First of all was a lovely sunny walk around the block with Sarah’s best friend Madison her beautiful golden retriever. This was followed by an hour and a half class with Erich Schiffmann whom Helen and Sarah had both trained with in August. It was good for Helen to be back at Exhale, although the $22 class fees are pretty high, luckily we had a free pass between us too. The class was full, although it wasn’t to Dave’s tastes, Helen was definitely in her comfort zone and enjoyed some un-interrupted yogi time, feeling much more confident with Erich’s free-form approach.

Yoga was followed with an appointed with a chiropractor to help sort out Helen’s neck problems and then lunch at Wholefoods on the edge of Venice. The healing part of the day was over, next we were ready for some less-charming enthused Hollywood action. Sarah very kindly played host and drove us around some of the famous landmarks and areas we have so far purposely missed off our list! We drove around Rodeo Drive, Sunset Boulevard and Moholland Avenue taking in some of the mansions and the Hollywood sign.

Moving onto Hollywood itself where a film premier was taking place for Leonardo DiCaprio’s new “J Edgar” film, although we were around 2 hours early for this so could only take in the hype and crowds of fans starting to form. So it’s nothing really to shout about but now we can say we went to Hollywood. We would have liked to enjoy a drink at the roof bar on top of the W Hotel, but it was closed so we had a sneak peak and then enjoyed a beer in the lobby bar.

We ate at a really good Thai restaurant down on Hollywood Boulevard called Jitlada Thai, recommended as THE best Thai in LA!! What a statement! We love our Thai food, and yes it was pretty good especially the green curry and a fish dish. But THE best?? Hmm! It has a good authenticity about the place, family run, not too fancy but the service was slow at the end.

The next day we didn’t really do much but we did get to spend a few hours working with Sarah for her yoga portfolio. Helen shot some images for Sarah’s profile on the Santa Monica beach and grassy sidewalk, involving a mixture of portrait and sequence poses with some lovely natural one’s thrown in too. Dave had already snapped Madison the day before and so we could leave Sarah with a nice series for images for her to treasure (we hope!).

It was a rainy day after a hint of sunshine and later on it cleared up. The perfect day for a film so we watched Martha Marcy May Marlene. A little of a suspense thriller, something we think takes on a Charles Manson inspired story. Then we ate at Fresh ‘n’ Easy over the road from the cinema which has recently opened and offers good salads, sandwiches, soups and so on.

On our last day in LA and after a quick Skype call home to the Roscoe’s we went to another yoga class. This time we were back at Yoga Glo, a studio that offers free yoga to people with an array of top class teachers in LA. It makes its money from the subscribers who follow the yoga classes online, so each class is filmed. We were back with Jo Tastula and she co-taught with meditation teacher Harshada Wagner. Another lovely class which was perhaps more up Dave’s path; more physical basically with guided meditation.

We then made our way to the Getty Centre, which Helen has visited before and remembers the photos she took there. It was a saturday so it was busy, the bonus is free entry but you have a $15 parking fee. It really is a must-see for visitors going to LA. The building sits on a hill overlooking downtown LA and the coast-line. It was a really clear day too so we had great views. The exhibitions were pretty good, the Bauhaus photography exhibit was not really all that good but the one exhibit that stood out for us was Crosscurrents in LA Painting and Sculpture featuring LA artists from the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s including David Hockney’s Splash. This exhibition is part of Pacific Standard Time, art taking place around central LA.

The buildings, architecture and the gardens are perhaps the best thing about the Getty, plus the views. It’s modern, tasteful and very white. Perfect against a blue sky. Lunch there is over-rated and over-priced, we saw a few people taking in a picnic and this seemed the more enjoyable option.

We didn’t have long left so we packed our bags, and after saying goodbye to Madison we went to the Bergamot Station Arts Centre to stop at an exhibition opening. One of Sarah’s colleagues was involved in the opening fettering layered photo montages and photography, this was at the Tag gallery. There is a great hub of art galleries at this location. We then enjoyed perhaps our best sushi yet, one of Sarah’s all time favourites in La. It was excellent and a steal at only $20 each! Again authentic to Japanese culture and their sashimi was fantastic we could have easily been back in Japan! After a filling of sushi Sarah dropped us off at LAX, this was our final goodbye and a little tearful. 3 months in North America, it was strange to be moving on but it also felt good. Thanks to Sarah for being the perfect host and making fantastic home-made granola! Go into business with that Sarah! ha! Oh and her aunty’s pumpkin loaf was amazing, another best seller surely!

