California Dreaming: San Diego

Our West Coast USA road trip on iconic California State Route 1 took us from San Francisco (A) to Monterey (B), through the Big Sur and on to Santa Barbara (C), a stop in Venice Beach (D), a quick hop across the state boundary in to Las Vegas (E), back to Los Angeles (F) and on to San Diego (G), before saying goodbye to California and flying home. The final part, San Diego, is below click here for part one (San Francisco), here for part two (Monterey), part three (Big Sur and Santa Barbara) is here, part four (LA and Venice) is here and part five (Las Vegas) is here.

We flew back in to LA from Vegas, picked up a (slightly less impressive) car and headed back to the Pacific Coast Highway. After being out of the driving seat for a few days, Mr G got a bit, erm, let’s say “lost” (in actuality he thought he knew better than the instructions I was screaming from two maps and a satnav and took a few of his own turns) and we ended up driving through the exact places we were trying to avoid… the ‘hood. We managed to skirt around the outside, but anyone who’s seen Menace II Society will recognise the scenery and anyone that’s listened to a bit of Tupac will have been familiar with the names on the sign posts from his tunes. A little bit of swift navigation and we were back on our way towards San Diego. I’m not going to be fluffy about it, some of the neighbourhoods in the surrounding area of LA, en route to our final destination, did not look pretty. But equally, there are some lovely places. It was like driving through an entire evening of Channel 4, one minute fabled gangland territory, the next, affluent beach towns where girls with bouncy blond hair and Chanel 2.55 flap bags drive drop top white sports cars to beachside brunch with their interns-at-glossy-magazines friends... Laguna Beach and The OC, anyone?

San Diego old town state park

As with every other city on the trip, finding our hotel, The Bristol, was ridiculously easy (let's get rid of roundabouts and install the "block" system at home shall we?) we dropped off the car with the valet guys and I took the opportunity of our late afternoon arrival to have a (rather out of character) nap to ready ourselves for the San Diego nightlife while Mr G (also uncharacteristically) passed on the nap opportunity to explore the surrounding area.

Breakfast pizza...

Breakfast pancakes

I’ve mentioned before that I’m more of a bustling city, than a chillaxed beach town, girl and so San Diego was probably my favourite of the Californian cities on the trip. I felt like I was in a sunnier, friendlier, cleaner, compact New York City.

We chose to stay in the Gaslamp Quarter and so we spent our first night eating delicious food and drinking fancy cocktails in a busy, bustly city bar/restaurant a five minute walk from our hotel. This was the one thing I’d missed about San Francisco. I now had a real reason to put on some heels, some bling and a fancy frock and head out for the night. Hurrah for dressing up for cocktails…

Giant margaritas

Our first full day was spent in uber-exploration mode. We had a large breakfast, bought some hop-on-hop-off trolley passes and took a grand tour of the city incorporating the Gaslamp Quarter (bustling streets packed with bars and restaurants), Seaport Village (cute but felt a bit like Bicester village – we didn’t stay long), Coronado Island (pretty little seaside town feel, and a famous hotel, where we had beach-view cocktails – obvs), the Old Town State Historic Park (like a Disney frontier town crossed with “Mexicoland”, but friendly and fun, plus we found some great margarita stops) and various places in between (mainly related to Top Gun trivia!).

Getting in to the baseball spirit

That evening we made our way to the famous Petco Park to see some all American baseball. I hate sport. I really hate sport. But I do love a feeling of “go team!" and national or local pride, so that must explain why I have a mini obsession with American sport. I think it’s the wholesomeness of American sport (I know it’s just a veneer!) versus the nastiness I see related to things like football at home that sends me wild for things like American football, baseball and basketball. And also it’s integral to my love of vintage Americana – cheerleaders, pointy fingers, popcorn, that organ music (dan dan da daa dan dan da daa), the national anthem (caps off hands on hearts) the corn dogs. You know what I mean. I think my preference would have been for some football, but we were there out of season so we went for baseball instead. I loved it. We got burritos, beers and sodas, bought some branded baseballs for my friends little boys and got properly stuck in to our evening in the stadium! “Let’s go Padres, let’s go!”. Ghirardelli ice cream sundaes on the way home completed my American Dream of an evening!

Post baseball sundae!

