Portland, Oregon

We spent 5 days in San Francisco and before we got on the train to Portland we killed time seeing Scorsese's Shine a Light at the Imax theatre; a fifty foot Mick Jagger and Keith Richards belting out Jumping Jack Flash, it was a gas, gas, gas.

We bought a sleeper to Portland on the train which was well worth it as unfortunately I got crook and needed to see a doctor in Portland to get some antibiotics. That took about a day to figure out how to do but I got the drugs and I'm on the mend.

Portland was another beautiful Victorian style city, with stunning gardens. We visited their Japanese gardens and the rose gardens which were unfortunately not in bloom but the rhododendrons and azaleas made up for it. We also met a very friendly lady from Minnesota, called Patti, who had a hire car and drove us out to have a look at Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Valley and a 1920's hotel, that was frequented by Rudolph Valentino and others. The Oregon scenery was volcanic, snow covered and picture post card even in the pouring rain.

I left my harp in Sandcrabs Disco

We caught a train from LA to San Francisco - it was a fantastic trip. Amtrack trains are comfortable, clean, luxurious compared to a bus or plane and definately exceed the XPT from Canberra to Sydney. They have a formal dining room with white table cloths and flowers and table service. The snack bar food was along the lines of the World Famous Santa Monica Hot Dog but the dining room food was great. The scenery was spectacular.



We met a lovely English girl, called Hazel and spent time with her while we were in San Fran. San Francisco really is one of the most beautiful cities. We arrived at night and the skyline was sensational. In the book 1001 things to do before you die it suggests riding the cable cars of San Francisco, we did and it was fabulous. We visited the cable car museum and rode the cars up and down the hills. We also took a tour of the city by bus which was well worth the money as the driver knew every spot and showed us all the lovely Victorian buildings and mansions as well as telling us about the history of the place.



We hired bikes and I RODE ACCROSS THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. Wow that was a Disneyland moment. Not only was I blown away by the fact that I was there at all but I was nearly blown off my pushie when I got on the bridge, it was so windy. I was riding along feeling so proud of myself, laughing and crying and Al was behind me going "Woo Hoo, you go girl" Fuck it was good.



Another big highlight was visiting Alcatraz. We had to book on line to get tickets but it was so interesting and worth every minute. They had a top quality audio tour with prisoners and guards talking about their expereinces at Alcatraz. Also there was a man there talking about his experience of living on Alcatraz as a child. They had a small village of guards families there.



We also visited a submarine called the Pampanito that was one of the subs that rescued Australian prisoners of war who were on a Japanese troopship that was torpedoed by the Americans during the second world war. The didnt realise the troopship was full of Australian and New Zealand POW's from the Burma Railway. The Pampanito had a crew of 83 and rescued 74 men, other subs rescued others but they were in the water for up to 3 days. A volunteer called Bill was on the sub and we had a very interesting chat to him.

Los Angeles

Its been a while since I had time to update what we've been doing. So I will have to try to remember as we are now in Seattle. LA - everybody told us not to bother, its big, crowded, polluted and dirty - but it wasn't. It was great. We stayed in Santa Monica at a very plush IYA and visited many a famous thing. Disneyland (see the separate entry) was my highlight but we also did a city tour of the rich and famous. You know, on your right is famous person's house, or at least one of them used to live there etc. It was exceedingly dull after about 5 minutes. Although the houses here generally are really interesting; a far cry from a brick veneer box. We went to Hollywood Bulouvarde and saw the stars names on the pavement, and took pics of LA from the lookout and saw the Hollywood sign. At Rodeo Drive, also pretty dull, we had a chat to a couple of union members on a pickett against a company that was paying carpenters less than the bottom wage. It was quite a contast seeing them protesting in such an affluent place.


We did have fun though when we hired a couple of pushies and rode along Santa Monica Beach through Venice Beach and Muscle Beach (where Al flashed his muscles) and visited the Venice Canals which were a collection of canals with the most beautiful and unusual collection of little houses, like dolls houses, all along them. The gardens were exquisite.


