Day 5 Santa Monica

We drove from Del Mar up to LA  - have never driven on a 7 lane Highway before, and it was very busy but everyone seems to stick to the 65 mph limit. We are staying 2 blocks back from Santa Monica Beach (at The Huntley) so walked down to the sea front in the afternoon. We walked along the pier, and then headed for Venice Beach – it was all very vibrant and there were a high proportion of fascinating tramps and weirdos. Once again, I was tempted to ask one of the more crazy individuals to take the daily pic (I was very keen to ask a rollerblading lady in a bikini who had had  - I can only imagine – ‘work’ done. She was an alarming, gravity-defying sight!). We ended up asking a very cool Venice Beach young lady instead who (once again) was unfazed by our asking for her photo. This is turning into a nightmare for The Bees though, who find the whole thing excruciatingly embarrassing, even though they agreed the plan was a good one in principle.

On our drive here we had planned to listen to Californian music but Amy Winehouse got first play. We also have a holiday reading list: Huckleberry Finn (on Bella’s A level list for Sept, and Mark Twain was born in San Fransisco), ‘Big Sleep’ by Raymond Chandler (many of his novels were based in Santa Monica, a place he hated!), ‘On The Road’ by Jack Kerouac, and ‘The Confederate General from Big Sur’ by Richard Brautigan. Some of our merry crew are also reading their Highway Code and their Grade 5 Music Theory. Ah! To be young.

Santa Monica Beach

Muscle Beach

We are missing Junior

Day 5 pic

Cool Venice Beach lady who took pic

Who drives this car? Colonel Saunders perhaps?

Plenty of photos from the day.

Del Mar California Day 4

The hotel was absolutely jumping in the evening – it had clearly been a big day at the races. There were a lot of face-lifts walking around the place, plus a few jockeys and there was plenty of race-money being splashed about. We caused a small stir by trying to have a drink in the bar after dinner. The waitress looked so concerned at our arrival that I actually said to her “you look really worried”. She explained that children aren’t allowed to stand at the bar. I think our English accents plus our general bemusement diffused the situation and we went elsewhere and the police weren’t called (again)

Our Daily Pic (4) was taken by one of the hotel waitresses who then posed with Doug, one very cool and laid-back individual.....

To the manor born...

Doug: The Dude

The Bees with a Mustang

Daily Pic (4)

Day 3 Del Mar California

Day 3 Del Mar

We went and actually found downtown La Jolla which is a lovely place by the sea and I was particularly pleased to visit because my Dad used to go to the Oceanographic Institute there (I presume to do research or lecture?); Mum and Dad spent some very good times in La Jolla over the years.

Surfer dude who took the pic

Our daily pic was the most exciting thing that happened, because we accosted a young man coming up from surfing at the beach. He was very happy to take our picture and then T explained that we also would like a photo of him. Tim explained it quite badly and the guy was nodding and smiling but then said “Say what?”  Anyway, all ended well and the police weren’t called. When we were coming back from our dinner later and were laughing at how funny it was, Bill said “I just hope we never see that guy again” and seconds later he went passed us on a zebra crossing. He gave us a jolly wave so I think we got away with it.

Day 3 Del Mar

There was plenty of sunshine in the end although it cools down considerably in the evenings. While the Californians are very into their organic food, sustainably sourced etc, they have no qualms whatsoever about lighting big patio heaters so we can all sit outside after the sun goes down without having to wear woolly jumpers!

Tim prefers the beach to the pool and found himself a few feet away from a seal which was heading right to left down the coast. Bella was concerned because she thought seals might well maul humans. Bella and her Malls....

Yesterday I got my Torrey Canyons muddled with my Torrey Pine Nature Reserve. One is an oil slick, the other is a nice place to go for a walk.

Roger and out

Coffee in La Jolla

Miso Soup

Day 2 Del Mar California

It seems like the weather here does  pretty much the same thing every day, which is it starts off cloudy and then the sun breaks through either late morning or early afternoon. So yesterday morning we decided to drive a few miles up the coast to Torres Canyon National Park (pronounced Torrie) and go for a walk in the hills by the sea. We are taking a daily photo of the 4 of us for the record and Bill came up with the rather promising idea that we also then take a photo of the person who takes our photo, thereby giving a slightly richer view of US life. (By the way, Photo Day 1 doesn’t exist because by the time we came to take it on the evening in question, tempers were fraying. The number of fingers held up shows which day we are on.)

At breakfast yesterday we were saying how much we were missing Junior, so watched a video of him playing football with some peas which Bella had on her phone. I was wondering whether there’d be tortoises in the Canyon, but all we saw were lizards and signs warning about rattle snakes. We did spot a seal in the sea and for a few months every year (Nov to Feb I think) you can see whales as they make their way down the coast. There are loads of pelicans around too, and mostly fly right to left (ie LA to San Diego) but T saw 2 rogues flying in the other direction yesterday. Bill thought they might be drug mules and T said they might have been going back for someone they left behind.

While out on our trip, we decided to drive on to La Jolla but couldn’t find the town centre and (much to T’s alarm and The Bee’s* delight) ended up having a quick lunch in a shopping mall. Sat behind us was an elderly lady with bright orange hair, wearing a rather fetching US flag jacket who had taken her false teeth out and laid them on her table for when she next needed them. It crossed our minds we could ask her to take our photo so we could then take a legitimate photo of her but thought the better of it. (* B&B)

While up in Torres Canyon, we met yet another lady with a parrot – this seems to be a theme of the holiday so far. She was a very elegant grandma who looked alarmingly like her Hooter who did a good line in wolf-whistling. I bet he can’t play football with peas though.

