As v-flyers gave me so much help with my itinerary, I thought I’d write a separate post on the road trip. I know you all like the details, so details you will get.
Are you sitting comfortably?
After our most wonderful outbound flight, we went to sleep and didn’t wake up until the next morning.
Well rested, we went to Brenda’s French Soul Food for a much needed breakfast. I had found this place on tripadvisor, but getting there took some doing. We walked through Tenderloin, which was quite a sketchy area at best. Sadly there were homeless people steps apart, some of whom shouting at nothing/no one. Worse still, there were actual human poo on the street
. Once we got there safely, the food (crisp oyster omelette for me, and what looked like beef stew for hubby, both served with cream biscuits (read: scones) and “grits”) and coffee were both delicious, but definitely too much. Very satisfied, we headed to the City Hall ready for the guided tour at 10am. It was a great insight into the city’s history, and it was sweet to see the wedding ceremonies that were held that morning.
We wandered through Union Square, and visited the Coit Tower, before taking a stroll past China Town, the Ferry Building, to Pier 33 for the Alcatraz evening tour. The tour was great, if not a little too crowded. Having come from a day topping 30 degrees, I was in a dress with a cardigan and was positively freezing. My advice to anyone going to Alcatraz is to wrap up warm! We ended the tour with a trip to The Hidden Vine, a lovely wine bar in the financial district (with a very attractive bar man, I should add
), on our way back to the hotel. It had amazing atmosphere, food, and wine.
This was our second visit to San Fran, and we were interested in seeing how much we connected with the city this time. For some reason, I still haven’t fallen in love with it. It’s hard to explain, but I will always remember the moment the Manhattan skyline emerged before my eyes, and the feeling of instantly leaving a piece of my heart there, but although I’ve tried, the same just didn’t happen for me here.
Anyhow, very early on day 3, we picked up our convertible from Dollar. Although my research last year suggested that that very branch only had Mustang in that class, things had clearly changed and we got an Chevvy Camaro, which is an “or similar”. “We’ve got a really nice car for you, an upgrade saving you $80 per day!”. Roll eyes. To be fair, we were handed the keys in the basement to what appeared to be a really nice car indeed (not to mention it’s absolutely huge). I had to ask one of the staff to go through the controls with us, and his response was “sure, what did you want to know?”. How about everything?
Although the service left much to be desired, we liked the car and it was a bonus that it had a mere 2k miles on the clock. As an aside, I had booked the car via US Rentacar, and got a very good price including CDW and no one-way drop off fees since we will be returning it to LAS. The only problem was, we sort of packed on the basis of bags that would fit neatly into the “trunk” of a Mustang, and not a Camaro, which has left hubby having to lift our suitcase in and out of the back seat everyday for the rest of the trip.
Off we went to Yosemite. The drive took around 4.5 hours, and we made a stop in Oakdale on the way. We visited Moss Rose bakery (excellent) to stock up on supplies, and had an early lunch at Cahoots Corner Café which was quite an experience! Raspberry lemonade for one in a huge Mason jar, anyone? And there’s endless free refills. We shared a portion of breakfast burritos, and a bowl of fruit. It was a very sweet American diner.
After some hairpins turn which made me slightly nauseous, we were in Yosemite! What a truly stunning place, even during a drought. We were staying at the bear-proof Stoneman house (which seemed to me like a wooden shack, but I would choose it any day over a tent) within Curry Village in the valley. We weren’t able to check in until after 5pm, so decided to make the most of the afternoon by doing the Mist Trail hike, which was beautiful and not too strenuous. We then took the free shuttle to the Ahwahnee dining room for dinner, but sadly they were fully booked until 8:30pm. By this point I was feeling extremely tired, to the extent that I was struggling to keep my eyes open at all so we headed back and I went straight to bed.
On day 4 we had planned on doing the 4-mile trail, but I woke up feeling under the weather with a slight fever. Instead of a strenuous hike (it would’ve been just over 10 miles in total, the whole “4-mile” thing is apparently misleading), hubby drove us to Glacier Point which would’ve been the finishing line of the hike, where we enjoyed a breath-taking vista. I was feeling worse for wear after such excitement, so returned to the “shack” for an afternoon nap, whilst feeling very grateful that we weren’t camping. The hubby spent the afternoon walking in Yosemite Valley, and standing in where Mirror Lake would’ve been had there not been a massive drought, and finished the day with some pizza from Curry Village, which he enjoyed.
