California road trip #1

Last week I welcomed my mum to San Francisco and we began our 3-week road trip together. I'd cooked up the idea when first planning my travels and it's amazing that it's finally happening! So far we've covered many miles and enjoyed properly catching up with each other. Here are some of the adventures from our first week.

Thelma and Louise, (in a Toyota Prius)

My lovely STC colleagues bought me two tickets for a nighttime Alcatraz tour as part of my leaving present, so mum and I caught the boat from Fisherman's Wharf out to the island. The history of this maximum security prison is fascinating, and the tour was hugely informative, as well as a little spooky. We walked around the cells and heard about famous escape attempts and saw preserved artefacts and fittings which housed such notable prisoners as Al Capone and the Birdman of Alcatraz.

Alcatraz island from the boat

Original signage and 70s graffiti

Rows of cells

Prison hospital wing

I took mum back to where I'd stayed in North Beach for a classic Italian dinner at Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope restaurant. Over meatballs and red wine I marvelled at the catalogue of famous filmmakers and actors who had graced this room, while mum exclaimed that 'Caesar salad' had been invented on this very spot.

We also visited the de Young Museum of Art, where we were tickled pink to find a David Hockney piece in the foyer. All the way from Yorkshire, just like mum! I loved the landscape paintings here and some of the native American art was also fascinating.

Hockney's shots of Yorkshire

It was great to be able to meet up with my friend Neet one last time before leaving San Francisco. We discovered a lovely little bar called 'Two Sisters Bar and Books' where I had my favourite drink of the trip so far, a cocktail called Stout 'n' Spice, which consisted of wild turkey 101, ginger shrub and bourbon barrel-aged stout. Delicious. I then treated my mum to a 5-course degustation at RichTable, which had a special beer-matched menu on in honour of SanFrancisco Beer Week. Absolutely incredible food, and of course far too much of it.

And these were just the starters!

Finally it was time to bid farewell to this wonderful city. I have loved my time in San Francisco and already long to return. And what a splendid way to leave, to drive over the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge. Next stop: the wine fields of Sonoma Valley, where we enjoyed a wine tasting at the Sebastiani vineyards and wandered round the unique landscape. Vineyards in winter are probably not as impressive as they are in summer, being barren of grapes, but it was still pleasurable to drive among this distinctive region.

Farewell San Fran

Mum with a barrel load of red wine

Only one night in Sonoma, before road tripping south down the stunning pacific coast highway. Words cannot describe how impressive this coast is, nor photos do it justice. But we stopped every 5 minutes to try to capture it! I also enjoyed getting some driving practice in, first time on the right hand side of the road, first time on the US highway.

Beware: Carmel driving

My inner book nerd had to visit the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, where I learned so many new things about the man, as well as fondly remembered some of my favourite things from his fiction. I hadn't realised he'd been a war correspondent, or that he'd lived in England and written about King Arthur. Nor that he'd travelled all round America in a modified truck and written extensive non-fiction about his fellow countrymen. So much more on my 'to-read' list now.

National Steinbeck Center

Inspiration for The Grapes of Wrath: real diaries of dust bowl migrants

We couldn't resist stopping for two nights in quaint, picturesque little Carmel-by-the-Sea, just south of Monterey. This cute little seaside town was captivating, although I did find it somewhat disconcerting that everything had my name written on it! Mum and I got house-envy gawking at the mansions on 17-Mile Drive, and we enjoyed a picnic on the beach at sunset on Valentine's Day.

Sunset over Carmel beach

Liz takes a selfie

Cheers!

On of the houses in Carmel

Carmel Bay Co

Many t-shirts with my name on

Carmel fridge magnets

Like, yeah, man

Big Sur was really where the impressive coastal views were. Driving down through the mist and sunlight was awe-inspiring and I'm already cooking up plans for a future California motorhome road trip.

The Big Sur coast line

Chick with rock

Sea Lions off Point Lobos

Dramatic views from the road

More awesomeness

"I'm so ronery..."

One of many mad cypress trees

We've spent the last two days here in Yosemite, (or as mum calls it, 'Yose-Might'), a raw, rugged part of the world with spectacular views on an unimaginable scale. I dragged mum up a steep hike to Vernal falls and we were rewarded with some splendid views and a hearty appetite. Dinner at the South Gate Brewing Company gave mum the opportunity to experience her first American burger, and me the chance to try some more Bourbon Barrel Stout, which may well be my new favourite thing.

Classic Yosemite view

Giant sequoia tree with pixie for scale

Here be bears

Intrepid hikers

Half Dome

Redwoods

6,000 feet above sea level

Another bloody fabulous view

Early pioneer cottages

Teddy Roosevelt: visionary

Already we have witnessed an incredible diversity of landscapes here in California. I think the word 'wow' has been the most uttered from our lips. From the dusty desert of the highway to the lush, giant redwood trees in Yosemite. The quaint cultivated gardens of Carmel to the giant 'boulder gardens' in the National Park. Even the working land, the farmland, is interesting, with uniform rows of pistachio orchard trees, cauliflowers, artichokes, in various phases of growth. Seeing the hills through a sudden blanket of mist, the coast in bright rays of sunlight, the desert with the warm glow of the dying sun, the snow on the tips of the mountains – each vista is a huge contrast from the last but just as breathtaking. Almost half way through my mum's holiday and already it's proving to be a truly memorable trip. And there's more to come!

Working in cauliflower fields