Third Day In San Francisco

11 October 2014

Weather: Sunny and 24C

We had another sleep in this time to 8:00 am.  We got lost the night before trying to find our way back to Da Vinci Villa and didn’t get back until midnight.  We had breakfast at the hotel like the previous morning then walking to Pier 39 to buy postage stamps and Justin bought a bucket hat.

The main reason we were in San Francisco was for Fleet Week.  We pre-purchased Premium Box Seat tickets back in Australia as soon as they came available.  We boarded three buses to reach the Marina Green, where the Humanitarian Assistance Village was set up, which we had a look through.  This was also where the Fleet Weeks Air Show is viewed from.  The box seating was good as no one could take your spot.  But not good when you have a person in front of you decide they will stand the whole time right were their seat is.  To combat this problem you can find another spot within the box seating area to stand.  Don’t know why the persons in the front row wanted to stand as we all could see really well until that point. 

Justin inside a tank

This air show is more acrobatic than what we had seen in Newcastle and Amberley, Australia.  Aerial displays were by the Navy Blue Angels Sean Tucker and Team Oracle, The Patriots Jet Team, Lucas Oil Air Shows and The Bremont Horsemen WWII display team.  Some of the planes where P-51 Mustangs, the Blue Angels in F-18’s, The Paetriots L-39 Albatros, there was a C-130 Hercules and to finish of the Air Show a United Airlines 747.  Also a rescue demonstration from the MH-65 Dolphin.

Blue Angels F-18

Patriots Jet Team

Mustangs

United Airlines 747 closing Fleet Week
 2014 Airshow, with Alcatrz in the
 background.

We then walked back to the Da Vinci Villa from Marina Green to do what we hoped to be our last lot of clothes washing for the trip.  We had dinner at the restaurant at the hotel, which had only just opened at the time and the name was in Chinese.  If it is still the same people then it is called the Dim Sum Club, hopefully, as the food was fantastic.  We had Spring Rolls, Pork Buns, Lemon Chicken with rice and Chicken with vegetables.  

Dim Sum Club at Da Vinci Villa

  

Second Day In San Francisco

10 October 2014

Weather: Party cloudy and foggy 24C but felt colder.

We had a sleep in to 7:30 am after our late night, so we missed the sunrise which was not a problem as it was a cloudy day and there would have been nothing to see.  We decided to skip our plans to visit Golden Gate Park, so we walked up Filbert Street and along Polk Street to get an all day public transport pass from the Coles Hardware Store.  We then walked to Lombard Street to take photographs of the world’s most crooked street.  Lombard Street is very pretty with lovely gardens and hedging making it easy to look at and smelt nice too.

Me at Lombard Street

Me at Lombard Street

After getting our photos of Lombard Street we boarded the cable car and rode it all the way to Downtown where we went into a Westfield Shopping Centre.  Justin got a cappuccino and I finally got a piece of pumpkin pie, which I did not like.  Part of the problem with Pumpkin Pie is it looks like caramel tart but doesn’t taste like it. Everything else I tried in America which was Pumpkin Pie flavoured I liked but not the real deal. 

Pumpkin Pie

Due to the large queue of people wanting to get the cable car from Downtown (thinks hours wait time) we decided we would walk up a couple of stops and try to get on there.  The problem with that idea was we went in the wrong direction, walking through a rough looking area known to some as the tenderloins.  After finding a bus we got off at California Street where we boarded a cable car without any queue.  We rode this cable car for a while before getting off and boarding one back to Fisherman’s Wharf. 

We walked back to the hotel as the sun had come out and we didn’t have our hats and sunscreen with us, once they were collected we got a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge and walked to the first pylon.  Justin thought the Blue Angels would be practising for Fleet Week the following day, like they had done the day before.  We spent 45 minutes on the bridge but no planes flew over and the fog had set in.

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge

Justin at the Golden Gate Bridge

View of Alcatraz from Golden Gate Bridge while planes
practice for Fleet Week 

We got a bus back to near the hotel (Da Vinci Villa) as we were going to meet Dexter at 6:00 pm, who we knew from a Contiki Trip of New Zealand. We arrived just before Dexter and he took us out sightseeing with evening photos of the Golden Gate Bridge which included views from underneath and from the other side.  Dexter took us to see the Palace of Fine Arts then dropped us off at Pier 39.

Golden Gate Bridge at sunset

Golden Gate Bridge at sunset

Palace of Fine Arts

We had dinner at the Fog Hollow Restaurant which was nice, I had the Pacific Sole with vegetables and Justin had the New York Strip Steak with mash potatoes and vegetables. We got lost walking back to the hotel and walked much of Lombard Street, therefore we got to see it in daylight and at night.

