Niagara

Here we are in Niagara falls our hotel is only a short walk from the falls themselves which makes taking an evening stroll by the rapids today Sunday we took in all the main experiences that is “The Maid of the Mists” “The Cave of the Winds” and the best places to get view of the different aspects of the falls. The cave of the winds takes you right next to the “American Falls” the wind is caused by the falling water and you can walk right up to the falling water very wet but worth it. The “Maid of the Mists” voyage is quite incredible to be taken to within a few yards of this thundering wall of water of the “Horseshoe Falls” it’s another very wet experience although the poncho does afford some protection. The day was rounded off by a firework display over the falls.

 

The Falls at night

 

Going to the "Cave of the Winds"

 

Alison and the American falls

 

Horseshoe falls

 

American falls from the water

 

Fireworks

Amish country

Amish Country

We are on our way to the Niagara Falls but that’s too much driving for one day so we are going to stop in Pennsylvania, but before that we are visiting Lancaster and Amish country. The Amish country is truly rural America and while not everyone in the area is Amish they certainly add a particular colour to the area and are not afraid to capitalise on their reputation having visited the market in Lancaster we followed the trail out in to the countryside seeing the buggy rides and craft shops

Thats what you call a traditional market stall

The Amish Buggy

The traditional style of architecture

Washington DC

Wednesday was spent doing the sights on a trolley tour of the city starting at Arlington National Cemetery and visiting “The White House”, Congress and other major sights ending up at the “Smithsonian” Air and Space museum chosen by Esme and Fern I hasten to add. The day was rounded off with a Vietnamese meal back in Georgetown.

Thursday, today Esme and Fern decided we were to carry on exploring the Smithsonian Institute so after a visit to Barnes & Noble (book shop) for the girls to refresh their reading material as they are reading a book every two days on average. So then on to the Smithsonian Natural History museum and the museum of Native American History

Georgetown (Old Washington)

Outside the Front Door of the Whitehouse.

..nad the back lawn

I don't want another photo!

Cooling feet again

Hollywood is not the only "Walk of Stars"

He'll never hit that pigeon

West to East

West to East

Monday morning saw us trying to get everything we brought with us back in to the bags plus the souvenirs we have bought back in to our four suit cases and four hand baggage’s we achieved this and arrived at Cruise America’s base to return the RV this done we set off for the airport where we found just how much we have added to the weight of our baggage having to lose  a total of about 3.5kg from our bags this achieved we got lunch and boarded our flight for Dallas Fort Worth for connection to Washington DC, as we got on we saw RAIN! But then it is monsoon season. We departed from the gate spot on time but then we just seemed to be waiting for a long time, eventually the pilot came over the PA to say that the rain storm had changed the wind direction over the airport and we were no going to have to taxi to the other end of the airport before we could take off. We finally took off one hour five minutes after we were due to this is a bit worrying as we only have one hour between our original arrival time and boarding our connecting flight to Washington DC.

From touch down in Dallas to take off was thirty five minutes but we made it and more to my surprise when we got to Washington at 1am the next day so had our bags well done American Airlines.   

Hoover Dam and Las Vegas

The final stage of our west coast portion of our trip is to go to Las Vegas to return the RV and have a look at “The Strip” the journey retraced some of our steps of Fridays hot journey fortunately a little lower temperatures but still hot. To get to Las Vegas we have to pass the Hoover Dam so a visit to the Dam and Lake Mead the Dam is certainly a good example of the architecture of its time we had lunch in the RV overlooking the dam and had a brief walk around the top of the dam but it was too hot to do too much walking.

From the dam we dropped down in to Las Vegas it is quite a sight to see this city sprawled out on the desert with the monster hotels of the strip sticking out like ice bergs in the sea. Having found our RV park at the back of “Circus Circus” Hotel and got parked up and services connected we took to the swimming pool to cool down and getting in to the water was certainly refreshing I have had colder baths. After finishing the last of our microwave meals and allowing the heat to go out of the day we went to explore the strip, it is amazing the ideas that have been used to tempt you in in order to separate you from your money.