Day 5 included driving to Carmel and Point Lobos state reserve before heading to our motel (Stage Coach Lodge) for 2 nights. I was feeling much better, and quite pleased and relieved with the quick recovery. Carmel was quint, with a lovely beach and we had a nice seafood lunch at AW Shucks. Point Lobos was scenic, and I was able to manage a few beautiful walks, seeing sea lions, otters and seals, as well as various birds. We were both pretty wiped out by the time we got to the motel, and had a very early night (I’m starting to realise that this doesn’t necessary sound like someone’s 30th celebration trip! What can I say? We are wise beyond our years
). Apparently I was very lucky to have booked the motel super early (some may call that good planning ), since there happened to be a Porsche event in town and the hotel prices had now tripled.
Day 6 included the Monterey Aquarium, followed by an excellent and reasonably priced sushi lunch at Crystal Fish (more in the actual Monterey town rather than the touristy areas), before picking up the car to do the 17-mile drive. It was pretty scenic, and although we don’t play golf, it was nice to see Pebble Beach, and we ended the day before sunset by visiting Sticks at Spanish Bay. We had wanted to go to Roy’s, but it only had two seats at the bar so we passed. Sticks was great. I had the most amazing burger (almost as good as the one from the Graze menu), and hubby enjoyed the fish tacos. Better still, they gave us the $10 credit off the bill to reimburse us for the entrance fee.
Day 7 was hubby’s birthday, and we began our drive down the Big Sur. By this point we had developed serious Mustang envy, while at the same time being completely satisfied with our car. Every time one drove by (and there were lots of them on the Hwy 1), my eyes turned green . I especially liked the way their indicator lights worked… but I digress. We enjoyed the moody views before the morning fog lifted, and going over Bixby Bridge, before our first stop at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park to see the unique McWay Falls. Unlike many tourists, we also spent a little bit of time walking the Edwolsden trail after seeing the falls and enjoying our “big tree experience” since Mariposa Grove (near Yosemite) was closed.
We continued our scenic journey down the Big Sur towards Hearst Castle, and made a brief stop to see the massive elephant seals. I had prebooked the Grand Rooms tour at Hearst Castle for 14:30, and since we arrived around an hour early, the nice lady at the ticket desk moved us forward to the 13:50 tour, leaving us just enough time to eat our delicious sandwich which we had picked up from the Big Sur deli. Hearst Castle was unbelievable, and offered fantastic views of the coastline.
After the tour, we drove on to our hotel, Moonstone Landing, on Moonstone beach in Cambria. As it was hubby’s birthday, I wanted to take him to the Sea Chest restaurant next door, which was a seafood restaurant with amazing reviews. The only downside was that they do not offer a reservation policy, so people start queuing long before the 17:30 opening to be seated in time for sunset. We joined the queue at 16:45 (this was a Saturday), by which time there were already 15-20 people ahead of us, many of whom came well prepared with deck chairs and bottles of wine and beer! We got chatting to a lovely local couple in front, and had a blast. I’d love to share more details with you, but we are bound by the “rules and regs”, one of which is “what happens in line stays in line”. Time flew and we got in as the door opened, and it was worth the wait! We shared the best calamari ever as a starter, and a large ciopinno between us, all washed down with some local beers. The sunset over the beach was beautiful as well, and we finished evening very stuffed, so benefited from a walk down the boardwalk on the beach.
Day 8 had a lot of driving for the hubby. We made stops in Morro Bay, where we spotted a couple of otters swimming in the bay, Pismo Beach where we watched a surfing competition for a few minutes, and Solvang (a very Danish town), where we, well, shared a Danish at a cafe. We continued down to Santa Barbara, and waited for about 30 minutes before a table became available at the Shellfish Co on Stearns Wharf. Another nice seafood meal later, we walked along the beach in Santa Barbara before heading to Camarillo Outlets. The shopping was pretty great, and we had a quick bite to eat before driving into LA. To my surprise, traffic was still really bad given it was around 9:30/10pm on a Sunday evening. We were beginning our Holiday Inn Express (HIX) hopping for the next three nights in LA, as my quest to obtain 2 free night certificates with IHG as part of their Accelerate promotion for our stay in NYC in one of the Intercontinental next summer. The first HIX is in what IHG calls “Downtown West”, otherwise known as “the ghetto”.
8am on Day 9, we were picked up by Joss, our tour guide for the next 5 hours, to go on the LA Highlights tour. I had booked him on California Dream Tours, and luckily we were his only guests that morning so it turned out to be a private tour! Joss took us to Beverly Hills, Rodeo drive, Hollywood Boulevard (for Chinese theatre and the walk of fame, as well as the Roosevelt hotel), followed by downtown (the Disney Concert hall etc), finishing the tour at Olvera Street where he treated us to some tacos. He was excellent – very enthusiastic and easy going, and clearly loved LA as well as what he does. He did find it really funny, though, that we were staying in “the ghetto”!
