Oct 2005

Simon and I headed out around 11am while Jill had a few more hours layzing in bed.We headed over to the Public Market first which is a stones throw away from the hostel.Its a fairly large market and also has around another 50 shops underground selling all weird and strange things.The highlight of the market however is a certain fish stall where for some reason the workers are always being filmed.Well if you call them workers because all the seem to be doing is pissing about throwing fish and other things at each other.
Next we headed over to the Westlake Shopping Center for a quick browse around before we headed back to see if Jill has surfaced.
As we were now all up we walked along the waterfront and eventually to the Space Needle (yet another reasonably tall building to go up).
The views from the top of the 605ft Space Needle were quite reasonable although in the distance there was a fair amount of cloud,but you could through the binoculars just about pick out some snow on some of the surrounding mountains.
After an hour of looking around we caught the monorail back to the city centre for some food before heading back to the hostel.Then after relaxing for a few hours we headed of to a micro brewery pub for a few beers before heading back for a fairly early night.

The Space Needle

Seattle

Seattle

Well Seattle is the last destination for us in America before we head off to another country.And with that i mean New Zealand although we do stay in Vancouver,Canada (again) for a few days first and then fly in Los Angeles,USA (again) before we fly there.
Luckily we are in another very nice hostel and this time its an HI Hostel in downtown Seattle.Theres not that many people here either and its so quiet even though its close to everything.
Simon wasnt feeling to good so Jill and I decided to do some exploring ie we headed to a bar for a few drinks although the main reason was because they were supposed to be playing one of her favourite bands new albums as a promo night,as well as another band Franz Ferdinand.
We got to the bar expecting there to be a fairly large crowd and when we arrived it was just us to there,and it was exactly the same when we left.Oh barring the 2 DJ's and the DJ's seriously weird mate that wanted to talk to us all night.

Headed into the centre of Portland to see what it had to offer although theres not much really to see.Although there was an interesting sign post that was worth taking a photo of with distances to places all around the world.
Once back at the hotel even though the weather was wet and dull we could still relax in the warm swimming pool and spa for an hour or so.

Portland

Pretty much the same as yesterday.Driving,rain,cold and the evening spent in a hotel in Portland reading through my New Zealand book.Along the way we stopped off at Salem to see the State Capitol Building of Oregon but its been the ugliest out of all of them so far.

Oregon State Capitol Building,Salem

Another one of those days where it was spent just driving before we found somewhere to crash out for the night.One other thing that we did notice though was the serious drop in temperature and lack of sun and time for the rain to start coming drown,fairly hard at times to.

From now on its just a case of heading towards Seattle the last stop in America,and theres nowhere really in between that we have thought about visiting so it will just be a case of stopping off enroute when we get tired of driving.
After around 7 hours of driving and yet more beautiful scenery we stopped off for the night in a motel in a small town called Redding.Luckily there was a great chinese across the road and after a huge meal (i was only expecting small portions to and wasnt really hungry) it was back to the motel where we managed to book accomadation for our first 4 nights in New Zealand.

Lake Tahoe from our hotel

Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe

A nice scenic rest stop/toilets enroute to Redding

Me

A quite day for me as i spent most of it reading about places to see in New Zealand.The days have flown by just lately and we havent even planned a route there yet.Apart from that i enjoyed a short stroll around the town before heading back for some more reading and planning.

Lake Tahoe

Cable cars at Lake Tahoe

Today we decided to drive around the lake although i would of preferred to of cycled around it as the route was fantastic.There were plenty of cyclists and it was just a shame i didnt have my bike or the clothing for it.
Another site on the way was Squaw Valley which was the site for the 1960 Winter Olympic Games and i would imagine its a hell of a place in the winter time although im not sure i would want to be driving around these roads in the snow.

Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe

A speedboat on Lake Tahoe

A road runs through this rock at Lake Tahoe

Me at Lake Tahoe

Squaw Valley

Squaw Valley

The hotel at Squaw Valley

There must be something about the USA Hostels.The 2 we have stayed in at San Diego and San Francisco want you checked out by 10am.So you have to be on the go pretty early to beat the rush for the showers and for me today that was at 7.30am,luckily for me i wasnt drinking last night.
The west part of America has some fantastic scenery and great roads going through the mountains and today was no exception.The roads to Lake Tahoe were taking us to heights of over 8,000ft and even when driving you cant resist a look over the edge,hoping you dont accidently go over the edge.Theres even some snow on the mountains in the area to.
The hotel we were staying in gave us a fantastic view over the lake even if it was yet another casino resort for simon to lose money in,oh yeah and take yet another thrashing from me at playing pool.

View near Lake Tahoe

View near Lake Tahoe with abit of snow in the distance

View near Lake Tahoe

Sunset over Lake Tahoe from our hotel

An early start as it was another busy day.First we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and went to a small but very picturesque town nearby called Sausalito before heading over to Muir Woods where we enjoyed a lovely walk through the woods.
After this we stopped at 2 viewing spots to take some photos of the Golden Gate Bridge and then headed over to Haight Ashbury which is very hippie like and very colourful,very similar to Camden in London.

San Francisco

San Francisco

Bay Bridge

San Francisco

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge

Muir Woods

Sausalito

Sausalito

Sausalito