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The continuation of my drive began with a fabulous drive up Highway 1 – the section from San Simeon to Big Sur was absolutely exceptional with some of the best ocean , cliff and beach scenery combined with some of the most exhilarating driving I have ever done.

 

What really surprised me was how vehicles kept pulling aside and off the road (this was mostly two-lane) to allow me through even though I was not being aggressive and kept a respectful distance behind them, although I must admit I came upon them quite fast.

Crossing the Golden Gate bridge was a wonderful treat on what was a sunny day.  If you’ve been to San Francisco on a sunny day, you know exactly how beautiful that city can be. I stayed the first night in Sausalito which is a very cool town on the water just across the bay from San Francisco. This town has a great feel and is full of restaurants, coffee shops, galleries and of course many boats in the marina.   In some ways it reminded me of where we once lived in Sydney with the convenience of being able to take a ferry across to the city.

The next day I made the short trip to the Sonoma / Napa wine country.  This was a great change of pace and with truly beautiful countryside – there is something very calming about vineyards and the California countryside was still green from a reasonably wet winter.

I also had the opportunity to visit a few wineries and taste some great California wines – always a fun thing to do!

From there it was back to the coast through pretty dairy country to Bodega Bay and once again a fabulous drive up Highway 1 to Mendocino. Here I stayed in an older hotel that was being renovated but in a tremendous location on the coast overlooking wave-washed rocky outcrops that looked fabulous.

There are contenders for “Darwin Awards” everywhere and I had to take a photo of one who clearly ignored all warning signs re dangerous waves, slippery rocks and asking people to  stay behind the fence.

The next day was more tremendous driving up Highway 1 from Mendocino to Rockport.  I continued to be impressed with the courtesy of drivers pulling aside for me.

A little further on in Oregon I was on Highway 101 – a very pleasant, scenic drive that continues along the coast for the most part.  The Oregon coast changes from the rocky shores similar to northern California to broader, dark sandy beaches similar to southern Washington, but all were quite beautiful.

I was feeling pretty good about not having any incidents or tickets along my drive when I had my first potential encounter with Mr Plod about 1/3 up the Oregon Coast outside the town of Gold Beach.  I was in a 55mph zone on a two-lane road that was quite fun and I have to admit to being significantly over the suggested speed limit.  A police car came around the corner towards me so I hit the brakes, but as soon as we passed, he quickly flipped his car around and came up behind me, by which time I was below the speed limit.

While I waited for the blue and red lights and tried to appear very nonchalant looking at the scenery (the convertible top was down), the police car continued to follow me for several miles until we entered the town and the road became four lanes.  The police car pulled up beside me and the young policeman yelled out his window “Nice car!”.  I thanked him and he continued on his way while I then pulled over for a coffee and a snack to celebrate my luck.

I spent my last night on the road in Astoria in a hotel overlooking the marina.  Every time I go to Astoria, I feel I really should spend more time there as it has a great, friendly feel to it and is interesting with its maritime history, lots of shipping traffic and some great museums.

There is also the “original bridge to nowhere” that links Oregon and Washington.  This is a tremendous engineering feat and despite early derision, now carries a million vehicles a year.

 

Then it was on into Washington and back home to Fremont in Seattle.  What an absolutely fabulous trip this has been.  I feel very refreshed and alive.

 

 

I had picked up a Route 66 number plate surround which the Jag now wears very proudly.

 

Once I dropped Alice in Phoenix, it was time for me to continue on the road trip – starting with an overnight stop outside Mesa at Saguaro Lake Guest Ranch where I saw the best starry night for a long time.

I was surprised by the number of mobile home communities along the Colorado River – some seemed to be retirement properties while others were holiday “resorts”.  I stopped to take photos and received this warning re rattlesnakes.

 

 

Then it was on to Laughlin NV for a night, with a detour through Lake Havasu City to check out the relocated London Bridge.

 

The area around the Bridge seemed like it had seen better days.

 

Laughlin is somewhere I probably don’t need to go back to – it makes Las Vegas and even Reno seem classy!

The next day I had a very interesting drive to Palm Springs.  About halfway along Hwy 62, there was a large collection of shoes on a fence near the town of Rice.  I’m not sure how it got started or the significance but it did add something of interest on the trip through the desert.

I made a detour through Joshua Tree park and the different vegetation was remarkable.  As the elevation increased and then decreased the desert landscape changed quite dramatically from spindly scrub to the Joshua Trees and to Octillo trees and back to scrubby desert.

