Castles and sight seeing

Today I was supposed to be working but at the last moment they cancelled on me. Martin had also forgotten to tell me he had the day off, so since the sun was shining, even though I was still feeling a bit rough, we decided to go look round Walmer Castle. At the door we were given the hard sell on joining National Heritage, so now, according to my daughter, we are officially old! Anyway it wasnt a bad day and in a little while I am going to go check out all the other places we can now visit for free. Only a couple more days of our usa trip to record. On the second to last day we got up a little alter and meandered round to Starbucks. It was very busy so I sat outside and waited for Martin to get the coffee, watching the world and the people go by while I stood there. I was facinated by the young guy who rocked up with a golden retriever. He tied him up outside and nearly every one who passed stopped to pet or talk to him. Turns out the dog's name was Hadley and he came by most mornings. When his owner came out, they both called in to see 'Tony' who lived next door. When they came out Tony' had obviously supplied dog treats which Hadley earned by jumping up and giving his master a proper High Five. Today Martin wanted to do all the tourist things. We set off to cross Golden Gate Bridge, to take our obligatory photos. Dolly had told us the best place to take the pics of the bridge was from the other side looking back towards San Francisco but the sun appeared to be in totally the wrong place. No matter how hard I tried I just could not get any seemingly through the veiwer decent pics of us without our faces in shade, even with flash infill. (Of course back home the photos look ok) Anyway we took a drive around to find a better view. We drove into the National Parkland where we saw a deer, a youth summer camp hostel, a rather scanky looking beach in the distance, some military concrete buildings, and finally some images across the bay. We drove back into SF to to drive down the 'most crooked road in the world' Lombard street. I have to say both of these experiences although fun were a bit of an anticlimax. Golden Gate looks impressive but compared to driving over the River Severn in gale force winds (with police moving lorries into the outside lane to protect the smaller lighter vehicles), or the huge and high dartford crossing bridge, it was a rather boring drive, and the crooked street, where you are stuck in a traffic jam going 1 mile per hour, has nothing on driving round the mountainouse hair pin bends in Corfu on the back of a scooter where you cant find second gear.

After stopping off at Safeway to stock up on munchies, we dropped the car back in the hotel car park and took the bus out to Golden Gate Park. This was a completely different bus route and I suspect we got off further away than we needed to as it was quite a walk into the park. Still we were definately using our Muni tickets to full advantage and I would recommend getting them. Using the bus/cable/street cars is by far the best way of getting round the city.

I'm not sure what I expected, and at first it looked much like any municiple park with bowling green and children's climbing frames, but suddenly we were in the which was beautiful. The first thing we saw was a humming bird all but 3 foot away from us hovering near a huge flower. I was too stunned to take a photo and by the time I got the camera on and primed it flew away. But then we saw this marvelous creature and I was a little happier.


The park was very popular as we found when we went to visit the Japanese garden. In fact there was such a queue and you also had to pay quite a steep entrance fee that we decided to give it a miss and walk a bit further in. We noticed two blokes with large cameras on tripods attempting to take photo's of something in the bushes - I am conviced it was humming birds but Martin thinks it may have been bigger birds since they were a fair distance from the trees. We watched for ages, and amazingly several people also stopped to ask what WE were looking at, but we never saw what they were taking.



By now our little leggies were well walked out, so we caught another bus back into the city. We had intended walking around the corner to a small cinema showing Indiana Jones, but it suddenly turned cold and windy so once again we collapsed into bed to watch more Law and Order re-runs. We are such light weights LOL

With all me pad mates

.

On Friday I set off for a fab weekend with some of the talented girls from the pad, to scrap, relax and laugh. Em and Maria met me in Bluewaters and we travelled up together (with the obligatory stop at Artbase on the way. Artbase was showing a distinctive lack of stock so was very disappointing, the weekend wasn't though. The company was fantastic and although I felt like death warmed up with a rotten cough and cold, I had a really good time, scrapped 2 and a half LO's plus a digi one, got to meet a heap of lovely lovely ladies and didn't manage to have a nervous moment the whole weekend.
A big thanks to all the girls who organised it all so well and to all the girls who made me feel at home.

