it IS nice!)
Staying with the very hospitible Robin & Tamara, who fortunately are keen on sampling local beer and wine products!! No car, but looking forward to using the local buses to get around. BUT: they have a pool onsite with jacuzzi! Get IN. Literally!
My 41st tomorrow so looking forward to suitable celebrations – this may be my first “adult” bday abroad?!!
May
8
2010
So here we are Sat 8th on our last day in the City of Angels! Got a good night ahead meeting up with Robin & Tamara at a (crashed) wedding in North Hollywood! Staying at a shady 2* Motel.
But before that we’re going to a brewery pub in downtown LA to sample a couple of seasonal speshulls!!
Sad to not be spending anymore time in LA but at the same time cant wait for San Jose, celebrating mine and Robin’s birthdays this month, and getting out to places like Yosemite, Napa Valley vineyards…need we say more?!
May
6
2010
Okay so we had a couple of ‘laptop-free-days’ hence the days of no blogs! Took a long trip out in the big Volvo to a desert park outside of San Diego. Had intended to camp again but got there a bit late on Tues so hotel’d it in a place called Julian(!)…talk about your Scooby-Doo gold mining town!! 2 hotels, tattooist, cider mill (NON aloco!) and NO BAR!! Didnt stay there for long! Headed to Anza-Borrego park where at midday yesterday it was 107 C!! — only the Brits, eh?! It was far too hot to camp as there was literally no shade, so we walked a couple of miles through a ’slot canyon’ then went in search of some illusive caves: couldnt find em tho!!
May
1
2010
A bit of a massive day really! Quite a big step (literally!) for we decided to do a 3 1/2-mile walk down into the Canyon and back up! Although it was along laid out paths, we were still walking with the canyon sloping rather dramatically away, on a track that was only wide enough for 2 peeps!
Big Step because Jane was rather nervous and the adrenaline shakes were kicking in big stylie, not having a particularly good head for heights/edges/Canyons!!! Fair play to her tho cos mind over matter won and we ended up having a “tick-box” trip. There are/will be pix of the route we took under PHOTOS, but sometimes the proportions don’t come out right, so lets just say we were about 15,000 ft up with no parachute, okay?!!