Halvard & Ole's west coast roadtrip

Heading home

2008-10-20T22:17:00.000-07:00

Had a day in Seattle today. Weather was gray and cold, but we walked around some of the tourist traps and other areas of downtown Seattle. Looks like a nice town, but or energy level is on low, so can't say we made the best of it.

So... I guess that's all folks! We are going home.

Crap!

Seattle

2008-10-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we drove 12 hours. Stopping for gas/food/peeing 3 times, with a total of 30 minutes off the road. 1240 km in one day. NOT BAD!!

We ended up in Tacoma, about 45 minutes outside downtown Seattle. Just beacuse we had not booked a hotel, and figured it would be easier to look along the highway, were the are all lined up. We got a room in the first one we tried.

Woke up today to 8 degrees (C) and rain. Crap. Well, still going to make the best of Seattle.

Heading out.

Pictures-->

San Francisco - Saturday

2008-10-20T10:37:00.000-07:00

Last day in SF.

We went to the Red Bull Soap Box Derby in Dolores Park, together with 75 000 other people. Lots of fun. The sun was out, beer was flowing, and people was smoking whatever. Unfortunately everybody left at the same time, so it took us 2 hours to get a cab back...

Not much else happened during the day. We were saving up for our last night out. Of course at The Buccaneer (correct spelling this time). We went out around 9 some time. When we came there the place was absolutely packed. Red Sox. Again. We came back later, and half the people had left. Just enough room to get to the bar. Perfect.

And a couple more pictures-->

San Francisco - Friday

2008-10-17T19:27:00.000-07:00

So... It is Friday, and the blog is finally up to date.

Again today, we were going to try to get breakfast at a place called Mamas. Which supposedly is the best place in town for breakfast and lunch. We think that is true, because for the second day the line of people waiting for a table was outside on the pavement. Again we went around the corner. They make pretty good scrambled eggs there, so we survived.

On the way there we drove down Lombard Street. It is supposed to be the worlds most crookedest street.

Ole on his second round.

Our goal for the day was the hot rod shop of Roy Brizio. King, who we met up in Washington, told us that we had to visit the place while in SF. So we did. NIIIIIIIICE!

Perfect match!

After that we drove around town with no particular aim… We ended up in the financial district. We looked like stupid tourists when coming down a 6 lane road, we tried to turn left on to a one way street. Not going our way…. And we did get some looks when trying to back out and turn in the middle of the intersection. Damn GPS and high rise buildings. Yes, it was the GPS’s fault, and that’s the story were sticking to! We span out of there like a bat outta hell, and headed for a area called Haights, which is much more calm. Good time for lunch…

Ole got a tip on a great steak house. We got a reservation at 9, so it is time to head out. Changing pants and heading to Buckaneers for a pit stop. See Ya!

Not many pictures today, but have a look anyways -->

San Francisco - Thursday

2008-10-17T18:53:00.000-07:00

Today’s tourist goal was Golden Gate. We were very lucky with the weather. No fog, just sunshine. Even though SF is the most pedestrian friendly place of the towns so far, it is still nice to have a car to get around. And we got to see the bridge from all angles.

We were “suddenly” very low on gas, and plotted the nearest gas station on the GPS. We ended up in Salinas on the other side of the bridge, and discovered a community of house boats. Looked a bit hippie. Great stuff!

Just driving around afterwards, we decided to head for Twin Peaks. A mountain top overlooking the city. Great view.

Up there we met Van from Vietnam. She had just come out of the restrooms, and discovered that her tour bus had left. As the perfect gentlemen we are, we of course escorted here back to her hotel.

Then it was time to change from day mode to evening mode: Change in to pants and head for Buckaneers. We will at some point try to get some pictures taken later then 5 PM, but no such luck yet…..

Pictures-->

San Francisco - Wednesday

2008-10-17T18:06:00.000-07:00

We are in San Francisco!

We ended up in a small hotel called the Castle Inn, in the Russian Hill area. We did not know much about the area, but it turns out we were pretty lucky. Russian Hill is within walking distance from a lot of the things you would like to see in the Bay area, but just of the main tourist track.

On our first day, we took the trip out to Alcatraz. One of the things we figured we had to do while here.