Hoover Dam

Las Vegas rises from the desert

Just the odd Pyramid

Fountains at the Bellagio

Circus Circus

Friday a hot trip through the desert to the Grand Canyon

Needing to make up for the time we spent whale watching we need to make the journey from Los Angeles to Williams Arizona in one hop of 450 miles so an early start but still caught up in rush hour traffic for the first part of the journey but soon we were going against the flow so making it much easier when we turned on to Interstate 40 the SATNAV issued the command continue for 320 miles. After crossing the Colorado river and entering Arizona we climbed in to the high desert where we need to use one of the very infrequent rest areas to have a break for lunch the outside temperature was somewhere around 115 degrees and while preparing lunch the was suddenly a very loud hissing sound! On investigation it turned out to be the propane tank venting excess pressure caused by the heat so an evacuation of the RV was called for not fun in these temperatures but after a few minutes the venting of propane stopped and after opening all the windows and doors on the RV to clear any build up from inside the van we were able to continue. On the way we needed to put another £100 of fuel in to the RV yes I do mean £100! So we took the next junction that said fuel was available, you have to ask why anyone lives out here as there does not seem to be any meaningful farming and certainly no industry but this town sorry city of  Seligman this is a very 1960’s American town which seems to have dedicated its self to “Route 66” see the pictures from here it was only another one hundred miles to our site for the next two nights finally arriving at our site by 5.30 after a little confusion over time zones, Arizona is on “Mountain time” but does not use daylight saving. I decided to have a camp fire tonight as all pitches have fire pits so we bought fire wood and the girls tried to light the fire but it went out, so Dad has a go and it looks as though its going to take but it also fails so much for camping skills!

GRAND CANYON

Today is the day that I get to put a big tick on my list. Fern and I are going to take a helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon. Part of the check in procedure is being weighed! We were sharing our flight with a Belgian family who now live in New York, when we arrive at the helicopter the reason for the weights become clear, there are only eight seats (two rows of four) including the pilot, we each have allocated seats to balance the aircraft but even though I was in one of the inner seats on the back row I head a great view, I was really surprised how smooth the flight was having not been in a helicopter before and the noise cancelling headphones that everyone wears make remove nearly all the blade noise and make communication between everyone really easy.

After the helicopter ride we all were about to take a shuttle bus so we could walk along the canyon rim but a thunder storm (it's monsoon season!) appeared to be moving in so the Rangers closed down the outgoing transport so we headed off for lunch when we came out everything was now back to normal. When walking along the canyon rim it is clear to see why they are so jumpy when it comes to lightning there are numerous trees that show the results of lightning strikes. Although the helicopter ride was exciting and a fantastic experience to see the canyon close up and look down with your feet on the ground is truly awe inspiring. We left just as the sun was setting and came across an Elk just across from the car park it was a great end to a great day

300 miles to go!

Seligman on Route 66

The girls try to start a fire

First sight of the canyon

Impresive

There are large rafts in that river down there

Don't jump Fern

Looking Down

The effects of lightning

How's that for a set of antlers

The city of Angles

Wednesday on to LA

A relaxed journey allowed as time to stop and explore Prismo Beach as a detour on our journey and time to take a paddle in the Pacific Ocean (the cold Pacific Ocean) before arriving at our RV park in Los Angeles as it turns out on “Route 66” this RV park besides catering for the tourist campers like ourselves also has a resident population of movie industry professionals such as Sound technicians, Session musicians, and other technical staff along with small part Actors is next door to Occidental Studios.

Thursday it’s really hot here.

We had been warned that the weather in LA was hot and it was but this didn’t stop us exploring the city Los Angeles is still very much in love with the car and as such public transport away from the main routes is very thin on the ground and in the 90 to 100 degree heat waiting for a bus which never appeared was not pleasant, but with the help of David the owner of the site we got to the “metro” station, this Bendy bus runs on it is only road cut through the middle of the city blocks before transferring to the tube for us in the city centre. We got there and were able to explore parts of Hollywood and part of Universal Studios getting picture with movie characters on the walk of fame and enabling Esme to visit not one but two “Hot Topics” a cloths shop which specialises in her taste in fashion.

Paddling in the Pacific Ocean

Spiderman gets the girls plus an intruder! 

The obligatory picture of the Hollywood Sign

On the walk of stars



Esme nad Fern in "Hot Topic"

Alison at her favorite type of shop

 

Our Route 66 RV Park

Monterey Whale watching

The plan start off well, we left our RV Park early so we could be in Monterey for One O’clock to check in for the Whale watching trip. We arrived and one thing that was clear as soon as we pulled up was that the wind was coming off the sea again as it was in San Francisco, we had plenty of time to have lunch in the RV before heading over to another “Fisherman’s Wharf” to get the boat. However when we arrived we were very disappointed to find out that the afternoon trip had been cancelled due to the strength of the wind. After a bit of discussion we decided to change our plans a little and come back the next morning to see if we could get a standby place on the morning trip, so after a few phone calls it was sorted. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the “fishing village” of Monterey and its neighbour Pacific Grove, before heading off to find the next RV Park this again came with a lack of directions on how to find it. However as this was a working day I was able to speak to a human instead of a machine who gave me the number for the Park Rangers who gave me excellent directions plus the correct information for the SATNAV both brought us to an RV park located out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by vineyards and farm land a beautiful peaceful location with wildlife as much at home in the park as us campers all be it with a very slow internet connection (Hence the lateness in posting this blog).