So farewell America, for the time being. We’ll do a highlights feature soon and we already have plans of what and where we’d like to visit when we return. New Zealand awaits and we are excited about more new beginnings. We just need to embrace the 13.5 hour flight first.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

Quiet times being back in La Canada (LA) especially after an 8 hour journey in the Chinook (Jill and Joe’s RV) but we pretty much caught up on the blog and packing. We did some exercise and cooked some lovely food for us all 2 nights in a row. On the 2nd November Dave and I ended up leaving the lovely home from home we have adopted and ventured down town LA from Pasadena on the Gold Line Metro to Union Station.

This is something new for us, public transport in LA! It’s such a big city to navigate but there is a good metro system if the destinations suit you! It’s $1.50 for one ticket which is valid for 2 hours of travel and took around half an hour to reach Union Station. We were confused when we arrived, but eventually picked up an area map from the information desk at the main entrance and managed to head in the correct direction towards Pueblo de Los Angeles; a very traditionally Mexican area. We hadn’t quite anticipated so many tourists and school groups to be around and realised The festival of the Dead was also taking place. There is a mini Mexican market and lot’s of authentic Mexican restaurants.

Walking down Main Street we stumbled upon Occupy LA at The City Hall. The Mayor has said they can camp there for as long as they want but we’ve since heard that they’re now trying to think of ways to move them on as the area around the City Hall isn’t holding up so well. Aside from this though there is a very strong presence at Occupy LA and we were invited in by a 19 day occupy resident to take a look around. It’s hard not to and it’s an interesting topic to photograph and observe.

So from the 99% to the 1% we ended up making our way to The Disney Concert Hall of which Frank Gehry who’s exhibition we followed in Beijing was the architect. The Concert Hall offers a bizarre versus beauty in its shape, reflections and form, standing out from any building that surround it. We were pleased to be able to explore the building for free and  enjoy both inside and out without any tours or lots of people around. The garden on the 3rd floor is open for people to use in their lunch break and offers a little abyss away from the city blocks of downtown behind. It’s a pretty cool building to explore if those of you out there venture to downtown LA.

On our way to Little Tokyo we wandered further through Occupy LA before enjoying some sushi on 1st Street opposite the Japanese Plaza. $20 between us in a very authentic Japanese style eatery.

We took the Gold Line back to Pasadena, and later that evening we all enjoyed another lovely family dinner! That night we would move closer to the sea as we were to be reunited with Sarah from Helen’s yoga course. We would be exploring a little more over the next few days!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

We had the car with us for the next two days, and as we had both been ill that week we hadn’t planned to do too much in Phoenix. Our first day saw us drive out to Scottsdale where we enjoyed good sandwiches at The Orange Table next to the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMOCA). When we had finished our lunch we headed into the SMOCA as it is free on Thursdays! It was a good job that the gallery was free that day as we weren’t very impressed by the People’s Biennial exhibit and other installations were in progress so we couldn’t see much further into the museum. They do have a nice outdoor elliptical sky space and some lovely cacti around!

Leaving slightly uninspired we made our way to Tempe to check out ASU and the Art Museum there. Helen had pretty much been raving on about it all morning saying how nice the architecture is there and the museum is really interesting etc. So I think Dave was pretty impressed when we did arrive and go round the museum. Some of the art is perhaps a little too over the top for us, but they do have an anaconda on exhibit there at the moment who has been rescued from its owner and the architecture didn’t disappoint. We explored the campus some more before making our way back to Dave’s and cooking up a lovely fish dinner! Oh to be cooking in a proper kitchen again!

The next morning we were up early and Helen enjoyed an excellent massage from Massage Envy located in the Mayo area. She’s been having some neck pain so it was long anticipated! Dave meanwhile occupied a cafe and edited our imagery! When we left we realised we hadn’t actually had the car booked until friday but it was supposed to go back on Wednesday! Stooooopid! After we rang and explained they just charged us for the extra days rental and  so after a little longer journey to drop the car off (they advertise the drop off as down town Phoenix when it is around 19 miles north of downtown!!) and a taxi to the nearest light rail stop, we eventually took the light rail to downtown. For the rest of the afternoon we stopped at Starbucks and took advantage of wifi use before Dave joined us for a mighty meal at Same’s Cafe in the Arizona Center.

