From Melbourne

Greetings from Melbourne. It is cold and windy and it gets dark by 5.30 each evening! We are staying in a city hotel very close to Rachel's work. We have already immersed ourselves in Melbourne life, drinking plenty of flat whites, hopping on and off trams, and getting into fights about the footy. The kids are happy because the hotel has a swimming pool so they can swim every day. They were greeted by Nana and Grandpa at the airport and Nana had made them both beautiful dressing gowns so they won't get cold in the hotel. Unfortunately the hotel doesn't have wi-fi and charges a fortune for an internet connection so I am writing from an internet cafe nearby. We have already agreed to buy a car, have made an application to rent a house, and I have a job interview next week so we have hit the ground running. More soon.

Road trip ends. Farewell America

I am writing this from the departure lounge at LAX. The road trip is over and what an adventure it was. Some statistics:

States: 6
National Parks: 11
Miles driven: 4122
Most miles in a day: 398 (June 11, Lake Isabella to Mariposa including Sequoia National Park and needing to double back from wildfire near Bakersfield)
Least miles in a day: 0 (June 15 - the cable cars take the load in San Francisco)
Nights in Kamps of America Kabins: 13, best Mariposa, worst Craig.
Nights in hotels: 7, best Bashful Bob's in Page, AZ, worst Bluff, AZ.
Children's favourite activity: Disneyland, Circus Circus in Las Vegas.
Favourite National Park: Arches (Rachel), Zion (me), Zion (Hannah), monorail in Las Vegas (Sam)
Favourite meal: tapas in San Luis Obispo.

No time for anymore. I'll write again in Melbourne.

Day 21. Disneyland (2)

Hannah was selected for Jedi training and became a Jedi Knight. Here she battles with a bad guy (he is from Parts 1, 2, or 3, so I have no idea who he is).

When we went on the paddle steamer, we were invited into the wheel house by the captain! It made the ride very special. The children were instructed to blow whistles and ring bells and enjoyed themselves immensely.

We went across to the Disney California Adventure Park in the afternoon. It is a relatively new park, built on the old Disneyland car park and has most of the Pixar film characters. There were some shows indoors where we could escape from the 100+ degF temperatures. The children pose at the entrance to the park.

The children meet Sully.

Day 20. Disneyland (1)

It was a hot, hot day at Disneyland. We stayed until the fireworks at 9pm (with a little sanity break between 3pm and 5pm), but the kids loved almost every minute of the day (they weren't too keen on the 3D Bug's Life show). To hear them laughing and squealing during the parade of Pixar characters was to know that the trip was worthwhile. Too tired to post anymore - I will let the photos speak for themselves. More tomorrow!

Day 19. Santa Margarita to Los Angeles

Hollywood Boulevard and outside Grauman's Chinese Theater I told the children that they had to find Tony Curtis's star to show Nana. Here it is.

The children with Elmo and Barney. These two bloodsuckers wanted money for the photo.

Jimmy Stewart. Yes.

Hannah found Harry Potter.

To infinity and beyond. Sam and Buzz Lightyear.

Fireman Sam

Sam loves fire trucks. Who knew? He insisted on a photo of himself and then on taking one of his mother on a WRH fire truck in the Hearst Castle Visitor Center.

On our way down the coast, we stopped at Salinas and paid homage at the Steinbeck Museum. Then we took a drive through Cannery Rown in Monterey. Just a tourist trap now.

We stopped for lunch at Big Sur and revealed to the children the big surprise. The last two days of the road trip were going to be at Disneyland. They looked rather pleased.

Highway One.

We arrived after the last guided tour of Hearst Castle at San Simeon. A look through the telescope was as close as we got.

Day 17. San Francisco to Santa Cruz. Muir Woods and Highway One

We had seen the biggest trees in the world at Sequoia, now we went to see the tallest at Muir Woods. Tall trees are all very well, but more importantly, this was the location of a crucial scene of Vertigo. Here Rachel and Sam re-enact the scene where Kim Novak tells Jimmy Stewart where she lived and died. Sam, like Jimmy, is a little downcast. Looks like he is well on the way to being a great actor.

Very tall trees. Obviously Hannah did yet another Junior Ranger program. A trip to a National Park just doesn't cut the mustard without one of those.

