Month: August 2011

Los Angeles Day 2

My day 2 in LA was really my first day in LA as I was in bed ill yesterday.

Luckily, Dennis had been on the city tour yesterday and kindly agreed to drive me around a few of the sights again today so I could see them, so apologies for the duplicate photos of the Hollywood Sign, Chinese Theatre and Walk of Fame below.

We also had time to check out the John Paul Getty Museum and the Griffiths Observatory .

The John Paul Getty Museum is home to several art collections including painting, photography, furniture and sculpture, housed in some impressive buildings. Given that it started as his personal art collection it’s impressive, but to be honest unless your a fine art expert or particularly interested in pre-19th century furniture there’s little by anyone you’ll recognise (apart from one van Gogh apparently) and the art collections themselves didn’t seem all that impressive, even the photography exhibit which I thought I would really enjoy. Having said that, the architecture of the museum itself and it’s grounds are stunning. It’s built on hills overlooking LA and the gardens and the view you get from them is worth taking the trek up there alone.

This evening we visited the Griffiths Observatory, which was far more up my street. The Griffiths Observatory is also on top of the hills overlooking LA, so as well as being treated to some incredible night time views of the city we got to see a great planetarium show about the history of astronomy. It’s a great story and the narrator could give Brian Cox a run for his money. There were some really great exhibits, including a ‘Foucault pendulum’ , designed to demonstrate the rotation of the earth (please don’t ask me to explain), the phases of the moon, eclipses, etc. My only regret was not getting to look through their refracting telescope. As far as I know it’s one of the only places in the world where you can get to look at the night sky through a full size observatory telescope, but it was too cloudy and we were too late anyway. Oh well, still a great day.

 

Los Angeles City Tour

Well I finally get to write my first blog post as Jon unfortunately wasn’t too well today and decided to miss our tour of LA to ensure he feels better for Vegas (we think it might have been something he ate at an outdoor bbq in Sonoma but fortunately he’s feeling a lot better tonight)

So today Jon#2 (more usually known as Dennis!) and I took a 5 1/2 hr bus tour of LA and Hollywood, going to the Hollywood Bowl, Kodak Theatre, Rodeo Drive and the Walk of Fame / Chinese Theatre among other sites.

LA was a lot more open and friendly than I was expecting, there is just a huge amount of space everywhere. I could also happily have spent hours on Rodeo Drive, (window shopping of course) so it was probably a good thing the tour only stopped there for 15 mins!

The most suprising part of the tour for me was realising that the Oscars red carpet and the Kodak Theatre entrance is part of a shopping mall with (among other shops, but this is my favourite) a “build-a-bear workshop” – they just cover everything in curtains for Oscar night!

Our plans for tomorrow are to put our lives in Dennis’ hands as he’s volunteered to drive to a few more sites around the city and the surrounding hills, as this is the man who hasn’t owned a car for several years, please wish us luck…

Hope everything is ok with everyone in London (especially Ealing by the looks of it) xx .

 

 

Muir Woods and Sonoma Wine Tour

We had another jam packed day today. The alarm went off at 6:30am so that we could get into San Francisco for our tour of Muir Woods and the Sonoma Valley wineries .

The tour started with the drive to Muir Woods, a protected area of woodland (technically a national monument, not a national park) containing lots of Coastal Giant Redwood trees . We spent about an hour exploring the woods, which are small but interesting and well presented. The giant redwoods grow to up to 250 ft despite having roots only 6-10 feet down, they grow in ‘family circles’ and link roots to hold each other up. They only grow near the coast because they need the mist to take on water at that height as trees can’t take water from the ground to that height).

We then drove out of the bay area to the Sonoma Valley, Napa Valley’s less well known but equally beautiful and less congested neighbour. We got to visit two wineries, one of them owned by the Jacuzzi family (the same ones whose ancestors invented the hot tub!) and got to enjoy two tasting sessions.

Unfortunately, Jen is still on antibiotics so couldn’t actually drink the wine but she still managed to taste a couple of them and there was more than just wine on the menu. The Jacuzzi Winery also had an olive press and we were able to taste lots of different flavoured olive oils (I’ve now fallen in love with hazelnut oil and ‘blood orange’ olive oil on bread). We then had lunch in Sonoma’s very Mediterranean looking square at the Sonoma Cheese Factory. We got to taste lots of cheeses and had a nice lunch, after which I managed to get another glass of wine in next door before continuing to our second winery and more wine tasting.

