Vegas and California - Vegas and California, United States
Vegas and California, United States
We returned to civilization in Vegas after almost two weeks of outdoor adventure.
It’s an amazing place, out of the desert appears a huge city, there for no good reason other than relaxed gambling laws. We arrived during the harsh light of day which revealed a tacky, dirty appearance, but as the sun goes down and the lights come on it is quite a spectacle! Lucky Hoover Dam and its huge hydro electric generators are just nearby. The Luxor has a huge light beam that shoots up into the air hundreds of metres it can probably be seen 50km away. It truly is a city that doesn’t sleep. The Casinos and bars are open 24/7. While it does slow down early in the mornings between 6-10am they are still open and there is still people at the tables and at the pokies. They even cater for kids especially the Circus Circus which has a huge indoor amusement park with several roller coasters. It’s quite interesting walking out the door of amusement park surrounded by kids onto a casino floor surrounded by drinkers and gamblers… Only in Vegas.
We caught up with my old friend from school, Jane and her boyfriend Chris. We had a great night eating out, seeing the comedian ‘Carrot Top', viewing the Belagio water show and got into a massive night club. But, three days in Vegas was enough for our bodies and our wallets to handle and we headed on towards the Californian Coast.
We made a quick trip down to San Diego to visit our uni friend Monica who's yacht is currently docked there. The private yacht she is working on is owned by a German guy who started Wurth tools. It cost about $10 million to buy one, $50,000 a day to operate, $250,000 to fill up with Diesel and has 40 full time staff. I really thought Nath and I were going ok in life until hearing about this guys wealth, its all relative I guess!
The owner wasn't on board so we had a great time catching up with Monica and the people she works with. We were able to park our van in the harbour managers carpark for the night, right next to all the fancy yachts! Certainly the nicest neighbourhood we have ever slept in.
We headed up the coast road and visited the famous surf spots of The Wedge and Huntington Beach where Nath got a couple of waves. We drove on through LA a very industrial, ugly, dirty looking city. We didn’t check out all of LA however so we might have missed the nicer areas. We continued along the coast north of LA past the famous right hand point break Rincon and then on to Santa Barbara.
We couldn’t go through California without making the trip inland to see the giant Sequoia trees. The General Sherman is the biggest tree in the world by volume and weighs 1300 tons. Many of the trees in the park are 1500 - 3000 years old. Just incredible.
Yosemite didn’t let us down either and we completed a massive 20km hike with 1.2km accent from the valley floor up to Glacier Point and then descent. We were pretty sore and tired by the end but the views of the big granite cliffs were amazing. Its a world class climbing spot and Nath was a bit disappointed he didn’t have any gear or a partner to climb with. There is a photo in the entry of two guys sleeping halfway up the cliff on El Capitan, as it can take multiple days to complete some climbs.
We made a stop at Half Moon Bay where the famous Mavericks big wave surf spot is located. It wasn’t cranking... The drive along the coast into the San Francisco city was pretty but it was hard to see the views as the fog was so thick.
The next day we decided to see the city by bike and headed off on our 10km ride into the city. We started off riding through the industrial area and there were plenty of beat up old vans and trucks with graffiti on them. We kept riding into the suburban streets, the houses looked pretty run down and it smelt like South America. You would see the odd pimped up car outside an old ****** house.
Next, a police car pulled up and I thought he was going to tell me off for not wearing a helmet. Instead he asked us if we were lost, he told us that we were in the ‘projects' (Housing Projects) and needed to leave before we got robbed. Unfortunately he didn’t have bike racks on his car so couldn’t offer us a ride! I’m not going to lie, I felt pretty nervous until we got to the city. There was a corner that had a lot of shady looking characters hanging around and I couldn't pedal fast enough to get out of there. The police had a heavy presence, we spotted 5 cop cars while we were there.
We continued on into the city making it safely out of the ‘projects’ on to a nice bike path along the bay. We went past the Americas Cup boat on the way. My favourite place was Alcatraz, the famous high security prison which has been closed since the 60's and before that a Fort to protect the bay in the civil war.
It was interesting hearing all the stories from the inmates, guards and their families who lived on the island. The escape stories were equally impressive. Its a beautiful island with great views of the city and awsome gardens.
So we can say we saw the best and the worst of San Francisco but its still a beautiful city. Its very hilly with super steep streets and there are some photos of Lombard st which is so steep the road has to zigzag down and has a staircase instead of a footpath.
We excitedly headed North, Vancouver bound for the last part of our journey in the van. On the way we saw the worlds tallest trees, the California Redwoods up to 375ft or 115m. They are pretty tall and old, up to 2,200yrs. The forest they are in was something out of a fairytale with red leaves scattered on the forest floor, large trees with moss growing on their trunks and thick fog on a cold morning.