Only two more days of my USA holiday to describe - its been taking me a while to get it all written up here. Next time we go away I am definitely taking the laptop and writing it as I go along.

So -San Francisco day 2, part 2

Having munched our subways in the square, and had a short walk around Bloomingdales,




Martin and I caught the cable car to check out the suggested Cable Car museum. Although quite small, it is housed in the wheel house where all the underground cables come together and are turned, it was really interesting.


The cables move at a constant 9 miles per hour so the cars can go no faster than that. There was also heaps about the earthquake that devastated SF

We then took the cable car out to look round North Beach, well at least that was where we thought we were going. We actually ended up in China Town which was really a small collection of Chinese shops. We treated ourselves to a large cream cake and a coffee before heading back to the hotel.

I had really fancied a KFC since we do not have one near enough to us at home and I could see one from the hotel, so we went over to order chicken (with that wonderful secret Col. Saunders recipe) and chips. We were disappointed to find that they no longer do chips - wraps or jackets only) and there was no corn on the cob side. It took us ages to decide what to have instead, but finally fed, we collapsed into bed and watched back to back episodes of Law and Order. We were way to tired after all the fresh air and walking (plus the 5.30 wake up call) to do much else.

Weeds and wildflowers

W&W have changed the way they do things and are now sending the code to download their Friday Freebies via newsletter, so you need to sign up to get it. This is great because while I check email regularly I often forget to visit W&W blog on friday. For once I was in the queue for the kit and it was a dozy!

Kelly at a very young age (still blonde!) using Tweets kit and a freebie flower transparency.


Still feeling rough (although not so bad as yesterday) so will put up rest of usa trip and weekend news later.

Normal service

Normal blogging service will resume once I have got rid of yet another cold and my head is clear enough to write coherantly.



In the meantime a digi LO I did on my scrapping retreat this weekend.

National Cable Car Bell Ringing Contest

The trouble with staying in motels is that sometimes the previous room occupant is a right joker. The one who had stayed in ours was no exception as he had kindly set the alarm for a 5 am wake up call for us.

The trouble was the stupid thing refused to shut up. Bleary eyed both Martin and I pushed every button on it in every combination we could think off, but it refused to shut up. Eventually I had to pull the heavy set of drawers out from the wall and yank the plug on the thing - and it stayed like that for the 3 days we were there. In fact it was still unplugged when we left, I wonder if anyone has noticed yet?

In that wonderful AA guide I had read that Mel's dinner, just accross the road, was the place to go, so we walked over to have a coffee, and plan out our plan of attack on the city. Well Mel's might be the place to be but it was the most expensive coffee we had in USA and the service wasnt that wonderful. We vowed to find the Starbucks for next time.

All over the place we had seen muni tickets for sale, but couldnt work out what they actually allowed you to travel on. When we walked down to the wharf the previous evening we had seen the cable car turning point and muni tickets were on sale there, so obviously they included the cable car, but what else. There was only one way to find out. Peering at the window wasnt it,

asking inside was

and soon we had a 3 day pass to cable, street and underground transport all for $11 each (about £10 all told). People are wonderfully friendly in San Francisco, we were soon chatting to a couple from Arizona as we explored on the cable car, who suggested we started our tour at the cable car museum. Instead though we spotted signs on the car advertising the 46th annual cable car bell ringing contest, and guess what, it was on that day in about an hours time.

So we carried on up to Union Square, the main centre of San Fran. Desperate for the loos we ventured into Macy's where we were able to get the most fantastic view from the 6th floor and took these fab photos of the preparations going on in the square.

There was a very talanted 'Slot Blades' giving it their all with some '70's funk,
Carl the policeman doing glad handing and crowd control at the same time



the porter from the Shakespear hotel had turned out as a judge,

and the place was overrun with journalists, photographers and even a television crew.



This was obviously a big event and we looked forward with anticipation as we took ring side seats.


The main event was a bit of a while starting as we had to wait for the mayor, the sponsors and the head of the supported charity all to big it up with long speaches first, and explain the rules. These were pretty straight forward, basically anyone and everyone from professional bands to dancers could support the bell ringer.



