TravelStream™ news feed for member susan_g on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/susan_g en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:55:55 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1191550620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1191550620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1191550620/tpod.html Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:55:55 -0400 Away for awhile...

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Mendocino, California, United States

After spending a really great day at Alcatraz, Grant and I hired a car and headed out of town. For some unknown reason I thought that Grant had slightly more experience regarding driving on the right, but dodging pigs in Samoa and horses and carts in Cuba didn't really constitute too much experience in my own mind. However, within 10 minutes of being in the car (without any map) we were on the Golden Gate Bridge and onward bound to Sanoma (wine country). Grant was asking me to take photo's out of the car window - I was telling him to keep right and watch were he was going...... you get the picture. We haven't had close shaves at all, but it was the beginnings of what I will call the sweaty feet syndrome (I have discovered that my feet sweat when I get nervous or scared!).

Ok, so onward bound Sanoma proved beautiful - a fantastic valley of vineyards as far as the eye can see with bautiful rocky rivers and steep hills/mountains in the background. Ideally it would have been good to check out some of the vineyards, but that's not so much fun when someone has to drive so we've settled for drinking in the evenings. Drinking in the evenings has been a very good thing to relax our minds! On approach to our camp site (in a national park) on night one I realised that I hadn't ever been so scared about camping in my entire life! Grant was worried about crazy Vietnam war veterans (clearly he has watched too much TV) and I was scared of bears. Things weren't helped on the silent drive to the camp site when Grant mentioned that 1 guy at the info center had told him to watch out for diamond head snakes! In my mind I was convinced that I was going to die.... as it turns out though the crazy Vietnam vet (camp neighbour) turned out to be a pretty German looking girl (Grant was happy), the bears turned out to be deer and their fawn (I was happy) and the grass was cut short so we need not worry about snakes!

After night one of happy camping we headed onward to Lake Tahoe (a very long drive!). The drive was a tad crazy - my feet were sweating profusely at times (and in bad patches hands as well!!!) and not because of Grant's driving but because of the shear cliffs on either side of the road with no barriers. The scenery was once again outstanding - barren cliffs, huge trees (pines and redwoods) and beautiful rivers. It reminded me of the scenery that you see in the Lassie type movies, or alternatively the kind of scenery that you expect to see a big bear loping in the rivers. Ok, so we also climbed to seemingly great altitudes - over 7000m. The altitude made our drink bottles shrink and our ears pop a bit. The lake was beautiful, with its own sandy beach and I thought that was pretty cool! Never before had I seen a sandy beach on a lake.

The camp site was ok, but there was a sign at this one saying that we were staying in a bear habitat and to keep our food in the car. My fear of bears now abated having spent one night in the open and I wanted to hang our food outside the neighbours RV, but Grant didn't think that would be funny..... needless to say that the food scraps remained in the car.

Yesterday we had our biggest journey yet, Lake Tahoe back to the coast of California - what a mission! Once again the scenery was nothing short of outstanding - more beautiful rivers and tree's followed by more desert like scenery and mountains. My feet got very very sweaty on this journey! Grant really didn't want to end up driving in the dark (understandable) and so we were going at what I thought felt like rally speed across America. Once again there were times when the roads weren't so great (no white line and steep cliffs) but we made it to the Avenue of the Giants before night fall (phewww). Big ups to Grant - 7 hours of driving on 'the wrong side of the road'.

We camped in the Avenue of the Giants (tallest trees in the world) - it was really amazing. The coolest part about the Avenue of the Giants was that in driving into the trees at dusk everything turned from being light to entirely dark. The trees (all redwoods) are dense and extemely tall (upto approx 100m and 2000 years old), there is very little under growth and it's really beautiful. Today we drove all the way through the Avenue (approx 30 miles) - the ribbon of road through the middle is just crazy.

Tonight we are in a little place called Mendocino - a great little sea side village that's not unlike Raglan (in NZ). The guy here has just said that he wants to close up so I guess that's all for me today. More later......
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1191550500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1191550500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1191550500/tpod.html Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:15:27 -0400 Away for awhile...

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Lake Tahoe, California, United States

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San Francisco, California, United States

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San Francisco, California, United States

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San Francisco, California, United States

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]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1190936100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1190936100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1190936100/tpod.html Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:41:03 -0400 Away for awhile...

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San Francisco, California, United States

So, here I am in San Francisco - a long way from the last time that I wrote and in between times there's certainly been plenty on the go! I left Rebecca in New York last Tuesday morning - 2am in the morning to be precise. Hmmm yes, those early morning flights always seem good at the time of booking! With a really tight schedule (which inevitably ended up in a panic) I took a flight to Detroit with a stop off in Washington DC and then the Greyhound bus up into the depths of Michigan to meet up with my friend Claire. Besides the inevitable delays (somehow I managed to get from Washington to the Greyhound bus all in 2 hours!) the most interesting part of the journey was the eclectic mix of individuals on the Greyhound bus. My fellow travelers included a variety of people of whom I could not understand despite the fact that they were speaking English (the American version of chav English), a disabled man in his wheel chair of whom insisted on waving at every vehicle that went past and around 20 Amish people I was beginning to wonder what Michigan was going to bring for me!

