Chapter 1 – Sunny California
The ending of our Canada adventure and the beginning of our American one all happened at the frightfully nerve racking border crossing. It wasn’t as if we were unprepared or were illegal aliens and had no paper work, those border patrol agents just know how to strike fear into any individual who comes across their path. Yet as nerve racking as it was, we were only caught up at the border for 20 minutes before they graciously granted us entrance into America and we were back in the car and driving down to Seattle. Since it was still 5am and I was feeling really groggy having had minimal sleep spending time with Dan and then tossing and turning in pure excitement, I just crashed in the car and was awoken by the breakfast bell just outside the exit of Seattle. I was a little bummed that I missed a really interesting city but my body certainly needed that good sleep. The rest of our journey was a long yet very interesting one as Josh enlightened us to historical and creative facts or fiction of the various areas we traveled through. Generally we were alert enough to see sights along the Oregon drive such as Portland and then all the farm lands going south through Oregon just before we hit the California state line and entered the slightly more familiar setting of a Karoo and even former Transvaal – Gauteng – look a like environment with similar vegetation which gave us a little sense of home. Pips mentioned along the way that some of the drive and a few day trips we would experience reminded her so much of South Africa with similar vegetation and climate.
It was so amazing coming from snow and rain the past few days/months to being in this insanely hot sun baked car all day and eventually arriving at our destination, 1525 Albany Avenue, to climb out and begin taking off layers even at 10pm. Since then we have been granted more days of sunshine than we could’ve hoped for, even back home during our summer months. As it usually goes for Ang and I, almost immediately we went exploring in search of Modesto’s sights and beauty. We didn’t have to walk far (as Modesto isn’t the biggest town), although we eventually did, but spending most days out and about in the beautiful Californian sunshine we understood why it was known as the sunshine state. And we were also able to get our tan back – kinda!!
Exploring a small town like Modesto is supposedly an easy thing to do and with public transport it was much easier. It just turned out that Ang and I didn’t really use the transport system much and did more foot work gathering in more of the sights of Modesto. We spent some days just relaxing and others we walked downtown to explore the art areas and see the historical sights of the McHenry Mansion or our very very very extremely long walk to the mall. Other days were spent walking Moose, eating yummy frozen yogurt or watching movies and planning our trips around California. Our time in Modesto was mostly about being with Pips and Josh and so we loved to do things with them once they came home from work – even though they were tired.
Some of the greatest highlights of our experience of California came with them taking us to destinations we hadn’t even heard of. One of these was not San Francisco (it was a highlight but we had heard of it). Having seen some of their wedding photos of the beach they were married on, Josh and Pips decided to take us to Santa Cruz to experience the beauty of a western coast line and the freezing cold ocean. As it turned out, we went on possibly the most amazing day with not a cloud in the sky and no wind at all – just sun shine, warm weather and no costumes. The coast line was similar to the cape with a beautiful beach and very cold ocean but the sand was different. Moose had made the journey with us and so was excited to be free of the car and wanted to go and find some friends to torment. We met Josh and Steph at the beach and spent some time getting to know them and just soaking in the glorious day and picturesque scene. Another simply spectacular experience came when both Josh and Pips took Good Friday off work and we made a road trip across to Yosemite national park to see the huge red oak trees and the beauty of this forested and mountainous area. What we hadn’t realized was that most of the park was closed of until May due to the weather conditions as it had and did snow while we drove through the highest point of the pass into the park. Crazy that we woke up to sunshine drove through snow, walk around the park in sunshine and arrived back in Modesto to sunshine. Again a picture perfect day, slightly colder being up in the national park but so beautiful with huge natural waterfalls and serene settings with these amazingly big trees towering above you.
We were very lucky to experience a rodeo the Saturday before we left town. Mike and Lacy, friends of Pips and Josh from their bible study had mentioned the rodeo and said we all had to come so we made a day of it and had a barbeque (braai) with them. The rodeo was crazy and funny and brilliant all in one. Crazy that these cowboys do these stunts and tricks and rides, funny because usually the animals win and brilliant because when they do get it right, it is a real spectacle. We had such an amazing experience and loved it so much. It was also great for us to meet and spend time with some of Pips and Josh’s friends (real American’s) and their families. Some awesome friends of theirs were Jess and Dave who we got to spend some quality time with and enjoyed the trips made out to their house in the larney part of Modesto (Van Bromley’s). We also got to meet Josh’s folks Mary and Vince and spend time over Easter with his sister Lisa and her family out in Madera. But I still believe that our greatest treat was the day Pips took us through to San Francisco and the time we just had to go back and see the city one more time on our own.
