California Uber Alles

I’ve been staring at the monitor for about 5 minutes now trying to figure out how to begin this post – I guess the best place to start is at the beginning.

At the check-in desk we were told that the plane was overbooked and that there didn’t appear to be any seats for us. After about 20 minutes they finally handed over some boarding passes, however Jenene and Promise were sitting together, Harper’s seat was on the other side of the plane and about 4 rows behind them, and my seat was a further 5 rows behind him! I’m generally a very patient and flexible person, but the thought of our little man spending 10 hours sitting next to a complete stranger backed me into a corner. I very assertively (politely but firmly, probably a little more firmly) informed them that I needed to be sitting with my son. So after an hour of them running back and forth, each time a supposedly more senior person coming to talk with us, they finally had us sitting together, in fact that managed to have all four of us together. To compensate us they gave us some refreshment vouchers (worth about $60), unfortunately when I tried to use them nowhere would accept them! Not the ideal start to our Christmas vacation, but we were on our way none the less.

We were met at LAX by our limo service and we headed straight down to Anaheim – the home of Disneyland. We spent the rest of our first day getting oriented and booking tickets for our next 5 days – 2 days at Disneyland, 1 day at Legoland, an LA tour, and a rest day, before hiring a car and heading up the coast.

The car we hired was supposed to be a Chevrolet Impala or similar – we ended up with a V8 Cadillac! Our drive up the coast saw us stop at Venice beach for a few hours before heading onto Santa Barbara where we spent the next two nights. While we were at Santa Barbara the weather started to turn a bit inclement, and when we left there we didn’t know that we where going be driving into a severe storm that was making national news. We spent 3 ½ hours driving up the Californian coast (through torrential rain and howling winds) to Hearse Castle – unfortunately when we go there they told us that they weren’t doing tours due to the high winds and the castle being situated high up on a hill. We were then informed that the road we were traveling on was closed a little further north due to rock slides. This meant that we had to back track a little, then head inland, drive north past our destination, head back to the coast, then south to Big Suhr where we were staying for the night. When we arrived at Big Suhr, after 7 hours of driving, it was dark, pouring with rain, and our cabin had no electricity – all part of the travel adventure I guess.

The following day the rain had cleared a little so we continued our drive up the coast heading San Francisco. As we drove up the coast road (very similar to the Great Ocean road in Victoria) we saw some of the biggest waves that I have ever seen – the sea was very big and very angry. We made it into San Francisco just after lunch time and headed to our hotel in Fisherman’s Wharf, via Lombard St of course – what sort of tourists would we be if we didn’t drive down the crookedest street in the world. We spent the next 3 days exploring San Francisco – hanging out at Fisherman’s Wharf and Union Square, doing the Alcatraz tour, cycling over the Golden Gate Bridge, and making the most of the gastronomic delights that were on offer.

This was a very memorable holiday and the kids got to experience some great things. I’ll pick out a few of our more memorable events and write more detailed posts about them soon, but for now I hope this gives you a summary of our US trip.