During this time we managed to visit Hyde Park, the Tate Britain and catch up with Duncan and Karen. We finally managed to move in to our flat in Wimbledon on the 8th of April and discovered we had no bedding and very little in the way of kitchenware. So after a mammoth shopping trip we bought a duvet, sheets, duvet cover, pillows, pillowcases and towels. We put up our Snoopy picture and made our room our own.
We had thought about buying a GameBoy Advance SP but much to our surprise there were no electronics available for purchase at San Francisco Airport. So instead we settled for buying lunch and finding a free wireless network were we emailed various family and friends. This successfully filled in our waiting time and very soon it was time to get on the plane.
We sat next to a lovely english woman who now lives in San Francisco and she kept us thoroughly entertained for much of the flight. The food was shocking on BA reinforcing the airline food stereotype. I watched Sweet Home Alabama and Nick watched Star Trek Nemesis and Eight Mile. Neither of us slept well on this flight both only getting a couple of hours sleep. British customs wasn't too bad but they did send us for a health check thing telling us that we would need a chest x-ray. It turned out they didn't need to x-ray us they just stamped our forms and sent us on our way. We had arranged a shuttle to get us from the airport to the hotel and we had a very chatty driver.
The hotel we stayed at was shocking - they wouldn't let us check in even up to 5 minutes before the official check-in time and into the bargain the staff were very, very, very rude and they put us in a room on the top floor with no air-conditioning and a roof overhang which I subsequently bruised myself to pieces on. Duncan and Bronwyn rang us as we were checking in, and they and Nick subsequently went flat hunting in the afternoon. I stayed at the hotel and tried to get some sleep but the fire alarm went off giving the staff another opportunity to be rude!! Nick, Duncan and Bronwyn returned we went out to dinner and then to bed.
Fisherman's Wharf is kind of an odd mix - there are these protected historic ships and wharves surrounded by 'tourist central' - all very strange. We had a look at some of the historic ships and ship parts (for example a steam wheel) before heading down to the shopping part of the area. We had a wander through some of the shops which try and pretend they aren't touristy but really are and then down past where we had to get on the boat to go to 'The Rock'. At the far end of the section and in amongst shops and restaurants lives a Sea-lion colony. Nick informed me it reeked but of course I didn't know and was therefore happy to stand and watch them. We wandered through a mall nearby which included a Christmas decoration shop, puppet shop and shuck an oyster for a pearl stand. We then decided we should head back towards the boarding dock.
Yet again we had to wait in a queue for something we wanted to do and finally got on board having had the mandatory 'getting on the boat' shot taken by the boats photographer. The ferry trip took about 10-15 minutes and gave you hints of the beautiful views we would get from Alcatraz. When we arrived at the dock a tour of the island entitled '200 years of history at Alcatraz' was just about to leave so we decided we would join that. The talk was absolutely fascinating and focused more on the history pre and post the island's era as a federal prison. It began its colonised life as a military base guarding the entrance to San Francisco harbor, before becoming a military prison then progressing to its federal prison days. After the federal prison had closed there was an 'Indian' occupation on the island in the late 1960s/early 1970s in a bid to gain improved rights for Native Americans. The occupation gained considerable sympathy with mainland San Franciscans and the occupiers received boat loads of provisions from well wishers. The occupation on the island ended after the leader's daughter died/was killed on the island and he left, a large fire on the island destroyed several buildings and the State authorities turned the electricity and water to the island off.
After the walk and talk, which actually paced the equivalent of a thirteen storey building climb very well, we went through to the main prison building and hired an audio guide. The guide has won a number of awards for its content. It is voiced by both ex-prison guards and ex-inmates. It is still reasonably easy to imagine what an inhospitable place the prison was but I didn't think it was as freaky as old Melbourne Gaol with its death masks. However we didn't feel the need to spend an extended period of time within its walls. We went and had a look at the old exercise yard before heading around to the front of the building and taking some photos of the views from Golden Gate bridge around the bay. We decided to head back down the island and back to the main land. The ferry again took about quarter of a hour and when we alighted from the boat we checked our 'trip photo' (It was appalling by the way) and went looking for lunch/afternoon tea/dinner.
We wandered past a Hard Rock Cafe and Nick announced that he had never been to one so we decided that since we were having a touristy day that this was an experience not to be missed. So we dined among Elton's hat, Madonna's dress, Beyonce's outfit and various pieces of memorabilia from American rock stars. We headed back to the hotel, after a 40 minute wait for the Cable Car and some street entertainment, to once again repack on the eve of the last leg of our journey.
