New addition to the road-trip family!

We woke surprisingly up to sunshine on Thursday. Unfortunately we didn't stay to enjoy it from the beach in Cambria since we were eager to hit the road again and be at LAX (LA International Airport) by 4 PMish to pick up another colleague.

I really enjoyed driving the car yesterday and took the morning shift behind the wheel (which meant Bjorne had to take the afternoon shift in the LA traffic that I didn't want to take). I couldn't enjoy the whole morning drive since I was stubborn and didn't want to get gas right away which meant that the low on gas indicator was turned on which freaked me out a little bit. Bjorne noticed my fear of running out of gas when I was going really slowly uphill to use less gas and not using any gas going downhill. His attempts to make me less worried (he wasn't worried at all) didn't work. I thought we were way overdue when we finally found Anita's Gas Station but we could probably gone quite a bit further without running out of gas.




Don't worry, the car is not moving!



Oil platforms along the coast that followed us all the way to Santa Barbara.



I like railways...



Highway 1, going south!



If we saw a lot of coast yesterday, today was the flat field day! I don't really know what the guy is doing in this picture.



This is how happy I am driving a Canadian coloured cabriolet.



Today's saviour!

Our first real stop for the day was in Santa Barbara where we both had lunch at Taco Bell (my first time ever even though I've seen it so many times in Canada) and went swimming in the Pacific Ocean (Bjorne's first time).




Before going in. We weren't this happy afterwards.



Also a before picture.



This one too.

We were not that impressed by the beach or the swim though. Getting out to a bit deeper water we had to go through water filled with circulating sand and sea weeds. And the view out over the ocean included several oil platforms which didn't really improve the experience. The only positive memory really was the cool rock I found that now is increasing the weight of my suitcase.

Bjorne took over the wheel from Santa Barbara and even though it felt like we had plenty of time at first and could have made more stops along the way we went straight to LAX. We hit LA traffic around 3 PM and our plan to pass by our hotel before the airport was thrown out.

When we finally arrived at LAX it took us another 15 minutes at least to find the right terminal. I can't remember how many times we drove around the circle for the different terminals. And when we finally found the one we thought it would be we still not sure it was the right one. I went inside to check while Bjorne was supposed to have done another loop but instead he waited for me in the drop off zone. I returned to the drop off zone just when Bjorne was being forced out of the zone (he never drove the loop but instead waited for me in he no parking zone). We hope that we didn't get a ticket since I actually jumped into the car just at the right moment. Now we knew which terminal but still had to solve the parking dilemma since we didn't want to keep doing loops in the crazy airport traffic. After another loop or two we managed to find an entrance to a parking garage just when we were in the right line at the right moment. By then we were so tired of driving around at the airport that we were ready to pay the $30 that we at first thought the parking would be. It turned out to be way less than that luckily.

As we could have expected we were not really in any hurry at all. The immigration procedure takes a while so even though we we came into the airport after landing we still had to wait more than a hour before Mr. M arrived (apparently I give the Swedes I mention in this blog nicknames...).




Our new addition didn't enjoy the cold backseat that much! I guess he thought it would be warm in California :)

It was nice that the hotel was situated close to the airport since we had gotten enough of slow moving traffic for the day.

We settled in really quickly and headed out for dinner and hopefully another sunset from a beach. We managed way better with the dinner than with the sunset at least if we compare it to the sunset Bjorne and I enjoyed the day before in Cambria. We just made it to Manhattan Beach when the sun set behind a hill. We got to the the post sunset beautiful sky at least as well as a pier and many many volleyball nets along the beach.




Sunset from Manhattan Beach.



The guys hanging out on the pier.



Picture of me taking a picture.



And the picture I took.

Since we had a new jet-lagged person with us that was what we did outside the hotel in LA that day. While Mr. M went to bed Bjorne and I went out to the hotel's outdoor swimming pool and jacuzzi. After a few water jumping pictures and relaxation we decided that it still wasn't late enough to go to bed. We then went to the bar and ordered some wine to go (that we put up on the wrong room, we managed to make it right the next day) and relaxed some more on a balcony overlooking the pool area. Another nice ending to a nice day even though I guess yesterday's hotel on the beach and the sunset view from there beats a a hotel evening by a highway.



The pool was better than the beach in Santa Barbara.



Great jumping picture from Bjorne, especially the eye expression.



Wine on the balcony, a nice ending to a long day.

Our drive over Golden Gate Bridge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hZGdtSSJnU&feature=youtube_gdata_player


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One of our many tram rides!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT6PuNaJWO8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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Heading down south in a Canada red Ford Mustang Cabriolet

I really really wanted a red rental car. And guess what we got. A beautiful dark Canadian red Ford Mustang Cabriolet. Happiness in a car! We just loved the car, but had some trouble fitting our luggage in it (as expected though). We managed to get our two big suitcases in the trunk but not Bjorne's carry-on suitcase. It will be interesting going three people in that car with a third large suitcase on Saturday.



