Wandering the World Part 26

David Paul
Aug 26, 2017 · 52 min read

California

It felt like I was seeing more and more of the world at an increasing pace. When I started out I was mostly seeing the world at a rate of one country a year, with the exception of the occasional multi-country trip. In the same year as visiting Mexico, Canada, and five states of America, I’d got one more trip before the year was over — a road trip across California.

It wasn’t California that had been planned originally though. At first I was planning to be going Florida with my sister, but we decided to delay that in favour of a road trip around Arizona. I’m a fan of Star Wars, and delaying this trip would increase the likelihood of being able to visit Disney’s new Star Wars theme park.

Unfortunately my sister took ill and was in hospital a number of times which resulted in her being unable to fly for at least a year. This meant that Arizona had to be delayed too.

A friend of mine had the idea of driving the coast of California along Big Sur. Although I’d been to California before, I’d not seen much of it; so this sounded like a great idea. In a relatively short space of time we planned this trip by creating a spreadsheet of things we wanted to see, and what city they were closest to. I plotted these on a map and we started to estimate how much time we’d need driving between places and how long we might want to stay in each place.

There were a few bits I thought might not work out quite right, but perhaps it would add to the adventure of a week driving through a foreign country. I’d never driven overseas before, so had never driven on what we’d consider to be the “wrong side of the road”, and I’d never driven an automatic either as I prefer manual.

The flight into Newark Liberty International Airport was an hour earlier than scheduled. It was a relief to be landing early after my experience a few months before. I was glad not to be missing another flight.

After taking the AirTrain to change terminals I went through security again, and still had two hours to wait before my flight to Denver. They announced the flight was overbooked and that some would need to give up their seats for the flight. With a connecting flight out of Denver I couldn’t volunteer for this even if it was the polite thing to do.

Messing around with seat allocations meant the flight left twenty minutes late and I thought I’d be running the risk of missing my flight to San Jose. What I hadn’t realised was that the plane I was arriving on was the same plane I’d be leaving on also. It’s likely I was in Denver for no more than fifteen minutes, and as I was about to board my friend from Toronto joined the queue.

Ours was one of two flights that had landed within six minutes of each other and this had caused a fifty minute delay in luggage collection. At least the taxi ride to the hotel didn’t take too long.


With how long I’d been awake for it was disappointing that I was awake at 02:00. From then until I got up five hours later I may have had the odd few minutes of sleep here and there, but the shouting down the corridors at 05:00 didn’t help. It wasn’t the quietest of places I’ve stayed, but it was one of the better American breakfasts I’d had. I think I’d have preferred a better night’s sleep though.

We ordered a taxi to get from the hotel to the car rental place to make sure we got there early, though we hadn’t realised it was only a mile away. Even with our terrible sense of direction I’m sure we could have made it there okay.

The whole process for hiring the car seemed overly long to me. We’d provided our details previously, but they collected them all again. Even though my friend was paying for this on his credit card they still required my credit card to be logged as well in case there were any fines.

The mention of fines made me think how little I knew about driving in the USA. Sure I knew that in some states you can turn on a red light, but apparently this isn’t the case everywhere. I wasn’t keen on the thought of how possible it might be to get a fine during my first time driving in a foreign country.

Since the UK Government removed the paper part of driving licenses they have stated that you may need a special code for presenting to car rental companies so they can check on your license status. I’d got the code printed off ready, but it wasn’t something they needed.

They led us into the parking garage to inspect the Nissan Altima and make sure we were happy with it. It all checked out fine, so we loaded up, plugged in the satnav, and set off on another adventure. This was a “face-palm” moment though — neither of us had thought about bringing some music for driving along to.

For this first day, my friend drove us to the small town of Capitola. It had been recommended that we tried the food at a bakery called Gayles, and this was the only reason we stopped there. Judging by how busy the place was, and that they use a ticketing system, it’s fair to say that it’s a very popular bakery.

It was still early so I wasn’t really ready to eat, but bought a steak and blue cheese sandwich. I like cheese, and think it’s good to get some with a strong flavour unlike the rubbery stuff that’s usual in America. Back home I tend to stick to cheddar so had no idea what blue cheese would be like. I thought it a good idea to get a dessert as well because why not? It could turn out to be a long day. They were selling bear claw pastries which was something I’d heard of, but had never tried — the perfect opportunity to try one.

On the way to Point Lobos, our planned lunch stop, we noticed the start of some great views of the coast — it wasn’t just the sand but the reds, oranges, and greens of plant life. We kept an eye out for somewhere we could stop, and spotted a sign to where we could pull off the highway and park at a place called Marina Dunes Preserve.

The parking there was free, so we grabbed our cameras and went for a walk along a sandy path which was lined with scrub land until it reached the beach. On this walk I was sure I’d seen a chipmunk, but after seeing it through my big camera lens I realised it was just a squirrel. Not particularly exciting.

The sand was fine, and the beach completely empty of people. If the weather had been like this back home the beach would have been overflowing with people sunbathing and playing in the water. There wasn’t much to see other than the waves crashing into the beach, a lone turkey vulture, and a passing bi-plane.

Marina Dunes Preserve

Between there and Point Lobos State Reserve there were only eighteen miles to drive. It’s almost nothing when you’re driving along the big open roads of the United States.

Entry to Point Lobos State Reserve was US$10 but was good for the entire day if we wanted it. In fact, the entry ticket also covered a number of other places as well though we didn’t realise that until the day was almost over.

To start with we took the Cypress Grove Trail with our cameras in hand. We got as far as a good viewpoint of Cypress Cove when we realised it was a good spot for having lunch. Rather than wasting time I ran back to the car by myself to get it. The lunch tasted pretty good — I could understand why getting food from Gayles had been recommended. Even the cheese I’d been unsure about was okay.

At the end of this hike we could look down into Pinnacle Cove and Middle Cove at where sea otters, sea lions, and harbour seals were relaxing in the sun. A couple of park rangers had setup spotting scopes and were talking about the wildlife of this area. Apparently it used to be possible to get down to where the seals were, but it had been observed that the seals had been moving further ashore so they’d closed the path to protect them.

Our next route was along the North Shore Trail though we felt there wasn’t as much to see. For most of this trail we talked about running as there wasn’t much we wanted to photograph. Maybe if we’d gone off the beaten trail we might have.

Point Lobos

It was getting to mid-afternoon and we’d only made it as far as the start of Big Sur. Rather than spend more time at Point Lobos we carried on by car to Whaler’s Cove — a place we’d passed on the drive to the car park. Although we walked around trying to photograph a heron, we only spent around ten minutes here. It reminded me of old quarries in the UK that had been filled with water — it had that look to it, even though it was obviously an inlet from the sea.