On the 29th October it was Dave’s birthday! WOOOO! Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you! etc! Another birthday overseas, can’t be too bad going for us! This time we enjoyed the company of cousin Dave who took us on a steep hike up Flat Iron’s Rock. The hike took around 5 hours and it was tough in parts, especially if you weren’t used to scrambling up rocks! The views up top were awesome! The descent was harder still because of the steepness so we knew we would be feeling stiff the next day.

When we got back from the hike we enjoyed some home-cooked birthday cake and got ready for a night out in Scotsdale. We ate at A Touch of Thai, where the food was really tasty but the atmosphere was poor. This was followed though by excellent atmosphere and pretty cheap drinks at Dos Gringos. An 80′s famous fancy dress party was taking place and we didn’t quite fit in (not dressed for the occasion) but that didn’t matter!

On the 30th heads were sore and we anticipated the arrival of Jill and Joe, who would be helping us out massively again by bringing us back to LA the next morning. We had a pretty chilled day whilst Joe and Dave tackled some DIY and we walked through some local hills to wake ourselves up a bit. Cheap food at Chuuy’s and we were ready for bed! Thanks to cousin Dave for having us stay!!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

So last night in our tent lovingly borrowed from Joe and our last campground in America…at least this time round! We packed up and retraced our journey back up the 89 with another stop at Dessert View on the way.

We had been booked into The Lake Powell Resort courtesy of Ryan who we met earlier in September hiking in Mount Hood. His mother-in-law works there and they sorted us out with some friends and family discount. Thanks Ryan and Paula! With a stop in Page and the Glen Canyon Dam we arrived at Lake Powell at around noon but we couldn’t check in until 1pm. When we did we had room number 666! Good job neither of us are superstitious! We booked a table at the restaurant and enjoyed some of the spa pool action! The sun was in and out and we’d already driven through storms and hail stones so it wasn’t the best afternoon for a sunbathe but we wanted to take advantage of our accommodation!

Later we enjoyed a meal at the restaurant, it’s a good location due to the views over the lake but the food was a little overpriced and the quality could be upped somewhat, we were in and out of there in 45 minutes!!

The next morning we had been booked onto a boat tour again thanks to Ryan and Paula! The tour is one of the classic things to do on the lake whilst visiting the national park as most attractions are best seen on a boat tour. It was again chucking it down when we set off at 7.30am, we didn’t have high expectations and the first part of the tour was mostly poor visibility but eventually we arrived at some sights. Due to the rain there were many waterfalls forming on the canyon rock which is very rare for the area. We took turns to go on the top deck, some people getting drenched in their hoodies! The star attraction of the park is Rainbow Bridge, a natural bridge formation in the rock, it looks amazing on a sunny day and didn’t do too badly today either. The only problem was we couldn’t hike very far as the paths were river-logged. Others marched on through the water in their trainers but we didn’t fancy this!

After around 30 minutes we all got back onto the boat and had a further 1.5 hour journey taking in more sights throughout the lake, canyon area. We even enjoyed some sunshine later on. It is a really beautiful area but we have to say that we probably would have enjoyed it more with better weather. The tour got in nice and early for us though so we made tracks for Phoenix as soon as we could.

It took a further 4.5 hours to get to Phoenix through more rain and thunder storms, moody skies and bright sun bursts created an array of rainbows! When we got to Dave’s place (Helen’s cousin) we set off straight away for a bite to eat down the road and then back at his lovely house with a glass of red wine. Home comforts!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

We were up fairly early, enjoyed our usual breakfast; fruit, cereal and yoghurt, packed up the tent and our belongings and set off on the next part of our journey. It took around 5 hours to reach the South Rim of the Grand Canyon with a few stops along the way. Our route from Zion took us out of the north exit of Zion National Park, along the 89 and 89a to  rejoin the 89 and exit onto the 64 which took us straight towards the Grand Canyon Village. We noticed many native American stalls on the road side as we drove, of which over half were empty, a sign of the times.

Our first stop at the Canyon was along the East Rim Drive at Desert View. We had lunch and took in our first proper views of the canyon in the Watchtower, a building built to fit in with the landscape… kind of! Inside are some really interesting wall murals and to be fair the views were amazing. Moving on from Desert View we made our way to the Mather Campground where we had booked to camp for 2 nights at $18 per night.