In the afternoon, we were moving onto the next HIX at Santa Monica boulevard. From there, we took Uber to Venice beach, and walked to Santa Monica on the beach front. It was a lovely walk, if not one that slightly stank too much of weed for our liking. Santa Monica was buzzing, where we enjoyed a cocktail/beer at The Independent bar (happy hour), before having dinner at Tender Greens, a healthy (yet delicious) restaurant chain. It was an LA experience that we wanted to have.
The position of this HIX placed us perfectly for the Getty Centre, where we spent the morning of day 10. It was spectacular, with a wonderful collection of art, and amazing architecture. We enjoyed lunch at the restaurant, though my food could’ve done with some more seasoning. I also helped a nice Chinese couple at the next table, who were brave enough to travel on their own (ie not with a tour group) on a similar road trip, without being able to speak much English (they were wondering what tomato was). That’s my good deed done for the day.
After lunch, we went to Warner Brothers Studios for the tour. We had a bad start – the TomTom had taken us to Gate 4, which we soon realised was the wrong gate simply based on the cars we were seeing. Yep, it was the working entrance, for celebrities. Upon turning around, just as hubby started the car, someone in sunglasses who I assumed was a celebrity, had just finished chatting with his mates, began to cross the road and we nearly ran him over! “Whoa!” he shouted at me (in the passenger seat), and how I wished we didn’t have the roof down then.
After the near miss, we went to Gate 6, and were annoyed to find that in addition to the $62 each that they charged for the tour (which I thought was outrageous), they wanted $10 for parking. Cheeky. $10 paid over begrudgingly, we went through to the ticket office. “What’s the earliest tour you could get us on please?” I asked. “the 3:15”, the chap said with what I could only describe as the voice of Micky Mouse. I looked at my watch – allowing 2.5 hours for the tour, we would still be able to make it in time for sunset at the Griffith Observatory. Great. Money handed over and with tickets in hand, we walked over to the chap standing about 3 metres from the ticket desk. “Your tour will start at 3:30, as the 3:15 is full.” I turned to my hubby, and whispered “I’m about to kick off”, and watched his amazement when I said to the poor chap “No, that is too late. This man told us 30 seconds ago that we are going on the 3:15. I’ve just about had enough. We need to be on the 3:15 or I would like a refund.” 
The poor chap clearly didn’t see such this coming, but dealt with my outburst calmly. After having a quiet word with his wonderful colleague Micky, he gave us the pass for the 3:15 tour. Despite feeling a little embarrassed about my outburst, I felt quite pleased with the result, especially when our tour guide began the tour by saying “oh, don’t we have a very full group today” as we boarded the little cart. 
To be fair, the tour was excellent, and we very much enjoyed ourselves.
We then made our way to the Griffith Observatory, not long before the sun began to set. Good job we went on the 3:15 eh? It was a spectacular sight, and gave us a new perspective of the city. Shortly after sunset, a huge monocular were set up by the staff, and we saw Saturn and its signature ring! It was truly incredible, though the experience was somewhat shadowed by a passer-by man asking the staff “what’s the difference between the sun and a star?” On that note, we made our way to the third HIX, in North Hollywood for the night. Final drama of the day happened when I had woken up in the car when I felt a sudden jolt , before being reassured by hubby that “we haven’t crashed. I hit the brake very hard as I didn’t realise the car in front was not moving”. Oh dear, I think it’s time that we began sharing the driving.
As I have alluded to in the comments of my outbound TR, to put it mildly, I am not a confident driver even when driving on the left of the road, whereas the hubby is a natural (or so I thought). For that reason, and having seen the size of the car, I was not keen on the idea of driving. However, we were Vegas-bound tomorrow, with a long, boring but an apparently easy drive, and given that we have quite a bit of driving coming up going to the Grand Canyon and back (and having witnessed the two near misses in one day), I knew that I had to give it a try.
We enjoyed LA more than expected, perhaps because we had average expectations and a good introduction to it at the beginning with the highlights tour. That said, I don’t think we are in any rush to come back – it is very much an urban sprawl, and with its terrible traffic and lack of a good public transport system, it doesn’t land itself too well for tourists.
Day 11 came, and we set off by 8am towards Vegas. Hubby drove us to Kingsman before we switched over, and I actually found the drive surprisingly easy. The only bit that I struggled with was to stay within the speed limit . Two hours later, we got to Fashion Outlets just outside Vegas, and popped in for a quick wander, ending up with a couple of items again. 1.5 hours later, hubby took over the drive once again and safely got us to our hotel for the next two nights at the Mirage.
This was our first time in Vegas, and we were shocked by the size of the hotel. We headed to the Bellagio for a late lunch at its buffet, and it was fabulous! The timing actually worked out for our advantage, since during the meal the dinner items came out as well, so many snow crab legs were consumed . We then attempted to walk off our huge meal by visiting the Forum shops at the Caesars, the Paris and the Flamingo (for the flamingos), before heading to our pre-booked show of Jubilee at Bally’s. Now this was an old-fashioned Vegas-style show, including lots and lots of topless showgirls. It was like a variety show, and truthfully we found it pretty underwhelming.
