Death Valley ------>
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| Then Ishbel
arrived from England and we did more exploring and sight seeing. Derry
had kindly planed a 5-day trip for us which would eventually take Fergus
and me back to Los Angeles airport. All four of us left Las Vegas and
travelled again through the desert to San Francisco. This trip took two
days and we started our trip through the "Death Valley". Again
very special and both Fergus and I took lots of photos. We stayed the
night in a real kind of cowboy town called "Hawthorne". The
hotel was attached to a casino and the whole experience felt unreal and
like being part of some western movie.
Death Valley ------> |
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The next day took us to Lake Tahoe, which again was very beautiful. The trees just started to turn yellow gold, orange and a most fabulous reds. It was such a treat after the dry and in some parts lifeless desert. One realises how much difference water makes and my spirits rose as we returned to normality and civilisation and with it trees, grasses and flowers and an enormous lake. We had lunch at Lake Tahoe and then continued our trip to San Francisco. |
| Sabina, Derry's daughter lives with her son Alex and her husband Oscar in San Francisco. We were all invited to stay with them and their menagerie. Oscar likes animals very much and so he keeps a snake, and breeds mice to feed the snake, he has birds and a fish tank in almost every room displaying colourful tropical fish. Oscar also works very hard to keep his family and animals and so we hardly saw him while we were there. Sabina is a mature student at the Berkley University where she is studying like mad. Again she worked at studying, as she had work to hand in and exams to sit. Alex her son is a star. It was his 14th Birthday while we were there and he got spoiled by Derry who simply adores him, took him to buy his own very first skate board. I was very impressed with Alex, where would you find a boy his age who will clear the table, wash up, do the laundry and the rest of the household. We had a fantastic time with them and Fergus and I explored San Francisco on our own which was great fun. |  |
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Again we walked a lot and
got a good feel for the city. It is very different from Las Vegas and
has to me a very continental feel. I liked the streetcars or trams
riding endlessly up and down the hills of San Francisco. We visited
China Town and Fergus remembered a Chinese restaurant that he
particularly liked when he was here 30 odd years ago. By chance, as he
was telling me about it we found it and it was just the same as before.
Simple, clean and very busy. We had lunch there and did some people
watching. It seemed to collect special characters, which looked like
they were still in the sixties and by a time warp ended up here having
lunch.
<------ China Town in San Francisco |
| On Sunday I had a rest day
and Fergus, Derry and Ishbel when off to see "Mrs Winchester's
House". It has hundreds of rooms and doors of which some lead to
nowhere. After Mrs Winchester's daughter and husband both died young she
had been told by a clairvoyant to move to California and build a house and
not to stop building. From 1884 she spent the next 38 years spending the
Winchester Rifle and Tool Company's fortune on a house that ended up
covering 6 acres, having 160 rooms and they said 10,000 windows. Some of
the Tiffany windows are now valued at over $2million ($USA) each.
Mrs Winchester's House ------> |
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As we left on Monday morning Derry drove us over the "Golden Gate Bridge". Then we parked the car and had a good look at this fantastic bridge. It was a lovely day and we travelled to the Californian coast. This coast is spectacular and unbelievably beautiful as well as terribly expensive to stay on. We stopped at Monterey for lunch and enjoyed watching the pelicans and the wonderful seals. Ishbel and Derry had Clam Chowder, which is a speciality in this town. |
| We also stopped at Santa
Barbara and had a look at the mission. There are lots of these missions
all around California and each and every one of them is apparently very
different. Ishbel, being a nun was particularly interested and we took
lots of pictures for her.
We got with in 100 miles of Los Angeles and found a lovely hotel in a normal sea side town called Cayucos. Fergus and I have fond memories of this place as we stayed here once before years ago. It had changed only a little but still has it’s simple one street town and the Pier with the sandy beach. This time we stayed in a different hotel but it too was very nice and we were very comfortable. |
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By now it was Tuesday and we
returned to Los Angeles. It ended where it started, at Jessica’s house.
She had some nibbles ready for us. Fergus copied all the photos on to CDs,
one each for Derry and Ishbel and then it was time to go to the airport
for our final flight to New Zealand.
<------ California Coastline |
| Derry dropped us at the door
of the airport and the goodbyes where over very quickly. Both Derry and
Ishbel are practised in the art of saying goodbye and for me it was almost
too fast, but probably better than any other way. I did finally lose a
tear, as I will miss Ishbel in particular very much. We have spent quite a
bit of time together and I have grown very fond of her.
We booked in for our flight and settled down to the customary two-hour wait in the boring airport launch. We did get off almost on time but it was a 13-hour flight, which started at 11:45pm. We were tired from our travels and we also crossed the dateline. We lost a day and arrived on Thursday 20th October at 8:30am in Auckland, New Zealand. |
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