Our California Trip - Jul 25 to Aug 2, 2017

  

Our California Trip - Jul 25 to Aug 2, 2017

It was just a few days to our California trip and my wife and I were unusually nervous. We normally look forward to these trips but this was not one of those times. For starters, the trip was the longest that we had ever taken in some time (9 days) and for me personally there was a lot of driving involved. Though I have been driving in India for a long time, this was the first time I would be embarking on a full fledged driving expedition in the US.

Jul 25, 2017 Tuesday

Our flight to LA was at 8 am. Just as we were getting ready, we received a message from the airline that the flight was delayed by an hour and a half. It doesn’t seem to be the ideal start to the vacation. We just hoped that this was just one small inconvenience in an otherwise interesting trip. Our flight to LA was rather uneventful and after 5 and a half hours we were at the Enterprise Rental car pick up area. As usual, they do not have the compact car that I had requested for and I’m showcased a plethora of heavy duty SUVs and cross overs. I’m sure others would be envying me but I am and have always been a reluctant driver. Anyway, I went ahead and chose a SUV (Hyundai Santa Fe) which I found least terrifying for my nine day road trip. We commenced our LA sojourn with a lunch stop at a Greek restaurant which went by the name Aliki. It was a welcoming modest place with good food. Once we were done with our lunch, we headed to our hotel Holiday Inn LAX Airport. This was going to be our abode for the next 3 nights. After freshening up, we decided to go to the Hollywood Blvd where you have the Walk of Fame and can view the Hollywood sign. We decided to take the cab as we were told that parking could be quite a challenge over there. At the Walk of Fame, my daughter and wife and occasionally I took pics alongside the names of our favorite Hollywood characters and actors. We also visited the Dolby theater where the Oscars are hosted each year and the Chinese Theater. Just opposite these theaters is the building where Jimmy Kimmel hosts his show. We spend a few hours in the area and then had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen before retiring for the day.

Jul 26, 2017 Wednesday

We had breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant and headed off to Universal Studios. I drove this day and we reached Universal Studios in an hour’s time. The first show that we attended was called WaterWorld. This was a show based on the Waterworld movie and had jet skiing and other mind boggling stunts. Later, my daughter took some pics with some of the characters in the park such as Shrek, Winnie the Pooh and so on. Our next stop was the Animal Actors show. Here, you had animals that had featured in movies perform some tricks. It was noon and by this time the wait times at each of the events had gotten longer. We had to wait for at least 45 minutes for our next show which was ‘Shrek 4D’. After having a real life feel of the donkey’s gut and a few ahs and ohs later, we were on our way for our next show, ‘the Studio Tour’. We really enjoyed this tour, so much that we repeated it the next day. The Studio tour was a one hour event with a wait time of another hour. But it was really worth it, particularly the fight between T-Rex and King Kong and the Fast and the Furious action sequence. Once out of this place we made our way to the Harry Potter village. Despite my inhibitions, I volunteered with the family to do the ‘Flight of the Hippogriff’ – a 10 second roller coaster ride. Was really thankful that the ride did not extend beyond 10 seconds. Later, we did the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. This was a mix of a roller coaster and a 3D ride. It was very thrilling to say the least. As if this was not enough, we thought we will give our heart no respite and proceeded to the ‘Walking Dead’ attraction. I had a vantage position as the group which was in front of me was getting the jitters and I had enough time to be ready. You may say that I spoilt the surprise for myself but I liked it this way and it also made me appear cool amongst a multitude of howling and scowling individuals. Our last ride for the day was the Despicable me Minion Mayhem. At the time when we entered the queue for this ride, we hadn’t decided that this would be our last ride for the day but the wait time for this ride forced the decision on us. This was a simulated 3D/4D ride and had all the jolts that you had by now come to expect of these rides. After this ride, we had dinner at the Studios and decided to wind up for the day and drove towards our hotel. I almost forgot, we also saw the Nighttime Lights at Hogwarts Castle. This wasn’t a big deal particularly if you have seen the one at Disney.

Jul 27, 2017 Thursday

We had purchased a 2 day pass for Universal based on our experience at the Paris Disney park. In Paris, we had only decided on a single day visit and did not have enough time to visit all the shows and rides. It also did not help that my wife had gone missing for a couple of hours. Anyway, coming back to Universal Studios LA, we still had around seven shows / rides to visit before we were done with the Studios. We decided against taking the car and therefore booked a cab through Uber. Since the cab dropped us at a different point, it also gave us an opportunity to see the shops and eat outs outside the Park. Once inside the park, we decided to go to the lower lot as most of the rides that we planned to do for the day were situated over there. The previous day we had covered the rides /shows in the upper lot. First on our list was the Jurassic Park ride. The ride starts of on a sedate manner with some vocals explaining the Jurassic period. Towards the end of the tour, the ride picks up speed and to avoid the T-Rex, we hurtle down 84 feet. The drop is quite vertical and it gives you the jitters. We have a beautiful snap of my wife’s reaction as we plunge down the waterfall in our raft. As if this was not enough, we try to guts it out in the Revenge of the Mummy ride. The ride seems like a special effects and roller coaster combined into one. The ride throws you at 45 mph into absolute darkness and just when you feel it is over , you go backwards on the ride. We were just glad that the ride was over. We had one more ride left in the lower lot and that was the Transformers – 3D ride. Compared to the previous two rides, this seemed fairly docile. After, this ride, we went to the upper lot for the Simpsons ride. While in the queue, I had a slight panic attack as I thought this was an actual roller coaster. However, my wife assured me that this was a simulated roller coaster and it wasn’t as crazy as I had imagined it to be. Since we were done with all the adrenaline pumping activities for the day, I could relax a bit. Our next show was the ‘Special Effects Show’. This was a behind the scenes look as to how stunts and other acts were performed in the movies. You had people performing stunts live on stage. Later, we spent some time shopping and my daughter wanted to spend some time at the Harry Potter village. As I had mentioned earlier, we also did the Studio Tour once again.

