United States

LA to San Diego then Home

/ brisbanefrannie / 3 Comments

And now , the end is near …..🎶🎶

After nearly 9 weeks , multiple beds , thousands of miles driven, meals eaten, Gins drunk, beds slept in , showers negotiated, meeting lovely friends, seeing unbelievable scenery, taking hundreds of photos , walked kilometres……. It’s time for home.

But first we have a few more friends to visit.

We said goodbye to John & Lisa our ‘in laws’ who are so much fun to travel with and flew to LA.

It always amazes me that our beautiful fun friends Dan & Izzy Garr live about 10 mins from LA airport but when you get there it’s a quiet children friendly suburb. Westchester is great. Only 11 mins to the beach Dan swims at most days, 29 mins from Dan’s work called Hot Buttered Elves, a design place where he invents – products , toys and makes models for movies. It’s 15 mins from Izzy’s work at Mattel, where she is head of the design team for Barbie.

As you can tell they are creative. And their sons Max , 21 is studying Film at College and Luke 15 is at school.

Our first night with them Dan cooked up a storm for us. Beautiful home cooked chicken Cordon Bleu parcels. Their kitchen is a cook’s paradise.

The next day they both had work commitments so Steve and I had a very late start and headed off up to Paradise Cove – a favourite spot of Dans. It’s by the beach up past Malibu. We had a beach walk and an early lunch before heading back and stopping at Culver City shopping mall to check out an LA mall. Much the same as ours!

Izzy was waiting for us when we returned. She really wanted to take us to her workplace’s toy store. It’s full of toys all made by Mattel. She said ‘ you really have to take your little grandsons some toys’ . I wish I had prepared better. It’s like Aladdin’s cave and I couldn’t decide. I was limited by size as we still had a flight from San Diego to San Francisco. But I managed a bag of toys. Thanks Izzy. Big staff discount as well.

Back at their house Dan was preparing for dinner. He is a super cook !

They kindly invited our friend Betty (my wing woman in Galapagos and Turkey swim treks ) and her husband Craig.

What a fun night. Dan has a big open teppanyaki grill and did the fried rice. Then there was the bbq – fish , scallops, beef, chicken. Enough for an army.

Dan in action.
Steve with Izzy & Dan
With Betty my ‘wing woman swim friend ‘ we swam in Galapagos and Turkey – next year Egypt.

We had the best night. Betty’s husband Craig has amazing stories of his time in the US airforce as a lawyer. As a cook he was …. But with Dans encouragement he was great.

Another wonderful night with friends. and a 🛌🛌🛌 bed rating. What comfort.

Saturday we headed down the 405 – the freeway south. It was super busy and fast so we got off and took the scenic road through the beaches.

There was an airshow at Huntington Beach. People everywhere.

We continued south to San Capistrano. It’s a mission established in the late 1700’s when the Mexican Catholics lived in this area.

We called in briefly to the outlet centre. Steve bought more than I did!

We arrived at our friends Ben & Sharon. We met Ben on our first ever swim trek but have caught up about 5 times since. He and Dan & Izzy are old friends. I’d never met his wife Sharon as she said swims are his thing! But we hit it off.

Their house in Del Mar just north of Dan Diego is beautiful. They are still doing renovations but they welcomed us and we had a 🛌🛌🛌 stay.

After a glass or two of Veuve 🥂we headed off to a jazz night. Their son Eric is in a group at his school and they were the opening act for a more established group. We had dinner there and a great night.

And a good sleep. Thankfully as our flight home is 11.50 tonight!

This morning Ben & Steve walked down the hill to the beach and Sharon & I slept in. around 9.30 we headed down for breakfast with son Eric. A great cafe.

Eric & Sharon at the cafe.

We had a great walk around the area.

Beautiful beach side. Ben & Eric surf!
Cute houses in the area.
Bars with a view for happy hour.

Before long it was time to leave. Many hugs later we headed off.

A little detour to La Jolla just a few kilometres south. This is where Rob & Jordan stayed for a few months after leaving NY during covid. Leo has run his toes through the sand here !

A beautiful piece of coast.

Finally…….. the airport. A flight to San Francisco where we are now drinking a glass of bubbles thinking how lucky we are to have enjoyed a long ….. long ….. trip and still be loving it all.

But I’m ready for home. For our sons, our daughter in laws , especially our grandsons, my friends, the pool.

See you all soon

Dan and son Luke outside their lovely LA house.

The Wild West. Cody

/ brisbanefrannie / 4 Comments

We missed the nightly rodeo. I’m devastated. It finished on Sept 10.

The drive from Deadwood was once again a mix of prairie and stunning mountains.

We headed to Devils Tower

Stunning.

Not a biker but I was welcomed

The brunch we had was pretty good as well.

The queue into the Park was so long. One young man and a long line all trying to pay their $30.

It is most unusual and worth seeing. Heading out we took a left and because our sat nav ( I’m using the maps in my phone ) had cut out we thought that maybe we were headed in the wrong direction.

With no wifi we happened upon a tiny town. It’s buildings were all decorated western style.

I went into the little museum and met Katie the person on duty chatting to a man with a weathered face , lots of hair, a beard and a smile with several teeth missing. He also had a sense of humour.