Day 12 included a lie in, wandering around the Venetian, and going to Top of the World at Stratosphere for lunch. I had popped a motion sickness tablet in advance of the spinning restaurant, and am so glad I did, as the whole thing really was quite disorientating. The view was great, with equally good service and food. We were given a window table, and a little birthday cake for the hubby which was a very nice touch.
In the afternoon we headed to the Premium Outlets in Las Vegas North. The selection of shops was excellent there, with Marc by Marc Jacobs (recently opened), and Samsonite as well which I haven’t seen in other outlets during this trip. I then had to have a little nap to recover from the Dramamine (that stuff really knocks me out, even the non-drowsy version), before going to see Absinthe in the tent at Caesars Palace, and this was one of the best things we’ve ever seen! We would highly recommend it to anyone who is over 18 and not easily offended. Do check it out if you are going to Vegas soon! We paid $96 each and it was worth every penny.
A late dinner was consumed at Hash House a go go (at the Linq), and the ribs we had were wonderful. We also watched two guys at the next table eat a portion of chicken and waffles each, and you should have seen the portion size! We finished the night with a brief bit of gambling on a video Blackjack machine back at the Mirage, since this was the only place I could track down a $5 minimum bet. I should explain that I do not let myself gamble (being well aware of my Chinese genes) other than for the Grand National, for fear of getting addicted and losing all my life savings. Having just researched the rules of blackjack the day before, even $5 seemed like a lot to lose instantly per hand. But off we went, and hubby, who was put in charge of cash, gave me $30 to play. That lasted less than 5 minutes, and in fact, it ran out even before my free drink came! I vaguely remember cheering when I won the first hand, and then it was all quite a blur . What I also vaguely recall was the extreme annoyance and bitterness I felt when the hubby told me that it was time to call it a night as I had ran out of cash. This is why I shouldn’t gamble!
Day 13 was a big one, as we were driving to Grand Canyon. When I say we, I actually mean it this time as we shared the driving again. It was quite a long journey (including a stop at the Hoover Dam, a lunch break and a quick shop at Walmart to get family-sized peanut butter M&Ms), and by the time we got to the El Tovar hotel, it was about 30 minutes before sunset. Sunset was absolutely beautiful, and the colours really came to life. We tried the Arizona grown prime ribs at the Bright Angel restaurant for dinner, and it was another good meal.
Early start on Day 14, where we picked up our bikes from the Bright Angel Café at the visitor centre at 8:30. We spent the next 5 hours cycling to Hermit’s rest and back, and what a fabulous way to see the Grand Canyon! The sheer scale of the thing is incredible. We enjoyed every minute of it (even those minutes going up the 6% incline), and wished our visit was longer. We agreed to come back again one day when we could try hiking down to the bottom and back. We drove back to Vegas in the afternoon, this time to the Four Seasons for our final night of the trip.
Now that is a classy hotel. I understand that this is one of the not as nice hotels under the Four Seasons name, but as this is our first time staying with them, we found it pretty amazing. Upon check in, we needed to go and return the car to LAS, and every piece of our luggage and shopping (including pretty random bits and bobs at this point – big bottles of water, toilet roll, open bags of jerky, you name it ) was taken care of without asking. Despite how scruffy we must’ve looked having arrived after a morning of cycling followed by a roof down trip (especially comparing to many guests who were in dinner jackets and gowns for some black tie event), they offered us late check-out for free. All of this just made the service at Dollar car returns look even worse in comparison – there were 3 long queues of cars waiting to be inspected, with many people needing to catch a plane shortly and no staff. That said, they barely looked at our car and signed it off with no issue or additional charge, which is just as well as no inspection or notes were done when we checked it out in San Fran either.
A quick taxi ride took us back to the oasis of a hotel, and we decided to have dinner at the Press Bar in the lobby. Both the food and the cocktail and beer were very yummy.
The last morning of the trip was spent at the Mandalay Bay casino (in the same building) on the multi-game machines which had minimum bets of 25 cents (as it turned out, not challenging or exciting enough for my liking) and $1, as we had some dollars to spend. Still, I managed to get myself quite worked up although only managed to lose $10 overall over a couple of hours. We decided that I could perhaps calm down by spending the final hour and a half at the lovely pool at the hotel, and it was a very soothing experience indeed.
Needless to say, we felt pretty sad to leave the hotel, and even more blue that our road trip was coming to an end.
I’m going to stop here (if I haven’t already lost you already ), and save the rest for the return TR. It was an amazing trip, and everything we had hoped for, well, maybe a Mustang.
Here’s a link to some of the photos from the trip. https://www.flickr.com/photos/94449415@N02/albums/72157659121536322
Are you sitting comfortably?
