Our guide, Jane, took us on coach paths used by Wells Fargo back in the 1800′s and onto several wineries.

The jeep

Drivers comparing notes

It was clear by the sampling at the second place that we were going to need to pace ourselves.

We continued along the winery route and had lunch in the garden of one of the wineries.

Wayne has become soft from his old drinking days, he was asleep on the couch an hour after we got back. Remember back in the day he would drink scotch all night at the Planet nightclub, go for an AB yiros and then sleep. To that end, I caught a snooze too.

Wayne and Ashley

There were also many trucks taking humvees somewhere, lots and lots of them.

Not a whole lot to write about. Wayne had warned me about getting anywhere near Los Angeles traffic and the traffic found us as we crawled along the 101 for a couple of hours and then finally got to Santa Barbara.  Once we reached Santa Barbara, Wayne and Ashley took us out to dinner to a fantastic French creperie.  For some reason, Greg decided to have escargot for entree…

Meg wanted to see the Lions at MGM, but when we got there we found out that the lion’s enclosure was undergoing maintenance so she had a look around the extensive lion themed gift shop instead.

Then it was a race to get everything done before our early dinner, followed by Cirque du Soleil’s “O”. Dinner was in Paris where a good french meal can be found.

I took some night photos from Vegas’s Eiffel tower as there is so much to photograph in Las Vegas.

Strip looking south

Strip looking north west

The Bellagio

The strip looking north

Strip time lapse

Eiffel tower, Paris, Las Vegas

The show started at 10:30 pm and we must say that it is the most impressive stage production we have ever seen. The stage is actually a giant swimming pool that is sometimes a pool but then the water gets pumped out and it becomes a stage. All these transitions happen so quickly that you don’t notice.

We also learnt another verb.

deplane – to diembark from an aircraft. Used in a sentence such as “there will be a small delay once the plane arrives while we deplane”.

They took our tickets before we boarded and before entering the gate area. Then one of the ground crew was using one of the propellers to support himself while writing the flight manifest. They also had this rule about one checked in piece of luggage per passenger, $25 for the second. The problem with this is that they allowed carry-on luggage to be taken to the tarmac and then you could hand it to a baggage handler who would put it in the hold. $25 saved. Quite a few people were doing this so I’m not sure how they knew how much weight the plane was carrying.

When Megan got on the flight there was already someone in her seat. A man proclamied that he had the correct seat until I examined his ticket and he was on the next flight to San Francisco. He just got lucky.

Once everyone was seated the air hostess asked some people to shift around to balance the plane. 

So after this I named the flight Dodgewest.

We landed in hot Las Vegas and were amazed at all the construction going on. This place has certainly grown since we were here in 2004. We checked into the Bellagio and then headed to check out the strip in the daylight. Vegas is much better by night and certainly less dehydrating.

We ate at Spargos and then got some half price tickets to see Gordie Brown. He’s an impersonator/musician. Reasonably good with a large range of impressions.

At night Vegas really turns it on. It’s now possible to buy 1/2 Yard glasses of margaritas and these must be a real hit because the toilets in most hotels have drink holders for them.

I realised a problem when I picked up one of my suitcases. The suitcase which has all the chargers and the GPS window mount would no longer unlock. Something had happened to the inner workings and I was presented with a couple of options. 1. Tear open the case (not preferred), 2) go without my technology (not preferred), 3) Get the lock cut open with a pair of bolt cutters. Of course finding a hardware store would be difficult. So I approached the TSA (Transport Safety Administration) security check point with my suitcase. This raised all manner of problems with the TSA. They couldn’t work out why I wanted to cut open a lock on my own suitcase and why I was trying to go through security when I had just arrived. Before I knew it I had a couple of security people wanting to scan my case with a “special” scanner and I had raised the attention of a supervisor. I gave them all the details on what was inside the bag and that I could prove the bag belonged to me. They were more concerned about approaching them and not passing through the cattle hurder that everyone else goes through.

Once I convinced them that I was a harmless Australian who only wanted to use a pair of bolt cutters, they took off to find them in the checked baggage area. They handed the cutters to me to cut my own baggage (despite their policy of cutting locks off of any bag when you check luggage through). I thanked them and moved on. I’m pretty sure my scenario was not in their security flow chart.

We got away and travelled to Yosemite. It’s a pretty easy drive through rural California. We would see the occasional “Support the troops” type message. One included an entire shed on the side of the road painted in the stars and stripes.

The entry to the park winds into the Yosemite Valley.  I had intially thought we would stay at some of the older homesteads in Yosemite rather than the valley proper. We’re glad we stayed in Curry Village. The village is close to everything and driving in and out of the valley would just be a pain.

At the beginning of the valley is the Yosemite tunnel. On exiting the tunnel is a view through the valley including the half dome. From there it was probably another hour to Curry Village. On arrival we needed to sign a form making us aware of our obligations while in the park. Including removing food and toiletries from our car and that food can not be stored in the accomodation. There are also plenty of signs warning of the dangers of sleeping in your car. If you hadn’t worked it out, Yosemite is bear country.

Yosemite Valley

Meg being a bear

Bears should slow down

Curry village is by far the biggest accomodation in the park. It’s a mixture of permanent canvas and hard walled tent with shared bathrooms. I would also say that it’s probably the only way you’ll ever experience what it is like to live in a refugee camp. I don’t think I’ve had a shared bathroom like this since camp at high school. The group dining facilities also have that feeling about them. That said, the accomodation is clean and you can always share a conversation with your neighbours, whether they like it or not – it’s that close.