We left on Saturday morning, just after Josh had to leave for his compulsory college class driving to the Bart transport system where we would travel straight into downtown San Fran. What we all hadn’t counted on was the crazy traffic heading into town and how long the whole journey would take us. Anyway, we eventually arrived around 11:30 to arise from the underground terminal and be caught by these breath-takingly awesome sky scrapers in front of us. Recovering quickly so we didn’t look like hopeless tourists, we headed into the info-centre at the station to plot our day and by our bus passes before leaving briskly to find bus 39 which would take us toward the Famous Golden Gate Bridge. I don’t think that we had been fully prepared for the sights we were going to be wowed by in the next few hours. One of the worlds largest man made bridges – orange not gold – and only known as the golden gate bridge because the gold rush allowed for the completed development of the original bridge project (thanks Josh), this is a sight you have to see in person. From the vantage point of this majestic piece of art, we were able to glance at views of the greater area of downtown San Francisco, even seeing as far as the “other” bridge and more. Walking on this mammoth bridge as it swayed in the gentle breeze was a frightening and awesome moment. We couldn’t compete the round trip (that is a complete day task) but got close to half way and nearly filled our 8 gig card of photos immediately. Spending a considerable amount of time at the bridge, yet for us now it feels as though we could’ve spent so much longer there, we moved on as daylight would fade and we had a whole city still to excavate.
Leaving the Golden gate bridge behind us and accidentally heading the wrong way back into downtown San Fran, we eventually managed to back track towards the Golden gate park.(let me also mention we had a bus issue where I managed to hop off our bus at the stop but Pips and Ang got caught behind some slow moving people who blocked the exit and then suddenly the doors closed without the girls and I was left on the pavement for a few minutes, til they got off at the next stop and came laughing down the road towards me!!) One of San Fran’s biggest parks, it doesn’t actually over look the bridge but it had many other interesting attractions for us to peruse. Unfortunately most of the parks big attractions such as the arts museum, science museum and the Japanese gardens were all very busy and very expensive and with our daylight decreasing we explored areas which didn’t require loads of green bills. It was still an amazing adventure wandering around this enormous park which was probably the set of numerous movies we wouldn’t even know about. We managed to find our way through the park and toward a bus stop which would take us straight into downtown to the shopping centers for Ang and Pips. One of the stops was to the 3 story Urban Outfitters shop where the girls spent a good deal of time browsing “essential” items. Dusk was setting in quickly and with our long ride to return back to Modesto, we had to say farewell shortly to this magnificent city hoping that we would return another day.
That day would come soon enough as Ang and I planned to use the Modesto transit system at 6am to get us through to the Bart and then to downtown arriving early at 8am before anything was even open. Not a problem for us as we walked around plotting our route for this second sighting of San Francisco. Our starting point was to get our day pass so we could move around the big city boarding our first bus which took us towards the Victorian houses used in the TV series Full house. We had heard rumours that one of the houses in that area had been used for the movie Mrs. Doubtfire as well, we didn’t find it though. Hiking back downtown we passed the city hall with these huge gold tinted toppings on the gates and buildings and from there we caught buses to the harbour sides finding huge expressionist art in décor and surrounding features. We spent some time exploring the area moving up towards Pier 39 and 45 stopping just before the piers to see the glorious views of downtown from Coit Tower.
We made it to the vibrant and intoxicating Pier 39 where all the tourists seemed to be holed up. Tons of shops, not the ordinary ones but these outrageously big amusement style with touristy memento’s and anything you could think of that you wouldn’t actually buy except when being a tourist. The Pier was a great stop and we sat in front of the Sea Lion pit (free space made available for sea lions in the area to lie around all day and make noise) listening to the commotion and watching the fights incur. We managed to find some other sights such as a pirate ship and the Ghiradheli chocolate square by pier 45 – Ang’s ideal stop. The last spot to visit as we headed back into downtown was the infamous curved street at Lombard. We watched numerous cars twist and turn through the short 20m downhill as their shocks and brakes were being worked overtime. Having seen all this and being held to a short schedule with the public transport we had acquired, it was soon time to leave this great city and head back home. Similarly, the same thing would happen in a few days as we had to say our farewells to the Ebersole’s leaving the small town of Modesto and continuing with our exciting adventure further south in Los Angeles.