After our most wonderful outbound flight, we went to sleep and didn’t wake up until the next morning.
Well rested, we went to Brenda’s French Soul Food for a much needed breakfast. I had found this place on tripadvisor, but getting there took some doing. We walked through Tenderloin, which was quite a sketchy area at best. Sadly there were homeless people steps apart, some of whom shouting at nothing/no one. Worse still, there were actual human poo on the street
. Once we got there safely, the food (crisp oyster omelette for me, and what looked like beef stew for hubby, both served with cream biscuits (read: scones) and “grits”) and coffee were both delicious, but definitely too much. Very satisfied, we headed to the City Hall ready for the guided tour at 10am. It was a great insight into the city’s history, and it was sweet to see the wedding ceremonies that were held that morning. We wandered through Union Square, and visited the Coit Tower, before taking a stroll past China Town, the Ferry Building, to Pier 33 for the Alcatraz evening tour. The tour was great, if not a little too crowded. Having come from a day topping 30 degrees, I was in a dress with a cardigan and was positively freezing. My advice to anyone going to Alcatraz is to wrap up warm! We ended the tour with a trip to The Hidden Vine, a lovely wine bar in the financial district (with a very attractive bar man, I should add
), on our way back to the hotel. It had amazing atmosphere, food, and wine. This was our second visit to San Fran, and we were interested in seeing how much we connected with the city this time. For some reason, I still haven’t fallen in love with it. It’s hard to explain, but I will always remember the moment the Manhattan skyline emerged before my eyes, and the feeling of instantly leaving a piece of my heart there, but although I’ve tried, the same just didn’t happen for me here.
Anyhow, very early on day 3, we picked up our convertible from Dollar. Although my research last year suggested that that very branch only had Mustang in that class, things had clearly changed and we got an Chevvy Camaro, which is an “or similar”. “We’ve got a really nice car for you, an upgrade saving you $80 per day!”. Roll eyes. To be fair, we were handed the keys in the basement to what appeared to be a really nice car indeed (not to mention it’s absolutely huge). I had to ask one of the staff to go through the controls with us, and his response was “sure, what did you want to know?”. How about everything?
Although the service left much to be desired, we liked the car and it was a bonus that it had a mere 2k miles on the clock. As an aside, I had booked the car via US Rentacar, and got a very good price including CDW and no one-way drop off fees since we will be returning it to LAS. The only problem was, we sort of packed on the basis of bags that would fit neatly into the “trunk” of a Mustang, and not a Camaro, which has left hubby having to lift our suitcase in and out of the back seat everyday for the rest of the trip. Off we went to Yosemite. The drive took around 4.5 hours, and we made a stop in Oakdale on the way. We visited Moss Rose bakery (excellent) to stock up on supplies, and had an early lunch at Cahoots Corner Café which was quite an experience! Raspberry lemonade for one in a huge Mason jar, anyone? And there’s endless free refills. We shared a portion of breakfast burritos, and a bowl of fruit. It was a very sweet American diner.
After some hairpins turn which made me slightly nauseous, we were in Yosemite! What a truly stunning place, even during a drought. We were staying at the bear-proof Stoneman house (which seemed to me like a wooden shack, but I would choose it any day over a tent) within Curry Village in the valley. We weren’t able to check in until after 5pm, so decided to make the most of the afternoon by doing the Mist Trail hike, which was beautiful and not too strenuous. We then took the free shuttle to the Ahwahnee dining room for dinner, but sadly they were fully booked until 8:30pm. By this point I was feeling extremely tired, to the extent that I was struggling to keep my eyes open at all so we headed back and I went straight to bed.
On day 4 we had planned on doing the 4-mile trail, but I woke up feeling under the weather with a slight fever. Instead of a strenuous hike (it would’ve been just over 10 miles in total, the whole “4-mile” thing is apparently misleading), hubby drove us to Glacier Point which would’ve been the finishing line of the hike, where we enjoyed a breath-taking vista. I was feeling worse for wear after such excitement, so returned to the “shack” for an afternoon nap, whilst feeling very grateful that we weren’t camping. The hubby spent the afternoon walking in Yosemite Valley, and standing in where Mirror Lake would’ve been had there not been a massive drought, and finished the day with some pizza from Curry Village, which he enjoyed.