It seems like the weather here does  pretty much the same thing every day, which is it starts off cloudy and then the sun breaks through either late morning or early afternoon. So yesterday morning we decided to drive a few miles up the coast to Torres Canyon National Park (pronounced Torrie) and go for a walk in the hills by the sea. We are taking a daily photo of the 4 of us for the record and Bill came up with the rather promising idea that we also then take a photo of the person who takes our photo, thereby giving a slightly richer view of US life. (By the way, Photo Day 1 doesn’t exist because by the time we came to take it on the evening in question, tempers were fraying. The number of fingers held up shows which day we are on.)

At breakfast yesterday we were saying how much we were missing Junior, so watched a video of him playing football with some peas which Bella had on her phone. I was wondering whether there’d be tortoises in the Canyon, but all we saw were lizards and signs warning about rattle snakes. We did spot a seal in the sea and for a few months every year (Nov to Feb I think) you can see whales as they make their way down the coast. There are loads of pelicans around too, and mostly fly right to left (ie LA to San Diego) but T saw 2 rogues flying in the other direction yesterday. Bill thought they might be drug mules and T said they might have been going back for someone they left behind.

While out on our trip, we decided to drive on to La Jolla but couldn’t find the town centre and (much to T’s alarm and The Bee’s* delight) ended up having a quick lunch in a shopping mall. Sat behind us was an elderly lady with bright orange hair, wearing a rather fetching US flag jacket who had taken her false teeth out and laid them on her table for when she next needed them. It crossed our minds we could ask her to take our photo so we could then take a legitimate photo of her but thought the better of it. (* B&B)

While up in Torres Canyon, we met yet another lady with a parrot – this seems to be a theme of the holiday so far. She was a very elegant grandma who looked alarmingly like her Hooter who did a good line in wolf-whistling. I bet he can’t play football with peas though.

Del Mar is famous for its race course, and the town, and hotel, is full of race goers, many elderly and rich which gives us plenty to gawp at. I’m not sure what we are up to today yet but if Bella has anything to do with it, it will involve me driving to the Mall....

The Bees

 Daily picture

The people who took our picture

 Torres Canyon

 The girls

 Dora the Explorer

 Pelicans flying right to left

Day 1 Del Mar California

I can highly recommend Air New Zealand, and I stole a very nice two-pronged fork from them as a keepsake (more of which later). Heathrow was busy and Tim had every inch of his rucksack looked over, I think because anyone who has an ipod, ipad plus a phone must either be a spy or up to no good. His trousers also caused some concern and they waved that wand over him for several long minutes while he tried not to look guilty.

The gluten free food onboard was a delight; sleeping was tricky, but there were some ok movies to watch and some interesting people to study.

Things got exciting when we entered US soil though, and were greeted by Boarder Patrol who, despite the pleasant signs and notices (we are now referred to as Visitors, whereas we used to be called Aliens) definitely did not want us in their country. There must have been 400 people all queuing to get through the system and it took 90 minutes before it was out turn to give our fingerprints and have our photos taken. Many ongoing flights were missed, and a fair amount of steam was seen coming from T’s ears. Having got through that, there was yet another queue to go through customs. We had been watching a video on a loop about the hazards (imprisonment for example) of bringing Foodstuffs into America (particularly it seems, sugarcane) so although it was tempting to have a bit of joke with the guy about fruit and veg, I decided to give it a miss. Next time maybe....

We had been hoping to have a ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’ moment at the Avis counter but they were oddly efficient and we were soon getting lost in a strange car, in a strange land before finally finding Route 403 from LA to San Diego. T manfully drove and we managed to stay awake (not the kids) and found Del Mar and this lovely Hotel (L’Auberge Del Mar) at which point we all fell into our beds exhausted. T didn’t even unpack!!!

Yesterday was sunny by about 10am and we lay around the pool and the beach enjoying the heat. T and I had been for a very early morning walk (5.30am) and saw a lady walking along amongst the joggers and power-walkers talking to a parrot which was sitting on her shoulder. I was reminded that in the early 70’s, we started to notice a new phenomenon on the streets of Christchuch: grown men running along the pavements. We were told this was called Jogging, and had started in California. Well let me tell you that on my early morning power-walk/jog this morning I saw what might turn out to be the next new thing in Californian fitness crazes which may go global: a man of about 40 doing roly-polies along the sand (backward and frontward) followed by some stuntman-like roll/dives. He and his dog looked proud of themselves. I gave them both a wide berth.

As you may know I have been known to have a small nap of an afternoon (although I have also been known to refer to it as ‘reading’ or even ‘listening to the radio’. Jet-lag meant that yesterday my nap came with the following warning: if you wake me up, I will take the top of your head off and eat your brains with the Air New Zealand fork. I had a good snooze, but it didn’t stop me from feeling downright nauseous by the time bedtime came round yesterday evening.

Today is a new day and we are patiently waiting for the sun so we can have a picnic on the beach.

 L'auberge Del Mar hotel pool

 Miles of Californian beach

Bill channeling Joe 90/Buddy Holly

Roger and out. That sounds weird.

Annie's U.S. trip 2011

Tomorrow we head off to the US for our adventure. I will keep you posted as to what we get up to...