Aug
10
2010
Left San Fran 9pm Monday night, got to Auckland a day and a half later, so actually its Wednesday 11th Aug! Damn datelines!!
Customs & Immigration were easier than expected- they inspected our tent, disinfected our walking shoes and let us on our way. We were met by family friend Geoff and 25mins later we were standing on their balcony at their nice home in south-ish Auckland watching the sunrise! What a great start…….
Aug
9
2010
So with our last night in the northern hemisphere behind us, we must pack well and head for the airport. But not right away. Our flight tonight is a 9pm take-off (landing at 5am Wednesday ‘cos of the dateline!), so we have plenty of time to kill in San Fran before getting the shuttle to the airport. So maybe a last look at the Golden Gate bridge, lunch in Chinatown or Little Italy, or maybe a stroll along the piers?
We’re both really looking forward to NZ and OZ as its more ‘new territory’.
So for the next 48hrs or so we wont be upset if you dont check our site!!
Aug
8
2010
For no apparent reason we had in our heads that Sacramento was a mid-size town with a small-town mentality. an idea that really makes no sense when you remember its California’s capital! And its mentality is NOT small-town. Its a pretty cosmo place of all classes; as well as some well preserved buildings dating back to the late 1800’s.
And it has 3 microbreweries, of which two were visited by us!
We stayed in a 3* hotel near downtown, which we got on Hotwire.com for cheaper than the local hostels or campsites! And they ran a free shuttle bus into town at our request! Liked that bit, esp as it dropped off at the Greyhound station within 13mins!
Friday night we went to the Pyramid BrewPub on K Street, where we were given a free tour and tasting. Two opposites here: The tour was short and not that indepth – the tasting was very comprehensive and thorough!!
One of the good things about sitting at the bar is you inevitably get chatting
Us with darin & John
to random people. We met Darin & John – taking a 2-day break from the wives! – who were keen on the local brews; and we went from there to the Sacramento’s Music in the Park event of free live bands. We’re all pretty sure that the bands were good, but we were waylaid by the ‘beer tent’ (less Tent, more Stall!)
Saturday earned us a fairly decent lie-in, so having forfieted breakfast -
Nice-house, not Whitehouse!
Continental, so therefore not truely a breakfast!! – and we decided to walk around the Old Town, the Waterfront and the Capitol Hill areas. All very beautiful, esp Capitol Hill part as its city admin building is very ‘presidential’; so from there we ventured to the downtown mall which is home to the River City Brewing Co.! More good local beer repleat with good 1/2lb burger! We had dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack…a chain, but good fun and good value seafood.
Sun-day was spent on the Greyhound to San Fran (2.5hrs) where we met up with Robin. That’s today already!! Flying at 9pm local tomorrow (Monday) arriving in Auckland in the wee hours on Wednesday.
Aug
6
2010
Having endured/survived/suffered a rather grotty 14hr overnight bus from Seattle - Mike had MC Hammer on one side and a man trying to smuggle half the world’s spots into Calif. on his face on the other, with a good view and aroma of the non-flush loo - we have arrived in Sacremento, CA: straight into a free brewery tour and tasting (Pyramid Brewing Co.)…
Its a shame, but we feel obliged to help local businesses!! More info and pix to follow. 4pm local time, so time for the local!
Aug
5
2010
As oranges were a few days ago; now its Peaches: ”they come from a can, they were put there by a man, in a factory downnn townn” (Courtesy “The Presidents of the United States of America, 1994)
As today (our 1oth Anniv.) is represented by TIN (thanks as always to Jane’s mum and dad for the info), we have bought a TINcan of peaches which we are going to give to the first homeless person we see. Peace and Love to all.
Aug
5
2010
Yes we know that was ten years ago, but that’s when we married eachother!! So to celebrate our tenth year of happiness we decided to be in Portland, Oregon, slightly killing time until the 1135pm overnight bus south to Sacramento, California.
Laurelwood BrewPub
And by killing time we mean a light lunch of olives, meat and cheeses at a brewpub; followed by a stroll around the rather jolly nice ‘up-town’ part of Portland. Got a nice village-y feel, with small shops, couple of corner pubs, restaurants and coffee shops. A lot of the houses here are from the late 19th Century (Ancient history!) and are prob the nicest we’ve seen. Here are a couple of pix to show you… 
Aug
4
2010
Sounds like a surf-dude phrase, but we literally just made it up (Pat Pending!)!! Didn’t take much seeing as we are travelling fromVancouver down the Pacific edge as far as San Fran.
Seattle was a cool little place – bearing in mind we were only there for 2nights in the hostel, we got an immediate feal for the town. The hostel was very good (Green Tortoise) and we met some fun, and some dull, peeps; as well as a hard-core Tuesday night Scrabble pub visit!!
Now in Portland, Oregon for just a night Aug 4th), this is little more than a hotel (no ‘S’ ! ) stopover. Although today is Aug 4th we celebrated our our Tenth (and ‘tin’) wedding anniversary today. Tomorrow is THE day, but we will be spending it on an overnight Greyhound bus from Portland to Sacremento, Calif.; so we decided this year to be 24H early! And why not? Wedding Anniversaries happen usually only once pa.! – Its ours afterall!!
NEW PIX??? There havent been many new pix for a while – mainly cos we havent been that good at uploading; and partly because there has been less to photograph! We we’re hoping to get some sort of view of the ‘out of place’ Aurora Borealis last night and tonight, but the inevinitable city lights put paid to that…Found a BrewPub instead! — Good steak!
Aug
2
2010
Good job too cos we got ours conviscated at US Customs on the way in from Canada on the Greyhound! The fact we had a potentially dangerous laptop, I paid for our entry visa with Jane’s card, we had knives in our hand luggage mattered not at all. But oranges: dirty things!! bad fruit, bad fruit! To make matters worse we didnt declare them on our customs form – although Mike did ask that if we had declared them could we have kept them?? … Americans and sarcasm does not a cocktail make!!
So we are now in Seattle for days – first impression is that it is a cool place and we found a brew-pub within 72 minutes! Staying at the Green Tortoise Hostel (look it up) which is as a true hostel should be with communal kitchen and common room; plus daily trips and free dinners!!
Prob gonna go to the Science Fiction Museum & Hall of Fame tomorrow (Geek ALert!!) then the hostel has a pub crawl arranged for evening! Follow that with a 4hour coach journey to Portland on Wednesday (our Tenth Wedding Anniversary – no cards please!!) makes for a good few days.
Aug
2
2010
Well, delicately put: this w/end was one of contrasts!
In one way we took a trip with nature and walked through the famous Stanley Park. Jane got told off for feeding the ducks; Mike got to look through the lens of a telescope; and we witnessed a murder . . . A Kestrel swooped from on-high and verily plucked a young duckling from the waters’ edge and flew off into the woods. The Police were not called and everyone was okay in the end!! Except the little birdy. Nature, huh?!
So an other contrast was of a queer sort . . . And involveed a procession of several thousand ‘happy-to-be-different’ type individuals all hoping for some form of equality. And then the politicians tried to be ‘Hip’ and got boo-ed. That’ll Learn ‘em!