San Francisco at night

First Day In San Francisco

9 October 2014

Weather:- Very cold 24C and a little foggy at final destination

Justin and I drove six hours north to San Francisco stopping to have lunch at Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen on the way.  Popeyes is a lot like KFC as we know it here in Australia.  They batter their chicken Louisiana style and you can choose sides such as French fries, coleslaw, corn on the cob, beans, rice and green beans.  We accessed San Francisco via the Oakland Bay Bridge and arrived at 3:00 pm.

Road from Los Angeles to San Francisco

We were booked into Da Vinci Villa and luckily, they had a room ready for us which was an upgrade to a two bedroom room and a view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

View from our room at Da Vinci Villa

The main bedroom and living space
in our room at the Da Vinci Villa

We relaxed in our room for a while before walking down to Fisherman’s Wharf where we saw bread rolls in the shape of animals at Boudin Bakery.  This is where we decided to have dinner, Justin had the Clam Chowder while I had half a toasted cheese sandwich because it was a special deal.

Alligator bread roll at Boudin Bakery 

After dinner, we walked around to Pier 33 arriving thirty minutes before the pre-arrival time for the tour.  We were told to come back later, Justin had a headache so we went to the Alcatraz Landing Tour Café, where Justin rested and I looked in the gift shop.  It was five minutes before the arrival time so we joined the queue outside for the ferry crossing and froze our arses off.  It was windy and very cold and we were in the queue for twenty minutes before they took our photos and we could board the ferry.  Note wear gloves, scarves and beanies.  Actually, a waterproof jacket would have helped as well to try to stop the wind from going through your clothes.

On arriving at Alcatraz, we were guided by a National Parks staffer to the prison cells and were told about the areas which we can access.  Our choices were the audio guided tour of the cell house, see Cell Block A, the workshop and the hospital.  The last three options were not normally open to the public but they were open as a Japanese artist was showing his works in these areas.  We did the audio tour and joined a ranger in the library to hear about the escape of Alcatraz (1962), followed by the cell door opening and closing demonstration.  By then we were out of time and had to get the last ferry back to San Francisco which left at 9:25 pm.

Alcatraz from the ferry

Cell door opening and closing demonstration

From Pier 33 we retraced our route back to the Da Vinci Villa, followed by doing our washing as I had to resort to wearing my bikini as under wear.  This meant we didn’t get to bed until after midnight.

Second Day In Los Angeles

8 October 2014

Weather: Sunny & 30C

We had a 7:00 am start to get ready, had breakfast and got the 9:00 am bus from MacArthur Park to the California Science Centre, taking bus route 200.  When travelling on buses in the U.S. you need to have the exact change as they do not have change.  We arrived at the California Science Centre with plenty of time so we walked around Exposition Park. 

SR-71 Blackbird in front of the California Science Centre

California Science Centre 

Justin lifting a Toyota Tundra in front of the California Science Centre

The Science Centre opens at 10:00 am and we went straight to the Samuel Oschin Pavilion to see the Endeavour Space Shuttle as we had a 10:00 am shuttle ticket.  That day they had the payload doors open as they were going to install the payload the following day.  All part of their plans to display the shuttle how it would have been on the launch pad. 

Endeavour Space Shuttle,
California Science Centre

Endeavour Space Shuttle,
California Space Centre

We looked at all the exhibits within the Science Centre including trying out the machine which shows your body temperature.  There is heat lamps so you can compare your body temperature when it is cool in the air conditioning and heated by the lamps.  We found this both interesting and fun.  Having Raynaud’s disease, I wanted to see how my body fares.  My body did not change its temperature when hot and cold but my fingers were purple which was not on their colour scale.  Justin’s image was different, he was red, yellow and white on the colour temperature reading but as his body cooled one of his arms remained hotter than the other.  We also had a go on the earthquake simulator, followed by lunch at the Science Centre. 

Exposition Park

After lunch, we walked through the Rose Garden of Exposition Park to the Natural History Museum Los Angeles County.  We saw all the exhibits of the museum but the best were the Dinosaur Hall and North American Mammals Hall.  

T. rex,
Natural History Museum Los Angeles County 

The only moose we got to see on our trip,
Natural History Museum Los Angeles County

While in the Dinosaur Hall we saw Chris the guide we had the day before at La Brea Tar Pits working in the museum.  I had mentioned to him that I would like to see some hummingbirds but understand they migrate for winter.  Chris informed me that the hummingbirds in the garden at the museum are there year-round.  So, once we were finished seeing the exhibits inside the museum we headed around to the Hummingbird feeders and sure enough the Allen’s Hummingbirds were there.  This was one of the highlights of the trip.  After spending some time with the hummingbirds, we went to the Edible Garden before leaving, getting the bus back to our hotel.