From Whaler’s Cove we drove along a good portion of the winding, coast-hugging road of State Route 1 as the sun started to dip in the sky. It felt like this day was coming to an end too quickly.

We’d not made any further stops, but was now over halfway along Big Sur. Driving this route was what my friend had wanted to come to California for, and was keen to drive this entire stretch of road by himself. I was happy to let him as it meant I could keep an eye on the scenery and look out for good places to stop.

Our next stop was at the historic Bixby Creek Bridge. Prior to the building of this bridge the locals would often be cut off during bad weather due to the trails that flooded. At this bridge there are plenty of places to pull off the road to park up and take photographs, and that was exactly what quite a few people were doing.

As what some might argue is usual for me, I took it one step further by climbing down some of the way into the ravine. This allowed me to reach a lower, flatter area where I could get a better view of the bridge. One that didn’t have the sun affecting me trying to photograph it, and fewer cables.

Bixby Creek Bridge

When we left Bixby Creek we came across another state park which again would charge US$10 for entry. It was something we could do on the next day when we’d have more time so we chose not to go in — but there were others that had parked up on the roadside to avoid the entry charge altogether.

We were only an hour away from sunset so we headed back to the Monterey County city of Seaside. This city had once been known as East Monterey but now had it’s own identity for it’s relatively small population.

That evening we used Google to find somewhere to eat locally. It was still a bit of a drive but we found a place called Tarpy’s. They told us they had a forty-five minute waiting time, but when we turned to leave they offered us an outside table under some patio heaters. During the day it had been warm enough for shorts and t-shirt; but in the dark, even with these heaters, it was uncomfortably cool.

The food there was of good quality — I tried their Angus sirloin steak, which with a non-alcoholic drink and an 18% tip, my meal came to about US$43. At this time the conversion rate between US Dollars and British Pounds was reasonable, so wasn’t as expensive as it sounded. It was still more than I’d want to pay for too many meals though.


My intention had been to go out at 05:45 for a Sunday morning long run before driving Big Sur once more. I’d somehow managed to set my alarm for 06:45 which meant that when I checked the time at 06:10 I realised I’d need to go for a shorter run.

I ran around some of the blocks close to the hotel to start with, getting my bearings so I could easily find my way back at the end of the run. This led me to stumble across some sand dunes and an undulating coastal trail. When I got to three miles I could hear something in the distance that sounded like a crowd.

I realised that going to find out what was going on would mean getting back to the hotel later than I intended, but I was feeling nosy. What I’d found was a group of people making their way into pens for the start of the Bay of Monterey Half Marathon. I’d arrived just in time to see the elites starting off! If I’d known about this race prior to visiting there would have been a strong possibility that I’d have entered it.

Half Marathon on Monterey Bay

I watched the elite and mass start for this race, and got in a few more miles than I’d planned. It felt like the day was already off to a great start, though my delay meant we were on the road a little later than we’d planned.

Our first proper stop of the day was at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park — this was just passed where we’d turned around the day before. The entrance fee was another US$10 but it also covered parks elsewhere along Big Sur.

At the trail head there are many impressive redwood trees — some of the tallest trees in the world. At first I was reminded of the Center Parcs resort in Sherwood Forest due to the paths through trees, but those trees are tiny compared to these. These were like skyscrapers surrounding the road.

The first part of the trail was closed, which is why we had to walk along the road initially before rejoining the trail. Once away from the road I was being reminded more of the forest moon of Endor from the Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi. It’s forest scenes had been filmed not far from where we were — it was a little further north in Redwood National Park.

We followed the trail as it wound through the trees, up and down around the edge of a valley until we needed to make a choice at a fork in the trail. We had no idea which would be the better route, but perhaps we could find the time to do both.

Starting with the right trail it led sharply down at first until it wound around to a waterfall. As you’d probably expect, I stood and photographed this waterfall, though an unfortunate event meant I got a little closer to it than I’d anticipated.

Whilst climbing over a rock to get a better view I knocked the lens cap off my big lens and watched in horror as it dropped. It’s not the first lens cap I’ve lost in a waterfall, and the last time I was unable to retrieve it. This time I watched it bounce onto some rocks below and roll into the flowing water. It was swept up by this water until it was stopped by a branch.

I didn’t really want to leave the lens cap behind — due to it’s size it wouldn’t have been an easy one to replace, and would have left my lens unprotected for the next week. I climbed over the rocks and carefully lowered myself down a couple of metres onto the rocks below alongside the flowing water.

Once I was sure I’d got safe footing I let go of the rocks and turned to cross the flowing water. I decided my best option was to jump across and to use the rocks on the other side to push myself into so I could try to avoid slipping when landing. I checked to make sure the lens cap was still stuck against the branches and then made the jump.

I landed safely so was able to edge forwards to reach out to retrieve the lost lens cap. The climbing back up along the waterfall, stream, and rocks was not so easy but again I managed it without falling into the water. A definite relief!

It seems my climbing fun inspired a couple of English tourists to go off the trail to another place where it was possible to get a closer look at the waterfall. Not wanting to miss a potentially better photograph we followed them over, but found the area to be infested with flies.

When we got back to the fork we decided we had some time to take the other route which led along the edge of a tree-covered canyon to a viewpoint. On the way back from this one we bumped into the English tourists again who introduced themselves as Aaron and Caitlin, a pair of professional photographers. Aaron had been paid to fly out to Houston to photograph a wedding and was now spending seven and a half weeks travelling.

We spoke about what they’d seen so far; they recommended Ragged Point where apparently they have a large number of Hummingbirds you can get close to. This sounded to me like a great idea for something to do. I wasn’t that happy with my hummingbird photos from Ecuador so this was another chance to get it right.

Our next stop along Big Sur was a little further down at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. Visiting two state parks in a row containing the name “Pfeiffer” got me wondering where the names came from. Hélène Hooper Brown had owned this land until 1961 when she donated it to the state of California. This gift came with specific conditions — one of these being that it was named after her friend Julia Pfeiffer Burns who had been a respected rancher in the area until her death in 1928.

From this second state park we followed a coastal trail that provided a reasonable view of McWay Falls, and the beach it flows onto. The falls had been named after the pioneer that Lathrop Brown and his wife Hélène had bought the land from. Whilst I was there the falls were little more than a trickle though. I thought it likely that this was a side effect of the extended draught California had been experiencing.

People passing us were talking about a condor flying overhead, I looked at it, and thought it didn’t quite look right. These sounded like locals though, and they sounded confident stating it was a Californian Condor. Though I couldn’t help but think it’s narrow tail made it more likely to be a turkey vulture.