I didn't know there were gum trees in California. There were areas that we drove through today that looked just like southern New South Wales. It smelled like the Australian bush. And then I saw a sign for a guy selling macadamias! I was half expecting to see kangaroos hopping through the forest.
Golden Gate Park in San Francisco has a new art gallery - the de Young Gallery. A funky building that seems to be twisted around the vertical axis. Unfortunately closed on Mondays.

Day 16. San Francisco (2)

I had thought Hannah was happiest in a swimming pool until she discovered San Francisco cable cars. Here she is standing on the running board of the cable car as it rattles up Powell Street on the way to Sunday brunch in Fisherman's Wharf.

And here is Sunday brunch - a crab omelette. June 15 is Father's Day in America and I am wearing my new Brooklyn Breweries t-shirt as a memento of happy times in Brooklyn.

We'd heard of the San Francisco fog, but were still a little surprised by how misty it was even in the early afternoon of a day in late spring. The Golden Gate Bridge emerging from the gloom.

We hired bikes and rode across the Golden Gate. Hannah had her own bike, and Sam had a tagalong. The bike hire guy was surprised that Hannah needed a full size helmet, but we weren't. We were told we were cycling to sunny Sausalito and we scoffed because of the fog we were surrounded by in SF. But in Sausalito, voila, brilliant sunshine.

We caught the ferry home. Two tired but happy children.

Day 15. San Francisco (1)

It was a cool, but sunny day in San Francisco. We arrived at lunchtime, sojourned to a French restaurant for a sandwich (and Anchor Steam Beer - when in Rome...) and headed off for a walking tour. The first time we saw a cable car, out came the camera.

Hannah and Sam reading Tarzan with a couple of friends in Chinatown.

The view of downtown from the top of Coit Tower. On the way up we passed through the North Beach Festival. There were several stages with bands, restaurants with tables on the streets, and thousands of people in party mood.

Alcatraz. By mid-afternoon it was getting misty over the bay. The Golden Gate Bridge was virtually hidden from view.

We walked down Filbert Steps from Coit Tower towards the piers. Along the way we passed theough a beautiful neighborhood of houses with gardens, linked by wooden steps and boardwalks.

Day 14. Yosemite (2)

Alaska. That's it, all 50.

Hannah and Sam being sworn in as Junior Rangers at Yosemite. They spent 2.5 hours with Ranger Janet doing loads of activities and enjoyed themselves immensely.

At Glacier Point. I am showing off the view. Sam is showing off his Ranger badge on his shorts.

From Glacier Point, with Half Dome Rock on the right.

Day 13. Yosemite National Park (1)

We started our first day at Yosemite by having breakfast with this Steller's Jay.

A group (herd? flock? pride?) of deer greeted us as we entered the park. As expected everyone said, "Ohhh."

Yosemite Falls, the highest waterfall in North America. We spent most of the day around Yosemite Village, which was more crowded with tourists than any previous National Park. Yosemite rock is granite, the surfaces of which have been ground to a shine by retreating glaciers. We were looking at shiny gray rocks rather than the various reds and browns of the sandstones that we had seen in Utah and Arizona.

These cool dudes are wearing their sunglasses from the Brooklyn Superhero store and are intrepidly gathering facts for their Yosemite Junior Ranger Activity Books.

Hannah standing within a giant sequoia. Yosemite has three sequoia groves of its own. Hannah and I walked a mile down a steep hill to reach the sequoia grove.

Day 12. Lake Isabella to Mariposa. Sequoia National Park.

We exited Lake Isabella and were hoping to go through Lamont, which we understood was a very friendly town. But it wasn't to be - a fire in the canyon cut off the road to Bakersfield and we were forced to take the wiggly route north to Sequoia National Park. Extra hours of driving through narrow roads. Hannah needed air a couple of times but we made it without seeing her breakfast a second time!

Rachel helping the children with their Junior Ranger activity books at Moro Outlook, which affords views over the Sierra Nevada.

The trees are so big that you can drive your cars through them. Wheeeee.

Everyone was impressed by the giant trees - well, everyone except Hannah, who thought that General Sherman, the biggest tree on earth, wasn't really that big. The diversion from Lake Isabella made for a long day's drive, which wasn't helped by me taking the wrong exit on US99. A total of 398 miles by the time we reached Mariposa and bodies were not in sleeping bags until after 10.30pm.