After setting up the tent we drove out to Pipe Creek Vista and picked up the yellow shuttle bus to Yaki Point. We stayed here until the sun set, photographed, meditated and joined in with the fellow onlookers. The canyon turned from red, to yellow to blue over the course of time. On our way back we picked up some supplies for dinner at the Market Plaza and then enjoyed our first showers in 3 days!

The following morning we were up early and ready for a hike. We had looked into a few options for hikes down into the canyon and knew that making it to the canyon floor in a day and back out again was out of the question (and not advised by the rangers). So we looked at day options and chose the Hermit’s Rest trail so we could enjoy the views and hike without so many tourists. This time we drove into the village and took the red bus shuttle to Hermits Rest. The trail down is steep and we would only recommend it if you have some hiking experience. In the heat and at this time of year we were still advised to take more water and food than normal. It took around an hour and a half to reach the Santa Maria spring where we logged into the trail book, enjoyed some rest and then continued for a further mile before having lunch and making our way back up. It actually took less than we had anticipated at around 4 hours total hike but again it was steep and getting back up out of the canyon was tough. We endeavor to come back and do a 3 day hike down into the canyon floor and out again sometime in the future!!

Not satisfied with the 7′ish miles we continued to walk along the rim for a further 5 before getting back to the car in the village. This was to be our last night of camping in America, so we enjoyed more camp food, showers and an episode of Peep Show (we have been religiously watching and downloading all series since we have travelled!).

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

As we wanted to try and camp within the Zion National Park camp site we were up early and out driving around the South Campsite looking for a free pitch. The Watchman Campground was reservation only and we couldn’t book a place, therefore we ricked the first come first served policy of the south site. Each person we asked who looked to be moving on said that their site was already taken by new people! After asking around 5 groups of people, we finally asked a guy who kindly offered us to share the site with him and his friend as long as we split the fee with them, “it’s a deal”!

Nick and Christina, who were pretty serious rock climbers, were to be our camp buddies for the next two nights with the site being large enough for both cars and the tents. Here at the Zion National Park there is a free shuttle bus service that takes you around the park (much like Yosemite NP) and drops you at various locations before doing the return trip. As customary we headed to the Visitors Centre for some information about hiking in the area as we were interesting in the popular Angels Landing hike – A five mile round trip in the canyon increasing +1488 feet elevation via a strenuous steep cliff-side. As this is the most popular route it would be very busy and also we wanted to do something a little different from the masses. Observation Point was recommended to us by the knowledgeable ranger and we decided this was our hike for the day. Eight miles round trip, +2148 feet elevation change via a strenuous steep cliff-side – perfect!

Helen’s cold had taken hold but she pushed through and we decided to just go for it. In a nutshell the hike was amazing. Quite possibly the hiking highlight of the America trip so far for the sheer natural beauty of the rock faces, views, weather, the autumnal leaves, the list could go on. You will need hiking boots, layers of clothes as in the shade it was chilly, food and plenty of water if you are going to climb up to the top. Also if you are afraid of heights and drops then be prepared to face these fears, but it is well worth it.

Back to our tent we hired up the single stove and Helen prepared another scrumptious meal of veggie chilly and rice. Dave went in search of fire wood (nearest place is at the shop near the Cafe Soleil and the Zion Canyon Theatre $6 per bundle) and we sat our a nice fire for the evening chatting with Nick and Christina.

We decided that the 22nd was to be another day of hiking as the area is so beautiful it would be a shame not to see more. Taking another tip from our ranger friend at the visitor centre we headed out to Kolob Canyons, part of Zion NP. This is a 45/60 minute drive from the South Campsite west along SR 9 and then north on I 15. The 7 day pass for Zion is good to use here too, just pop into the visitor centre at Kolob and show it to them.

We decided to take on the Middle Fork of Taylor Creek as it was only 5.4 miles round trip and hardly any elevation gain. There are some river crossings that need to be traversed but there are plenty of stepping stone rocks to aid your crossing in the shallow water. The hike was just as awe inspiring as the previous day but for other reasons. The trees here were much more autumnal against the orange rock and again out of the sunlight in the shade near to the river water it was pretty cold.

The hike brings you to a double arch water streaked alcove which is very impressive and we continued on up river a little further to see what we could find, more amazing scenery and the odd waterfall. On the way back we spotted a rather HUGE tarantula and we had to get a photo whilst he / she scuttled off with some speed into the woodland. The whole trip took us around 4 hours with lots of photo taking and a lunch break.