This trail didn’t take long, but it was long passed lunchtime so didn’t hang around. Places to eat were few along this road, and we didn’t find anywhere until we reached Lucia Lodge. It was a relatively quiet place; you could hear other people talking, but you could quite clearly hear the sound of waves crashing against the rocks below.

As the lodge did a burger called the “Lucia burger” I thought it made sense to try this. If they’re willing to name a dish after the village, then it should really be a good one. It wasn’t bad. I’d describe it as being a fairly standard burger — the sort you’d get from anywhere that didn’t serve fast-food.

The cooler air around this lodge meant there were a lot of flies trying to sample the burger. It wasn’t ideal, but that’s the price you pay for sitting in the shade in a climate like this — especially when there’s plants around. The plants attracted another visitor as well; a hummingbird was feeding from one of the flowers next to us.

After we’d finished eating, we carried on along Highway 1 until we reached another park — Limekiln Trails. This one wasn’t included in our state park ticket so was another US$10 for parking. We didn’t have much time left for seeing more hummingbirds so we decided this would have to be a short stop but would likely be worthwhile.

This trail leads through a camping ground, which despite the lateness of the season still had some people in camper vans. Once passed this it reaches a stream which normally you’d cross by a short bridge. Not this day however — a tree had fallen and smashed through the bridge making it impassable. The only choice was to climb down and cross the stream instead.

On the other side of the stream the trail eventually reaches a fork in the road where you can either continue on to the lime kilns, or go to a waterfall. My friend decided his preference was that we saw the waterfall first as if we didn’t have time to do both that’d be the one he’d prefer to be photographing.

This trail crossed the stream many times with stepping stones or pieces of wood to use for crossing. Eventually we got to the waterfall and found that once again the droughts had reduced another waterfall to a very meagre effort. I decided to climb up the rocks to waterfall to get a closer look whilst my friend sat down and set-up his tripod.

When I got to the top I was careful to stay out of my friend’s photographs and moved closer to the falls. From there I decided my friend had got the right idea — obviously he was taking a long exposure, so I did the same from higher up and used a rock to keep my camera steady. The result made the waterfall look a little more “energetic”, even though water was still sparse.

Limekiln Trail

My friend wasn’t too sure we’d have time to see the old lime kilns as well, but I insisted that if they were any more than five minutes walk from the fork in the trail that we’d head back. Not long after we started along the trail we saw some Americans walking slowly towards us, having already done the trail themselves. They said it was only ten minutes to get to the lime kilns, so I rationalised that at the pace we walked at we’d get there in five.

It wasn’t a bad guess either, we got to the lime kilns in four minutes. Our progress had slowed slightly along the way due to having to crouch to get passed a fallen tree, but I think it was worth it.

There are four lime kilns there — all of which are damaged to some degree revealing the inner workings. This is what I felt made them interesting — a piece of abandoned industry in the middle of nowhere.

Lime Kiln

The area is partially roped off with a sign saying it’s dangerous to go up to the kilns. It makes sense — these rusty towers might not be stable, and there’s a lot of stone rubble around them. The rope doesn’t fully block the path to them though, so it’s possible to have a closer look if you’re willing to take that risk.

These kilns were built in the 1890s to convert limestone into lime. Once processed it was then transported from the kilns in carts along the local road to the Everett area. None of the structures that were used for loading the carts still exist, but you can still see the various ports for stoking the fires that were used up until the 1930s.

We took the trail back to the car as quickly as we could as sunset drew ever closer. The clouds were making it seem darker —yet we knew we still had time. When we got to Ragged Point we found there wasn’t really anything there. We would see the feeders that would provide sugar water to hummingbirds, but there were none to see. I had the feeling that they would probably have been the most active around midday when the sun was out.

I took over the driving at this point. My first time driving an automatic felt strange, and the foot brake felt overly sensitive compared to my Mazda MX-5 back home. Fortunately I had the last bit of the drive on quiet roads to get used to the car, but for the majority of the drive it was going to be in the dark.

Before we reached San Luis Obispo we made one last stop to see some elephant seals. In Antarctica we’d not seen any fully grown adult males, so we had some hope we might see some here. There wasn’t though — it was the same as before, and again we saw some juvenile males fighting. One day I might actually get to see an elephant seal with the famously large proboscis.

The sun had finished setting whilst we’d been stopped in the car park for the viewpoint. To have my first time driving on this side of the road to be whilst in the dark and along a high and winding coastal road was a little stressful. After another hour of this I got us to San Luis Obispo without mishap. It had however started to rain.

For our evening meal we drove to Firestone Grill — a barbecue place that does a good variety of barbecue dishes. I wanted to compare it to what I’d tried in Kansas so went for the half chicken which came with barbecue beans and a reasonable amount of garlic bread. It was tasty and filling; just what was needed after a very active day. At this point Kansas was still the winning state for me when it came to barbecue.

That evening was also the first time we needed to buy fuel in a foreign country. We tried to pay by card, but in doing so it required a US ZIP code to be entered. Obviously we didn’t have one of those so we tried the one for the hotel thinking it just needed to be a valid code — but this didn’t work. It probably validated it against the card’s registered address.

What we needed to do was to go inside the station to hand over a credit card. They’d then keep hold of this until we’d filled up, and then gave it us back when we returned to pay for it. Eventually on a later fuel stop we found that all we needed to do was prepay in the station before filling up, and to then go back for the receipt after. If we paid more than we took, then they’d also refund the excess.


Before setting off on this trip we’d organised some surfing at Carpinteria Beach. Nothing wrong with that, but we woke up about 110 miles away from this beach on the morning when we needed to be there before 09:00. To be on the safe side we wanted to aim for 08:30 to make sure if we encountered traffic we’d got a bit of a buffer to allow for it.

This meant we needed to leave the hotel before they started serving breakfast, but fortunately we’d planned ahead and bought some bagels to use for breakfast. Not the best of breakfasts, but it wasn’t really that different to the breakfasts I’d had so far during this road trip.

By 06:30 we’d left the keys behind in the room and were on the road to Santa Barbara. Picking up where I left off the day before, I was behind the wheel as the sun started to rise above the horizon.

It was nice to be driving the coast road during sunrise, but it also had it’s downside — visibility. Between the fog and the sun it was making it difficult to see the traffic in front of me; I’d have coped better if my sunglasses hadn’t been packed away in my suitcase. Instead I had to squint, and to a degree I hoped for the best.

After the first several miles I started to use the cruise control, another feature I’d not used before, to make it an easier journey. I could forget about maintaining the correct speed, and focus on trying to see the traffic. The route was scenic and in some places you could see low-lying fog over fields, and in valleys in the distance. It was quite picturesque, and would have been good for photographing but we didn’t have time to stop.

The traffic we’d expected outside Santa Barbara never really affected us, and we’d made it to the beach with time to spare. Time enough to have a look around before the instructor arrived.