 

 

 

 

 

You get a real sense of the vastness of the USA when you see the desert stretching out for what seems forever.

Once in Palm Springs I took the Ariel Tramway to get a bird’s eye view of the terrain.  It must have been quite a feat to build this in the early 60’s and it certainly gives a broad perspective of the desert towns in the Coachella valley.

The following day it was a trip to San Diego where I stayed in the Gaslamp District and caught up with old friends.

Along the way I saw the date palm tree plantations at Mecca which apparently were originally planted by Middle-Eastern immigrants and this has now become one of the largest date-producing areas in the US.

I stopped at the international banana museum as I had to take photo but I had no intention of visiting given my aversion to bananas!

I also went past the Salton Sea – an amazing inland lake that is very large and the drive past it took a long time.

After spending a couple days in San Diego where I visited some of the museums in Balboa Park, it was time to start the next leg of my adventure up the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) which is also named California Highway 1.

This is a fabulous drive along the coastline and I went through the beach towns including Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Surfside, Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach before skirting LAX airport and passing Santa Monica where Route 66 ends on the pier.  Of all the beaches I liked the feel of Laguna Beach best.

Along the way there was section of the PCH right on the ocean which had been made into a camping area for motorhomes – there was large number of them that must have went for a mile or two.

I spent the night in the Channel Islands Harbor at Oxnard where I had marina view that reminded me very much of home 🙂

Next it was more touring north staying as much as possible on PCH, although I did have to go a little away from the coast on CA 101.  This was also interesting as it gave a great view of the rolling hills still green from winter rains and the extensive vineyards that have been planted along the California Central Coast.

I wanted to spend some time touring the Hearst Castle at San Simeon which was very worthwhile.  Not only did Randolph Hearst have a lot of money, he had a vision and the persistence to build this huge estate over around 30 years.  He collaborated with Julia Morgan on the project, the first women architect certified in California.

Apparently he entertained many Hollywood actors and producers along with other notable dignitaries and luminaries there through the 20’s and 30’s.

 

As you tour the grand rooms of the property you get a real appreciation of what it must have been like to be guest back then as the property has been very preserved including the original furniture.

 

After spending the night in a nearby hotel on the oceanfront, it will be time for me to head to Northern California.

 

This week has been a blast as we motored along the Mother Road from Albuquerque to Kingman Arizona, making plenty of stops along the way to check out the scenery, purchase some treasures and visit some fantastic sites.

On the first day we went from Albuquerque to Grants, New Mexico and from there took a detour through El Malpais National Monument (aka the Badlands) and stopped at the Ice Caves  and Bandera Volcano.  Both were very cool with the lava landscape and the ice cave which remains frozen year round.

From there we continued onto Gallup, New Mexico – a very cool town where we stayed at the historic Hotel El Rancho.  This is where many movie stars have stayed, particularly when western movies were being filmed in the area so the roster included stars such as John Wayne and others such as Spencer Tracy and Kirk Douglas.

 

I splashed out and we stayed in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Suite.  We had some of the best margaritas for a while in the lounge (which was decorated with numerous dollar bills) while also indulging in some Mexican food.

 

The next day we made our way into Arizona, stopping just over the border for some Indian Trading Posts that clearly had seen better days.  Situated a little down the road was a replica of Fort Courage from the F-Troop TV series (you have to be older to remember this show).

 

Further along the way we had to drop into the Jack Rabbit Trading Post, where Alice decided she had to ride a large jackalope.

 

In Holbrook, we stopped at the very famous Joe & Aggie’s Café in Holbrook, which was featured in Pixar’s “Cars” movie and also checked out the Wigwam motel – the rooms are individual teepees with cool old vehicles parked outside as part of the décor.

We stopped in Winslow, made famous by the Eagles song “Take it Easy” where of course we had to stand on the corner for the obligatory photos.

Next it was onto Flagstaff, a very well maintained town that is primarily a University town.  Here we stayed in the haunted Hotel Monte Vista.  This evening was a change from following in the footsteps of Presidents as we stayed in the Michael Stipe REM room.   Fortunately our room wasn’t haunted so we had a peaceful evening.

We also stopped in for a drink at the Museum Club, which we both agreed was the best roadhouse / dive bar we’ve been in for a long time.

We had a complete change of pace the following day with a ride in the parlor car on the Grand Canyon Railroad.