After some inspiration from Nick and Christina the previous night we decided to do a curry for dinner. It was pretty amazing after the hike and we head an early night ready to set off tomorrow for the next canyon, the Grand Canyon.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

We journeyed from Vegas in our Jeep (another upgrade from a compact!) to The Hoover Dam and booked ourselves onto a half-hour tour. It costs $8 for visitor centre admission and an extra $3 gets you on a tour, so we figured we may as well do the tour!

It starts off with a propaganda style 10 minute video explaining how the dam came about, those important figureheads involved and the importance of the Hoover Dam to the surround states. This was followed with a slightly messy group being taken down into the generator rooms and the diversion tunnel areas with an explanation by a witty lady as to how things operate. It was interesting even for Helen! We ended the tour at an observation point on the top of the visitors centre followed by a brief trip around the museum. It managed to fill a good hour or so being there and walking across the dam and back to take in the enormity of the project.

Our journey to Zion from this point would still take a further 4 hours or so and we went through a slightly more scenic route of the Lake Mead Recreation area. More park passes to buy but you get rewarded with constantly stunning views of the landscape. This continued throughout the Lake Mead area and then along Interstate 15, we stopped a few times to take in the canyons we drove through. Red rock was the theme!

We eventually arrived in Zion at our time 7pm but mountain time 8pm, we hadn’t realised the clocks had gone forward an hour. The campsites were full in the National Park and we were informed by the friendly ranger at the south entrance that we’d have to be at the park campgrounds early the next day to get a spot, 8am early!! So we went back into Springdale and found a campsite located as part of the Quality Inn. They had sites for $32 so we took this with the intention of getting into the park early the next day. We were back in our little tent again! The first time in nearly 2 weeks and there we cooked a great camping meal on our one wok stove!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

Vegas Vegas Vegas! Where to start? Well firstly if you’re on a budget, which we so definitely are this was a pretty difficult place for us to be! We’re no gamblers, smokers or heavy drinkers! We did though find much to explore and enjoy! We stayed at Circus Circus, mainly because the boys had booked to stay there and they do pretty good rooms at very low prices! For 3 nights our total was just over $100 and we didn’t spend anything other than $2 in their slot machines!

To sum up our time in Vegas we didn’t spend too much time at Circus Circus other than to sleep and we did make use of the gym one morning. We ate pizza there on the first night, but it wasn’t very good! On day two Helen made it to a yoga class taken by Cheryl Slader who was on the same Erich Schiffmann course back in August. She has a donation only yoga studio called Blue Sky Yoga at the Arts Factory closer to down town. The class was a lunchtime one and lasted 45 minutes, so Dave explored the area and got some great shots of interesting buildings and spaces. We then walked to Fremont and got some lunch there whilst taking in some of the lesser known sights of Las Vegas. Fremont is old Vegas and the main street is now under a permanent canopy. We’ve heard this place is better to explore by night. That night we explored the bigger casinos using a 24 hour bus pass that cost $7 each, it goes all the way down the strip and back and covers more routes throughout Vegas. We delved into The Venetian, The Bellagio, MGM Grand and Planet Hollywood.

On day 3 we used the gym, frequented Cheryl’s yoga class again and went to the airport via the bus to pick up our car. We had one booked for a week to take us away from Vegas and eventually land in Phoenix. We had book marked The Bellagio lunch time buffet which had been recommended as the best buffet on the strip. Parking at most casinos is free in the self park, so we parked up and got our $19.99 lunch buffet. The thing is we got in at 3.30pm and at 4pm there is a change to the evening buffet menu, so we started with the lunch time one and ended up on the dinner one! This is a good tip! They do bring out more specialist food and the puddings are fantastic! So here’s what we had – this was between the two of us!

Part 1:
Sushi, potatoe salad, salad Leaves, cous-cous and rice noodles.

Part 2:
Bok-Choi, Shrimp Pizza, fresh shrimp, mini hamburger.

Mains:
Mussels in tomato and basil sauce, potatoes, wild rice, sweet potatoe puree.
Medium rare rump steak, horseradish puree, polenta and herb mash, wild rice, asparagus.

Extras cos they looked fancy:
Crabs legs.

Desserts:
2x panacotta and strawberry top (excellent).
3x creme brûlée (excellent).
1x rocky road (not so good).
1x white chocolate parfait.
1x strawberry tart.
1x custard tart.