Allen's Hummingbird

Allen's Hummingbird

We enjoyed a couple hours of down time chilling in our room before getting some dinner.  This time Justin drove to Chinatown where we chose to eat at the Plum Tree Restaurant.  We ordered soft noodles with vegetables, steamed vegetable dumplings and crispy beef with rice which had tangerine sauce.  The food was very nice.  After dinner, we returned to the hotel, our day over.  The location of the hotel is amongst a Latin American community which spoke little to no English, if one speaks Spanish they would probably have more success communicating with the locals.

First Day In Los Angeles

7 October 2014

Weather: Sunny and 30C

We checked out of the Paris Las Vegas Hotel and head to Los Angeles, stopping at Whiskey Pete’s Hotel & Casino for fuel and the morning hot drinks of cappuccino and hot chocolate.  We noticed that across the road is a theme park at Buffalo Bill’s Hotel & Casino, unfortunately we did not have any time to check it out.

On the road from Las Vegas to Los Angeles 

I took over the driving from this point, which is a big deal for me.  I hardly ever drive because I don’t like driving where I don’t know the roads.  Well I safely got us to within one hours drive of Los Angeles and was glad Justin took over.  I was freaking out as the traffic got heavier and worried I would not be in the right lanes.  You really do need to be a confident and good driver in places like Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco.  We found it strange as suddenly there was no traffic going the opposite direction to us.  Then we saw a couple of motorcycle cops, a white hearse and several black vehicles followed by about 50 motorcycle cops.  It was for a funeral of a motorcycle cop killed in the line of duty.

Los Angeles in sight

We arrived at La Brea Tar Pits and Museum about 2:30 pm which gave us enough time to visit the museum to see the skeletons and recreations of the animals whose bones have been found in the pits on site.  These animals included short faced bears, giant ground sloths, mastodons, ancient camels, saber tooth tigers and more.  We took the 3:30 pm tour of the grounds learning about how the bones got stuck in the asphalt and how they are excavating for small bones, seeds, shells and insects.

Skeletons of birds found at the La Brea Tar Pits

Example of how Mastodon bones came to be in the La Brea Tar Pits

George C. Page Musuem, La Brea Discoveries

Once the tour finished we drove to the Holiday Inn Express & Suite Los Angeles Downtown West.  The accommodation was good but the internet was not capable to handle the number of guests and everyone was complaining they had no internet.  There is very little around for restaurants so plan to drive for a meal.  We walked to a shopping centre some distance away and had Indian for dinner.  A local recommended we get a taxi back to our hotel, which we did. 

Our room at the Holiday Inn Express & Suite Los Angeles
Downtown West

Third Day In Las Vegas

6 October 2014

Weather: Sunny and 33C

It was nice to enjoy a sleep in and not have to rush off, we started the morning by exploring the casinos on the strip.  From Planet Hollywood Resort, we headed south to Mandalay Bay Las Vegas.  Not being gamblers we found the themed casinos a bit of fun.

Excalibur Hotel & Casino

New York - New York Hotel & Casino

 

Mandalay Bay Las Vegas

It was lunchtime when we reached Luxor Hotel Las Vegas, having the buffet was fantastic.  There was plenty of variety in the food, it was of good quality, great value and a relaxed atmosphere.  I must say this was the best dining we had while in Las Vegas. 

Luxor Hotel & Casino

After lunch we headed northward to visit the Coca Cola Store where we tried the different flavoured soft drinks and bought gifts from M&M World.

Soft drink varieties, Coca Cola Store

List of the soft drinks

M&M World, Las Vegas

Returning to Paris Las Vegas Hotel to drop off our purchases and an hour rest.  Refreshed we headed out again to see the casinos north of our hotel.  The furthest north we went was to the Wynn Las Vegas where we saw the $22 million Popeye statue.  Having walked both sides of the strip we struggled back to our hotel with sore feet and legs. 

Caesars Palace

The Venetian

 

Popeye at Wynn Las Vegas

We had another hour rest before making our way to the Mirage Hotel Las Vegas to see the volcano and then for a buffet dinner.  It turned out we were too late for the buffet at the Mirage Hotel as it closed at 9:00 pm.  We expected the restaurants to stay open longer in Vegas.  Our expectation would have been for 24 hour dinning. 

Sunset from our room at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel 

Disappointed not to have dined at the Mirage Hotel we got a taxi back to the Paris Las Vegas Hotel and had the buffet there instead.  We were not impressed with the food, but being the end of the evening I suppose this is to be expected.  We were exhausted from our day on the strip and feel straight to sleep when our heads hit the pillows.