Claire greeted me in Stanwood - a tiny little place not far from Remus.... a slightly bigger tiny little place. Claire's house is situated right on the Canadian Lakes - a picture perfect area with lots of tree's, apparently a resident cougar and a bear (a few locals have apparently spotted) and loads of deer that roam everywhere. Given that they don't fence in between their houses the deer are literally everywhere - back lawn included! Anyway, Claire's house is also located directly on a lake (the front yard) which of course freezes over in winter. It's an exceptionally beautiful area and with the tree's on the Autumn turn and more beautiful weather I was lucky with my time at Claire's house.

If I'm entirely honest my time at Claire's was exceptionally relaxing - sleeping in (Claire was still working), walking around the lake (spotted a beautiful little turtle one day) and lazing on the lawn in the sun! However, we played golf one evening (loads of golf courses in this part of the world) and given that it was my first ever game I was pretty useless. It took me ages to even connect with the ball, but once connected it would seem that I could belt the thing for a million miles. Claire decided to give me a little insight into the gambling world of America and took me to a casino on an Indian reservation - the place was swarming with the fat, and the odd balls of society - it was an interesting to say the least!

On Friday I got to visit Claire's work (a cheese manufacturing plant) and then we were onward bound for Chicago where we wandered on the pier, rode on the ferris wheel (hmm some kids never grow up) and wandered the streets. I was Claire's navigator (she drove) and I didn't get yelled at or fired, so I guess I wasn't too bad!

As you all probably know, I'm not too fussed with accommodation - Claire was pretty wise to this and to ensure that I didn't seal her fate in a dodgy cheap hole (or a tent) she booked us into a decent motel out by the airport in Chicago (wise move on here behalf). Everything was well organised and with Grant due to meet us at around 4am the following morning we left him with good instructions on how to meet us. Murphy's law let us down again and Grant sent Claire a text in the early hours of the morning to say that he was in reception.... I trotted down to reception (in my pajamas) to be greeted by all sorts of business people waiting for their taxis but no Grant! Apparently the guy at reception hadn't seen a short bald guy either (ok, so the description doesn't sound good, but I figured that they would be able to ID him with that information) - I got on the ringer with a fairly blunt "where the hell are you" kind of tone only to find that he'd been delivered to the wrong hotel. Claire and I had a sweep stake as is to whether or not we could get to sleep again before he turned up and went back to sleep in luxury and of course, much to my delight Grant arrived in one piece and hadn't been soaked into the Chicago night.

Another teary good-bye to Claire at Union Station in Chicago and I was pretty much over saying good-bye to my friends (well, Claire seemed more upbeat than me but I was a bit choked). I was happy to be with Grant and about to embark on the 55 hour journey to San Francisco on the California Zephyr (Amtrak train).

To summarise the train journey it was absolutely wonderful! We did hit a deer on the journey and the train tracks are really rough - I didn't sleep at all on the first night and would have to say that it's the roughest train journey I've ever taken (Grant professes that only in Burma do the trains give you a rougher ride)........... However, the scenery is stunning, especially between Denver and San Francisco where you follow the Colorado river and travel through the Rockies. We also had a real hoot on the train meeting loads of interesting American people ranging from investment bankers from New York through to a failed movie producer called Stan (of whom gave Grant and I endless amusement). I can really recommend this journey - absolutely fantastic!

Ok, so yesterday we walked from the city and out across the Golden Gate Bridge - a huge day which resulted in our feet being completely ruined, the view was beautiful though and the weather perfect. Today was spent in the city and doing a bit of shopping! Anyway, that's about time up for me, in summary I'm having a real hoot of a time. It's taken me ages to write this and whilst I've been tapping away (in a funky little lounge bar) Grant has been indulging in a bit of alcohol at the bar and I suspect that he's possibly getting either very drunk, hungry and/or sick of waiting for me.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1190945100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1190945100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1190945100/tpod.html Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:06:14 -0400 Away for awhile...

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Chicago, Illinois, United States

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Remus, Michigan, United States

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]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1189988100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1189988100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1189988100/tpod.html Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:16:05 -0400 Away for awhile...