So the puddings were all pretty small, like shot-glass size portions! Where we managed to pack it all into we don’t know but it was very good value for money, and with soft drinks included!

After we had a rest from the food we later on met up with the boys at The Saxe Theater located at the back of Planet Hollywood where we had obtained tickets for Vegas, The Show. A friend of Cheryl’s very kindly helped us out with some very low cost tickets to the show courtesy of one of the main performers Joelle Righetti-Jenson. The show was really good fun, quite a tongue and cheek approach to Las Vegas from when it all began. This was the first musical any of the lads had been too!!

Our last night in Vegas so we ventured through a few more of the casinos, enjoyed The Bellagio water fountain show, had a couple of drinks and eventually said our goodbyes to the lads. They were leaving for LA the next day, whilst we were venturing further into National Park territory.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

Up early again we set off for Death Valley in anticipation of high temperatures! We stocked up on water and made sure we had lots of food! Its a very extreme place to experience with desert, canyons and not a lot of life other than tourists passing through. We were starting to feel the heat very early on and each time we ventured out of the car we’d soon be back inside! At one stage we had to turn the air con off so as to prevent the engine from over heating – a sign on the road told us to do this! Five of us and lots of bags, not a lot of room so in the heat it only got worse!

We hiked through the Mosaic Canyon which was really interesting and at times we were in the shade too as we walked through the narrow, smooth canyon formations. The lads improvised by using their shorts as hats to keep cool but they didn’t look very cool. Moving on from the mosaics we lunched at Stovepipe Wells (Mark and Russ decided to buy some hats here), paid for our park pass ($20 per car) and ventured onwards to find the pupfish at Salt Creek. We didn’t see any pupfish, but we did find water, although you really wouldn’t want to drink it! There are only two roads through Death Valley and we drove out to perhaps the most famous point through Furnace Creek, which recorded the hottest temperature in North America at around 134F (56 degrees C!!!). It wasn’t quite so hot when we were there peaking at around 102 F, but down at Badwater this was the hottest air temperature and sun all of us had ever experienced, plus to make it worse the salt just reflected the sun straight back at us! Still it was an experience worth having. In two days we’d gone from Yosemite to Death Valley, two completely contrasting landscapes and climates, from seeing snow on the road side to being in the dry hot desert.

Later that night we were entering our 3rd contrasting place in a row. Las Vegas.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

We met the boys at the car collection point and picked up our 7 seater Dodge Caravan, oh yeah! It was pretty spacious inside but that soon started to disappear when we loaded our bags into the trunk! We said our goodbyes to Heather and Jamie and off we went on road trip number two. We took the route north through the city, over the Golden Gate Bridge (4th time lucky!) and made our way across the bay area to Berkeley. Having already popped there a few days earlier we thought it would be good to visit the campus on a nice sunny day!

There was an occupy Berkeley demonstration taking place along with a farmers market and an open day at the uni! We walked around the campus and then decided to make tracks via a Trader Joe’s to stock up for the journey. Our route was to take us through to Mariposa which is where we would base ourselves for the night before heading off to Yosemite early the next morning. So we drove along Interstates 580 and 205 and then highways 99 and the 140 to Mariposa.

In total the joinery took over 5 hours and we arrived in Mariposa at around 6pm to check into the very affordable and friendly Mariposa Lodge. We ate locally that night at a good grill restaurant called The Charles Street Diner, it was full which is always a good sign but had ran out of many of their specials. The burger as Dave put it was excellent.

So with an early night we set our alarms for 5.30am and got up the next morning in the dark, it was a quiet start until around 8am. It took us 2 hours to reach Glacier Point where we’d read about some of the best views in the valley, plus we wanted to beat some of the tourist traffic that would be piling in for the day. To put it simply Yosemite National Park is one of the most beautiful around, we managed to explore as much as we could in one day! If it had just been Dave and Helen touring around we would have arranged to camp and spend at least 2-3 days there but as we had an agenda we had to be pretty quick with our day. We drove down into the valley and had a little walk to the Yosemite falls area before making our way through the park and out the other side.

We enjoyed a few band-inspired group photographs throughout the day as well as fantastic views all round! The brakes also had a little bit of a battering on the journey! Must remember to downshift manually in future! After a half hour stop at Mono lake on our way to Bishop we eventually got to our motel at around 7.30pm and set out to grab some Mexican food before once again getting an early night. The next day we had Death Valley to look forward to!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)