USA - Road Trip

Well, who had the great idea of a road trip in an RV up the west coast of the US?? Jodie of course but it was alright for her as she didn't have to drive. This was one of those times when you really didn't want a complimentary up grade. We had booked a smallish 4 sleeper van for our 4 days on the road and ended up with a monster 32ft 8 sleeper that needed 2 car spaces for parking and couldn't go off road. Sort of defeated the purpose of driving up the coast raod, so we could get off the beaten track and see some interesting things BUT it did contribute to the adventure of it all. Overall we had a great time, even though we didn't get to Big Sur, Monterey, Pebble Beach and Carmel by the Sea, due to a land slide taking out the section of coast road that we needed to travel on. This made us detour inland and loose a day travel, oh well we got to see bits of the interior that we would not have otherwise.

Lyndon was not inpressed driving such a hugh van in 8 lanes of speeding traffic. Apparently my directions were not helping any either.

DAY ONE

After collecting the vehicle and having a 2hr induction on how to use the monster van, we finally hit the road. We had a few close shaves on the way out, (trying to gauge spacing and breaking distance) with other cars, and we wanted to find the nearest campsite before dark to set up so the rush was on. The nearest van site was a 1.5 hour drive from LA out to the Santa Monica Mountains National Park, called Malibu Creek Campground. We got there on dusk and it was a great place to stop. Incredibly cold overnight and first thing in the morning, but the kids had a ball and it was great to wake up to mountains (Tonga is dead flat) and fog. After a good bush walk and a spot of animal chasing it was time to hit the road.

Deer, squirrels and rabbits, definately not something you see in Tonga everyday.

The mountain view, our RV and the kids with the map for the next part of our journey.

DAY TWO

After leaving the National Park we headed up to Santa Barbara for lunch and a walk around the Pier.

The scenic west coast road drive and one of many beach"shacks" along the way.


Santa Barbara beach, a bus/van- very ingenious, and Stearns Wharf, built in 1872.

After lunch we headed up the inland track to a little town called Solvang, the Danish capital of America. Full of all things Danish, the towns pride and joy is the Hans Christian Andersen Museum, which unfortunately for us was just closing as we arrived at 5pm. Didn't matter too much though as we walked around this beautiful little town and took in the sights.

Lucky for us the Danish chocolate shop was still opened, even if the museum wasn't.

Clog or windmill anyone?????

Next stop was the Lake Alexandra campground near Santa Margarita, although the camp ground wasn't actually at the lake (which was the reason we chose it, another oh well!), it was a further 20min drive away. So we set up anyway and of course the kids hit the giant jumping air balloon straight away. There were "Beware of Bears" and "Do not feed the Bears" signs everywhere, which made us all a tad nervous, although we didn't end up seeing any.

After using up heaps of energy jumping around, it was time to get ready for dinner and bed. A little rest from the homework was in order so we watched a movie, had a drinkie and worked out the plan for the next day.

At the half way stage of the journey it was great to see that everyone was still friends.

DAY THREE

Lucky for the kids I had some washing to do, so they got to stay longer on the jumping pillow, but soon it was back on the road, this time heading out through San Luis Obispo, a tiny town in the middle of nowhere founded in 1772 by the missionaries, not much to see there except ..

A "real live" barnyard - just like on the TV shows, according to Dylan, and these iron animals which Emily took a fancy too.

A quick stop for lunch at Morrow Bay, home to one of the states largest fishing fleets and a 176m ancient monolithic volcanic outcropping, first sighted in 1542 and named "El Moro" for its dome shape. Lucky for us the map we were using had a great little spiel on each of the towns outlining all of its major points of interest. I would read these out to everyone just before we arrived there, hoping to educate everyone on where we were going only to be told it was boring and I should just keep the info to myself. Oh well can't help but try.

After lunch it up off to my favourite part of the entire journey - Hearst Castle, http://www.hearstcastle.com/ It is a historic mansion built in the 1920's which took 28 years to complete. Built by art collector and publisher William Randolph Hearst and architect Julia Morgan, the Castle is an estate of 165 rooms and 127 acres of gardens, pools and walkways. It is pearched high up on a hill overlooking the beautiful San Simeon, the castle is now a historic museum which provides tours thoughout the complex daily. You should really check out the website to get a full understanding of just how magnificant this place is, my pictures fail to do it justice.

The Main building and the outdoor pool

The bell tower and views down to San Simeon.

The front gate of 24 carat gold, the welcome room with 300 yr old tapestry on the walls, and the dining room

The indoor swimming pool, with diving platform . The kids couldn't believe that it was inlaid with 24 carat gold and so were the wall and floors.

After this great afternoon it was time to back track inland (due to the coast road closure) to set up camp for the night. Just outside of Santa Cruz we found La Selva Beach camp ground (not on the beach mind you) and had a well earned rest as this was a particularly long driving day. A great set up for the kids meant Lyndon and I could have a rest and they could entertain themselves for awhile. We had a big sleep in, and time to play around before hitting to road and heading off to San Fran.

Fun at La Selva Beach campground(and they had a jumping pillow too)

DAY FOUR

The last day of our road trip was going to be a long one so we didn't really make many stops as we had to have the RV back in Oakland, San Francisco by 2pm. We cruised past the Santa Cruz Boardwalk built in 1904 but unfortunately for the kids the roller coaster (built 1923) was closed, so headout out past the marina and onto Prescadero State Beach for lunch.

Santa Cruz marina and a quick stop for lunch at Pescadero

Along the way we found a real Christmas Tree farm which was a treat for the kids.

Then it was just a straight trek to get to the drop off point, unfortunately it was on the other side of the city where our hotel was so we drove through the city past it, then had to catch a taxi through peak hour traffic to get back to it. ($90 later, someone didn't really think that one through did they??)

Counting down the miles util we got there, and when we finally did, we couldn't get over just how busy the big smoke really is. This is the long feeder road to the Oakland bridge

Finally on the bridge and then into the Oakland tunnel in peak hour traffic, 1 hour later we were finally in the heart of San Francisco at our hotel.