Jul 28, 2017 Friday

This was the day we were moving out of LA and the next six days would be a test for me as a driver as this would be the first time I would be doing so much driving in this country. We left our hotel around 8.30 am and it was approximately a 4 hour drive to Sequoia National Park. Our plan was to stop at a restaurant (Sierra Salads) at Three Rivers for lunch just before entering the Park. This was also my first experience of refueling on my own. There were some wonderful views on our way and my wife an avid photographer was clicking away in addition to her other duty as my navigator. We had lunch at the salad spot. Food was good but my mind was ticking away regarding something else. It was the nail that I had noticed embedded in my SUV’s tyre. Wasn’t sure whether I needed to immediately get it fixed or do it later in the day or would it survive the trip. Anyway, I let it pass for the time being and proceeded towards the Sequoia National park. We had planned to see the General Sherman Tree, the largest tree in the world. This is a sequoia tree and is almost 2700 years old and around 270 feet tall. It is not the tallest tree but is the largest tree by volume. From the parking, it was a 0.5 mile trek to the General Sherman Tree. There were a number of sequoia trees which were as grand as the General Sherman Tree but probably not as fortunate. We felt really blessed that we could see these trees in our lifetime and it was mind-boggling to think that these trees even preceeded Jesus Christ. The sad thing is that due to environmental pollution, these trees may not last another 100 years!! The drive to this spot was a long winding one and it had its impact on my daughter on our return journey. However, she braved it out and without much damage reached our accommodation for the night.

Jul 29, 2017 Saturday

We had a long day today as we had two places to visit in the forenoon before we headed to Monterey in the afternoon.  Our plan was to see another sequoia tree which was in the King’s Canyon National park and the Cedar grove. Just as we got into the car, my car’s screen gave out a warning that there was low air pressure in the right front tyre. The very tyre where I had noticed the nail. My wife googled for a repair shop nearby and we were fortunate that there was one in the vicinity. The owner of the repair shop also doubled up as the repair guy. He was a nice chap and had our tyre fixed. The flip side of this detour was that it set us behind by an hour and a half and this meant that we could only do one of the two visits that we had planned for the morning. We chose to visit the General Grant Tree which happens to be the 2^nd / 3^rd largest tree in the world. The route to this tree was quite a tricky one as there were sheer drops in some parts of the way. Millions of photos later, we made our way out of forest country and headed towards the city. We made a stop at Fresno at the Yosemite Falls café for lunch. It was a nice, pleasant place and we really liked the food. After that we were headed towards Monterey on the west coast. The last stretch of the drive towards Monterey was lovely as you can see the Pacific ocean as you drive. In fact there were other spots as well that were wonderful.

Jul 30, 2017 Sunday

This was another exciting day. We were going to see whales today. The day was cloudy and there was a slight drizzle. I was just hoping that the day would improve as it progresses. Our slot was at 9 am and we were at the wharf by 8.10 am. We boarded our boat by 8.45 am and set sail by around 9.05 am. We travelled for around 30 minutes into the ocean before we spotted our first whale. It was a humpback whale. In fact, after a few minutes we realized that there were in fact a number of humpback whales over there. We were told that this part of the ocean was filled with a lot of krills (whale food)and thus the huge concentration of whales over here. I think there were over 20 humpback whales in that place. There was actually a pattern. First, it would be the birds that attack the food, followed by the sea lions and finally the whales. After the first few instances, this actually helped us to be ready and film the whales movements. In spite of their huge size, the whales were very elegant with their dive, particularly when their tail disappears into the water. Our marine biologist told us as first timers we were actually spoilt as many times you would hardly get to see one or two whales in such expeditions. We also learnt that these whales move to the cold waters in summer to feed and spend 4 – 6 months eating and then travel thousands of miles to the tropical warm waters to breed. The tropical waters do not have enough food and therefore the whales go without food for a number of months. However, they need to go to the tropical waters to breed as the young whales do not have enough fat to protect themselves in the cold waters such as the one here at Monterey which is rich with food. We moved further ahead into the ocean to check if we could see any other aquatic animals but were not so lucky and hence returned to the same spot to feast on the humpback whales. This entire trip particularly the last two days seemed surreal. First, we were privileged to see the largest and some of the oldest trees in the world and now we were looking at some of the largest animals on our planet. We felt really blessed to have been able to witness this. In no time our 4 hour sojourn came to an end and we were on our way to our next attraction. Our next location was the Yosemite National park and we drove eastwards from Monterey. We reached out hotel in the evening and retired for the day. Yosemite was a couple of hours drive from our hotel and we decided to start early the next day.