Once he arrived we climbed into wet suits and led across the beach to where we’d be taught our first lesson: how to stand up on the board. Standing up is something I’m quite used to, I do it a lot, I even walk or run a bit as well. On the water though, standing up is a whole different game.

Before getting in the water we put the boards down on the beach and practised going from a laying down position, to standing. This not only helped us get used to the action but helped to identify which foot the board should be tied to.

Carpinteria Beach

When I got into the water for my first attempt I started to paddle when the instructor told me to, and then pushed up to standing position when he called again. Amazingly, and almost unbelievably, on my first attempt I stood up quickly and rode the wave in all the way to the beach. The next few attempts weren’t so fortunate and I found it was actually quite difficult to do when using my own judgement — I’d just gotten very lucky on my first attempt.

As time went on we had many attempts at riding the waves in, all to a varying degree of success. There were probably three or four more times I’d been successful, and one of these was a very last minute attempt — whilst going back out I saw a wave coming in so quickly jumped on the board with only a second to spare so immediately stood up and rode it in to the beach.

Some of these waves were incredible and I’d have questioned swimming in them if I hadn’t been surfing. Some of them were so big that I disappeared under the wave along with the board — one of these times resulted in the board smacking me in the face and tearing the prescription goggles from my face. I was lucky that I managed to swim after them before they were washed away.

About half way into the lesson I had to pause for a while as my left calf muscle suddenly went completely taught and I found it incredibly difficult to ease it off. Leg cramp is never a nice experience, and this time I was struggling to ease it. Eventually it started to fade and I was able to stand enough to continue the lesson.

After about ninety minutes we headed back to the car and dried off. The lesson cost US$89 per person with a tip on top of that; something which I do think was worthwhile for the new experience and the enjoyment of the morning. Surfing isn’t something I’d thought to try before, but California seemed like the right place to give it a go.

Due to the leg cramp my friend decided it’d be best for him to drive from Santa Barbara to Santa Monica in Los Angeles to give my leg time to ease off. It was appreciated, and I knew I’d be able to take over the driving again later in the day.

Ninety minutes passed and we joined lane after lane of traffic — in places there were six or seven lanes in each direction. I hadn’t seen anything like this before, I couldn’t imagine anywhere needing that many cars going in the same direction. Here they’d managed to show that it was needed, though if there had been fewer lanes would there have been fewer cars?

Our first stop was a business estate in Santa Monica — my friend wanted to drop by his workplaces LA office to say “hello” to a few of his colleagues there. One of them took us to lunch at Mango Cafe. I like mangoes, so the name was a good start. Their Parisian sandwich felt like a relatively healthy choice compared to what we’d been used to — a croissant filled with maple ham, brie, and green salad. Well, at least the salad part was healthy.

When we were finally ready to carry on our road trip, we headed to the coast near to the Vincent Thomas Bridge. This bridge is long suspension bridge that is part of the Seaside Freeway. It’s green arch over the main channel can be easily seen from car park for the USS Iowa as well.

Finding our way there was a bit of a challenge as the freeways in Los Angles are wide and busy, and the driving seems a little erratic. It took us that long to navigate the roads that by the time we got there we’d only got ninety minutes before they were due to close.

Vincent Thomas Bridge

I’d previously been on two aircraft carriers, but the impressive USS Iowa was my first time on-board a battleship. This one was commissioned during World War II and was recommissioned multiple times after; with the last being by Ronald Reagan in 1984 — presumably because of the Cold War. The tour winds all over the ship and there are many decks you don’t get to see — but those that you do give you a good idea of what life on-board the ship would have been like and to some degree it’s operation.

During this tour you don’t get to see things such as the engineering room, which you do for the USS Intrepid in New York City. There could be a number of reasons for this though, such as it didn’t fit into a tour route very well, or was not easy to protect against potential damage from tourists.

An hour before their closing time they started to close up the tour. Fifty minutes later we were just finishing, and even though they’d still got another ten minutes to go, they were eager to see us gone.

When we left the ship the sun was beginning to set, so I drove us back to Santa Monica Boulevard to check in to the hotel. Los Angeles seems capable of creating the perfect storm of conditions for stressful driving — seven lanes of heavy traffic travelling in one direction, in the dark, with many drivers switching lanes at a seconds notice without indicating, and seemingly without looking, into spaces not much larger than their own car.

It only took an hour to get to the hotel, but I was glad when that drive was over. Once we’d parked up and dropped our bags off we went looking for food, and quickly found a cafe over the road called Coogies Cafe.

I went for the Orange Chicken which was a crispy chicken in orange and ginger sauce and was served with rice and and bell peppers. Unfortunately they’d used so much ginger it was overpowering and was pretty much inedible. I did however force myself to eat the chicken, though the sauce prevented me from eating much of the rice.


As the sun rose on a new day in Los Angeles I decided to head out for an early morning run along Santa Monica Boulevard to the ocean and back again. On my way to the ocean a taxi decided to pull off a drive without looking and almost hit me whilst I was on the pavement. It seems the recklessness extended beyond the driving on the freeways. When the road met the ocean I could see a pier with amusements on — I’d never seen such a sight outside of the United Kingdom.

After breakfast we were back in the car and heading to the Warner Brothers film studios. We’d left long before we thought we needed to, but hadn’t anticipated what LA rush hour traffic would be like. In my naivety I thought we could stop by some sights along the way. In truth we barely made it to the studio in time.

Slow-moving chaos is probably the most accurate description of rush hour in Los Angeles. I sat and watched as our ETA increased until the point the satnav was predicting we’d arrive at the studio one minute before we needed to be there. The traffic seemed to move so slowly that I was sure I could have run to our destination faster. It did give me an opportunity to photograph the Universal globe outside of their offices though.

The freeway was getting closer and closer, but the satnav kept insisting we take a different route that was one minute faster and involved a U-turn. It just wouldn’t take “no” for an answer, and we thought accepting its suggestion might be too risky at this point for such a small saving of time.

The freeway was a little faster moving, and we made it to the car park with a couple of minutes to spare. We quickly got what we needed for the day, and ran from there to the entrance to make sure we hadn’t missed the start of the tour.

We hadn’t been told that the deluxe tour would start thirty minutes after the standard tour so after the rush hour panic we’d actually got more time than we thought. The tour started with a brief film about the history of the studio and an introduction to our guide for the day.

On our way to the carts we’d be transported around in, we got to hold one of the academy awards that the studio received a few decades ago. This was purely for the photograph opportunity it provided. Before having my picture taken, I turned it over in my hands and was surprised at how much weight the awards have to them. They insist you hold onto it tightly by both the statue itself, and its base. I guess despite it’s weight it might be more delicate than it looks, or they worry it’ll get scratched.