The following day we got ourselves up early, grabbed another ridiculously large breakfast and made our way to the famous San Diego Zoo. We spent most of the day wandering amongst the animal enclosures, eating candy floss, watching Happy Feet in 4D (Don’t judge me - seeing as penguins are my second favourite animals and they have none at the zoo, watching that was the next best thing!) and taking tours on the open top discovery buses. It was a really great zoo, but after seeing most of these animals in the wild (on safari on our honeymoon back in 2010) no zoo is ever going to be as exciting as they were in the pre-safari days.

Welcome to the zoo!

Zoo-time snack!

When we were zoo-toured out we made our way back to the hotel, via a shopping mall where we picked up some Abercrombie treats, as no trip to the US is complete without a new Abercrombie hoody or four, and got ready for another night on the town.

Our flight back to the UK was in the evening of our last day so we got up early, had our last massive breakfast (are you seeing a theme here?), and spent the day wandering around on the USS Midway aircraft carrier and quoting lines from Top Gun at each other (“Negative Ghostrider”). The tour of the ship was pretty cool, with former marine aviators conducting small tours of all the areas of particular interest and a self-guided audio tour for the rest of the ship. We also met some former pilots who told us stories about their part in previous conflicts that made me cry. It really was a fascinating day, not least because my childhood dream (after watching Top Gun, of course) was to be a fighter pilot! On the way home I insisted on a quick pit stop at the Kansas City Barbeque for a drink to see the actual location of one of the Top Gun scenes before grabbing our bags and making our way to the airport for the long flight home.

Proud to be sleazy!

Playing the famous piano

Phew. What a trip.

It wasn’t relaxing in the way you do when you sit on a beach and read trashy novels for two weeks, but I truly can say that during the two weeks we spent exploring some of California’s greatest cities (and one in Nevada) I managed to barely think about house-moving stress, our “currently of no fixed abode” status and I definitely didn’t think about work. Let’s say it was mentally relaxing, as I came back physically exhausted!

Also, as much as I loved California, the sunshine, the happiness, the lifestyle, the buoyant attitude – I think, deep down, I’m an East Coast girl at heart. But don’t get me wrong… I’ll be heading back to the West Coast as soon as time and funds allow!

Nevada Dreaming: Viva Las Vegas




Welcome to Vegas

Our West Coast USA road trip on iconic California State Route 1 took us from San Francisco (A) to Monterey (B), through the Big Sur and on to Santa Barbara (C), a stop in Venice Beach (D), a quick hop across the state boundary in to Las Vegas (E), back to Los Angeles (F) and on to San Diego (G), before saying goodbye to California and flying home. Part five, Las Vegas, is below, click here for part one (San Francisco), here for part two (Monterey), part three (Big Sur and Santa Barbara) is here and part four (LA and Venice) is here.

 

Having been to Vegas for our first anniversary in 2010 (our Anni-Vegas-versary, for you Friends fans) we knew we wanted to stay at The Wynn. It’s just over-sized, techni-coloured, blinged-up brashness at its best! There’s nothing I love more than dressing up to the nines, drinking a well-made cocktail, heading out for a special dinner (or brunch) in a glamorous location… so Vegas is my happy place, and The Wynn is the epicentre of that. I love everything from the utterly bonkers Lake of Dreams (Google it!) to the mesmerizing upside-down parasols at Parasol Down, from the assorted pools to the ginormous sandwiches at the casino snack bar ZoozaCrackers, the Wonderland-style lobby to the blow-your-mind-expensive indoor shopping promenade. In a destination where the whole trip is about what's inside the hotels, not what's outside the hotels, being in love with your hotel is pretty important, so it's lucky that I am absolutely in love with The Wynn!

Checking in... to Wonderland?

The panoramic view from my pillows

The view from my sunlounger

Having been before, and stayed at The Wynn sister hotel The Encore, we didn’t bother with the Disneyland for Grown Ups tour again (if you’ve been, you know what I mean – themed hotels styled to the max, the smell of chlorinated water everywhere, XXL-sized drinks and food!) or any of the shows, but chose to chill out by the funky pools, drink Pomojitos (pomegranate mojitos) and soak up the desert sunshine!

Obsessed with Parasol Down

We returned to a bistro in Paris, Mon Ami Gabi, for a champagne brunch one day having enjoyed our brunch there last time and also had an A.Mazing all you can eat buffet and bellini brunch at Wicked Spoon at the Cosmopolitan (I am catergorically against all you can eat buffets, but this was somthing else entirely. Well worth a visit). We ate dinner in LAVO at The Venetian one night and on our last night we visited the sister restaurant to the place we went to on getting engaged in NYC way back in 2007, Aureole at the Mandalay Bay.
Unlike LA which invokes a pretty unanimous negative opinion in everyone I’ve spoken to, Las Vegas is like Marmite, you either love it or you hate it. I think I’m one of the latter.