We had managed to secure the bottom step to sit on, right at the edge of the square and very close to the action. We were going to have a terrific veiw of the goings on. Only ... remember all those journalists, camera men and television crews? All those extra dignatories and hangers ons? As soon as the first bell was rung, they were all there, right up tight against the cable car, in front of us. All the action was in the small space the other side of the cable car, hidden from most of the audience. We couldnt see much of anything at all except the backsides of the media. And those cable car bells are not that loud (see utube for examples, you can actually see on there what we couldnt).

Dissapointed we headed off to grab a coke and a subway sandwich.

My mummy's baby's birthday

It was my youngest ones birthday today - she is 23 already.

Happy birthday hun!

I sort of got called in to work but 2 mins after booking me they called back to say the school had changed its mind. So I went out to Asda instead and got some make up pressies for Laura and a few tops and pair of trousers in the sale. Why am I two sizes bigger on the top than the bottom? It makes buying clothes so difficult. Hopefully all the time I am spending on the wii fit will help improve matters?

Not when we went over to take the birthday pressies and ended up eating huge chunks of black forest gateaux. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Time to leave Yosimite.

I was really disappointed that we didn't see any bears in the park.
We headed out of Oakland and cut across country towards San Francisco. We had come out of the park at the North end having gone in at the North end, and to be honest the journey back towards San Fran was pretty boring, as for the most part it was all flat farmland. Except as we went through the mountain pass we saw the hugest reservoir ever.



We did finally manage to find where to put the water in the car for the windscreen wash though so at least we could see out the windows as we drove!

Mid afternoon we stopped at a large cafe come attraction area. This had apparently started out as a small stall selling cherries, but over time as its popularity as a stopping place increased, it grew until there was a cafe, a huge veg/fruit shop, a gift shop, a kiddies play park, a train ride and this little mate.



Finally we hit the outskirts of San Francisco at 3 o'clock. Martin had read in my AA travel guide book that I had bought with us, that there was a hotel situated in a road containing most of the hotels in the city, with good reviews. We drove around a bit but got completely lost even with a street map. We saw the bottom end of the crookedist road in the world (as used in many a movie car chase), and Telegraph hill with amazing views across the whole of the Bay area, but still couldnt find the hotel.

Eventually we got out and walked, asking people in the street as we passed them. None knew of the place we wanted although they all tried to be as helpful as they could. Finally someone gave us directions but it was a bit from where we were so we went back for the car. When we finally did find the place it looked really run down and totally cheap and nasty. No wonder it had good reviews in the AA book, it was AA registered, of course they were going to big up their own places! Across the road was the Cow Hollow motor inn though,



and at $101 a night was just the ticket. Car parking was free, and we had a room that must have had a floor space equal to the whole of the floor space of our home. We never managed to find the Best Western that Dolly said she always stayed in, but we were more than comfortable for the few days we had left of our stay.

After settling in - and unpacking, finally I could stop living out or a suitcase and hang up my Fisherman's wharf. This was a very long walk, across a park, through a shopping precinct (Safeways to be exact) and up a rather steep hill. We loved the place on sight though. The park was full of dog walkers and joggers, and Fisherman's Wharf reminded me of Margate.

There was a talented sax player busking on the sea front and we stopped to watch a spray paint artiste making pictures of the bay at sunset. We had just the best T-bone steaks in Jack's bar for only £6 each, and finally caught the street car back.

Yosimite, snow and trees

What I should be doing is making my youngest daughter a birthday card for her birthday tomorrow. What I have been doing is playing wii fit, and getting very frustrated with bits of paper that keep refusing to stick where I want them to. So I am having a break and putting some more of our USA trip on here.

On Sunday 1st June we fortified ourselves with a buffet breakfast that was not a patch on those we had had in Vegas (and nearly paid for 3 instead of 2 when Martin didn't spot the waitress had bought over the wrong bill). Then we booked out and set off straight for Yosimite village.








We had a quick look round the museum which was quite interesting but involved a lot of reading and really we wanted to get outside and see the real thing, and walked around the mock up of an Indian village.



We discounted using the tour busses as they took too long having to keep stopping to let people on and off, and set off to drive the 18 miles up to Glacier point.