The carts then took us through the backlot where office buildings were pointed out to us. Apparently any building here, even if it’s in use, could be redressed to be used as exteriors for television shows. It’s one of the ways they try to save on space, and save on money so that their money can be spent more intelligently. I think Harry Warner would have been proud of their frugalness.

Amongst the backlots is a green area where they have real trees that hide a number of buildings as well. There’s a lagoon, which was empty whilst we were visiting to conserve water during the drought, and another house located next to it.

Our guide took this opportunity to point out a section that had been used for a chase scene where a Tyrannosaurus Rex is chasing Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park. They used this small section in different directions to give the impression that the road was longer than it really was, and that it was winding around.

One thing that stands out about this information is that Jurassic Park was not a Warner Brothers film — it was Universal. The explanation here is that studios often work together and lease resources to each other. It makes sense really.

Different pictures require different set dressings so they make up these areas to suit their needs, but they then have to change it back to how they found it ready for the next picture. The exception to this rule is if the studio likes the change made, then it may be something they decide to keep — such as two of the buildings in this jungle section.

Not too long before our visit, the western backlot had been torn down to make way for an upper-class town area. The western backlot wasn’t being used as much as it once had, so they wanted something they could make more use of. If they needed to make a western then they could lease a backlot from another studio that had one.

These buildings were real, and could be used as offices for staff, but the fronts were made to look like an upper-class suburban area. At the time we visited they were using them to film “Fuller House”, and “2 Broke Girls”.

This road through “suburbia” took us to another backlot which was first decorated by Dale Hennessy for the filming of Annie. In his memory it had been named Hennessy Street and has a commemorative plaque.

This backlot has been used to represent New York, Chicago, and many other cities. It has featured in films such as A.I., Road to Perdition, Minority Report, and The Last Samurai. Not all of these were produced by Warner Brothers either, but was space rented out by Universal, Sony, and other companies in order to meet their needs.

When we arrived on this street they had just finished using a small section of it for some work on the “Supergirl” television series. It was being used for just a small sequence that needed a shop interior with a small piece of street.

Some of the buildings on this backlot, such as the one being dressed as a shop, are also practical sets so they can film indoors as well. Of the practical sets here one opposite the junction in the road also had an upstairs available for use.

Further down this road it narrows into an alleyway which was used in Batman Returns, an episode of Friends featuring Jean Claude Van Damme, and a famous scene in the first of the Sam Raimi-directed Spider-man movies. They’ve found that this lot is now being used less and less however due to the requirements of high definition, and budget savings in other cities.

Our lunch was in the same place as where staff and cast eat which meant we weren’t allowed to use cameras there. The quality of the food here was very good, so it seems that those that have time for lunch during production schedules could potentially eat well. I went for the beef soup, and followed this with their Warner burger. When it’s time for dessert they bring out a selection for you to take what you want from.

The drinks seemed to get constantly topped up as mine never dropped below half full. For those wanting alcoholic drinks this was an extra that was not included in the price of the tour.

From the dining room we walked around the corner, passed their theatre, to the museum. At the time there were two exhibits — one per floor. On the ground floor they had exhibits from the seventy-fifth Batman anniversary which featured many costumes from Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman and Robin, and the Christopher Nolan trilogy. This was supplemented in the entranceway by the costumes of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, from the “Batman vs. Superman” movie that had not been released at that time.

There was a lot to see, and I wanted to see all of it. In fact, I wanted to photograph everything they had so I dashed around the exhibit as quickly as I could before going upstairs.

On the second floor they had a Harry Potter exhibit which had props from the film series. As I’d already been to the Harry Potter Studio tour at Leavesden I wasn’t sure there’d be much I hadn’t already seen. Admittedly there was some overlap in what they have, but there was also plenty of new bits I’d not seen in person before.

Once I’d finished taking photographs I went to the part of the room where they have a chair, and an employee standing next to it holding a sorting hat prop. In the Harry Potter films the “sorting hat” is a magical hat that sorts new students into one of the four houses of the school. In this tour the hat was animatronic which they were either controlling, or it was choosing houses at random.

I watched it briefly and was convinced it was random, but when I had a turn myself I decided it must be something they can control as it named the house I was wearing a t-shirt of. Too coincidental for me to think it’s random.

This museum is likely to have it’s contents rotated fairly regularly so that it fits in with what is popular at the time. The deluxe tour itself works a little like that as well as they’ll ask what interests people have at the start of the tour so they can tailor the experience to them.

From the museum we got back on the cart and headed over to another backlot that is made up to look like a small American town. At the time we got there a show called The Middle was using it to film a scene involving a sorority. We got to watch some of the filming but was not allowed to take photographs and had to be careful to not get in the way of the shot.

Once they’d finished their take they switched to a steady cam and for that we had to move on. Our guide hoped that as we’d be able to go into the soundstage for “The Big Bang Theory” next, but it was filming at the time so instead we used the one for “2 Broke Girls”.

For the sound stages that are used in filming short episodes with a live audience, they will have all the sets lined up in a row with bleachers facing them. The ones used most frequently by the production are in the middle, directly in front of the audience, whereas the lesser used ones known as swing sets are made up as necessary and are off to the sides. Again this was an area where we couldn’t use cameras.

Apparently tickets for some of these shows are in such high demand that it can be very difficult to get in on a filming session for some of these sitcoms. It’s one of the reasons why they’re not able to have viewing a recording session as part of the tour.

We’d been relatively unlucky with getting to see any cast, other than during the filming of The Middle. When we left the soundstage we’d visited we did happen to pass one of the actors from Supergirl who had stepped outside a different soundstage to use her phone.

Our next stop was at what would best be described as the “Batman Garage”. This building had the batmobile from the 1980s Michael Keaton Batman movie, and both bikes and batmobiles from various other Batman productions. The most notable exhibit in this room was the Batmobile from Batman vs. Superman as at the time it’d not yet been seen on the big screen.

When we left the garage I thought the tour would be about over as the light was starting to fade from the sky. It wasn’t yet though — we had a couple more buildings to visit before the end.

A short walk took us to the props department which rents out props not just to Warner Brothers productions, but to other studios as well. There is an incredible amount stored here that could be used in set dressings, and some of these have tags on to say what production they’re going to be used in next.

One of their larger props in this building is a fully-fitted White House Oval Office which you’re allowed to sit in for photographs. They’ve also got props that are unlikely to be used again though, such as stand-ins for Agent Smith in The Matrix films.

One type of production we’d not yet seen was a soundstage that was fitted with walk-in sets for scripted drama. The one we were taken to was the one used by the television show “Pretty Little Liars”. It’s a show I’ve never watched, and knew nothing about, yet it was still interesting to see.