We also tried the "World Famous" hot dog from a vendor at Santa Monica Pier (our first American Hot Dog) which defies description in the worst possible way. eeeerrrrgggg!!!!! I will post some pics later.


We took advantage of the Hostel guided walking tour of Santa Monica with Colin, a british expat. The most interesting thing was a display of crosses put out by the Viet Nam Vetrans for Peace. Every sunday they put a cross on the beach for every American soldier killed in Iraq. They have picture displays of soldiers and civilians and a tally of all those killed and injured. It was very sad and very moving.

When you wish upon a star......

Today I discovered that I actually have an inner child, she is about 7 and was so excited about her wish to go to Disneyland coming true that she cried when she saw Micky Mouse. Yes its daggy but true and I know they're only people is suits but there I was saying to Al, "Oh look, look its the fairy god mother, look its the White Rabbit, its Pinoccio, Oh look there's MICKY MOUSE". I kept saying " I cant believe it; I'm in Disneyland. I was laughing and crying all at once. I had a wonderful day.


We arrived in Los Angeles on 16 April in the late afternoon. We spent the first day orienting ourselves and booking in for things we want to do. We are on a mission to improve our travelling skills. We have of course blown the budget big time and so have decided to prepare our own meals where possible. We went to this fabulous organic food market called Wild Oats, in Santa Monica near the youth hostel. The hostel is like a 5 star hotel. We intended to only stay 3 days but have extended for 5.

Aloha Al

Al has gone troppo and bought himself a Hawaiin Shirt. I love it.

We have had a lovely time in Honolulu but as travellers we are pretty disorganised. We spent 10 days there and didn't manage to get to the Peal Harbour Memorials. We did go scuba diving and we had windsurfing lessons at Kailua Beach where I stupidly got burned to a crisp. However, I did manage to get up on the board and sail; OK it was only for a nanosecond before I fell into the water but I did it at least 50 times.


The grand finale of the stay was a trip to a Luau at the Polynesian Cultural Centre. I thought the concept of the centre was really interesting because the money made by the centre goes to supporting Polynesian students to attend university; paying for their board and tuition. The centre was a theme park of polynesian culture that went all day and we finished with the Gala show Horizons at night. It was an all singing all hula dancing, fire twirling spectacular. I have to say that the hula boys were as incredible and beautiful as the hula girls.

The Goat takes to the water.

I went scuba diving. Can you believe it!!! I was petrified but did it anyway. We practised in a pool and I was really crap at it, couldn't swim in a straight line and went floating bum up to the top.
After about a half hour practice we got on a boat and went out to the ocean ( unfortunately I have no photographic evidence) and I jumped in and went down about 10 feet along a rope and then couldnt pop my ears, felt freaky so went back up. Fish were looking at me and the water was warm and clear but it was very choppy and I was later told by experts, like my darling husband who was so proud of me for doing it, that it was not a good day for a first go. I then sat in the boat staring at the horizon for the next hour to avoid sea sickness. It worked. It was the first time that I ever sat in a boat on the ocean and didn't chuck. Anyway, after this experience I reckon snorkelling will be a breeze.

Aloha; we got here

Well, we finally made it. I thought I'd never get excited but now I am. We arrived in Honolulu on Wednesday and got to the hostel with no probs. The hostel is clean, cheap and one street from Wakiki beach. We spent the first day sleeping because after 9 hours on the plane with no sleep we were wrecked.

Today we ventured out to get some basics and get our bearings. We went to the new Safeway to buy lunch and breakfast stuff and couldn't believe the choices; they even sold wedding cakes!!!! Check this out:


We also went to Ala Moana shopping mall, which is the biggest thing we'd ever seen and most of the shops were way out of our price range but lovely to look at all the same. We have both agreed though that one day doing shopping in malls and supermarkets is about enough. We want to get active regularly on our trip. So tomorrow if all goes well we will go sea kayaking and I am going to have a go at snorkling and maybe even a free scuba diving lesson. This is very adventurous on my part as I am an earth bound Capricorn and Al (a Pisces) has been encouraging me to go beyond my comfort zones.