We had a few days in San Diego and spent the time collecting all the boat parts we had already ordered and buying things we can't get in Mexico. San Diego is a lovely town and unlike many US towns it is easy to get around without a car. They have a good bus and trolley service and public transport is organised, cheap and clean with helpful staff. The marinas in SD are huge and occupy most of the harbour. It's easy to see there is lots of money in California.
Our fiend, Jordan, arrived from the UK and we collected her at the airport before collecting our hire car. Unfortunately, Budget said they no longer worked with Expedia (who we had booked through) and wouldn't let us take a car unless we paid again (and the cost was double what we had already paid!). We then spent a frantic few hours on the phone to Expedia (the motel let us use their land phone to receive calls in from Expedia). This resulted in us getting a car from Avis and paying twice the money so, we are now fighting to get the additional cost back from Expedia!
After all the stress, we left San Diego and had a day long drive to Williams which is close to the Grand Canyon. We spent a few days at the Canyon walking along the rim and watching a spectacular sunset. The altitude makes it difficult to walk very far for us sea level folk and we also found the weather cold at night. It's just too big to describe and it's on Mike's list of things to revisit, preferably by raft down the Colorado. That is probably the only way to really appreciate it!!
Next we drove through Monument Valley, the home of so many westerns. We took the car off road and drove all through the monuments. A little bumpy on the dirt roads but that is why we had a 4x4 – sorry, a SUV (as the Americans say!). The drive along Highway 95 to Bryce Canyon was absolutely stunning and probably the most scenic drive you can do anywhere in the world. Each corner and hill crest was another amazing view. The drive was a little hairy in places as at one point the road ascends a vertical cliff and makes a lot of hairpin turns and is just dirt, single track. Fortunately, Karen was driving so the rest of us just enjoyed the view whilst she worried about going over the edge!!!
Bryce Canyon is another amazing place with lots of pinnacles of multi coloured rock created by the freeze and thaw of the winters. It also creates lots of slot canyons which are just about wide enough for one and have vertical walls reaching to the sky. We managed a walk down into the bottom of the Canyon which was lots of fun and took a bus tour around the park. Then it was another spectacular drive before arriving at Zion National Park. We just went from one amazing view to another and have hundreds of photos.
Next it was a complete change as we headed to Las Vegas. We were all disappointed with Las Vegas, it has changed a lot since Jordan and Karen were last there and is now full of nightclubs and sex shows. A lot of theme hotels which were fun to visit have now gone and the hotels just concentrate on gambling and nightclubs. The best hotel was the Balagio which had an amazing water fountain show to music and we had a lovely meal in the Paris hotel! Nearly as good as the Champs Elysee.
We escaped LV for more stunning scenery as we drove through Death Valley, Lone Pine (where hundreds of cowboy movies were filmed) and Mammoth Lakes into Yosemite Valley. This is yet another amazing national park. The pass into the park is closed from November to May due to snow and we were lucky as the week after we left they had a lot of snow! Mike decided to do a pretty difficult hike which climbs 3000ft up the side of a mountain (which took an hour less than the guide book says!) while Karen and Jordan had a relaxing morning before we all met at the top for a spectacular view over the park.
After this we were back to the coast with a few days in San Francisco where we walked up one of the steepest streets (unintentionally!), saw the Golden Gate bridge and did a bus tour of the city. Our drive back to San Diego was down the famous Highway 1 with stops in Carmel (for a really great lunch) and Santa Barbara and a tour around Hearst castle, the home of William Randolph Hearst aka Citizen Kane for those who remember the Orson Wells film.
We drove 3000 miles in all and went from sea level to over 10,000ft and back. The scenery was spectacular and it will take us months to sort through the hundreds of photos we have taken!
We left San Diego with 4 extremely heavy bags worried about how we were going to get them through the border without being stopped (Mexico charges 40% duty!). Other than the issue of carrying them, we had no problem and walked straight through. As it was all so easy, we then had to wait around for hours for our bus back to San Felipe.
The boat survived OK except that it was covered in bird poo. It looked as if she had been left for months and the birds had been having a party every night! Not an inch of deck was clean and after 2 days of scrubbing the deck is still covered in white patches! We escaped San Felipe as soon as possible and have been recovering in Bahia Willard before beginning our sail over to the mainland where we intend to work on the boat for a while in preparation for the Pacific crossing next year.
Arrival In San Carlos
We have spent 3 weeks sailing between San Felipe and San Carlos, which is half way down the sea on the mainland side. We have had a relaxing time in some nice quiet anchorages and now its down to work for the next month!