We found our favorite bar already the first night, so every night starts and ends at the Buckaneers (will have to double check the spelling later :) ) . Just down the street and to the left. Great small pub, and a hangout for ex Boston people. So don’t go there when the Red Sox are playing. Packed full and steaming hot! But good people. You will always meet somebody, and the first night we ended up in a taxi with a couple of locals to some other bar we can’t really remember, and then over to Chinatown for a late night snack (they also serve beer after hours…)

We got lots of tips on places to go at night time, and this night we ended up at Zeitgeist. Recommeded for the more alternative rock & punk interested people. Big outdoor area in the back, with benches and ashtrays...

More pictures -->

Carmel to San Francisco

2008-10-16T18:32:00.000-07:00

Up bright and early today. Discovered that we actually had a room with an ocean view.

We took a short drive around Carmel. Nice small town. Looks like many of the inhabitants are in the upper level incom region…

We actually stumbled on the “17 mile drive” and decided to take it. Think the fee was $8. As all along the coast, they have great scenery in there, but really not anything more than other places. Actually, the people who live there is a better reason for paying. With all the big houses, high fences and expensive cars, we felt we were in a drive trough zoo, with only the non carnivores being allowed out, and they are usually found on the golf course. Somebody should put up a sign “Do not feed or interact with the locals, as it will disturb their fragile eco system”

Then we drove to Santa Cruz for lunch. Drove out on the pier, and had some great seafood.

We were starting to feel the tempo we had been keeping for the last days, so after a short cruise trough town, we set the GPS for fastest route to SF.

Some more pictures-->

Hearst Castle and Big Sur

2008-10-14T01:14:00.000-07:00

Up at 8 AM today. To early, but it turned out that the estimated 3 hours trip to Carmel actually took 10 hours... Lots to see.

Our first goal for the day was the world famous Hearst Castle. We decided to be full on tourists, and took one of their many toured guides around the castle. If you don’t know it, google is your friend. Stay here for the pictures.

For the rest of the day, the plan was just to see the nature in Big Sur. A picture says more than a thousand words. Check it out.

With no definite plan for where to stop for the night, it was dark when we came to Carmel, so here we are. Found a best Western on the GPS, and they had vacancies. Pricey, but we were ready to just check in so that we could look for a place to eat.

MORE pictures -->

Los Angeles

2008-10-14T00:05:00.000-07:00

As with Vegas, 2 days in LA is not nearly enough time to see the all the things we should have seen. But something has to go when you visit 4 states in 3 weeks…We did some mandatory trips.

Cruising Mullholland

Checking out Melrose and doing some more shopping

Cruising Sunset Blvd.

Ole had his best burger ever at Mel’s Drive In. Order the Sunset Burger!!

Later in the evening we came back and partied at the Viper Room. Good stuff. Great city. But 2 days for LA is not enough. Just enough that you know you have to come back…

The next day we checked out and drove over to Venice Beach for some breakfast and sightseeing.

After that we left LA and headed north along the coast, with Pismo Beach as the goal for the day.

LA Nightlife:

For a place to start out with live rock music and loaded drinks go to "14 Below" in upper Santa Monica

At the Viper Room we got to see "Knights Of Monte Carlo" playing hard core soft rock. Check them out!!

More pictures-->

Las Vegas to LA

2008-10-13T23:47:00.000-07:00

Howdy!

We are back on line! Well the last reports have not been going out because we have been busy, to tired or without internet....

So, we had two days in Las Vegas. Which is not nearly enough, but we squeezed in as much as humanly possible… And feel we got a pretty good feeling that we came pretty close to getting the full Vegas experience… Surprised that the hotel price ($100 at the MGM Grand) was about the same as the other places we have been staying at, but it did not take us long to understand that this is not where Vegas pulls in the bucks…

After Vegas, we headed for LA. The trip took about 4 hours. We kept to the highway and took the straight route to Santa Monica. No traffic problems on a Friday! Think we were pretty lucky. Stayed at the Holiday Inn just a couple of blocks from the Santa Monica Pier. Great location.

More pictures-->

Death Valley

2008-10-09T19:33:00.000-07:00

We are in Las Vegas, and have no time to sit in front of the PC.

Enjoy the pictures :)

Pictures-->

Yosemeti

2008-10-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

Howdy!
This report is coming in a bit late as we did not have internet access in Lee Vining.

Well, first things first. A happy birthday greeting to my kid sister!