We were going to go straight up but we were so stunned to see snow along the way that we stopped to take some photos.





We did try to walk out to the snow but the field was swampy from snow melt.

At the top you are 8,000 feet above sea level, and the views are stunning!

There was a real mix of people also enjoying the sights,
from little old ladies puffing and panting up the slight incline, to super fit athletic types who were looking over the edge to see where their next trek was going to take them.

It was a fair drive from there, back down to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. I had never heard of these until Scrapdolly mentioned them on the phone to me, so didn't really know what to expect.

I was very impressed. We opted for the tractor tour, which in some ways was brilliant because you got an audio tour guide with all the history of the Grove and the trees, on the other hand it was jolly bumpy and we were glad to get off at the last stop to walk slowly back to the start point at our own pace.



Having enjoyed the last Best Western inn we had looked up the nearest one to Yosimite before leaving it, in the room handbook. We found the one at Oakwood easily but it was a real disappointment. The pool looked far from inviting, as it sat in a very shady part of the gardens under the trees, and the spa was broken and shut up. The restaurant attached was under notice of new management and there was a queue of kids waiting to use the free Internet connection. We walked down towards the town, I admit the bit we saw looked very sad and depressing, mostly thrift shops or empty cafes. We really must learn to drive ALL the way through the towns though because when we drove out the following morning we discovered we were really still on the outskirts, and the real Oakwood was nestled further round the corner, and was actually quite metropolitan.

We ate in a huge dinner three doors (ooh sorry should have measured that in blocks) which was virtually empty. We had our first course, and thought we could possibly force down some apple pie and ice cream., We waited and waited, but it didn't arrive. Finally the waitress came and asked us (again) if we needed anything else, we reminded her we had ordered desert. Now I know from my brother that if cafes make mistakes, many Americans expect to have the meal for nothing to make up. When we visited him in Arizona he delighted in attempting to discover mistakes just to get a freebie. But of course we Brits are not like that and the poor waitress was so grateful that we made no fuss, she kept coming over and thanking us.

Things going on

*Kelly fixed up her laptop as a webcam, and showed me her house! Now I am waiting for her to be on line again as I have figured out how to use my Fuji as a webcam too.
*Applied for a reading recovery teacher job
*Supply work very thin on the ground in last weeks of summer term
*Martin is on a 7 day week due to training to drive his forklift truck.
*We joined Laura and and Wayne for a drink at the pub quiz last night
*Mum and Dad got a new dvd player/recorder and


I GOT A WII FIT!!!!

Ollie had promised to look out for one for me on the stock register, and texted me at half 3 to say Ashford sainsbury had 2 in store. I phoned to reserve but both the customer service desk and the electrical dept manager denied having any in. I texted Ollie back who ten mins later phoned to say he had reserved on for me if I got there before 6. I was supposed to be staying in for a phone call from some market research firm, but hey! Wii fit is far more important. Of course when I got there I am first told they dont have any, then my name is recognised but the dept manager is in a meeting, but finally some 15 mins later I have it in my grasp. I am so grateful to Ollie as these machines really like gold dust, and so proud of myself for driving the 22 miles there without getting lost.

Of course having got on it and had my BMI and weight recorded I am not so proud, but the edge was taken off this when Martin was told he was also overweight and his BMI was too high too.

OK I did some paper crafting. I have been busy getting page kits ready for my weekend away with all my pad friends, meeting most of them for the first time, but Make the Moment Last were having a sale so I treated myself to a few bits. When they arrived I was instantly inspired and had this one made within an hour.


Its all very 3 D but my camera cards are still full with stuff from our road trip so I have had to use the scanner.


Road trip continued - Yosimite.

After Martin had snoozed for a short time, we set off once again to go into the park itself. Shadows were getting long in the afternoon so I was a bit concerned about paying to get in, but it turned out to be $20 for a 7 day pass. The river continued to tumble along beside us the whole way in and I took heaps and heaps of photos which I wont bore you all with here but it really was stunning to follow.



*Note to Yosimite park rangers, giving tourists a 3 inch thick guide book to drivers as they go through the gate is a bad idea, especially as the book contained the map yet we were driving a single track road with no stopping points!