After our exhausting shop, we had a bite to eat at the 'Warm Puppy Cafe' which is located in the ice rink building (a heated room, unlike the rink) before heading out on the ice ourselves. Ice is very slippery. Ice is also very cold. Two seemingly obvious facts that are driven home while ice skating. Fortunately being the highly coordinated individuals that we are neither of the two preceding facts were directly experienced by us. We both ended our sessions without a single fall!! Hayley made it round the entire rink and was content to retire with this triumph. Nick on the other hand skated on, rekindling rumours of a return to the professional arena. We had a great time at the rink but decided it was time to tackle the museum before we were totally worn out.
Thanks to our friends of the museum membership which we have, we got into the museum for free. The museum is divided up into several exhibition spaces where they can focus on different aspects of Charles Schulz's work. In the main gallery space there was an exhibition of contemporary cartoonists work commenting on both Schulz's retirement and subsequent death. The other exhibit on the ground floor was showcasing Schulz's work in it's original large format. Upstairs in the gallery there was a drawing room where you can pull up a chair and sit down and draw. We didn't. Draw, that is. There was also a recreation of his drawing studio along with artifacts from his childhood and his, well Snoopy's, involvement with the NASA space program.
Outside the museum there is a courtyard to rest in which also plays host to some Peanuts inspired sculpture. There was a Charlie Brown 'under construction' statue, a kite eating tree, a giant baseball hat, which changed colour in the sun-light and also provided shade for Woodstock's bird bath/hockey rink. The birdbath even had holographically projected characters on it. Just inside from the courtyard is a giant wall mosaic of Charlie Brown kicking the football made up of 3,800 tiles each with a comic strip on it. There is also a 3D sculpture in wood of the changing forms of Snoopy. We finished up our trip to the museum with a look in their store where we succumbed to more cute Snoopy things! Hayley got a T-shirt and I got a bookmark and some note paper and I just know there were other things but I can't remember what they were. I'm sure we'll remember once we've unpacked.
It was our 2nd anniversary today so we celebrated with dinner in the hotel's restaurant. Hayley had scallops with truffles for entree while I had a caesar salad. For mains we both had fish (they did specialise in seafood), Hayley had Sturgeon with a delicious sauce of unknown origin while I had Swordfish with endive. Dessert was a hazelnut chocolate creation for me and an apple and pear sorbet for Hayley.
We wandered back the 10 metres to our hotel and had the desk clerk take our photo for posterity : )
Next we drove to Santa Cruz. We went to the Beach Boardwalk which is an old style Boardwalk with rides and side show games and candy floss. It was fun walking up and down and looking at all the games and rides. we decided we wouldn't go on anything but it was fun watching every one else. We had lunch in a little cafe and asked directions to the Mystery Spot. We found the Mystery Spot really easily following the directions. Nick wanted to go to a 'roadside America' attraction and this was the one that was selected. The Mystery Spot is a place outside Santa Cruz where magnetic forces are at work. Nick and I both felt slightly dizzy and sick inside the cottage on the site. We are not sure how much is real effect and how much is visual trickery never-the-less it was very fun and we were pleased we had been. We got two free bumper stickers which commemorate the Mystery Spot.
Next on the pilgramage was San Jose to get to the Apple Campus for photos. This was easier said than done but we have now seen a number of areas of San Jose as well as Cupertino and 1 Infinite Loop.
Wegot back on the freeway and drove through San Francisco to Santa Rosa. San Francisco looked fun and we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. We thought the bridge was much bigger than we had imagined but the view from it was spectacular. We finally arrived in Santa Rosa at 8.00pm.
The Vineyard Creek is beautiful. We love the room it has beautiful fitting and a gigantic bed which is so high off the ground we hope we don't fall out of it because we may get concussion from the floor. We both had a bath with the complimentary bath crystals and then had room service for dinner as we were too tired to go out and then off to bed.
They charge $5 for parking but everything else in the Museum is free. You park and then get onto a tram, which is air powered. We later learnt that the tram is meant to act as a 'decompression' from the busyness outside so it has no driver and no ads and is quiet and calm.
The Museum itself is huge. It has five wings, North, East, South, West and exhibition and gorgeous gardens. The Museum has a widespread collection covering sculpture, painting, photographs, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, furniture and other decorative arts (tapestries, clocks, plates and so on). We managed to get around everything in the end but it took us about 6 hours and we went very fast through some sections. Some highlights include: Monet's works including a wheat-stack painting, Degas' works including two ballerina works, Van Gogh's Irises, Munch's work and many of the sculptures which were beautiful. We also went on an architecture tour, on which we learnt that all the squares in the building are 30 by 30 inches, multiples of 30 inches or parts of 30 inches, so 30 by 30, 60 by 60, 15 by 15, 7 1/2 by 7 1/2 or various other permutations on that theme. The stone used in much of the exterior cladding is travertine. This has been cleft in half to give a non uniform texture to the buildings. Many of the stones that have been cleft have fossils inside. We went for a walk in the main garden which we really enjoyed. We bought a book about the Getty as a souvenir. We were throughly exhausted at the end and were pleased to be traveling back down on the tram for a rest. Unfortunately it was right on 6.00pm and the freeway was hectic. We plodded back towards Anaheim and decided to go back down to Newport to try and exchange some boxers which Nick had bought, they were too large and had a security tag still attached. We managed to exchange the boxers successfully and check our e-mail at the Apple Store. We had McDonalds for dinner and then headed back to the Hotel and got there at about 10pm. We again fell into bed exhausted after another fantastic day.