As you can see from the photos, Sonoma is absolutely beautiful and completely different from San Francisco considering it’s less than an hour away. They say it get’s a degree warmer for every 3 miles you drive north out of San Francisco, you can be wearing jackets and gloves at one end and shorts and T-shorts at the other.

We’re going to get an early night tonight and leave early tomorrow morning for L.A.

 

Musee Mecanique

Yesterday was kind of a rest day for us in San Francisco, but we did manage to get down to Fisherman’s Wharf again in the evening and came across the ‘Musée Mécanique’ at Pier 45.

It describes itself as “One of the world’s largest privately owned collection of coin-operated mechanical musical instruments and antique arcade machines in their original working condition.”

All of the machines are playable from the antique exhibits (some of which are over 100 years old) through the the most recent machines from the 80’s, some of which I remember playing as a kid such as ‘Pole Position’ and ‘Super Sprint’ and really enjoyed playing again. We also go to play on an original ‘Pong’ machine with paddles which was one of the first proper video games in 1972.

After grabbing some food in San Francisco’s famous Boudin Bakery and learning about how their founders travelled from France to set up a bakery during the gold rush and how the bakery survived the 1906 earthquake in their own mini museum, we took a cable car (tram) back to our hotel.

The cable cars are one of San Francisco’s biggest tourist attractions and they still run the original cars, some of which are over 100 years old, up and down the hills of San Francisco. They are so called because the streets under the tracks actually have a cable running right the way underneath them which is constantly moving at 9mph. The cable car controller starts and stops the tram by causing it to grip onto the underground cable when he wants the car to move and letting go when he needs the car to stop.

The best thing though is that passengers are encouraged to hang onto the outside of the car and lean out as it zips up and down the hills. this is especially fun at night when the cable car controllers are having a bit of fun with the tourists and decide to see how fast they can go round some of the corners. The photo at the bottom is a blurry one of me hanging out of the cable car as we flew down a hill.

 

Alcatraz Tour and Cruise

This post follows on from the previous one about our San Francisco tour here - https://www.jonandjendoamerica.com/index.php/2011/08/06/san-francisco-tour/

After our Urban Safari we were given our tickets for the Alcatraz cruise which were hard to come by as they sell out weeks in advance. It takes about 15 minutes on the ferry and they give you a quick introduction (and a movie) before letting you explore the island. The island has lots of buildings including workers living quarters, a lighthouse, power plant, warehouses etc. but the main attraction is the cellhouse where the prisoners were kept.

Rather than just let you walk around the empty cells, recreational area, dining hall and other areas unaided (which would have been great), you’re each given a set of headphones and a control unit you can pause, play, rewind etc. as you walk around. The audio commentary turned the tour from an interesting one into an absolutely fascinating one, because it was narrated by ex prisoners and ex guards.

Walking around the cells and hallways while listening to the sounds and voices of previous occupants was a little spooky but it really bought the experience to life  and we both came away thinking it was one of the best things we’ve done since we came here. Having been in Chicago a few weeks ago seeing the places with Al Capone used to live the high life, it was really interesting to see the 9’x5′ cell where he ended up and Jen had a go at being shut in a pitch black solitary confinement cell for a couple of minutes (I’m a bit too claustrophobic for that one).

Anyway, when we got back we were straight onto the last leg of our tour, a sunset catamaran sailing tour of San Francisco Bay. We got to sail round Alcatraz again and over to Sausalito , before sailing underneath the Golden Gate Bridge as the sun set. A perfect way to finish an amazing day.

 

 

 

San Francisco Tour

We’ve been so busy today that I think I’m going to have to split the day over 2 blog posts.

We started at 8am with a 4 hour “urban safari” of San Francisco (a bus tour), followed by an afternoon trip to Alcatraz and a sunset cruise round the bay to finish the day. I’ve got so many pics that I’m going to save the Alcatraz and sunset post for tomorrow.