As we drove on the views were stunning

but even we were not prepared to turn a bend and see this!



We finally reached the car park and got out to follow the slippery and somewhat steep, yet not too far trail to the bottom of Bridelveil waterfall.

Now all the photos I have been sticking up here are unedited, (you have to wait for the LO's for the edited versions) so quality is not brilliant, especially those shot through an increasingly dty car side window, and my camera is getting to be a bit of an old lady now, I really am due an upgrade. I know I cant compete with the Japanese who walk round with 3 expensive bits of equipment slung about their person. So when a young Japanese lad offered to take our photos I really was expecting brilliant shots.



I guess he didnt realise water is wet and effects the lens! I had the curtesy to wipe the lens dry and protect his camera from the spray as I returned the compliment and took his photo.

We were so amused, that although not very PC we had fun spotting the tourists, the Germans who had come kitted out in sturdy hiking boots, backpacks, hats, and carrying shooting sticks, the Americans taking feet after feet of movie video of trees and rocks, the English in their shirt sleeves carrying only their mobile phones.

We had intended carrying on to see the park from Glacia point, but half way there realised that we needed petrol. There are no petrol stations in the park so we turned round and headed back to the hotel where we knew a station to be. Talk about a captive audience. I know that we had laughed at the Americans moaning about gasoline prices, but this place really took advantage of its position as the only place to get petrol for 2o winding miles by charging well over the odds. Martin was not best pleased, but a drink in the bar, a swim and a spa soon cheered him up before we collapsed yet again into bed.

To my baby

Good luck to Kelly who starts her new job today.

Yosimite National Park

When I was a kid, we never had holidays until I reached the grand old age of 7. My dad didnt drive a car until then, only a bike and sidecar (that often broke down or ran out of petrol while we were out). Then my dad bullied the driving instructor into passing him, and bought a Bedford dormobile van.



From then on holidays were spent on my aunts farm in Norfolk (which in those days with no M25 to slow you up and the M2 newly built, was a good 4-5 hour journey away, or touring. How I hated touring. Stuck in the back of that caravan fighting with my brother and borred half to death. Plus my dad was never too keen on comfort stops, eating out, or just stopping the bloody thing for longer than it took to fill up the tank with petrol again. Or at least thats how it seemed to me as a child, I dont suppose it was like that at all, but I admit, I still dont like touring holidays.

All of which is why I would have been quite happy to stop now and spend a few days doing nothing. However, after our complimentary breakfast and a quick email to Laura, we were back on the road and heading for Yosimite. We decided to cut across country instead of taking the main international highways. I have to say, it was by far the most interesting part of our journey, with ever changing scenery, starting off in the misty and cloudy mountains, then through the pass, followed by burnt brown grass and rolling hills bathed in sun.


These very quickly gave way to very flat farming land and finally villages would appear out of the miles and miles of cherry orchards lining the road.



A dead straight road that seemed to go on and on into the distance.



The we reached Yosemite, where the road was flanked by mountain cliffs on one side (complete with the 'beware falling stones' signs, this photo shows where the road had been completely wiped out and we had to cross the river to use the temp road while they built another new bit),

and the boiling bubbling river on the other side.


20 miles of this took us nearly an hour to cover as the speed limit was very low and the road literally hugged the river so took several twists and turns. It was all very beautiful and we were lucky to visit when the rivers were so full, while the ice caps on the mountain tops melted.

We stopped at a huge restaurant and motel called Cedar Lodge for lunch, there were only customers in this warehouse sized cafe,



and the barman was so friendly and funny. He recommended the home made crisps which Martin had, I stuck to traditional chips I am afraid, but they were wonderful, even better than Martin's home made chips and that is really saying something.



Each table had one of these!!

Scrapdolly had told me that she had stayed at Yosiimite View Lodge, and had really rated it, but when I looked on-line before we left, it had been fully booked for the whole of June. I still pointed it out to Martin as we passed though. On a whim he turned the car round and went back to see if they had any rooms. Yes they did, and at a not too bad price either. With three pools and who knows how many spa's, a shop, and from our balcony a view of the mountains, river and one of the swimming pool what more could we ask.




Martin promptly fell asleep.