Day 5 included driving to Carmel and Point Lobos state reserve before heading to our motel (Stage Coach Lodge) for 2 nights. I was feeling much better, and quite pleased and relieved with the quick recovery. Carmel was quint, with a lovely beach and we had a nice seafood lunch at AW Shucks. Point Lobos was scenic, and I was able to manage a few beautiful walks, seeing sea lions, otters and seals, as well as various birds. We were both pretty wiped out by the time we got to the motel, and had a very early night (I’m starting to realise that this doesn’t necessary sound like someone’s 30th celebration trip! What can I say? We are wise beyond our years
). Apparently I was very lucky to have booked the motel super early (some may call that good planning ), since there happened to be a Porsche event in town and the hotel prices had now tripled. Day 6 included the Monterey Aquarium, followed by an excellent and reasonably priced sushi lunch at Crystal Fish (more in the actual Monterey town rather than the touristy areas), before picking up the car to do the 17-mile drive. It was pretty scenic, and although we don’t play golf, it was nice to see Pebble Beach, and we ended the day before sunset by visiting Sticks at Spanish Bay. We had wanted to go to Roy’s, but it only had two seats at the bar so we passed. Sticks was great. I had the most amazing burger (almost as good as the one from the Graze menu), and hubby enjoyed the fish tacos. Better still, they gave us the $10 credit off the bill to reimburse us for the entrance fee.
Day 7 was hubby’s birthday, and we began our drive down the Big Sur. By this point we had developed serious Mustang envy, while at the same time being completely satisfied with our car. Every time one drove by (and there were lots of them on the Hwy 1), my eyes turned green
. I especially liked the way their indicator lights worked… but I digress. We enjoyed the moody views before the morning fog lifted, and going over Bixby Bridge, before our first stop at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park to see the unique McWay Falls. Unlike many tourists, we also spent a little bit of time walking the Edwolsden trail after seeing the falls and enjoying our “big tree experience” since Mariposa Grove (near Yosemite) was closed. We continued our scenic journey down the Big Sur towards Hearst Castle, and made a brief stop to see the massive elephant seals. I had prebooked the Grand Rooms tour at Hearst Castle for 14:30, and since we arrived around an hour early, the nice lady at the ticket desk moved us forward to the 13:50 tour, leaving us just enough time to eat our delicious sandwich which we had picked up from the Big Sur deli. Hearst Castle was unbelievable, and offered fantastic views of the coastline.
After the tour, we drove on to our hotel, Moonstone Landing, on Moonstone beach in Cambria. As it was hubby’s birthday, I wanted to take him to the Sea Chest restaurant next door, which was a seafood restaurant with amazing reviews. The only downside was that they do not offer a reservation policy, so people start queuing long before the 17:30 opening to be seated in time for sunset. We joined the queue at 16:45 (this was a Saturday), by which time there were already 15-20 people ahead of us, many of whom came well prepared with deck chairs
and bottles of wine and beer! We got chatting to a lovely local couple in front, and had a blast. I’d love to share more details with you, but we are bound by the “rules and regs”, one of which is “what happens in line stays in line”. Time flew and we got in as the door opened, and it was worth the wait! We shared the best calamari ever as a starter, and a large ciopinno between us, all washed down with some local beers. The sunset over the beach was beautiful as well, and we finished evening very stuffed, so benefited from a walk down the boardwalk on the beach. Day 8 had a lot of driving for the hubby. We made stops in Morro Bay, where we spotted a couple of otters swimming in the bay, Pismo Beach where we watched a surfing competition for a few minutes, and Solvang (a very Danish town), where we, well, shared a Danish at a cafe. We continued down to Santa Barbara, and waited for about 30 minutes before a table became available at the Shellfish Co on Stearns Wharf. Another nice seafood meal later, we walked along the beach in Santa Barbara before heading to Camarillo Outlets. The shopping was pretty great, and we had a quick bite to eat before driving into LA. To my surprise, traffic was still really bad given it was around 9:30/10pm on a Sunday evening. We were beginning our Holiday Inn Express (HIX) hopping for the next three nights in LA, as my quest to obtain 2 free night certificates with IHG as part of their Accelerate promotion for our stay in NYC in one of the Intercontinental next summer. The first HIX is in what IHG calls “Downtown West”, otherwise known as “the ghetto”.
8am on Day 9, we were picked up by Joss, our tour guide for the next 5 hours, to go on the LA Highlights tour. I had booked him on California Dream Tours, and luckily we were his only guests that morning so it turned out to be a private tour! Joss took us to Beverly Hills, Rodeo drive, Hollywood Boulevard (for Chinese theatre and the walk of fame, as well as the Roosevelt hotel), followed by downtown (the Disney Concert hall etc), finishing the tour at Olvera Street where he treated us to some tacos. He was excellent – very enthusiastic and easy going, and clearly loved LA as well as what he does. He did find it really funny, though, that we were staying in “the ghetto”!
In the afternoon, we were moving onto the next HIX at Santa Monica boulevard. From there, we took Uber to Venice beach, and walked to Santa Monica on the beach front. It was a lovely walk, if not one that slightly stank too much of weed for our liking. Santa Monica was buzzing, where we enjoyed a cocktail/beer at The Independent bar (happy hour), before having dinner at Tender Greens, a healthy (yet delicious) restaurant chain. It was an LA experience that we wanted to have.