The ending of our Canada adventure and the beginning of our American one all happened at the frightfully nerve racking border crossing. It wasn’t as if we were unprepared or were illegal aliens and had no paper work, those border patrol agents just know how to strike fear into any individual who comes across their path. Yet as nerve racking as it was, we were only caught up at the border for 20 minutes before they graciously granted us entrance into America and we were back in the car and driving down to Seattle. Since it was still 5am and I was feeling really groggy having had minimal sleep spending time with Dan and then tossing and turning in pure excitement, I just crashed in the car and was awoken by the breakfast bell just outside the exit of Seattle. I was a little bummed that I missed a really interesting city but my body certainly needed that good sleep. The rest of our journey was a long yet very interesting one as Josh enlightened us to historical and creative facts or fiction of the various areas we traveled through. Generally we were alert enough to see sights along the Oregon drive such as Portland and then all the farm lands going south through Oregon just before we hit the California state line and entered the slightly more familiar setting of a Karoo and even former Transvaal – Gauteng – look a like environment with similar vegetation which gave us a little sense of home. Pips mentioned along the way that some of the drive and a few day trips we would experience reminded her so much of South Africa with similar vegetation and climate.
It was so amazing coming from snow and rain the past few days/months to being in this insanely hot sun baked car all day and eventually arriving at our destination, 1525 Albany Avenue, to climb out and begin taking off layers even at 10pm. Since then we have been granted more days of sunshine than we could’ve hoped for, even back home during our summer months. As it usually goes for Ang and I, almost immediately we went exploring in search of Modesto’s sights and beauty. We didn’t have to walk far (as Modesto isn’t the biggest town), although we eventually did, but spending most days out and about in the beautiful Californian sunshine we understood why it was known as the sunshine state. And we were also able to get our tan back – kinda!!
Exploring a small town like Modesto is supposedly an easy thing to do and with public transport it was much easier. It just turned out that Ang and I didn’t really use the transport system much and did more foot work gathering in more of the sights of Modesto. We spent some days just relaxing and others we walked downtown to explore the art areas and see the historical sights of the McHenry Mansion or our very very very extremely long walk to the mall. Other days were spent walking Moose, eating yummy frozen yogurt or watching movies and planning our trips around California. Our time in Modesto was mostly about being with Pips and Josh and so we loved to do things with them once they came home from work – even though they were tired.
Some of the greatest highlights of our experience of California came with them taking us to destinations we hadn’t even heard of. One of these was not San Francisco (it was a highlight but we had heard of it). Having seen some of their wedding photos of the beach they were married on, Josh and Pips decided to take us to Santa Cruz to experience the beauty of a western coast line and the freezing cold ocean. As it turned out, we went on possibly the most amazing day with not a cloud in the sky and no wind at all – just sun shine, warm weather and no costumes. The coast line was similar to the cape with a beautiful beach and very cold ocean but the sand was different. Moose had made the journey with us and so was excited to be free of the car and wanted to go and find some friends to torment. We met Josh and Steph at the beach and spent some time getting to know them and just soaking in the glorious day and picturesque scene. Another simply spectacular experience came when both Josh and Pips took Good Friday off work and we made a road trip across to Yosemite national park to see the huge red oak trees and the beauty of this forested and mountainous area. What we hadn’t realized was that most of the park was closed of until May due to the weather conditions as it had and did snow while we drove through the highest point of the pass into the park. Crazy that we woke up to sunshine drove through snow, walk around the park in sunshine and arrived back in Modesto to sunshine. Again a picture perfect day, slightly colder being up in the national park but so beautiful with huge natural waterfalls and serene settings with these amazingly big trees towering above you.
We were very lucky to experience a rodeo the Saturday before we left town. Mike and Lacy, friends of Pips and Josh from their bible study had mentioned the rodeo and said we all had to come so we made a day of it and had a barbeque (braai) with them. The rodeo was crazy and funny and brilliant all in one. Crazy that these cowboys do these stunts and tricks and rides, funny because usually the animals win and brilliant because when they do get it right, it is a real spectacle. We had such an amazing experience and loved it so much. It was also great for us to meet and spend time with some of Pips and Josh’s friends (real American’s) and their families. Some awesome friends of theirs were Jess and Dave who we got to spend some quality time with and enjoyed the trips made out to their house in the larney part of Modesto (Van Bromley’s). We also got to meet Josh’s folks Mary and Vince and spend time over Easter with his sister Lisa and her family out in Madera. But I still believe that our greatest treat was the day Pips took us through to San Francisco and the time we just had to go back and see the city one more time on our own.