This soundstage differs to those used by sitcoms as the rooms are built in full so can be shot at any angle. They’re modular though so it’s possible to take out walls during filming if required.

We walked around some of the different sets — a loft apartment, a cafe, and a school room. For this entire tour we were told about how the sets are used, how they’re changed around, and how they go about reusing some of the sets with different dressings in order to make them a different location.

The guided tour then concluded at the entrance to a cafe that has the “Central Perk” frontage from the “Friends” television sitcom. From there the tour was self-guided and was something we could take as long or as little time as we wanted.

The first section was about the production process for different films such as writing, casting, and preproduction. In explaining this process they even included a few costumes from Zack Snyder’s “Superman” film — Man of Steel. There was storyboarding, models, and anything else that would assist in the process.

After this the tour becomes a little more interactive. Anyone who is a fan of the “Friends” sitcom, or watched a few episodes is likely to know of Central Perk — the place where the cast would sit and drink. Here they had the set, and was one you could walk around and have your picture taken on.

I sat down on the famous couch and pretended to have a drink before having a closer look around. I noticed that although the set looked good, it wasn’t completely accurate. I remembered in one episode that a character punched the steel girder that supported the roof — but that wasn’t there.

Central Perk

Another set they had after this was one from “Two and a Half Men”, but this was a show I knew nothing about so couldn’t comment on it’s accuracy. It would have been nice if they’d had a replica of a set from The Big Bang Theory as well, but instead it moved on to practical effects.

The first practical effect is using a technique known as forced perspective. This is where the set is designed to make things look a different size to what they really are. The example they had was part of the Bag End set from The Hobbit where it could be used to make one of the people sitting at the table appear Hobbit-sized.

After this they’re then a little pushy about you taking part on their green screen examples as it’s a way for them to sell you cheaply-made photographs and videos. The quality wasn’t brilliant which seems normal for this type of thing.

The tour finally comes to an end with the “Art of Sound”. Here they played three different clips from Gravity containing different audio mixes: dialog, sound effects, and then music. They then played it a fourth time with the final mix to show how all these tracks come together for the finished product.

We’d learnt a fair bit about Hollywood and specifically Warner Brothers during the course of this tour. One of the things they didn’t tell us about though was the studio zone which is more commonly known as the Thirty Mile Zone — a name later borrowed by one of the industry tabloids run by Time Warner.

This thirty mile radius around the studios is what labour unions in the 1990s decided would be considered “local” so that filming within this would be at a lower fixed rate. Outside of this radius it would be considered to be “on location” and workers on productions would need to be paid more, and for their travel time also.

As with most American tourist attractions, once the tour is over you then exit through the gift shop. I’m not sure why, but from the gift shop they operate carts to take you back to the front of the studio — even though it’s not far at all to walk. It was however starting to get dark, and chilly.

Our day was not yet over as we decided whilst we were in the area we’d visit the Griffiths Observatory. The roads closest to the observatory were busy, with lots of cars parked up on the roadside of the hill. We never did find out why, but they weren’t in the observatory. I suspected it could have been a nighttime race as I did see the odd runner wearing a head torch.

When we got to the hill we still couldn’t find anywhere to park so found ourselves driving down the other side until we found somewhere on the roadside where we could pull over. It was now completely dark, and meant a very cold walk back up to the observatory. Wearing shorts may not have been the best of ideas.

Inside I found the observatory to be a little boring. The majority of it was informational signs describing things I already knew — some of which was taught at college, some of which I’d researched before due to my own interest. The equipment wasn’t usable either as it was for use during the day, and when it’s not cloudy. If it’d been back home in Leicester then that wouldn’t have left many days where it’s possible to use it.

We probably spent around an hour there before we headed back to the car. Most of this time was spent by my friend reading what information they had printed on the walls

On our way back to the car we paused around the spot that was used in the filming of The Terminator and tried to take some nighttime shots of the observatory, and looking across at the city of Los Angeles. I think it might be hard to walk more than ten metres without finding a spot used in the filming of something.

The drive back to Santa Monica wasn’t too bad, but it seemed to wind all over the place despite on the map it looking like we could take a single road to get back from where we were. We parked up in a public parking lot before heading over for food at Milo and Olive — another restaurant we’d been given a recommendation for.

This restaurant is one where you can sit at a bar and watch them bake as you eat. It seemed the majority of what they do is pizza, so I decided I try their pepperoni pizza whilst my friend went for one of their other dishes. Mine, being pizza, arrived first so I’d eaten a good portion of it by the time his arrived. One odd thing about this place is that they add three percent onto your bill for providing health care for their staff. I guess it’s just being honest about putting prices up to cover state requirements.


I’d hoped to get a second run done around Los Angeles, but with an early start and tired legs it meant it wasn’t really an option. For our first stop of the day we needed to find some parking near to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. If I’ve ever thought parking back home is expensive, then it’s a good job it’s not like Hollywood Boulevard. The place we found charged US$2.50 for every twelve minutes of parking so we thought it best to be as quick as we could manage.

Along Hollywood Boulevard the main attraction is Grauman’s Chinese Theatre — built during the golden age of Hollywood. This theatre is famous all over the world for the films that have premiered there including Star Wars in 1977. The cinema is also famous for the concrete blocks that the famous leave their hand and footprints on.

The rest of the Hollywood Walk of Fame is covered with paving stones that each have a star on dedicated to the famous. Underneath each name there is a glyph to represent what it is they are best known for. For example, in the case of the musician Slash it is a vinyl, whereas for the great comedic actor Robin Williams it is an old cine-camera.

Robin Williams

I can understand that people would scour the walk for stars of their favourites, though after we’d seen a few we decided to move on. We had after all seen the hand prints of the cast of Star Trek, and the foot prints of Harrison Ford so that was enough.

The time we spent taking these photographs only amounted to sixteen minutes so wasn’t that bad in terms of the parking charge. Perhaps that’s why they charge so high as they know there’ll be a high turnover of vehicles and will maximise their profits if people are encouraged to keep visits short.

Back in the car we carried on driving up onto the nearby hill to Canyon Lake Drive. A little bit of research before the trip had indicated this would be the best place to get a close-up of the Hollywood sign. It being a residential area did however pose some problems as a lot of the houses now have tall trees to obscure the view. It makes sense why they’d want to discourage the arrival of tourists. Could you hordes of tourists, or even a tour bus turning up on the street where you live?

The Hollywood Sign

An hour later we arrived at the California Science Center. The parking here cost US$10, but the entrance to the museum itself is free. We wanted to see the space shuttle Endeavour first so made our way to that. When we got there we found we needed to buy a US$2 ticket for this, and noticed a large school bus had just arrived.