 

This was a great day complete with comprehensive commentary on the train, an excellent hike along the canyon rim, and live entertainment in the form of country singers and a train robbery by cowboys (should I call them outlaws?) on horseback.

We also had a couple of cocktails on the way back including a champagne toast before staying in the very well revamped Grand Canyon Railroad Hotel.

To change the pace up a little more, the following day we made our way to the Grand Canyon Western Ranch where we stayed in a cabin on a working ranch complete with horses, cattle and bison.

On the way we stopped in yet more Trading Posts as well as Seligman where the revitalization of Route 66 was first championed.

 

Here we checked out the famous Snow Cap Diner and many other cool buildings and made some purchases from the gift stores selling Route 66 memorabilia.

At the Grand Canyon Western Ranch, Alice had fun in the saloon and jail.

 

 

 

 

Over dinner we were entertained by Casey, the cowboy singer before gathering around the campfire for more songs accompanied by s’mores and some adult beverages.

We started the next day with a hearty cowboy breakfast followed by a horseback ride over part of the 106,000 acres that belong to the ranch and along the way stopped for a champagne toast (yes there is a theme emerging here).

Then it was on to Kingman, where we ate at some great places including Rutherford 66 Diner, Mr D’z Diner and Oyster Mexican and seafood and then got ourselves ready for the fun run and classic car and motorcycle show. We went downtown a little early to wait for the cars coming from Seligman and amused ourselves in the Route 66 museum in the old Powerhouse.

 

 

 

Even though it was raining and plenty of water rushing down the gutters, many classic, and some not so classic cars showed up.

The finish was mostly in front of Mr D’z diner – where we ate some great road trip food.

 

 

This was a most excellent week – perhaps best summed up by the photo of Alice having another large, very nice margarita 🙂

 

I’m taking another road trip – this time along Route 66 and then up Highway 1 along the California, Oregon and Washington coasts.  First I needed to get my car to Albuquerque to start the journey westward (I decided not to do the whole route that starts in Chicago).  Initially I intended to have the car shipped, but then decided to drive instead to ensure it arrived when I needed it as I’d planned out the stops and booked hotels.

It was a great drive from Seattle over the Cascade mountains, down through Oregon and into Idaho before stopping for the first night in Boise where I stayed at the very pleasant Modern Hotel and Bar.  I enjoyed Boise – very livable city but who knew that Idaho was made famous by a candy bar!

It was then on through Idaho and into Utah where I stopped in Salt Lake City to visit the Mormon Tabernacle Temple.  I was surprised at how poor the drivers are in Salt Lake City – I was on edge the whole time, so it was a relief to head out to the mountains where I stayed the night in Midway in a replica Swiss resort.

The following day was a long drive to Albuquerque as I needed to get there in time to pick up Alice as she flew in that evening. We stayed down town near the old town in the Hotel Andaluz, which was the first hotel Conrad Hilton built and has been renovated but kept very authentic to the New Mexico architecture.

We had a great time in Albuquerque.  We visited old town and the San Felipe de Neri Church which was founded in 1705. On the walk back we stopped at the open air market where Alice made the first of many purchases.

 

They have some interesting rules in Albuquerque.  I’m pretty sure I was good at following these, but I’m not so sure about Alice – particularly the last one.

 

Of course we had some great New Mexican food and took in a number of the landmarks along historic Route 66.

These included the Kimo theater, the old Dog House (which was always busy), and Garcia Café.

 

 

We just had to eat breakfast in the Route 66 Diner which was very authentic and filled with memorabilia.

 

We enjoyed visiting the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and watched some native American dancers perform and Alice bought some small local art and other items from the gift store.

 

The Jag had collected a lot of Idaho and Utah bugs on the road so the last stop of the day was to a car wash 🙂

 

It’s getting closer to the new boating season – the opening day is typically the first weekend in May.  Maybe in anticipation of the new season, the police boats on Lake Union have been more active recently.

They have several boats in the fleet and on busy weekends like the opening weekend or July 4th all are on active duty.

What I haven’t seen before is one of their largest boats maneuvering so close to ‘Alice’ and the rowing club dock.  This weekend, the boat made a pass down one side of the dock before backing up and coming down between ‘Alice’ and the rowing dock – there’s not a lot of room left as you can seen below!

 

There was no incident, no arrests (thank goodness) and no explanation, just a friendly wave as they backed off, turned around and went on their way.