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New York, United States

Well howdy folks, here I am amongst those sunny Americans soaking up the sun! Following a very very long journey to NY on Tuesday (8.5 hours after we had to fly North of some bad weather and then circle JFK for an hour before getting a landing space) I nipped into central Manhattan where Rebecca met me outside her work on 7th Ave. Things really could not have been much more simple in NY, as opposed to the surly staff at Gatwick (where I witnessed one staff member telling a passenger that he could "just bugger off") I touched down in NY to a friendly bunch of customs officials that had me processed and out the door as fast as fast can be. Admittedly passengers were a little slim on the ground, perhaps due to it being September 11, but none the less it was a friendly and uneventful arrival.

Rebecca dazzled me a tad on the way back to her place - for a start I was just so excited to see Rebecca but with in 5 minutes of meeting we had walked down the road to the bus and past Times Square. I couldn't really believe that I was in America, let a lone NY. If I am completely honest, as a very very little kid I wanted to go to NY - this was soon shunted by the side with other exotic destinations, but arriving here seemed to have rekindled my very first thoughts of travel (probably aged 5!).

Arriving at Rebecca's house in New Jersey (Hoboken) I was greeted with exactly what I imagined an American flat to look like from the outside - a huge brick red frontage with steps leading up to the front door. I was really tired, and despite having my very own room at Rebecca's and a very warm welcome I was too excited to stop. We went out for dinner where I was initiated to the humongous American serving sizes and then wandered along the Hudson river to see the lights of NY city. By the time we made it back to the apartment I was incapable of operating the supposedly self explanatory shower (when I did finally get it turned on I ended up with the bath half full of water) and the jet lag was kicking in. I crawled into bed at around 10pm with very dreary eye's and an even more dreary mind!

The weather has been outstanding, absolutely stunning. In order to make the most of the situation I spent my first day padding the hoof and seeing everything that involved large vista's - I went up the Empire State building, out to the Statue of Liberty, across Brooklyn Bridge, down Wall St and to ground zero. Not shy of a little exercise and keen to see a whole lot more Rebecca joined me on day 2 and we continued the exploration together with a mammoth walk through Central Park and a wander through the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art). At Strawberry Fields (in Central Park) we spent more time trying to figure out it was a guy or a girl laying flowers around John Lennon's 'Imagine' tribute than what we did thinking of the work of one of our treasured musicians and to that end we never actually reached any agreement.

Ok, I guess there's a little more to NY than just the key tourist sights and on that front I've decided that this city has a very very cool atmosphere! The city is such a hive of activity that I find it hard to believe that you couldn't like this place - yellow taxis, all sorts of different people, massive high rises, beautiful parks - you name it and this place has got it!

On Thursday night we picked up Rebecca's car from her Mum's place (and a great laugh that Mum is - she's a right royal hoot) before heading up to New Haven to visit Tasha and Jonathan. Tasha has just started her PhD at Yale and with that had plenty of stories of even her first days of education at Yale. Given that I'd struggled to figure out the self explanatory shower at Rebeccas, I left the talk of American academia to those that no best and settled in for a good old fashioned weekend of eating with Jonathan - we are kindred spirits and experts in the sector of sweet delicacies! However, after one too many sweet things I was nearly toppled completely over the edge and spent most of yesterday afternoon feeling a tad rough - never in my life has a trip to Krispy Kreme's (Doughnut store) seemed less appealing. My over indulgence was also beginning to make me feel a tad guilty - whilst I'd clocked up a healthy sleep in yesterday morning, Jonathan had clocked up 100km on his bike.

Ok, so enough about food (yes the serving sizes are massive and yes you can buy nearly anything that you could ever dream of in the way of food) - lets talk about Yale! Tasha took us (Rebecca, Chris, Alex, Jonathan and of course myself) on a grand tour of campus so that we could see her delightful environment. First there was the gym, which could easily mascaraed as a cathedral (like the library... which is infact a literary cathedral) with its 3 rowing pools, indoor running track, start of the art weight room, gymnasium, squash courts... the list goes on. The library was another beauty, but my favourite wasn't the normal library..... no favourite was definitely the Rare Books Library! Constructed out of marble, the inside of the library is absolutely beautiful with light glinting at different angles into a multistorey center of rare books. The rare books are encased within the library in their own perspex (maybe glass) house, where they have special fire control measures. It's really is beautiful. I think that Tasha's working environment for the next 5 years is more stately and beautiful than most of us will ever dream off - big ups to Tasha!

After visiting Ikea this morning and Trader Joe's (where, much to my amusement, we experienced my first "Howdy Folks" from a friendly sales staff member). Rebecca and I came back to NY today and whilst she is back at work tomorrow I will take a visit to the Guggenheim and to the UN in between having a little look at a few shops! Tuesday I'm off to Michigan, more on that later!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1189992960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1189992960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/susan_g/overland_-_05/1189992960/tpod.html Sun, 16 Sep 2007 21:37:24 -0400 Away for awhile...

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New York City, New York, United States

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