We rushed out to buy tickets so we could get ahead of the group, but then when we got back to the entrance we found we needed to go elsewhere first to exchange the newly purchased tickets for a yellow admission ticket. This process seemed crazy, and was far from obvious — why would you have two steps to getting tickets?

With the second ticket in hand we got back to the entrance and was admitted into a room that had information on the Endeavour. We rushed through this and joined a queue to move on to the next bit — a video about the Endeavours arrival in LA and it’s difficult transportation to the Science Centre. From there we could finally proceed down the stairs and across into the hangar.

NASA Space Shuttle OV-105 Endeavour

The first thing I noticed about the Endeavour is how you can see the wear and the discolouring from nineteen years of service, and the twenty-five missions it completed. Although it’s shape was the same, this wear and tear made it’s appearance very different to the pristine Enterprise I’d seen in New York City.

This behemoth suspended above my head was an important part of space exploration history. It had played it’s part in the advancement of science, but was now reduced to nothing more than a tourist attraction — but one that Americans can be proud of.

The Endeavour was constructed after the destruction of the Challenger in 1986 — a disaster that resulted in a thirty-six month hiatus of the space shuttle program. The Challenger disaster was a reminder that space exploration is a dangerous business, and things can go wrong when you’re strapped to gallons of highly explosive rocket fuel.

Around the walls of the hanger they have information on the missions of the shuttle, and a model of the new hangar they will be building for it. The science center had just purchased the last flight-qualified external tank in existence, though it had not yet been delivered. This model demonstrated how it would be paired with the shuttle and some solid fuel boosters and would then be suspended vertically with viewing platforms at different levels.

I could imagine it’d be an incredible sight once complete. It’d be a good reason to one day travel back to Los Angeles.

Once we were happy we’d finished with the shuttle we looked around the rest of the museum but it wasn’t anywhere near as impressive. I guess when you’ve seen a space shuttle most other exhibits would pale in comparison.

What was left of the museum after the air and space section wasn’t that interesting so we went outside to where they’d got a Blackbird aircraft parked. This was an impressive sight, though I wasn’t convinced my friend thought so.

The Lockheed-Martin SR-71 Blackbird was the highest-flying, and fastest manned aircraft in the world during the time it was used operationally. This Skunk Works-produced reconnaissance aircraft was eventually retired and most are now on display such as this one. NASA does however keep one of their own for research purposes.

The sun shining off the surface of this craft made it difficult to photograph, but once I was happy I’d finally got a shot we went back inside the museum to eat before moving on. The food at the museum is fast food only which wasn’t really what I’d wanted, but there was hope we could get something without fries in the evening.

Our next stop of the day was the Bradbury Building — a registered historical and cultural landmark in downtown LA. At the time I visited it was home to the LAPD Internal Affairs division so most of the building was off limits to visitors.

The closest parking to this building was at the LA Times, where they have a day rate of US$5. We only needed twenty minutes at best, but we hadn’t spotted any other car parks that would have charged by the hour.

What interested me was the design of the interior and the exterior, and that it had been used by director Ridley Scott in the production of Blade Runner. Once I’d stepped through the doors onto the ground floor I recognised the metalwork of the elevators, and began picturing Harrison Ford as Deckard in his pursuit of the rogue replicant, Batty.

In the film the building had been dark except for a beam of light through the skylight. In reality the interior is much brighter, and the detail of the metalwork more obvious. It was no doubt a lot cleaner as well.

It’d have been nice to have made it upstairs to try and take photographs from the same spots that had been used. As we couldn’t, we took a few photographs where we could, and went back to the car for the long drive out of Los Angeles into the Mojave desert.

The city eventually gave way to desert and a wind farm unlike any I’d seen before. For miles, stretching into the distance was an impressive array of wind turbines. We eventually passed these too, leaving nothing but desert around us.

The desert landscape stretches across a good portion of this part of California, and continues on into Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. There wasn’t really a great deal to see, but there were occasionally some buildings on either side of route 60.

Just before we got to the turning for Palm Springs we saw a sign for Joshua Tree and thought it’d be worth checking out. We hadn’t realised we were as short on fuel as we were though. Mile after mile ticked by and no fuel stations were in sight — at least not ones we could see from the road. In reality there were ones we’d passed — we just hadn’t seen them.

I kept checking the fuel gauge, paranoid that we’d soon run out and be stranded in the desert. Our luck held out — when we reached Yukka Valley we finally came across a fuel station. From there it wasn’t that much further to the entrance to the Joshua Tree National Park.

As it was Veterans Day it was free entry in state parks, so after stopping by the visitor centre we could carry on driving through. This park is one where you can drive from viewpoint to viewpoint, hike along trails, and climb rock faces. With a permit it’s even possible to camp there in specific areas. We were short on time, but wanted to see as much as possible.

We drove along the park road and stopped at each parking spot we came across. We probably spent no more than ten to fifteen minutes in any one place, which meant we got to see quite a bit; such as a rock formation known as “Old Woman”. Looking carefully at it we could just make out the tiny shapes of climbers on their way up it.

One of the most obvious and prevalent parts of the landscape is the Yucca brevifolia, the Joshua Tree for which the park and town are named. The trees look very different to what you’d see in England — their branches are thick and point mostly upwards with their needle leaves. They wouldn’t be short on sunlight, but they would be short on water — especially during this drought.

At another stop we walked amongst the trees and the rocks to where we saw a large rocky outcrop. I decided to climb the rocks there, but found the surface to be incredibly abrasive.

As I climbed there was a moment when I lost my footing and thought I was going to fall backwards. With my camera slung over my back I couldn’t risk landing on it so had to go forwards. I had two options: I could use my hands to help regain my footing, though the abrasive surface could make it unpleasant. The other option would be to try and regain my balance using my legs, but if I was unable to successfully do so then I’d fall sideways onto a rock and might not be able to move my leg fast enough to avoid a breakage.

I quickly decided to use my hands and in doing so regained my balance — but cut open the palm of my hand as a result. I’d been lucky though and managed to make it only a minor cut which I was able to sort out back at the car. Disaster averted.

The trail which led to Barker Dam was the only proper trail we took, and we knew that the setting sun would stop us from seeing any more. We remained at a steady pace along the trail of sand and grit, but the sight we saw at the end of it was not what we’d expected.

California’s severe drought had reduced what should have been a large body of water behind the dam to be nothing more than a shallow pond. We could see evidence of where the waterline had once been — this was a real indicator of just how bad the drought had been. California needed rain, and soon.

Once we’d returned from the trail it was already starting to get dark, and it was already too late to find somewhere to photograph the sunset. The sun had dipped behind the mountains and it’s light would soon be gone. The only thing left for us to do was to get to Palm Springs.