We left on Saturday morning, just after Josh had to leave for his compulsory college class driving to the Bart transport system where we would travel straight into downtown San Fran. What we all hadn’t counted on was the crazy traffic heading into town and how long the whole journey would take us. Anyway, we eventually arrived around 11:30 to arise from the underground terminal and be caught by these breath-takingly awesome sky scrapers in front of us. Recovering quickly so we didn’t look like hopeless tourists, we headed into the info-centre at the station to plot our day and by our bus passes before leaving briskly to find bus 39 which would take us toward the Famous Golden Gate Bridge. I don’t think that we had been fully prepared for the sights we were going to be wowed by in the next few hours. One of the worlds largest man made bridges – orange not gold – and only known as the golden gate bridge because the gold rush allowed for the completed development of the original bridge project (thanks Josh), this is a sight you have to see in person. From the vantage point of this majestic piece of art, we were able to glance at views of the greater area of downtown San Francisco, even seeing as far as the “other” bridge and more. Walking on this mammoth bridge as it swayed in the gentle breeze was a frightening and awesome moment. We couldn’t compete the round trip (that is a complete day task) but got close to half way and nearly filled our 8 gig card of photos immediately. Spending a considerable amount of time at the bridge, yet for us now it feels as though we could’ve spent so much longer there, we moved on as daylight would fade and we had a whole city still to excavate.
Leaving the Golden gate bridge behind us and accidentally heading the wrong way back into downtown San Fran, we eventually managed to back track towards the Golden gate park.(let me also mention we had a bus issue where I managed to hop off our bus at the stop but Pips and Ang got caught behind some slow moving people who blocked the exit and then suddenly the doors closed without the girls and I was left on the pavement for a few minutes, til they got off at the next stop and came laughing down the road towards me!!) One of San Fran’s biggest parks, it doesn’t actually over look the bridge but it had many other interesting attractions for us to peruse. Unfortunately most of the parks big attractions such as the arts museum, science museum and the Japanese gardens were all very busy and very expensive and with our daylight decreasing we explored areas which didn’t require loads of green bills. It was still an amazing adventure wandering around this enormous park which was probably the set of numerous movies we wouldn’t even know about. We managed to find our way through the park and toward a bus stop which would take us straight into downtown to the shopping centers for Ang and Pips. One of the stops was to the 3 story Urban Outfitters shop where the girls spent a good deal of time browsing “essential” items. Dusk was setting in quickly and with our long ride to return back to Modesto, we had to say farewell shortly to this magnificent city hoping that we would return another day.
That day would come soon enough as Ang and I planned to use the Modesto transit system at 6am to get us through to the Bart and then to downtown arriving early at 8am before anything was even open. Not a problem for us as we walked around plotting our route for this second sighting of San Francisco. Our starting point was to get our day pass so we could move around the big city boarding our first bus which took us towards the Victorian houses used in the TV series Full house. We had heard rumours that one of the houses in that area had been used for the movie Mrs. Doubtfire as well, we didn’t find it though. Hiking back downtown we passed the city hall with these huge gold tinted toppings on the gates and buildings and from there we caught buses to the harbour sides finding huge expressionist art in décor and surrounding features. We spent some time exploring the area moving up towards Pier 39 and 45 stopping just before the piers to see the glorious views of downtown from Coit Tower.
We made it to the vibrant and intoxicating Pier 39 where all the tourists seemed to be holed up. Tons of shops, not the ordinary ones but these outrageously big amusement style with touristy memento’s and anything you could think of that you wouldn’t actually buy except when being a tourist. The Pier was a great stop and we sat in front of the Sea Lion pit (free space made available for sea lions in the area to lie around all day and make noise) listening to the commotion and watching the fights incur. We managed to find some other sights such as a pirate ship and the Ghiradheli chocolate square by pier 45 – Ang’s ideal stop. The last spot to visit as we headed back into downtown was the infamous curved street at Lombard. We watched numerous cars twist and turn through the short 20m downhill as their shocks and brakes were being worked overtime. Having seen all this and being held to a short schedule with the public transport we had acquired, it was soon time to leave this great city and head back home. Similarly, the same thing would happen in a few days as we had to say our farewells to the Ebersole’s leaving the small town of Modesto and continuing with our exciting adventure further south in Los Angeles.
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