The day started at Best Western in Mariposa. After a filling up on gas we headed directly for Yosemite. The breakfast at the Best Western was probably the worst we have had so far this trip, so we went straight in to Yosemeti Village for an early lunch. The weather was exceptional, with a clear and sunny sky, so for the first time this trip we changed into to shorts and toured the valley. Great stuff!

After a round trip of the valley floor, we headed for Glacier Point. A much longer drive than expected, especially since road works are going on at the moment. But we got there, and the view both on the way to and at Glacier Point is definitely worth the drive!

Half way on the walk out to the viewing point I heard a loud thunder. Could not place or understand what it was, but it turned out that it had been a rock slide on the wall facing the valley!

As we were leaving Glacier Point it was already 3 PM, so we headed straight for Tioga Pass, hoping to see everything before the sun went down. We just made it.

I guess fall is here and winter is on the way. We actually found snow along the road, and could see even more along the mountain sides. Talking to a local cowboy, it had rained in the area last week, and in the highest areas it had come down as snow. And if we can trust the Scotsman (now living in BC) the highest point on our trip today was actually 9945 feet (3300m) above see level. That’s passenger planes flying altitude!!!

Coming down from Tioga, we arrived at Mono Lake and Lee Vining were we are spending the night before taking on Death Valley on our way to Las Vegas.

We did Yosemeti, well Mariposa to Lee Vining, in 8 hours today. We got to see lots of great stuff and took lots of pictures. But if I have any recommendations for people planning to go there, it is to make it a two day experience! We made it, but just barely. And we do feel that to get a better feeling of and have more impressions when you leave, you should take on at least a couple of hikes, to smell, see and feel the amazing environment just outside your car door!

All the pictures -->

Sacramento-->Mariposa

2008-10-06T22:27:00.000-07:00

I guess an update is in order, unfortunately not that much to report today. Started out in Sacramento. Since we want to have a full day in Yosemite, we planned to stay over night as close as possible and use today merely as a transport stage. Therefore we took the opportunity and did some shopping and sightseeing in Sacramento.

Since none of us are especially into souveniors, I had something made to remember the trip

Left the town around 3 PM. With just a couple of stops and detours to take in some scenery, the drive was actually 5 hours. Did not catch many names as we drove to the small towns, and the only report/advise from today is to remember to stop and take in the scenery and smell the roses. Hope the sunset inspires to get people out on the road!

Tomorrow we hit Yosemite!

Todays pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/ohmcomanche/Dag6#

By the way. I have to give Ole all the credit for the pictures. We usually drive one day each. The one who is not driving is on camera duty, but when have a stop, and you guys get to see beautiful sunset pictures, thats Ole working the camera. We have found a good partnership. I stand for quantity and Ole for the quality.

Welcome to geek central.

Redwood-->Sacramento

2008-10-05T21:04:00.000-07:00

Today’s adventure started at 9 AM, Trinidad.
We had been asking around, and it turns out there are much more Redwood country in the southern direction. No backtracking needed! We cruised down Redwood Highway for about 1.5 hours and took a left onto Avenue of the Giants.

We were at the least amazed of what we saw. Not only are the trees spectacular in them self, but the feeling of driving trough the forest is pretty special.

We had not read too much beforehand about what was actually to see, so we just drove trough and looked for cool stuff. We found lots, and only fell for one tourist trap…

It has been a long day, and we have covered lots of miles. We have seen lots of new stuff, especially as two Norwegians who have only visited the country one time each earlier on short business trips. It would be difficult to summarize, so I would instead urge everyone to have a look at the rest of the 354 pictures we took today in the link below (poorest quality already deleted…).

Besides the Redwood, what was most amazing was how the landscape suddenly changed as we reached the planes leading into Sacramento. Never seen anything like it.

BTW, we have reached sunny weather and T-shirt temperatures!

Long day. Time for a beer!!

Todays pictures-->

Trinidad!?! :)

2008-10-05T00:26:00.000-07:00

A new day, a new drive and a new state!

We started out leaving Newport around 10 AM. The weather has been a bit better today, but still scattered showers and LOTS of fog.

Also today we got to see beautiful and dramatic nature along the coast. Devils Churn stands out as the highlight of the day! Sea Lions Cave ends up in the other end of the scale… Typical tourist trap, and even if it is the worlds largest sea cave, you don’t really see too much. And the Sea Lions were not in today…

Then the trip went on further down the Oregon coast. We were a bit fed up with the weather, and instead of being able to see the nature, we instead started to notice all the places named something with “Creek” and their belonging bridges.