Our car with the roof on...


...and with the roof off.


This is how happy Bjorne is over the car.

Our first goal was driving over Golden Gate Bridge which we managed to do after some sightseeing in town. It was great fun! We of course took the roof down and played a song about San Francisco driving over it. I filmed most of the ride and will to put the video on the blog.

Then we began driving south passing Berkley, Oakley and San Jose before reaching Highway 1.

We stopped on the cute town of Monterey yo pick up some lunch that we enjoyed on a cliff in the water.



Lunch stop in Monterey.

The drive then continued along the coast towards Cambria. We made a few shorter stops along the way and one longer one where Bjorne was nice to let me climb on some cliffs for about 30 minutes. I guess I needed to get rid of some energy.



Scenery along the way.


Another jump.


Can you see Bjorne patiently waiting for me to finish playing around.


Finally some more sunshine.


Globe cuddling down in some greeness.


I forgot how many jumps I did today already.


Pretty cool landscape.


Pelicans.


I love cliffs.

Gorgeous scenery along the whole drive as expected!

We arrived at our hotel in Cambria around 6:30 PM. Our room is more than twice the size of the hostel room and we have a glimpse of the ocean from our window. The dinner we picked up in town was eaten overlooking the beginning of the sunset from our room. For the best part of the sunset we headed down to the beach (about a 20 meters walk)! While taking in the sunset we had strawberries and rose sparkling wine. This is what is called vacation, right?


Dinner is served...


...with a view...


...over the ocean and with the sunset.



Waiting for the sun to set.


The rose sparkling wine in front of the sunset.





The highest jump so far on this trip (doesn't really show).











I really like this picture with the sunset through Globe where you actually can see where we are.

An early sunset made time to update the blog in evening! I hope you'll enjoy the last three days of adventures.

A fabulous day in SF!

I guess the weather conditions were pretty much the same as yesterday waking up but Tuesday would turn out to be a great day in SF.

Our first adventure of the day was Alcatraz. Bjorne had booked tickets to the early bird boat so we arrived at the island already at 9:30 AM. It was really great that we went out there with the first boat since it felt like the island had been invaded by tourists by the time we were taking the boat back to the mainland.



Our ride to the pier from where the boat to Alcatraz departed.

Even though neither Bjorne nor I are especially found of the touristy attractions we enjoyed the historic atmosphere on the island and of course the view of the city from the island.



The boat!


The island!


We better not help any of the ghost prisoners escpae.


Nice looking vehicle.


Bjorne where it all took place once upon a time.


Two hours later this "empty" picture would have been impossible.


One of the cells.


There are about 300 cells in the building.


Bjorne likes prison.


The mechanism for opening and closing all the cell doors on on side on one floor.


Quatchi trying to escape.


The old fashioned metal detector.


Bjorne outside the main buidling.


Alcatraz had a good view over the Golden Gate Bridge.


Jumping in front of SF.

Upon return to Pier 33 we walked down to Pier 39 (part of Fisherman's Wharf) to look around in daylight. The main attraction was the sea lions, but most of them are apparently out on other adventures so we only saw four of them.



All four sea lions.

After a Japanese Bento-box for lunch by the water we took three different busses to get to Golden Gate Bridge. By that time the sun had come out which made it a perfect time to go out to the bridge. Since we felt that time was running out we never walked over the bridge as planned. But we got a really nice view of it from the side.



So beautiful!


I guess Bjorne doesn't think so.



But Quatchi does.



I had to do a few jumping pictures of course.


As well did Bjorne.


Going back downtown after a stop at the only Timbuk2-store in the world (messenger bags) we were pretty alone in the cart.

Back downtown our first stop was the Cable Car Museum (for the trams) from where the whole tram system is driven. It was very cool to see how it all works! We then decided to spend most of the evening going on the trams. By then we had learned that it was not a good idea catching the trams at their beginning stations since the line-ups where at those stops. We had a way better chance of getting on them without waiting for two long catching them along their route. Our best ride was our last one when we got to stand in the front on the inner side of the tram! What a feeling of freedom!


Cable Car Museum.


Here is where it all takes place.


Bjorne enjoying the ride on a tram.


I'm enjoying it even more only having a girl in front of me (I had a man that took up most of my viewing space the last ride).


Another tram.



Tram-riding at night.


Almost even more fun than going when it is light.





Not much space in between to meeting trams.

On our effort to catch yet another tram we also had time for a visit to Lombord Street in the daylight as well as eating crepes at Fisherman's Wharf (that we got to see how they were made, the chef really had worked out an assume technique).



Lombord Street in daylight.


Today's 10th jump or so.





Crab, shrimp and mixed fruit crepes.

We were pretty getting back to the hostel room after a really nice but intense day!