The days are getting longer (from 7am to 8pm), the birds are singing and the weather has changed from gloomy to gorgeous!  It is definitely springtime in Seattle.  With Spring comes a number of rituals.  This week I had the top down on the Jag convertible for the first time this year.  It was also time to get the KatieG serviced.

I took her down to Seattle Boat Co where they hauled it out, did the annual maintenance and cleaned the bottom.  She stayed overnight so I could pick it up this morning and what a great morning it was. They quickly had the KatieG down from her perch and splashed into the water.

 

After picking up the KatieG, I took her through the cutting to Lake Washington and went for a great run – my justification was to charge up the batteries and blow the carbon out the engine, but of course the real reason was pure fun!

I was soon screaming across the water at 45 mph and KatieG still had some more to go – just brilliant!

Then back home where I successfully docked against Alice with no drama (whew!).  Then it was time to clean and prep the inside of the boat for the upcoming boating season.

Nothing beats the fun and joy of living in Seattle in Spring and Summer.

 

 

Of course the best way to enjoy spring in Seattle – having a beer on the back deck 🙂

I’m in the process of transitioning out of my current role and so for the first time in my working life I’m taking a sabbatical to do some thinking about what I’d like to do next.  The first leg of this journey was a trip back to Australia to visit family and friends and to decompress a little after many years of being always-on with long stressful days.

I flew back into my home town of Cairns in North Queensland, a very beautiful part of the world renown for sugar cane, tourism and of course the Great Barrier Reef.

Poisonous Jelly Fish are still an issue here with the beaches basically closed from November through March except for areas with stinger-net enclosures.  Of course if you get stung you call the ambulance and hope they’ll get there quickly enough to administer aid, and there’s always come vinegar handy to help deaden the pain before the ambulance arrives or you die, whichever happens first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spent time at the beach and visited Mum before driving south to Brisbane.  This is about a 1,200 mile drive and somewhat different to when I went to University in Brisbane I decided to take my time and stop into various places on the way, a number of which I had never really seen.

Next day was a drive to Bowen. I really liked this town on the coast and the beach where I stayed at Horseshoe Bay was very pretty.  Bowen is a little bigger than Ravenshoe but not by much (there were at least three pubs).  There was a great pie shop where I had one of the best sausage rolls I’ve ever had – a true breakfast of champions 🙂

 

From there it was on to Yeppoon – a more industrial town on the coast but I again I had a great location overlooking the beach.

From Yeppoon I took a side trip to Bundaberg to visit the distillery, home of Bundberg rum.  I picked up a couple of special bottles and made my way to Hervey Bay.  I was very impressed with Hervey Bay – very pretty beach, and I stayed at Shelly Beach Motel which was very comfortable and in a great location.  Hervey Bay has all the charm of Bowen but is much bigger with many more amenities.

The last day was a very nice drive hugging the coast most of the way to Brisbane, stopping at Noosa Heads and Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast, both of which have very beautiful beaches.

 

I finished this trip in Cleveland where I stayed with friends Peter and Nereis in their home on a canal development at Raby Bay – very pleasant indeed.  It was great to catch up with some of the myDIALS team and to spend time with Grant and Luke.  I also had the pleasure of catching up with my uncle Lou and aunt Meg in Coolangatta.

The next leg of my sabbatical journey will be back in the USA on Route 66!

 

 

Alice and I went away for a quiet weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary on nearby Whidbey Island.  We had a great drive stopping in Coupeville and a couple of State Parks on the way to Langley where we stayed for a couple nights in the very luxurious Inn at Langley.

At one of the parks, Fort Casey was built to defend the coastline from sea invasion and was equipped with disappearing guns.  These are very impressive, required a crew of 26 men on each and could fire their shells more than 8 miles.  The fort had a battery of around 10 of these, and they were dismantled and melted down after World War II.  Two guns were brought from a base in the Philippines and restored here as a showcase.

We spent some time exploring the very scenic town of Coupeville before heading into Langley. Unbeknown to us, this weekend was the annual Murder Mystery Weekend in Langley – the 32nd year of the event.   Hundreds of “sleuths” descended on the town to solve a fictitious crime, with clues in various shops and a number of actors in costume providing additional information.

What I didn’t really understand was the many people wearing rabbit ears and carrying placards and badges to “let the bunnies run free”.   This was in addition to various other characters who were wearing some interesting outfits.