By the time we got back to the junction we’d left hours before, it was already dark. This road through the desert was unlit — it was like driving into an never-ending abyss. All we could see was what little could be illuminated by the narrow corridor of light from our headlights, and the occasional blinding light from an oncoming car.

Eventually though we made it into Palm Springs, and went for dinner at a place called Rick’s Desert Grill. I went for their thanksgiving special — turkey with sage dressing, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and mashed potato. It wasn’t yet their thanksgiving holiday, but this place seemed to be getting some practice in early.


My plan had been that when the sun rose in Palm Springs I’d be able to go out for a short run to see some of the surrounding area. Between feeling a little sore from the day before, and what was most likely some laziness, I never made it out.

Instead, I headed over to Rick’s Desert Grill for breakfast. Although this place had the same name as where we’d eaten our evening meal, it was not the same building — it was on the opposite side of the road and closer to us.

As part of the motel booking it included a voucher to get egg with hash browns, toast, and a small drink. This felt like the American diners you’d see in movies and on television where the staff would stand and talk to the regulars whilst pouring them fresh coffee. I could almost picture it being Al’s Diner from Stephen King’s “11.22.63”.

We took one of the booths near the window so we could look outside as we ate. A pleasant surprise was being able to see the occasional hummingbird flit onto and passed the flowers outside the window.

Once we’d eaten we had a very long drive ahead of us. We needed to get from where we were in Palm Springs back to where we’d started in San Jose. It was 450 miles, and potentially around seven hours of driving.

It didn’t stop us from making a short detour to the Coachella Valley Preserve though. We decided it was worth taking the time to visit this preserve as it sits on the San Andreas fault-line. It’s geology meant that there are a number of hot springs around the area.

We could have spent half a day at least wandering around the trails, but with places to be we instead decided to take one of the shorter hikes. The McCallum Trail is supposed to be around 2.4 miles so even with stops for photographs should only have taken an hour at most.

The trail begins on a boardwalk over the marshy land of the “Thousand Palms Oasis”, but soon leaves this onto a dusty trail of sand. From there on you’re at the mercy of the ever-present sun, which even before midday can make any hike become thirsty work in surroundings that feel barren.

One of the stopping points on this trail is the oasis known as McCallum Pond. There we met some volunteers who were working on removing the invasive crayfish population from the pond so they could one day reintroduce the native species of fish.

The volunteers realised we were keen photographers and so one of them offered to lead us to another pond with clearer waters. She explained that the with this pond, when the light is just right, you can see a constant stream of bubbles raising up from the porous ground beneath. This is one of the side-effects of the type of land produced by the fault.

This was the farthest point along the trail we took, and on the way back to the visitor centre we took a slight diversion up a sand dune to get a better view of the landscape. Perhaps the added height didn’t make that much of a difference to the photographs we could take, but it was worth the try.

I’d been trailing behind after this due to stopping for photographs, and when we reached the fork in the road I shouted ahead my concern we were going wrong. It hadn’t been heard though so we continued on along this path until we found ourselves walking amongst some private residences that led to a dead end.

When we reached this dead end I explained there was a fork in the road we’d missed and should head back to. I could have commented then that I’d tried to warn that I thought we were were going wrong, but I chose not to. After all, I could have repeated myself at any point to try to prevent us from going any further down that path.

Once back at the car my friend took the driving seat for the first leg of our journey back to San Jose. As the miles ticked by the landscape changed many times from desert palms, to barren landscapes, and then to a cityscape when we skimmed the outskirts of Los Angeles towards the Pasadena area.

Early afternoon we made our first stop near Bakersfield to stretch our legs and get some food. The first place we found was one that made grilled sandwiches — which didn’t sound too bad. I went for a turkey, cheese and bacon grilled sandwich though grease was dripping from it onto the paper wrapping it had been served in. Despite the excessive grease, it didn’t taste that bad. It was at least something to eat.

Afterwards I took over the driving for the next three or four hours. This drive was long and monotonous — it was in a straight line for over one hundred miles at a constant speed where the only need to think was when slowing for traffic and roadworks.

As the sun set the last hour of the drive became more difficult. The road was now winding around the cliff face yet seemed to constantly lead towards the glaring sun. It made seeing the road difficult, but eventually it set on our final day in California.

As the sky got darker, the roads got wider and busier. We’d finally arrived back in San Jose. Once the car was unloaded we just needed to find a fuel station before dropping the car off.

Despite my doubts, I agreed to drive to the airport under my friends assumption we could get fuel there. There wasn’t, so we had to leave and then go back.

The rental drop-off point didn’t really make much sense. When we got there there were no signs indicating where we were supposed to drop off the car so we parked it in a bay. When we spoke to the assistant she then behaved like we were stupid and that it should be obvious where it needs dropping off. It wasn’t though — we had to park it on row G as opposed to row D. Silly me, of course that’s obvious isn’t it.

One taxi ride later and we were back in San Jose, looking for somewhere to get an evening meal from. The only place we could find near the hotel was an Italian restaurant that served a good lasagna. Even their New York style cheesecakes were good.

It was getting late, so I had no choice but to abandon any hope of a run if I was going to have time to pack for the flight home, and to get some sleep.


Constant noise around the hotel resulted in a very restless night. At around 04:30 there were loud noises that sounded like large metal containers being moved. It’s fair enough that they might have work to do during the night, but the purpose of a hotel is to sleep. How anyone could sleep with the noise they were making was beyond me.

Due to how early we were leaving it meant having breakfast at the airport — fortunately unlike some airports I’ve been to there was a reasonable selection to choose from. I asked for a pain au chocolat, though the person serving me didn’t understand. When I pointed at what I was after he realised I meant “chocolate croissant”. It’s the first time I’ve heard one of them be called that!

After the first flight we arrived in Denver and parted ways. As my friend headed on to Chicago and Toronto, I was on my way back to Newark after another flight delay. For the entire flight from Denver I kept glancing at my watch, hoping that I wouldn’t miss my flight.

When the aircraft’s wheels touched the tarmac in Newark, the gate for my next flight had already been open for some time. It was slow progress getting off the plane as although the attendants asked that passengers let those with tight connections leave first, there wasn’t anyone allowing this to happen.

As soon as I could, I ran through the terminal at a fair pace. Luckily I had seen the gate on the way in so I knew where to go to get to it, and didn’t need to waste time looking at flight information boards. I arrived at the gate just five minutes before they closed the cabin door. Despite the odds, I’d made it.

The week had passed by incredibly quickly, yet somehow at the same time it seemed like activities such as the studio tour had been weeks ago. All good things must come to an end though, and my next trip needed planning.

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David Paul

Written by

Web developer from Leicester, UK. Travelled to all 7 continents. Ultra marathon runner and scuba diver.

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