The antler is a must have decorative item.

I announced I was lost and wanted to head to Sheridan to go west across the Big Horn Mts. He gave a bit of cheek before getting a map and showed me the route to take.

Lyle is my new best friend.

The drive across the Big Horn was stunning. We climbed and climbed. The views got better.

It’s hard to do justice with a camera phone.

We had an unexpected stop at a National Museum of Military Vehicles. Sitting about 25km from the nearest little town it seemed very out of place. I guess they had a lot of land to store all the vehicles. And there were hundreds. Steve was amazed. I sat outside in the warm sun reading and he went in for s shirt visit. 50 mins later he emerged smiling and shaking his head. ‘It’s huge’ he said. Like everything around here.

We arrived in Cody – home of Buffalo Bill just as the street reenactment was starting. They put on a Wild West show every afternoon. Cowboys, sheriff’s with gun – fake I hope. The crowds loved it.

Back to check into our cabin for the night at the Cowboy Village. Rows of little cabins. Two bedrooms, a great shower but fairly basic comfortable. All for $258 Aus. Everything is very expensive. Americans would love Australia. With the exchange rate and basic things like meals being expensive- a basic burger is $18 which is around $28.

We walked through this cowboy town admiring the crazy signs, the cowboy decorations and found place for dinner. I craved salad or veg so found a spinach salad with beef slices. Exciting for me!

Our little cabin at the Cowboy village.

Cabins are very popular here particularly in the National Parks. We’re loving our cowboy adventures. Though I’m still very upset to miss the rodeo.

Crossing the US. Badlands to Deadwood

/ brisbanefrannie / 4 Comments

As we drive songs keep popping into my head. Today it was Calamity Jane’s ‘Oh, the Deadwood stage is rollin’ over the plains’. 🎶. She’s is buried here in Deadwood. Next to Wild Bill Hickok.

Wild Bill.
We visited the graves in Deadwood

Calamity Jane, along with A.W. Merrick, Sol Star, and Al Swearengen all shaped Deadwood from a rough mining town to an iconic western town. Prospectors scoured the area for the smallest flecks of gold in the 1800s. Gold mining was huge.

Deadwood is not a great name for a town.

It was a pretty driving afternoon after leaving Badlands and heading towards Mt Rushmore.

We left Badlands and had a few stops along the way to explore.

First stop was the amazing store in Wall called Wall Drug. It’s a huge place with restaurants and lots if stalls full of …… stuff.

Hard to describe the Walk Drug Store

The it was Keystone. Another town with American Indian influence .

Keystone

We stopped in Keystone ( these names have me chuckling and singing) before moving onto Mt Rushmore.

The story of how Mt Rushmore came about is so interesting and it’s really quite awesome to see.

The 4 famous Presidents…. can you name them ?

Of course it’s well laid out. 6 layers of parking a big open mall walking up through the state flags. A good movie and museum gave us the story of the sculptures.

We walked the trail and chatted to a few people along the way.

Spotted a few tipis or tepee along the way

Arriving into Deadwood surprised us. I didn’t realise it is a big gambling town. Lots of cute shops in Main St. But they all turned out to be full of poker machines & poker tables. And a big lack of restaurants.

The gambling places offered burgers. That’s it. So I found a place that did take away nachos and we went back to our very big comfortable room and Steve watched football.

Lots of cowboy bars.

Tomorrow we head to Cody. Cody is a town in northwest Wyoming famous for Buffalo Bill Center. We’ll be seeing Devil’s Tower and Big Horn National Park.

Chicago City of Architecture

/ brisbanefrannie / 6 Comments

Every city has its personality and coming to Chicago I can’t help but feel the love of building here.

Our expert guide on the Architecture cruise yesterday talked passionately about the buildings in this city. It doesn’t want to be the poor relation to NYC so has developed its own ‘thing ’

And the thing is architecture. The buildings are breathtaking and many are very environmentally conscious. I’ll include a few photos from our cruise down the river. The river adjoins into the giant Lake Michigan & is shaped like a Y. It’s divided and each arm has its own style. And there are many bridges.

The names of the types of architecture : there is contemporary , art deco, mid century modernism, beaux arts, and trump style. Big !

Willis Tower and next door a pink / blue building with a crown!
A car park like a children’s toy with a boat garage underneath
Making a statement Mr Trump
Reflection

It goes on and on.

I also did the Skywalk. I visited what was the tallest building in the world. I zoomed up 103 levels and was greeted by views. In every direction.

It was a grey day so it would have been more stunning yesterday but it was still amazing. I skirted around all sides of the building. Trying to capture the height. I’m not at the selfie. Steve didn’t come up. He’d been before so saved the $US 44 !

I took the plunge and went out onto the skywalk. The clear perspex overhanging walk. First step felt eerie but then ….

Then I loved it. All 103 floors up
See the river below.

Whilst I was dancing in the clouds Steve was walking and checking out the street art, the buildings and an Aussie pie shop

Chicago your style is great. From Frank Lloyd Wright to modernism.

To finish our day we had what should have been a 4-5 hour drive to Winona, as we start our route 90 drive. We hit the most incredible rain storm. I was terrified.

But we made it ……..to our BnB called Alexander Mansions. Just wait for my report on this place !