Alice made sure we visited every shop selling books, antiques, curios and nick knacks.  We had a fun, relaxing time and enjoyed the serenity of our hotel when the streets became too crowded.  We also enjoyed the great food and wine at the Inn’s restaurant.

 

If you live in Fremont, a part of life are the canine companions that are treated as being very special.  Quite a number of the local coffee houses, bars and restaurants are very accommodating to man’s (and woman’s) best friend.  It certainly adds some character to the center of the universe.

We went to happy hour over the weekend and my favorite was the dog sitting very happily on the bar stool at the bar.  He didn’t have a beer in front of him, but he certainly looked as though he totally belonged there.  Have to love it!

 

We had a fabulous Christmas vacation in the British Virgin Islands – Alice and I were joined by Grant, Kaitlin and their partners, Luke and Adam.  We like to have one day on St Thomas to recover from the flights (red-eyes) and then onto Tortilla to pick up the charter boat.  A little bit of drama at the ferry (the one I had booked decided not to run that morning) and then at the base as they tried to figure out how to make the dinghy work with the different davit on the new boat and then we were off.  We could get a mooring at Cooper Island so went on to Gordo Sound on Virgin Gorda. This is a great location with the Bitter End Yacht Club, Saba Rock and more.

It was also a fortunate location as we had some “teething issues” with the new boat.  A split hose meant we lost all water and then the water maker wouldn’t work.  We had one night without working taps or heads (not recommended).  While waiting for the technician we did some kayaking and I had more docking practice than I expected as we had to fill up water tanks multiple times due to the leakage and the water maker still being inoperable.

 

Then we had more trouble with the generator due to a loose connection and while we waited for this to be fixed, Alice and gang rented a car from Captain Red Rat (yes that was his name) and explored the island including the very beautiful “The Baths”.

Then it was off to Trellis Bay on Tortola which has a number of arts stores. We were also able to get the water maker repaired here – makes life on a boat so much more enjoyable when you don’t have to worry about how much water you use, and we had a great meal at “The Last Resort”.

The next stop for us was Jost Van Dyke and on the way we went past Sandy Cay – otherwise known as “screen-saver” island given how picturesque it looks.

Alice had found out that the small Methodist church had a Christmas service – at 5am – and I had booked Christmas-eve dinner at the famous Foxy’s pub and restaurant – that probably says something about our respective priorities.

 

Foxy’s was hopping and a lot of fun – the word for the evening was “irie” meaning all is good in local parlance.   The next morning we dutifully got up very early and made the dinghy ride to shore for the church service.  The locals had been caroling since 10pm the night before and were still in strong voice.

We were the only non-locals at the service and were very warmly welcomed.  We were invited to stay for breakfast but given how slow things move in the islands and how hungry we were feeling, we begged off and headed back to the boat.  We had a great Christmas dinner on board as well accompanied by some bottles of champagne and special sparkling red wine that Grant and Luke had brought from Australia.

From Jost we headed to Super’s Hole.  Here there are a number of shops and restaurants and we took advantage to get some much needed Espresso, stock up on provisions and have a nice meal at Pusser’s rum outlet.

After a fun day and evening, including getting a little wet from the rain squalls, it was time to move on to our next destination.

Norman Island (also known as Treasure Island as it was the inspiration for RL Stevenson’s book and in fact a large amount of pirate treasure had been found here a long time ago).

 

 

There was some great snorkeling to be had here at “The Caves”.   We took the dinghy in to the very nicely renovated Pirate’s Bar for lunch.

 

 

We also had a fun evening at the “Willie T”, a floating restaurant and bar in an old schooner that gets pretty rowdy.  For some reason Alice decided it was going to sink and all the drunk people were going to climb all over her to get off the vessel.  Fortunately that didn’t happen and we had a nice meal.

The next day we celebrated my birthday which was fabulous – I started out the day with a nice kayak.  We also kept the tradition of eating the last evening on the boat and trying to eat as much of the leftover food as possible and of course drink as much of the leftover alcohol as possible – this was made much easier when Katie started making very strong margaritas.

We finished he trip the same we started – a ferry ride back to St Thomas and staying at the Emerald Bay hotel on the coast near the airport before we flew back home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We really enjoyed relaxing on the boat – the aft cockpit with pass through bar was a favorite location.

 

Alice and I had a special treat as Grant and Luke joined us back in Seattle for a New Year’s eve celebration at the Back Door bar including a great band and a burlesque show.

 

A truly memorable vacation!  Now we’re plotting the next family vacation for 2017.