r ellenberger

Our final morning in San Francisco was spent filling our tummies with brekky and slowly packing our suitcases before checking out at 11am. We then met up for lunch with Ryan's friend Jimmy at a Thai place close by. Spent a good hour there before Jimmy took us to this super hippy coffee joint which was in a converted parking lot. The baristas used some kind of fancy technique and filter machine to make the coffee. All the customers were hippies too, dudes with stylish hair (long and curly on top, short around the sides), guys with medium to tiny dogs, girls with vintage clothing. After coffee we grabbed our suitcases and headed to the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) which is basically a train, and caught it to the international airport. Boarded on our 5 hour flight to Orlando and were annoyed to discover that nothing, except for drinks, were included on the flight. So we all had individual TV screens but you had to swipe your card to watch, and food cost extra despite it being a...

Got to the bike rental place at 10am and set off on our guided bike tour from San Francisco to Sausilito. Had a nice guide named Sam guiding us, started at Fisherman's Wharf, saw Fort Mason, Palace of Fine Arts, Fort Point - this was a dog beach so there were heeeaappps of doggies, we saw the cutest brown lab puppy. It was then time to ride across the bridge. Unfortunately the weather was terrible, 16 degrees, drizzling and fog everywhere, so much fog that the entire Golden Gate bridge had disappeared. It made riding across the bridge very windy and we couldn't see anything except about 5 metres in front. Continued on to Sausilito where the tour ended and we had free time. Went to have lunch at an Italian cafe that had nice views of the water before heading back on the ferry and returning our bikes. We wanted to catch the cable car so we waited for almost 30 minutes for it. It was a rickety ride and very crowded but definitely an experience and a different way to see San Franc...

So we've spent the last two days getting burn by the sun and blasted by the wind. We knew that San Fran was/is a windy city but after the last two days I don't know if I could ever live here, its just too windy. Out of the wind and in the sun it gets warm, but as soon as you're exposed to that wind whipping in off the pacific is absolutely freezing. We walked through Golden Gate park (which our map is grossly misrepresented; its absolutely massive and a hike in its self) to the sea with the intentions of walking onto the beach and dipping our toes, but the wind coming off the water was something else so we didn't even make it onto the beach. We're just glad that we have a bus/tram pass that gives unlimited travel so we don't have to be out in the wind all the time. But I'm ahead of myself. Yesterday morning we bought our bus pass on hopped on the tram to Fisherman's Wharf to check out the seals. Very touristy spot but nice enough in the sun. Soon it ...

Alarm didn't go off so didn't wake up until 8. Immediately started packing, ate breakfast and checked out. Only had 65 miles left of gas so had to stop in Oakhurst to get fuel for 3.95/gallon. The drive to San Francisco was pretty easy, roads in the US are well maintained, don't think we've even come across a pothole. Quite dry so not much scenery, but did see a huge wind farm along the way. Arrived at SF in under 4 hours, dropped the bags off at our hostel, and went to return the Mustang. Was rather difficult upon return as many of the streets are one way, and by the time we found the carpark it was poorly signed and the entrance to where we needed to return the car looked like an exit. Then walked back to the hostel for a little break. The place where we're staying is nice, it has Victorian furnishings with a common reading room featuring beautiful lounge chairs. Plus they serve cookies and tea/coffee in the afternoon so we got there just in time. Took a w...

Woke up again in the middle of the night so I'm pretty jealous of jackie right now and her peaceful slumbers. To top it off there's an old school bar radiator heater running along the wall in the bedroom which groans and moans and creaks the entire night as it heats and cools. Came close to tearing it out the wall but thought better of our bond (as I type this it has just switched on...blood pressure rising...). Jackie woke up feeling ill with a cold from the waterfall freezing that we had yesterday so we slept in till 7.30 then tried to get a move on. We decided on a walk around the giant sequoias which was meant to be a lot easier than yesterdays hike. I think the previous day took it out of us as we both found it pretty tiring. Was a beautiful walk and the size of the sequoias is mind blowing. They grow pretty slowly and one of the bigger monsters was ~1800 years old. The wind was whipping in off the mountains and by 12 as we returned to the car park we were still free...

Still struggling for a solid nights sleep, waking up at 3 am (Jackie has no issues), but hopefully after today's exploits I won't have any problems. Woke up at 7 to a super crisp morning and after having breakfast and making some sandwiches we set out for the drive to Yosemite. Was about 40 minutes to the park entrance, was unfortunately too cold for the top down (50 f vs 95f when we were cruising in from LA) but still made for some enjoyable and "spirited" driving. Windy and beautiful are the roads. Its 20 dollars for a week pass which is pretty reasonable especially seeing as they have free shuttle buses too get you around to the main hikes. The views and scenery in the park are amazing, you can see why it has such fame. Massive granite mountains create an extremely steep valley with waterfalls plunging off the sides, it reminds me a lot of Switzerland. After visiting the information centre we decided on the Upper Yosemite Falls hike which is about 15km and ra...

Headed down to breakfast at 8am. Pretty basic selection, so we just had toast, cereal, coffee and juice. Then caught the bus and walked to the car rental place to pick up our rental. We were greeted by a lovely man in customer service who suggested, since we were driving up the coast, we ditch the ford focus we originally booked and rent a convertible Mustang instead. So guess what? We rented the Mustang! Because we wanted to feel the wind in our hair goddamnit! So off we went, cruising down the freeway in our Mustang, top down, wind in our hair. That is, until it reached 97 Fahrenheit and the sun was burning us alive... Anyhow, stopped by a gigantic Walmart in Bakersfield to pick up groceries before continuing on to our accommodation in Bass Lake. It was a 4.5-5 hour drive in total which completely took it out of us, mainly because driving on the other side of the road was pretty stressful. But it was worth it as we arrived to a self-contained chalet on a beautiful lake. Now it...

After a 13 hour flight from Sydney to Los Angeles, Ryan and I found ourselves in an extremely poorly signed and confusing airport, LAX. Lines through customs was long and Ryan had a rather unfriendly customs officer who tried to confuse him during the fingerprint process. It was then a 30-minute journey (bus, walk, ask for help, walk more) for us to locate the right bus stop. HOWEVER we did make it to our hotel eventually so that's a win! We dropped off our bags and went off to look for a sim card. As we strolled along the main boulevard we started to get more and more suspicious about whether the neighbourhood was safe or whether we were just being paranoid. This was mainly due to the fact that the entire neighbourhood featured run down shops with people to match. But after a long walk we felt an immense culture shock as there suddenly appeared a humongous arcade with each store spanning the size of five Big W's! There was a Home Depot, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, and cheap...