Where else in the world can you have champagne breakfast in “Paris” whilst looking at a walking talking Las Vegas sign (complete with flashing lights and an Elvis entourage) chat up passers-by, have a gondola ride in “Venice” followed by some shopping in “Rome” and lunch in “Lake Como”, spend the afternoon wandering amongst a shark reef before dinner in “New York” and watching a volcano erupt and female pirates do battle and ending the day with a nightcap inside a giant chandelier? Nowhere! People may say that it’s brash, has no class, has no history or soul but I think different. It has a history… albeit a very recent one, but still a very sparkly, star-studded, glamorous one. And what could appeal to this little magpie more? Yes there are places with seedy undertones, but what city doesn’t have that? At least Las Vegas isn’t trying to hide it. But the first and foremost reason I love it there? The fact that it is totally unapologetic for what it is and takes a pride in what it offers. A bit like me! It’s all about the colour, the size, the theming (oh we know I love a theme) the fun, the labels, the people, the styling and the bling. Again, like me… that is why I’ll never be tired of Vegas!  



Breakfast in Paris



New York, New York. My fave city in my fave desert.

The Bellagio

The Venetian

The Grand Canal by night

Looking forward to trip number three. New Year 2012/2013 anyone?

Bit of a lack of photos as I went mad on the snapping back in 2010, but there are a few to peruse. More of San Diego though... eyes peeled!

The rules.

California Dreaming: LA and Venice Beach

Our West Coast USA road trip on iconic California State Route 1 took us from San Francisco (A) to Monterey (B), through the Big Sur and on to Santa Barbara (C), a stop in Venice Beach (D), a quick hop across the state boundary in to Las Vegas (E), back to Los Angeles (F) and on to San Diego (G), before saying goodbye to California and flying home. Part four, LA and Venice Beach, is below, click here for part one (San Francisco), here for part two (Monterey) and part three (Big Sur and Santa Barbara) is here.

We set off from Santa Barbara and picked up Route 1 again, heading for Venice Beach, through some famous beach towns including Malibu and Santa Monica.

We’d heard some, erm, questionable reports about Venice, with reviews suggesting it’s seedy, dangerous and ugly. In the same way I disagreed with other people’s thoughts on Athens, I found Venice Beach edgy, interesting and full of character. It reminded me of Brighton with a bigger sense of humour, customer service and better weather! Bigger, busier, full of colour and the craziest crazies you’ll ever see! Yes you get offered “legal marijuana” every ten minutes, yes the various street performers all blend in to a bit of a cacophony crazy after a while and yes, after dark I can imagine the human circus gets a bit intimidating, but I liked it a lot! Our super-funky hotel (the Hotel Erwin) had an achingly cool rooftop bar that was apparently incredibly popular with locals and tourists alike so we made sure to book ourselves in for our sundowners early in our stay… and tried our best to act appropriately cool… hmmm.

Hotel Erwin Rooftop Bar

Although we made Venice our base, we also made time to walk down to Santa Monica pier to see the famous ferris wheel, stand at the end of Route 66 and check out the neighbourhood… which couldn’t be more different from Venice. I loved how the elegant, understated glamour of the hotels and restaurants in Santa Monica was diametrically opposed to the grunge and edginess of Venice. Think white-painted wood, sparkling glass beachfront villas, mimosas served with brunch and high-end beach weddings with white-curtained pagodas and creamy rose domes on the beach, versus graffiti, burger joints, Muscle Beach and tattoo parlours about 500 metres away. Only in America!

We also spent some time in “mainstream” LA, including Hollywood, Bel Air, Beverly Hills and the surrounding areas, checking out the tourist sights like the Walk of Fame, the Chinese and Kodak theatres, the Hollywood(land) sign, Griffith Park (obvs!), one or two “celeb hotspots”, some lunch and cocktails on Rodeo Drive and, of course, a sneaky look at the “Reg Bev Wil”*.

