Category: Travel

Well not really Los Angeles, Fullerton in fact, but close enough. We arrived
here at about 3pm on Tuesday and navigated our way around to Laurel’s
brothers house. No one was home so we wandered off to the local mall and
got some ice creams from Baskin Robins (Thanks again for the vouchers).
Later that evening Tom and Joe took us out to El Torito for dinner (99 cent
tacos, cant beat that). Then Tom, Laurel and I went to listen to Mike Barnet
and some others play at a local bar, very cool. Laurel headed off home but
Tom and I wandered over to another bar to have a few brews. After causing an
argument between the bartenders over where Bass ale comes from, and having
imbibed our fill we headed home.
The next day (Day 9) we just laxed out and did some shopping and watched
game seven of the Yankees vs Red Sox series which the Red Sox won .. YAY!!
Pizza for dinner, gotta have pizza with baseball.
Day 10, we had another slow start, got some lunch and then headed off to
Riverside to visit with Laurel’s Grandma. After battling our way through the
traffic (its insane) and stopping for hotdogs we arrived there around 6.30pm.
We stayed the night there and looked and wedding photos and tried to play
the wedding video with no success (stupid PAL/NTSC issues). Stayed the night
there.

Why? you ask, believe me 10 minutes after we stopped i was thinking the same
thing. Theres not a lot happening here, but we were both really tired so
figured stopping for an early night was the best plan. So we are crashing
here tonight and on to LA tomorrow.
3018 steps today.

After a particularly nasty hotel breakfast today we headed off towards
Yosemite along highway 99. Then onto 120 where we completely missed a turn
and ended up in Jamestown about 10 miles north of where we wanted to be. So
we had breakfast there and then headed back to the turnoff.
Driving towards Yosemite we noticed a
sign saying
kiwi tavern, and thought
thats weird, so we had to stop at Chinese Camp (population 150) to check out
the place. Once we noticed
the flag we had to go inside and have a chat.
It turns out that the the owner was a Kiwi expat from Gisborne who had been
living there for 12 years.
After a chat and an orange juice we continued on to Yosemite, which even
though it was pouring with rain was spectacular. We took lots of photos and
looked around the visitor centers.
After looking around there we got on highway 41 and headed south to Fresno
and got a room for the night. We went to TGIF courtesy of the some vouchers
we got as wedding presents (thanks Daschbach and Kreke).
3440 Steps today

After another hotel breakfast we headed south down 101 until we hit Fortuna
then we cut east on route 36. Stopping to eat in Wildwood (population 35)
where we were the only people not wearing knives. We then carried on until
we hit I5 at red bluff and turned south. Finally stopping in Lido to have
some food, do some laundry and get some sleep.

We did the laundry at Rancho San Miguel and went to get dinner from the
mexican supermarket there. Had fantastic burritos and I had about 50 litres
of Horchata. Debbie if you read this, as the only person of hispanic
ancestry I know I want to ask you, what the hell is the story with the big
plastic velour covered piggy banks?

3845 steps today.

No internet day

After breakfast at our hotel in Coos Bay we headed south along highway 101.
We stopped at a zoo place and patted animals and looked at bear and elk.
Photos here.
We had lunch in a great diner in Port Orford where we managed to
get $2 off
our lunch bill by each answering a trivia question correctly. Next we drove
through a whole lot of redwoods and saw big trees and lots of elk.
Once we arrived at Eureka we checked into a hotel and then hit the mall for
dinner and bought some new cd’s to listen to in the car.
6871 steps today.

After a fantastic free breakfast we headed off for our next destination,
Coos Bay Oregon. We drove south along I-5 until we hit Salem then took 22
west then 18 west to Lincoln city. After lunch and some shopping in the
outlets there we headed south along 101. Amazingly beautiful scenery, Oregon
is a really pretty state. We ended up in the best western hotel in Coos Bay,
nothing fancy but it does have broadband, so im uploading some photos now.

Photos are here
, more will be added as we go along.
Oh and according to pedometer 4923 steps today.

Seattle to Vancouver WA,

This morning we drove into Seattle and went to the Pike Place markets. I had
clam strips and fries for breakfast, Laurel stuck to the less adventurous
cheese toasted sandwich. After wandering around the markets for a while and
watching people throw salmon around (literally) we hit the road south.
Laurel was feeling to tired to drive by about Tacoma so I took over driving,
we left the interstate and headed out to highway 101 down the coast.
Stopping in Astoria for a look around and dinner. We then took highway 30
to Portland then on to Vancouver where we got completely lost looking for
the hotel.

According to the pedometer I walked 3307 steps today.
Oh btw the dodge sucked, the stereo was broken and the alignment was rooted,
so we traded it for some chevrolet car which drives much better.

Well the wedding is all over now and I think it went pretty well. Everyone
seemed to have fun which is the main thing. It was great to see all our
friends from all over the place getting on well together.
We are off on our honeymoon now so I’m gonna keep a bit of a trip diary.

Seattle
We arrived here yesterday around 11.30am Pacific time, after spending the
day before trying to fit stuff in our packs, and running round saying good
bye to people. So we arrived having had 2 hours sleep and with a wicked lack
of caffeine headache (well I did anyway). We got our bags, walked around
trying to find the rental car desk .. we finally did (it was in another
whole building) and got ourselves some transport. We ended up with a dodge
grand caravan for the same price as a full size ( 4 free upgrades) people
like honeymooners it seems 🙂
We then checked into our hotel and fell asleep, woke up, ate mexican food,
swam in the pool, and fell asleep again.
Our next destination is Vancouver Washington (just north of Portland) by way
of the coast. We’ll probably put some photos up then.

Heres a brief travelogue of our recent Brisbane excursion.

We flew out of freezing cold Wellington on Thursday night, and landed in
Brisbane just after 12am friday morning. It may have been the middle of the
night but it was still 4 degrees warmer than the high in Wellington.
We caught a taxi to our hotel, the Astor Metropole, which was right in
downtown brisbane. Once we had checked in, we piled into bed and slept till
about 9 the next morning.
We then wandered down through the town to pick up our rental car and headed
out to the burbs to go shopping at IKEA. After that we parked the car back
at the hotel and checked out the malls. Lots of good shopping to be had in
Brisbane and with the NZ dollar nice and strong, lots of bargains as well.
Saturday we headed north up the sunshine coast to check out Australia Zoo.
Tons of fun, it was Bindi’s 6th birthday which meant that Steve Irwin the
crocodile hunter himself was there. CRIKEY!!!!
Sunday we spent the day at Dreamworld and the evening at the final big
brother eviction. Fun, if slightly mad.
Lots of photos
here

Back from a fun time in Brisbane, back in the freezing cold Wellington.
Can’t say im happy to be back, its good to see the pets again though.

The break was just what was needed, photos will be posted and a short
travelogue in a little bit.