We started our Disneyland exploration in Adventureland and the jungle cruise. it was very cheesy and very fun. Disneyland has introduced a new system of queuing that allows you to collect a ticket that reserves you a place in the line ahead of the other poor punters who chose to stand in line. The fastpass system can reduce a wait of 60+ minutes down to 10-15 minutes. After the 'cruise' we collected fastpasses for the Indianna Jones ride and Pirates of the Caribbean. We wandered around to the Haunted Mansion and the waiting time was only 15 minutes so we stood in the 'Standby Line'. I have to say the ride is a little different in English than in Japanese!! Again good cheesy fun.
We then wandered back and had a few minutes to spare so we had alook in the store in Adventureland which seemed to stock an awful lot of QuikSilver and Billabong, we also imprinted a penny with Jane from Disney's Tarzan. We then went to the Indiana Jones Adventure, which turned out to be really fun - the idea is that you on in an off road vehicle in one of the temples Indy explored. It finishes with a boulder rolling towards you and then at the last minute you drop below it - it was really fun!! Then we went around to the to the Pirates of the Caribbean, we thought this was a fraction long but still quite fun. We decided that an overview of the park would be interesting at this point so we caught the Disneyland Railway right around the park starting in New Orleans Square looping back past and getting off at Tomorrowland. Nick says that the Grand Canyon and Primeval Land have not changed since he was there last time!! We went and got Fastpasses for Space Mountain and walked towards Star Tours to get Fastpasses there too but when we got there, there was only a five minute wait so we decided to wait. Star Tours is a simulated flight into space with a droid from Lucas Entertainment - I thought it was really fun but Nick found it a little nauseating! We then went back to Space Mountain - a ride that is a rollercoaster mainly in the dark, we both thought it was the best ride we went on all day. We then had a lunch break, it was quite tricky to find me something but we managed in the end. We then decided we needed a calmer ride so we went and looked at the fairy tale castle and the carousel and then went on Snow White's Scary Adventures which is a VERY gentle children's ride. We walked back around and found the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which had a queue time of about 30 minutes and we decided to wait. Just as we got through the final turnstile, and having queued for 20 minutes the ride broke down (I thought at least we weren't on top of the mountain) and we had to walk out over the tracks thus missing out on that ride.
We decided we were hungry so we bought some more fries. Then decided to go to Splash Mountain and see how the Fastpass time was going - as it turned out you couldn't get one for it for three hours so we decided to stand in the queue (estimated time 60 minutes). The time seemed to go relatively quickly and we chatted to the people in the queue around us. Splash Mountain is a log flume ride and was very fun although we did both get rather wet!! We decided we were pleased that we hadn't left it too much later in the day to go on this ride as it was just starting to chill off. We decided to wander along to Matterhorn, but on the way we came across the Princess Shop (which we had seen earlier in the day) and I just couldn't resist a tiara. We also mad a flying visit to Toontown just to have a wee look at all the fun kids rides. We then went to the Matterhorn and waited for 15 minutes to go on this roller-coaster. It was quite a gentle roller-coaster but a lot of fun none-the-less. We had another go at getting on the Big Thunder Railway but decided the queue was too long. We both decided we had had enough so we went and bought some souvenir postcards and headed for the exit.
We gave our views on the park to a market research person at the exit. We hopped on the shuttle home. When we got back to the Hotel we decided we felt like some 'real' food for dinner so we went to a nearby Japanese restaurant which was fantastic. We had some sushi for starters and then I had teriyaki salmon, sashimi, rice, miso soup and a white bait salad and Nick had Tempura, sashimi, teriyaki salmon, rice and miso soup and we had a fruit platter for dessert. The waitresses were Japanese and we got to practice a few words. All in all it was a wonderful day that we throughly enjoyed.
We decided we wanted to visit the Tangled Maze in Creswick about 20 minutes drive from Daylesford. The maze also has mini-golf. When you start the Maze you get given some quiz questions to answer as you go through and fortunately due to the wonders of digital cameras we took photos of all the answers. Dave and Graham found all the answers and got around first and we only missed one and managed to get ourselves out without cheating. It was actually reasonably challenging and lots of fun. We had a short drinks and toilet break before proceeding onto mini golf. I got two holes in one (both by complete fluke I must admit) and Nick got one. There were some reasonably challenging holes including ones with slopes , a swinging watering can and flower pots. Nick eventually won after a tight tussle with Graham.