A good break from everything was when we came into the dunes area of Oregon, and stumbled on Steve’s ATV Rentals. One hour of racing trough the sand dunes on ATV’s gave us the some new energy, and we took to the road.

Because of the weather, which is reported to be the same the whole weekend, we decided to skip our next planned layover (Port Orford) and head on to Berry Glenn. Berry Glenn is just a name I picked from Google maps back in Norway. By the time the GPS said we had reached our target, we had still not seen any road signs and we were probably past it. Is it even a town? Ole was not happy with my research… As we continued on it was dark, raining and we were on our 2 last gallons of petrol… Somehow we ended up in a slightly bigger place called Trinidad. We got gas, directions and started looking for motels. The second place we stopped had a vacancy. $105 for something decorated in the 70’s, with shag carpet. Great!

Also, we have passed the Redwood parks which is next on our To Do list. We didn’t know, as it was dark when we were driving trough… So tomorrow we backtrack about 10-15 miles to see some Redwoods. At least we think that is the distance…

Oh, and another thing. Isn’t California “The Sunshine State”. I think both Ole and myself had a notion that when we crossed the border, the weather would magically improve. No such luck. Time to realize that California and LA is not the same thing…

Todays pictures-->

Newport

2008-10-03T22:26:00.000-07:00

The day started early in Portland. The weather forecast was not good and unfortunately correct. Rain, rain and more rain. Since the States generally is half the price on clothes and Oregon doesn’t have sales tax, we started the day with some shopping. We thought the mall was a bit small, but after about 30 minutes, we discovered the we had only seen about 10%.... Suddenly our shopping tour took 3 hours.

That resulted in us hitting heavy traffic on the way out of Portland, and with the grey and rainy weather, not much to look at either.

Luckily the weather cleared up when we got closer to the coast, and shifted to scattered showers. Just enough time in between that we were able to get out of the car and take some pictures. We were so fed up with the weather that we started planning to drive into the night to get as close to California as possible  That changed after a few miles along the coast, when we realized the scenery we would be missing.

We stopped in Newport as planned, got a room with ocean view and are hoping for better weather tomorrow. Not much to say about Newport… We came in late, it is dark and raining. But seeing the small towns a bit up the coast, this must be a great area for summer vacations!

The rest of the pictures-->

Some pictures from Portland

2008-10-03T10:06:00.000-07:00

And the rest-->

Portland

2008-10-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

We are currently in Portland. Took us 1.5 hours to get here. Mostly highways, but very nice scenic drive over some mountains. Not much to say about today really. Best part of town have so far been 23rd Street with small shops, coffe shops and places to eat /drink. Not sure if we will do some sightseeing tomorrow or just continue south... Pictures will unfortunately not be updated before tomorrow.

Cannon Beach

2008-10-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

We have landed!

First stop was Thrifty car rental. We had been hoping to get a Dodge Charger. Actually getting that car has been the biggest part of the preparation for this trip… Instead we ended up with a Chrysler 300c. Cool, but not that cool…

Anywho, we headed out and turned south. The goal for the day was Cannon Beach. About 3 hours drive. We took the scenic route and used about 8. With no special plans or knowledge about the places along our route, we just decided to stop somewhere. We ended up taking a stroll in fishing village called South Beach. Everything was closed. Looks like they are only open on weekends in the off season, but we did get our first view of the Pacific ocean!

We headed out, with our B&B as the next goal, as we both was getting tired. Just north of Aberdeen we saw two cool cars in a garden. We turned around and asked the guy if we could take a couple of pictures. We ended up with a great tour and a trip back in time, as King (his actual first name) showed us around his house and garage, filled with classic cars, rods and memorabilia.

After an hour, we headed south again. It was getting dark and we where getting tired. We are just hoping there was not to much to see the last two hours on the road, as all we could see was the neon lights in the small towns we drove trough. 9 PM local time we came to Cannon Beach and The Blue Gull Inn. We headed into town (5 minute walk) and had dinner and a beer at Bills Tavern before going back and to sleep. It had been a long day: Oslo to Cannon Beach, 28 hours!

The rest of the pictures-->