The position of this HIX placed us perfectly for the Getty Centre, where we spent the morning of day 10. It was spectacular, with a wonderful collection of art, and amazing architecture. We enjoyed lunch at the restaurant, though my food could’ve done with some more seasoning. I also helped a nice Chinese couple at the next table, who were brave enough to travel on their own (ie not with a tour group) on a similar road trip, without being able to speak much English (they were wondering what tomato was). That’s my good deed done for the day.
After lunch, we went to Warner Brothers Studios for the tour. We had a bad start – the TomTom had taken us to Gate 4, which we soon realised was the wrong gate simply based on the cars we were seeing. Yep, it was the working entrance, for celebrities. Upon turning around, just as hubby started the car, someone in sunglasses who I assumed was a celebrity, had just finished chatting with his mates, began to cross the road and we nearly ran him over! “Whoa!” he shouted at me (in the passenger seat), and how I wished we didn’t have the roof down then.
After the near miss, we went to Gate 6, and were annoyed to find that in addition to the $62 each that they charged for the tour (which I thought was outrageous), they wanted $10 for parking. Cheeky. $10 paid over begrudgingly, we went through to the ticket office. “What’s the earliest tour you could get us on please?” I asked. “the 3:15”, the chap said with what I could only describe as the voice of Micky Mouse. I looked at my watch – allowing 2.5 hours for the tour, we would still be able to make it in time for sunset at the Griffith Observatory. Great. Money handed over and with tickets in hand, we walked over to the chap standing about 3 metres from the ticket desk. “Your tour will start at 3:30, as the 3:15 is full.” I turned to my hubby, and whispered “I’m about to kick off”, and watched his amazement when I said to the poor chap “No, that is too late. This man told us 30 seconds ago that we are going on the 3:15. I’ve just about had enough. We need to be on the 3:15 or I would like a refund.” The poor chap clearly didn’t see such this coming, but dealt with my outburst calmly. After having a quiet word with his wonderful colleague Micky, he gave us the pass for the 3:15 tour. Despite feeling a little embarrassed about my outburst, I felt quite pleased with the result, especially when our tour guide began the tour by saying “oh, don’t we have a very full group today” as we boarded the little cart. To be fair, the tour was excellent, and we very much enjoyed ourselves. We then made our way to the Griffith Observatory, not long before the sun began to set. Good job we went on the 3:15 eh?
It was a spectacular sight, and gave us a new perspective of the city. Shortly after sunset, a huge monocular were set up by the staff, and we saw Saturn and its signature ring! It was truly incredible, though the experience was somewhat shadowed by a passer-by man asking the staff “what’s the difference between the sun and a star?” On that note, we made our way to the third HIX, in North Hollywood for the night. Final drama of the day happened when I had woken up in the car when I felt a sudden jolt , before being reassured by hubby that “we haven’t crashed. I hit the brake very hard as I didn’t realise the car in front was not moving”. Oh dear, I think it’s time that we began sharing the driving. As I have alluded to in the comments of my outbound TR, to put it mildly, I am not a confident driver even when driving on the left of the road, whereas the hubby is a natural (or so I thought). For that reason, and having seen the size of the car, I was not keen on the idea of driving. However, we were Vegas-bound tomorrow, with a long, boring but an apparently easy drive, and given that we have quite a bit of driving coming up going to the Grand Canyon and back (and having witnessed the two near misses in one day), I knew that I had to give it a try.
We enjoyed LA more than expected, perhaps because we had average expectations and a good introduction to it at the beginning with the highlights tour. That said, I don’t think we are in any rush to come back – it is very much an urban sprawl, and with its terrible traffic and lack of a good public transport system, it doesn’t land itself too well for tourists.
Day 11 came, and we set off by 8am towards Vegas. Hubby drove us to Kingsman before we switched over, and I actually found the drive surprisingly easy. The only bit that I struggled with was to stay within the speed limit
. Two hours later, we got to Fashion Outlets just outside Vegas, and popped in for a quick wander, ending up with a couple of items again. 1.5 hours later, hubby took over the drive once again and safely got us to our hotel for the next two nights at the Mirage. This was our first time in Vegas, and we were shocked by the size of the hotel. We headed to the Bellagio for a late lunch at its buffet, and it was fabulous! The timing actually worked out for our advantage, since during the meal the dinner items came out as well, so many snow crab legs were consumed
. We then attempted to walk off our huge meal by visiting the Forum shops at the Caesars, the Paris and the Flamingo (for the flamingos), before heading to our pre-booked show of Jubilee at Bally’s. Now this was an old-fashioned Vegas-style show, including lots and lots of topless showgirls. It was like a variety show, and truthfully we found it pretty underwhelming. Day 12 included a lie in, wandering around the Venetian, and going to Top of the World at Stratosphere for lunch. I had popped a motion sickness tablet in advance of the spinning restaurant, and am so glad I did, as the whole thing really was quite disorientating. The view was great, with equally good service and food. We were given a window table, and a little birthday cake for the hubby which was a very nice touch.