Despite being the most southerly place we’ve been, San Francisco is very cold and shrouded in fog at this time of year, so we donned our jumpers and jackets and joined out “Urban Safari” this morning for a trip round San Francisco. Basically, the tour is conducted on a zebra patterned safari bus (see photos) and everybody is provided with a safari hat which we were supposed to wear for the tour.

Suffice it to say that nobody wore the hat, the bus was totally impractical and when the tour guide tried to get us all to sing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” I nearly jumped in front of a passing tram.

However, no amount of tour naffness could detract from what a great city San Francisco is and they did take us to all the major landmarks, including some great spots to view the Golden Gate Bridge.

San Francisco really doesn’t look like any city we’ve been to so far, partly because it’s so earthquake prone nearly all of it’s buildings are 2-3 story town houses, many of them in a distinctive coloured art deco style, partly because it’s amazing hills and trams and partly due to it’s hippy background and it’s laid-back alternative attitude.

It’s a very unique, old fashioned and ‘pretty’ city (for want of a better word) and we’re really looking forward to exploring it some more. I might have to buy some gloves though.

(Oh, and the thing in Jen’s hand in one of the photos is a piece of the Golden Gate Bridge).

 

 

Jelly Belly Factory

On our way to San Francisco today we stopped at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield where they do free tours and tastings and even give you a free bag of Jelly Belly’s.

The good news was that it’s a proper factory tour where you get to see everything, in person and on video as you tour the factory, from the flavour development to the creation of the jelly bean centres to the covering, polishing and packaging. The bad news was that no photography was allowed in the factory, only in the foyer and the gift shop, so not many photos below.

It was actually a really good tour and the factory (unlike the Ben and Jerry’s factory) is huge and produces all the beans they sell around the world. This means you get to see millions of jelly beans being produced in giant “cement mixers”, left to dry in a huge room (I counted a couple of hundred stacks of trays, each apparently holding 10,000 beans) and then being packed by those massive robots you usually see in car plants.

If you think I sound a bit too excited about seeing a sweet factory, you should have seen Jen in the gift shop.

My favourite product was the “BeanBoozled” Russian roulette boxes we bought, which have lot of lovely jelly beans mixed in with some really nasty ones. Will you pick the toasted marshmallow bean or the canned dog food bean? I think some of them may be making their way back to TVI.

Oh, and yes that is a portrait of William and Kate made out of Jelly Bellys. Best not to ask…

 

Sunset Cruise

We’ve been quiet for the last couple of days because we’ve just been taking it easy in Lake Tahoe and haven’t done a great deal, just recharging the batteries. Not to mention the fact that we had to take a quick trip to the doctors and both apparently have bronchitis (not that it’s stopped us doing anything but it was getting a bit annoying).

Anyway, we did manage to get round to taking a boat out on the lake at sunset tonight so I’ve posted a few pictures. This was my first time driving a boat but Jen has apparently done it plenty of times before, not that you’d know it 😉

If I’m being honest, driving a boat around a lake at sunset isn’t half as relaxing as you’d think, especially when you don’t really know what you’re doing, the boat is making unfathomable bleeping noises at you and nobody at the rental company is answering the radio, but we got the hang of it eventually and managed to get the boat back in one piece and nobody died so it was kind of a success.

Unfortunately that’s the end of our time in Lake Tahoe, we’re off to San Francisco.

Lake Tahoe Photography Tour

We arrived in Lake Tahoe today and spent our first day here on a photographic tour with Tahoe Photographic Tours .

We met our guide, Robin in South Lake Tahoe and got to spend the whole day being driven to the most photogenic sights in Lake Tahoe.

It’s a big place (22 by 12 miles) and we’d have needed a week to hunt these places out ourself so it was great to have a knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide who was also an expert photographer. I got a good crop of photos and so did Jen with the little Sony compact, which just goes to prove you don’t need expensive equipment to take great photos (see the dragonfly and butterfly photos below).

It’s no wonder they’re the top rated attraction in Lake Tahoe on TripAdvisor, even if you’re not into photography I can’t think of a better way to see the best parts of the lake and get to know your way around. We’ve now got another 3 days here and lots to pack in.