I heart Mr G

I know that everyone will tell you that LA and Hollywood are a bit of a disappointment, so I wasn’t expecting much, and that’s why I think I quite enjoyed it. It was fun seeing all the tacky memorabilia lined up in the shops, the ubiquitous celebrity “lookalikes” hustling for the best spot and seeing the iconic sights we see so often on TV and in films with my own eyes. People told me it was soulless and boring but, like Vegas (review up next!), that IS its soul. It’s not trying to be historic Rome, elegant Paris, vibrant New York or diverse London, but it has no shame. It has its own history, its own elegance and its own vibrancy and diversity. I’m not going to say it’s my favourite city, nor in my top five, or even ten, favourite cities. But it’s a city I desperately wanted to visit, and a city I’m glad I spent some time in. A lot of people say they wish they hadn’t bothered, but I’m glad we made the time to explore.

Movie star homes!

Bubbly on Rodeo...

Pop back for Vegas, next!

*A quick aside about this, my Dad was once staying here and my mum called his PA to get in contact with him and his poor PA had a bit of a breakdown thinking that he was staying with a woman called Beverly Wilshire, i.e. having an affair, and how she would tell my mum where he was, without getting him in trouble.  Obviously wasn’t a Pretty Woman fan….

California Dreaming: The Big Sur and Santa Barbara

Our West Coast USA road trip on iconic California State Route 1 took us from San Francisco (A) to Monterey (B), through the Big Sur and on to Santa Barbara (C), a stop in Venice Beach (D), a quick hop across the state boundary in to Las Vegas (E), back to Los Angeles (F) and on to San Diego (G), before saying goodbye to California and flying home. Part three, The Big Sur and Santa Barbara, is below, click here for part one (San Francisco) and here for part two (Monterey).

The Big Sur and Santa Barbara

Now, I mention (a lot) that I’m a city girl and a little bit nature-averse, but I have to say that the Big Sur is some pretty impressive nature, filled with some pretty impressive flora and fauna.

Big Sur Scenery

Jaw-dropping coastal scenery, winding roads in lush, green forests, wild dolphins leaping from the white-crested waves and elephant seals basking in the Pacific coast sunshine. We took numerous breaks along the coastal road just to stop and take in the breath-taking vistas. You can drive the distance from Monterey to Santa Barbara in half the time using the 101 freeway, but you’d really be missing out.

Ready? Set? ROAD TRIP!

Big Sur Soundtrack

Our Mustang mean machine!

Road trip essentials

We also took a quick detour up to Hearst Castle. Although Mr G was eager to get on with the drive, I convinced him (with the help of two friends’ recommendations and two guidebooks) that we’d regret it if we missed it. And I was right. This man-made “scenery” was as jaw-dropping as the natural scenery. In fact, this over-sized homage to opulence, wealth and architecture was probably even more exciting for me. It was like a fairytale castle poured over a museum and whizzed up in a blender with an insanely beautiful film set and sprinkled with a crazy mish-mash of recent and ancient history. It wasn’t just the buildings, but the stuff that was inside: awesome (in the British sense, not the American sense) artefacts from around Europe, think a GINORMOUS French fireplace shipped over piece by piece or rows of Italian church pews installed around the dining hall or shelves and shelves of rare books, alongside architectural styles from throughout history and from around the world (think a Roman villa style pool alongside a home theatre filled with Egyptian style statues). The tour guide wasn’t just knowledgeable about his subject matter, but in love with his subject matter and I came away with feelings of deep affection for Mr Hearst, his fabled home and his political beliefs (well, those which I was told about)… not to mention a burning desire to re-read the Great Gatsby, dress up in a cloche, drink champagne from coupes… and buy a llama!

The best bit of Hearst Castle - in my opinion

Arriving in Santa Barbara was like getting off the plane in a Mediterranean coastal town. Spanish style buildings, a tree-lined central avenue, high-end boutiques (and the odd international store, [oh hello Apple store] disguised as a boutique) next to upmarket bars and restaurants filled with beautiful people (in Daisy Dukes, bikinis on top) makes for a rather lovely holiday town. What really made me fall in love with Santa Barbara though, were the thousands and thousands of white fairy lights that cover every solid surface after dark. It was just so beautiful to wander along the road in the warm evening amongst a galaxy of twinkling stars! Well, that and the amazing hospitality we encountered everywhere, and especially at our hotel, the Brisas del Mar. Who’s going to argue with bubbly on ice on arrival in our room, complimentary wine and cheese in reception from 4.30pm, replaced by milk and cookies at 6.30pm and then a breakfast buffet with trays that you can take back to your room for brekkie in bed until 10.30am every day?

Bubbly



Wine and cheese

Milk and cookies

I can see why Californians head to Santa Barbara for their vacations, or for that endless vacation we call “retirement”.


Feeling at home in Santa Barbara

Up next? Venice Beach! Yay!