Jul 31, 2017 Monday

We reached Yosemite National Park around 11.00 am. Just before you hit the first scenic point, you have an incredible drive through a tunnel. It was quite amazing and a bit unnerving. Just after you come out of the tunnel, you have the tunnel view spot. You get an incredible sight of the mountains and the Bridal Veil Falls. The next stop is the Bridal Veil Falls. It is around a half mile trek from the parking spot. My wife and my daughter turned out to be the adventurous lot and did a bit of rock climbing or rather boulder crossing to get a closer view of the falls. The tributaries from the falls join together to form the Merced River. Our next stretch of drive was along the Merced River. We also got a view of El Capitan, a monolithic vertical rock formation. This was quite incredible. We also decided to spend a few minutes by the river bed, watching the river flow by. This was very tranquil. Farther up, we could see the Yosemite Falls. The place was choc a bloc and there was hardly any parking space. We somehow managed to park our car and ventured out towards the falls. The Yosemite Falls have two viewing points the Upper Falls and the Lower Falls. We decided to go to the Lower Falls point. We spent some time taking pics of the falls and then commenced our downward retreat. Since parking in the park was quite a challenge, we decided to take the park shuttle to reach our next point which was the Half Dome. We also decide dto have our lunch at this place but since there was nothing interesting, we settled for some ice cream and yogurt. After our break, we decided to take the shuttle back to our parking spot which in hindsight was a really bad idea. It took over 30 minutes to get a shuttle and the driver dropped us midway as there was a shift change. We would probably have saved some time if we had just decided to walk back to our parking spot from Half Dome. We took a few more photos of the Merced River before we wound up from Yosemite National Park. We retires for the day at Oakdale. Since we did not have lunch, we thought we should at least have a good meal at night. We visited a Mexican restaurant which went by the name Cocina Michoacana. The food was good and we had an enjoyable evening / night.

Aug 1, 2017 Tuesday

On this day we were visiting wine country – the world famous NAPA valley. Our first stopping point was the Grapecrusher’s statue. We then went to the visitor center to enquire about places to visit in Napa county. There was an elderly lady who patiently walked us through the places of interest that we could cover in 4 hours time. We thought we’ll finish lunch before we proceeded with our journey. We had lunch at Tarla’s Mediterranean place -  a decent but expensive joint. Later, we went to Castello di Amorosa -  a winery that was built in the form of a castle. Here, you can go for a wine tasting tour. The vineyards had ripe grapes hanging from the plants. We took some pictures of the vineyard and the castle. We also stopped by the Welcome to Napa Valley sign and took some photos. We went further north to see the Old Faithful Geyser. Both the castle and the geyser were in Calistoga (the northern most city in Napa county). The Old Faithful Geyser is a natural spring which keeps spurting out hot water at frequent intervals. We spent some time at this place recording videos and taking pictures before we headed back south to American Canyon where we had decided to spend our last night at California.

Aug 2, 2017 Wednesday

This was our last day at California. As per our itinerary, we planned to only spend time at San Francisco. However, we thought that we may not have much to do at San Francisco and therefore decided to visit another place nearby before heading to SF. We decided to go to Bodega Bay -  a coastal place 60 miles away. The drive to Bodega Bay was picturesque but Bodega Bay per se was disappointing. We were there for just a few minutes before heading to San Francisco. Just as you enter SF, you pass through the Golden Gate bridge. The area was completely covered by fog and it was an amazing drive into San Francisco. We drove farther into San Francisco and passed through the Golden Gate Park. My wife had looked up a Thai restaurant nearby for lunch as I had wanted to have Thai the previous night ( but was not successful). The restaurant was called Marna Thai and we had rather grumpy lady waiting on us. The food however, did not disappoint. We walked around the place and the park for some time before heading to the Twin Peaks. The roads leading up to the Twin Peaks were unbelievably steep. It seemed to be the ultimate test of my driving skills. To make matters worse, I chose the worst possible time to make a wrong turn and this further tested by driving. Fortunately, we reached the Twin Peaks safely with no further adventure. The Twin Peaks gave a bird’s eye of San Francisco. We could see only the upper tip of the Golden Gate bridge as the other portions were covered by dense fog. We spent around an hour or so at Twin Peaks. We still had a lot of time for our return flight and decided to visit the Oakland Bay Bridge. Unfortunately, there was an accident and traffic movement was affected. However, we managed to reach the bridge in sometime but I again ended up taking the wrong exit. This time it proved fortuitous and in fact I ended up near Treasure Island and  this gave us a really good view of the Bay and the Bridge. This happened to be a scenic spot and we stopped and took a lot of photos. After this we decided to return the rental car and headed towards the airport. A few incorrect turns later we finally ended up at the car rental drop location.

Thus ended our 9  day road trip of 1,225 miles across the length and breadth of California.