Be Excellent To Each Other

It has become de rigeur to post a sort of photo blog of one's holiday on here, so here's mine. I've put a few shots in the pictures thread, so I won't repost them, but do have a look in there if you haven't already, as they are some of my favourites.

So, first we flew out to Chicago. A bit of an odd choice to start a Southwestern holiday, but we were meeting some chums who live up there. We were there for only one full day, so it was all a bit rushed, but Chicago seemed a nice friendly place. Only two pictures from there, because of the timeframe and because the weather wasn't great. Both of these are of sculptures in the park - the first is a giant outside video wall cum waterfall that shows 40' high locals spewing water. Sounds very odd, but looks really quite impressive.



The other I'm happier with as a picture. There is a large metal sculpture called "The Bean" in the park, which is shiny and curved and has lots of lovely reflections. This is the foggy Chicago skyline reflected in it.



Other than that, it was just a bit of wandering Chicago, coupled with a glorious dinner at http://www.l2orestaurant.com. Then to the airport for Vegas!

I don't really have many photos of Vegas. My pictures tend to be of plants, views, and animals, and Vegas hardly lends itself to such. I've got a couple of videos of dolphins at the Mirage and lions at the MGM Grand that I'll upload to youtube at some point.

I've heard a lot of things about Vegas. That it's consumerist, cheap, and tacky - that it's a gauche theme park devoted to cash and excess.

All this does indeed appear to be true. It's a fantastic place and I loved it. We stayed at the Encore, an all-suites hotel attached to the Wynn which we got a fantastic deal on for four nights. I think I'm glad that we were staying there rather than one of the themed hotels, as you had less people traipsing through just looking at the place.

Everything was brilliant. We ate and gambled at at least half a dozen different casinos, and walked everywhere being typical tourist visitors. Took in a show at the Wynn called La Reve, which was an astonishing indoor mix of gymnastics, high-wire acrobatics, and syncronised swimming.

Outside our hotel:


Dolphins at the Mirage:


The overhead video wall at Fremont St in "Old Vegas":

The final morning our friends headed for their flight back to Chicago, and we went to pick up a rental car for the 6 hour drive to Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California. I've talked about my thoughts on driving in the States here so I won't cover it again.

We arrived at Sequoia while there was a snowstorm in the upper elevations (the lodge was 7000ft above sea level), which meant finding snow chains nearby for rent (they are mandatory in the park) and then fitting them to the car. This took an hour in the rain, as they appear to have been designed by a total sadist. Still, I'm glad we had them as we then had 20 miles of switchback climb to do in the thick snow. We passed one guy who decided not to bother with the chains halfway up. In a ditch.

We were incredibly lucky with the weather. Thick snow had been falling, and the following morning was beautiful sunshine, which meant that the whole park was spectacular.

So, a load of photos of Sequoia in the snow:

So after two nights in Sequoia, we drove out of the mountains, then back in again for Yosemite National Park. We were staying outside the park, and it was about 45 minutes drive into the park itself. I have to say, Yosemite Valley which makes up the very centre of the park is possibly the most beautiful place I've ever seen. A forested valley floor, ringed with mountains covered with waterfalls, and with a gushing river down the middle. A gorgeous sight.

The first thing we saw was Mirror Lake. I think the pictures demonstrate why it's called that:





The river running through the valley:



The valley floor. It's hard to believe that there are roads, buildings, and hundreds of people down there:

Our final stop was a couple of nights in San Francisco. On the first evening, after dropping off the car, we did the very touristy thing and ate clam chowder on the pier watching the sun go down over the bay. We spent the next day in Golden Gate park, which had the most incredible natural history place I've ever seen, including a recreation of a rainforest and an enormous aquarium. Very impressive place.

After a great dinner that night at http://www.boulevardrestaurant.com, we were done, and landed back in blighty this morning. It was a great trip, and I'd recommend everywhere we visited to anyone.

All done!

That looks amazing. Shame you're back. In a nice way.

Where did you stay in Yosemite?

Tenaya Lodge, in Fish Camp (the South entrance).

When we were there, it was a nice day one day, then the next day, the biggest storms in 20 odd years! Rained so hard, all day! But actually, that was eally cool as it meant ll the water falls came to life and the place was completely different from the previous day. We stayed in a cool little hostel place "in" Mariposa.

Yeah, there was a snowstorm a few days before, so the waterfalls were in full force.

This is the route we drove:

That all sounds fantastic, makes me want to visit the States all the more.

Great to read what people get up to, especially when the story is backed by excellent photos.

Is that what's going to happen when you and Mr Chris finally fuck?

Waterfalls are too low pressure. I've got Old Faithful rumbling away.

That's your appendix, dude.

There's a reason I had mine taken out.

That's beautiful.

Lovely photons. The trees. The trees are great.

Looks like a fab trip.

Next time do it on a harley. I can really see you in a leather waistcoat with some tatts

Ace pictures.
Makes me itch to get over there. BeeX Hiking Meet!

East coast is de best pschhhhhh*

*the sound sucking one's teeth makes.

Looks like you had fun over there.

Hell yeah.

Lovely photies, hard to pick a favourite from them You have my [ice] axe!

"Tinkers Rucksack Meet" thread?

Thos pictures are awesome, looks really gorgeous. I'm currently toying with the idea of a special American adventure in a couple of years, Vegas and San Francisco are two of three places I want to go.

Of all the places I went, I think SF was the one I was least impressed with. It wasn't all that welcoming-feeling, and the public transport system is completely insane.

I want to go to nearby Monteray Bay to see the aquarium and Jen is desperate to go back because she lived there for six months when she 18 or 19. I don't think I would be allowed to go on an American adventure without including SF

I would massively recommend going to the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate park, as it has the best aquarium I've ever seen anywhere.

Yeah, I remember these! They are awesome. If you watch for a while the face gradually fades between hundreds of people of various ages and ethnicities.

You're not supposed to call it the Bean, or so I was scolded. It's properly called The Cloud Gate. I've got dozens of pictures of Danielle and I and the surrounding buildings reflected in it. Did you go right underneath and look up?

(taken from car thread) You're far from alone in this; Danielle found driving in SF very intimidating, and she wasn't having to cope with driving on the wrong side of the road.

See, I really liked SF.

About 50+ of us went there on the first night of the twitter meet; it has adults-only evening openings that serve booze, which is a fucking great idea for a museum.

Yes. It would have been incredible for photographs if it wasn't for the hundreds of other people milling around.



Trying to find the car drop-off was fun, too. The sat-nav pretty much failed to work in the middle of all the massive buildings, and even when it was working it thought all the one-way streets went the other way.



To be fair, I gave it very little time. We were only there for a day and a half. The dinner was glorious though.

San Francisco certainly has a special place in Jen's heart so it would be criminal to go to America and not visit SF. If I won the lottery, I would buy a ridiculous sized Winnebago and then drive across America. The scenery must be pretty spectacular.

The scenery is spectacular - but you can't see most of it because everyone in the lane next to you is driving a Winnebago....

Yeah I'll be 'right, I'll have won the lottery remember so I can just pay someone to shut the roads or something. I'm afraid you commoners will just have to deal...I'll make you a print eh?

Oh yeah - didn't you eat at that insane place we talked about at the Indian?

No - annoyingly we had a booking there for four, but there were extra people, so we ended up at L20 instead (that was in Chicago). Still huge amounts of awesomeness though.

Oh, I knew there was another reason I didn't much care for SF - more tramps than anywhere I've ever seen. Golden Gate park has huge areas that are just groups of sunbathing vagrants. Shouty ones, too.