In the afternoon we headed to the Premium Outlets in Las Vegas North. The selection of shops was excellent there, with Marc by Marc Jacobs (recently opened), and Samsonite as well which I haven’t seen in other outlets during this trip. I then had to have a little nap to recover from the Dramamine (that stuff really knocks me out, even the non-drowsy version), before going to see Absinthe in the tent at Caesars Palace, and this was one of the best things we’ve ever seen! We would highly recommend it to anyone who is over 18 and not easily offended. Do check it out if you are going to Vegas soon! We paid $96 each and it was worth every penny.
A late dinner was consumed at Hash House a go go (at the Linq), and the ribs we had were wonderful. We also watched two guys at the next table eat a portion of chicken and waffles each, and you should have seen the portion size!
We finished the night with a brief bit of gambling on a video Blackjack machine back at the Mirage, since this was the only place I could track down a $5 minimum bet. I should explain that I do not let myself gamble (being well aware of my Chinese genes) other than for the Grand National, for fear of getting addicted and losing all my life savings. Having just researched the rules of blackjack the day before, even $5 seemed like a lot to lose instantly per hand. But off we went, and hubby, who was put in charge of cash, gave me $30 to play. That lasted less than 5 minutes, and in fact, it ran out even before my free drink came! I vaguely remember cheering when I won the first hand, and then it was all quite a blur . What I also vaguely recall was the extreme annoyance and bitterness I felt when the hubby told me that it was time to call it a night as I had ran out of cash. This is why I shouldn’t gamble!Day 13 was a big one, as we were driving to Grand Canyon. When I say we, I actually mean it this time as we shared the driving again. It was quite a long journey (including a stop at the Hoover Dam, a lunch break and a quick shop at Walmart to get family-sized peanut butter M&Ms), and by the time we got to the El Tovar hotel, it was about 30 minutes before sunset. Sunset was absolutely beautiful, and the colours really came to life. We tried the Arizona grown prime ribs at the Bright Angel restaurant for dinner, and it was another good meal.
Early start on Day 14, where we picked up our bikes from the Bright Angel Café at the visitor centre at 8:30. We spent the next 5 hours cycling to Hermit’s rest and back, and what a fabulous way to see the Grand Canyon! The sheer scale of the thing is incredible. We enjoyed every minute of it (even those minutes going up the 6% incline), and wished our visit was longer. We agreed to come back again one day when we could try hiking down to the bottom and back. We drove back to Vegas in the afternoon, this time to the Four Seasons for our final night of the trip.
Now that is a classy hotel. I understand that this is one of the not as nice hotels under the Four Seasons name, but as this is our first time staying with them, we found it pretty amazing. Upon check in, we needed to go and return the car to LAS, and every piece of our luggage and shopping (including pretty random bits and bobs at this point – big bottles of water, toilet roll, open bags of jerky, you name it
) was taken care of without asking. Despite how scruffy we must’ve looked having arrived after a morning of cycling followed by a roof down trip (especially comparing to many guests who were in dinner jackets and gowns for some black tie event), they offered us late check-out for free. All of this just made the service at Dollar car returns look even worse in comparison – there were 3 long queues of cars waiting to be inspected, with many people needing to catch a plane shortly and no staff. That said, they barely looked at our car and signed it off with no issue or additional charge, which is just as well as no inspection or notes were done when we checked it out in San Fran either. A quick taxi ride took us back to the oasis of a hotel, and we decided to have dinner at the Press Bar in the lobby. Both the food and the cocktail and beer were very yummy.
The last morning of the trip was spent at the Mandalay Bay casino (in the same building) on the multi-game machines which had minimum bets of 25 cents (as it turned out, not challenging or exciting enough for my liking) and $1, as we had some dollars to spend. Still, I managed to get myself quite worked up although only managed to lose $10 overall over a couple of hours.
We decided that I could perhaps calm down by spending the final hour and a half at the lovely pool at the hotel, and it was a very soothing experience indeed. Needless to say, we felt pretty sad to leave the hotel, and even more blue that our road trip was coming to an end.
I’m going to stop here (if I haven’t already lost you already
), and save the rest for the return TR. It was an amazing trip, and everything we had hoped for, well, maybe a Mustang. Here’s a link to some of the photos from the trip. https://www.flickr.com/photos/94449415@N02/albums/72157659121536322
Unlike Randy Newman I don't love LA, but it is worth the experience the once....
but I appreciate that YMMV!