We drove back towards Daylesford and went onto Hepburn Springs to see the famous Springs. We tried some water from the Sulphur Spring - which was quite metallic tasting. We also had a quick look at the spa complex there. Finally on our way home we went to Lake Daylesford. For the adventurous you can hire boats here but we just meandered around the shore and looked at the local wildlife. We returned home all a little sun burnt. We all had spa bathes before heading out for dinner. We decided to try our luck at the Hill End Cafe for dinner and once again got a delicious meal. I had smoked salmon on baby spinach leaves for entree and lamb shank for main, Nick had crispy duck and wontons for entree and eye fillet for main, Dave had cauliflower and blue cheese soup for entree and lamb shank for main and Graham had crispy duck and wontons for entree and eye fillet for main. We also got through a bottle of red and a bottle of reisling. Nick lit the fire at the Kookaburra and we sat around and talked for a while and then headed for bed.
We set out on the road to the accompaniment of caterwauling! The drive took about an hour and a quarter. We thought we were booked into an illustrious establishment called the Pet Palace but it turned out we were actually booked into the Kookaburra so named because of the Kookaburra stained glass windows in the hallway and bedroom. It was very cute with a real fireplace, a spa bath and a bread-maker. Toffee liked it a lot more than being in a cage in the car so that was good. We went for a walk down the main street and had a look at the cafes and shops down there. There is a home made chocolate shop and cafe so a purchase of a pre packaged selection was made there. We wandered to a cafe for lunch and had a variety of things including vegetable frittata, chicken and avocado roll and I had spinach and tomato. We also went to the supermarket and bought some Hayley-friendly food. We went back to Kookaburra for an afternoon break. I had a sleep and then cooked myself some dinner, potatoes and lamb. The boys went to a restaurant called Stoaked. <Nick> Stoked was not how I would describe the sensation we were left with after eating there. To start with we didn't exactly blend in with the locals, but that was the least of our worries. I had an inoffensive pasta dish while Dave and Graham had the steak. The steak was meant to come with a hollandaise sauce, but in Dave's case it was in fact butter piled high on his steak. His plate was very soon a river of lard. Needless to say we quickly finished up and left : )</Nick> And then to bed.
We decided that we would start at the bottom of Myer and work up - this meant starting in the basement with Men's clothes where Nick had a good look but didn't try anything on. We then decided we were hungry and since we were in Myer decided to eat at their food court - I managed to find a place that had roast potatoes and freshly sliced roast lamb and another fruit place that had pears so I had that for lunch. Nick had a Salmon bagel. We then continued on our way up to lingerie where I tried on a number of bras. I bought a beautiful purple bra and knicker set, a green bra and a new white bra and because I bought more than 2 things got 20% off the lot. I then tried on some more things on the various womens-wear floors but didn't buy anything.
We had a bit of a look at some electronics stores for digital cameras but didn't have much luck. We then walked home through the Royal Arcade, this houses the hard candy shop and the jewellry shop where I bought my pinky-purple earrings last time. We sat down and watched some 'interesting' Australian television including Burgo's Catch Phrase!! Dave again cooked us dinner - I had Salmon Risotto and the boys had homemade Burgers. The boys watched Planet of the Apes and I retired to the bedroom to watch the Australia-New Zealand World Cup game Australia innings. And then to bed.
Nick was very excited that Qantas have peanuts in little baggies in-flight. We both watched the movie Serving Sara with Elizabeth Hurley and Matthew Perry in it. I don't recommend paying to see it but it was harmless enough inflight entertainment! Nick also got two meals as the main was Chicken in a tomato and herb sauce with gnocchi and a bun and a white chocolate Kit-Kat. There was also a small green salad which I could eat, so I had that and 2 bananas, lamb and rice crackers. We also drank water and apple juice.
We landed ahead of schedule and cleared immigration and customs really quickly. Dave and Graham were there to meet us and after a bit of rearranging we (plus the three suitcases, two carry on bags and one hastily acquired duty free bag) all fitted into their little car. We arrived back at their flat to be greeted by the very beautiful Toffee. She is part Siamese with gorgeous blue eyes. She is very playful, very loud and very cuddly.
We ate dinner again, chatted and tried to stay up to a reasonable time to help our systems adjust and then crashed into bed at 10:30ish.
We've now got our 'stuff' down to three suitcases. Each of which can easily take more. We've decided this bodes well for our shopping excursion(s) in Melbourne :)
Time is against us so this is just a very small note to let you know that Hamilton's dearth of pesto hasn't left us mortally wounded, and we will be in more frequent contact once we hit Australian shores. No, really!