Tuesday

An early start so that we were at the pier in time to join the queue of hopefuls waiting for no shows on the boat we were warned that the wind was less the previous afternoon but still enough to make the trip “a little uncomfortable”, Esme and Fern decided that they did not fancy the multi-coloured yawn that the conditions might produce and settled for exploring the town on their own with the help of some parent cash, (my expression is wimped out but this does not appear popular) but Alison an I got on the boat and headed out in to the bay. Whales by their nature do not come in to shallow water but the sea bed in Monterey bay has a number of deep subsea canyons which the whales use in their migration from Alaska to Mexico and back and this is where they are normally found. After about two hours of searching in conditions that made standing up for unseasoned passengers a challenge, we were beginning to think that we had made the wrong decision when the sister boat of the one that we were on reported that they had found a small pod of Killer Whales (Orca) so we headed off to join them we were treated to a display of surfing an tail slapping and to see this in the wild and not as part of a show at SeaWorld was an experience to be remembered and certainly made the trip worthwhile. After lunch we headed south to our new destination of Santa Margarita a half way stop on the journey to Los Angeles. Having now decided only to use KOA sites this one was found easily and without too much in the way of challenging driving conditions on the way.

 

Fern enjoying the peace of the remote RV Park

Some of our neighbours

A sea otter sean on our whale watcing trip

One of our Orcas

Alison "enjoying" the boat ride

High Sierra’s

Transferring from the hotel to the RV was relatively simple process we used BART (not Simpson) but San Francisco’s tube system took us from a few yards outside the hotel under the bay (a bit scary if you start to think about earthquakes!) to within a couple of miles of the Cruise America rental site the last bit done in a taxi shared a “vet” (forces veteran, not animal doctor) who had an opinion on many things British and a Sheik driver.

On arrival at the depot we found that our vehicle would not be ready until 3pm so this put our journey plans back a couple of hours this coupled with a total lack of directions from ReserveAmerica.com meant that we did not find our intended camp site and ended pulling in to one we came across by accident at 11:30 at night but it was somewhere to sleep.

 In the morning it was apparent that we had found a good site, but we were on our way again after breakfast the plan was to follow the shore of Lake Tahoe and then on to our camp ground for Yosemite. The maps show the road closely following the shore line, there is a catch however, that is maps are two dimensional and do not show that at times the road is up to 2500 feet above the lake! There was one point that made everyone have a very sharp intake of breath we came round a corner after a very long climb to find on the passenger’s side a drop of a mere few hundred feet in to a ravine with no crash barrier and on the driver’s side also with no crash barrier a sheer drop of 2500 feet down in to Emerald bay!!!!!!

It has totally impressed me how Alison is coping with driving the RV this vehicle is 25 feet long 12 feet high and 11 feet wide and as such does not handle anything like the anything she has driven before, she certainly lets me know that she is feeling a “little uncomfortable” with driving on the switch back roads in the mountains but she handles them with a great deal of skill, although she does not think so.

The road also took us through some places that we know by name from the wine shelves in ASDA Sutter Creek for example and passed numerous other vineyards.

Again we suffered from a lack of directions from ReserveAmerica.com and ended up at the wrong campsite but we coped.

Today (Sunday) we visited Yosemite National park to see the Giant Redwoods they certainly are impressive and how they can survive with holes through the trunks is one of nature’s wonders. We then went paddling in one of the many streams that run through the park, what a lovely way to cool down, before returning to our RV Park for a much more relaxed evening than the last two nights.

Tomorrow Whale watching!

Fern gets to try the navigator’s seat

On the shores of Lake Tahoe

Emerald bay just before it got scary

All of us with a Redwood (Giant Sequoia)

Alison cooling her feet

And catching up on her emails

Alcatraz

Before we left home I tried to book tickets for Alcatraz on line but it came back that there were no places available until the 14th August so we tried at the ticket office and were told there were a limited number of tickets held back for "early bird" sale each day, so at 5:30 this morning I joined a line of around 60 to 70 people all hoping for tickets. We made it and got tickets, Esme was absolutly delighted as this was one of the main things of her list for the holiday. The girls were really engrossed with the tour often dissappearing to follow some item on the audio description that we each had on head phones. The island is more pleasant than you might expect from a maximum security prison but then the families of the guards used to live out on "The Rock" Thes visit turned out be be a great sucess with all of us.

Walking up the hill to the Prison.

This may be agood idea for all teenagers :-))

Me in "Solitary"