Camp at night

Deer in the camp

In the next morning we set off to investigate the park. The suggestions given to you by the park rangers are really good. It included must sees and Yosemite in a day. We set off to Glacier point for a view into the valley. The problem with getting out of the valley is that there is only one winding road. To get to glacier point took a good 1.5 hours. not the 30 minutes the GPS said.

Once on Glacier Point it was a brilliant view. Sometime into our walk along the cliff, a search and rescue helicopter started to fly slowly along the lip. We learnt later on that a 24 year old male had gone missing on Sunday evening and now 100 people were out looking for him. The helicopter search continued into Tuesday afternoon. 

Glacier Point

Later in the afternoon we did all the usual sights such as the upper and lower falls. The photography lessons that Meg and I did before we left were coming in handy.

Upper fall

Tuesday morning (today) we set out to do some rafting down the river. The water is from the ice melt so it was absolutely freezing. We coasted down the river to our bus collection point. In the afternoon we did a small hike to Mirror Lake where quite a few people were taking a quick dip, quick because it’s the ice melt and absolutely freezing. We came across a couple washing themselves in the water because they had been camping and as she said it “you just have to do what you have to do”. I probably could have told them that a hot shower was avaiable up the road for $5.

Mirror Lake

On our way out of the park we headed to the Sequoia forrest. These trees were big and they are really trying to preserve them.

Sequoia Trees

Tonight we’re in Fresno because we have a morning flight to Las Vegas. On one side of the hotel is a mexican restaurant, on the other is IHOP. Or as Meg put it “dinner and breakfast”. Meg had her 7th margarita on this trip.

Stars and Stripes

We started with a seal tour on the bay. These were a lot like the duck tours we did in Boston last year. These vehicles were a lot less authentic, but had the same abilities. It’s evident from the local attactions that the military sure do put a lot of money into the economy. About 14 billion so the tour guide said. 148,000 service men and women in the local area with another 250,000 dependents.

After the 1.5 hour tour filled with jokes these guys have clearly used many times before, we headed off to the gas lamp district. A few blocks along Meg found a frozen yoghurt shop and had to indulge. Then another block on I found the Ghirardelli shop. Back in 2004 we enjoyed a huge chocolate sundae in San Francisco made from thick fudge from Ghirardelli. Time to try it once again. Meg wasn’t too full so she indulged shared in her second dessert.

We then decided to walk to Balboa Park. The park overlooks the city and it was a fair hike and in hindsight we probably should have used a cab or a bus. Lucky Meg had her GPS with her so we were able to get accurate directions. Once in the park we were amazed at the number of brides, limos and hang-oners. As it was a Saturday, the markets were in full swing along with quite a few buskers.

We decided to walk back to the hotel. Again GPS to the rescue and the walk was all down hill which felt much better. Low landing aircraft broke up the walk which ended with a fly-by from a F/A-18 Hornet. There is a navy air station across the bay afterall. We quickly got changed to head to old town again. This was the third night for Mexican. It seemed like such a waste to have anything but Mexican. There are plenty of pizza places in Little Italy and almost as many steak places scattered across the city but nothing like the Mexican food in old town. There really isn’t a chance to get any bad Maxican in old town. We had another great meal and Meg had another margarita the 5th in 4 days but this time she wasn’t asked for I.D. Meg has been asked for I.D. several times on this trip. In Long Beach the waitress had to check with the manager that the I.D. was acceptable. After all, Meg had a fake Australian accent and could only support it with other friends with Australian accents.

This concluded our stay. Tomorrow we are off to Fresno and Yosemite National Park.   

Long Beach at night

We travelled to San Diego for the last bit of work activities. One of the most amusing things was their dress code. At work we are provided with blue polo shirts with the company logo. In San Diego they are also provided with shirts, just that their’s are hawaiian shirts. I’ve asked my contact to see if he can locate them, the shirts are hillarious.

Now that the PTC/User conference is over, it’s time for some badly needed holiday time. Today we started in San Diego by visiting the Zoo. The zoo is world famous, it’s pretty big, but it seemed that there weren’t that many animals.  They had lots of different animals, just not lots of the same type of animals. eg one tiger.

After the zoo I had to finally give up the Chevy Impala “small” car we had hired from long beach. By small I mean 5.8L V8. It sure did make the highway driving fun. It was a front wheel drive which I had to test to see if it had traction control. In the back streets of Rancho Bernardo I lit it up. Nope, no traction control .

We”re staying at the Holiday Inn on the bay. This was a recommendation from one of meg’s former workmates. It’s certainly in a good location. I had a quick look at the Midway aircraft carrier which is moored across the street.

Midway

I also came across Stars and Stripes which now offers sailing excursions on the bay.  Stars & Stripes went to Australia in 1987 and won back the America’s Cup in Fremantle, defeating the Kookaburra III.

We’ve been told that San Diego has great mexican food and that old town was the place to get it. California is not a place to use public transport, but now without a car we managed our way to old town and then played mexican cantina roulette. With so many good smells how could we go wrong. Well we did pretty well, best mexican ever and Meg had a margarita the size of her head. They were making their own tortillas in front of everyone. The tortillas were so good the lady making them was getting tips.