Days 8 and 9 posted (and now 10)

Hello from brisk San Francisco!

We've updated posts for Day 8 and Day 9 (and now Day 10) - check them out - more to come as we find time!

Time to explore San Francisco!

Day 15 - A picture story of San Francisco

I know I blog a lot. I find my blog posts to be more of a diary account for our benefit than a reading experience for those that actually are brave enough to read this blog. I apologise for being long-winded, so to update on our first day (evening, actually) in San Francisco, I intend only to post pictures with little captions! Perhaps I should have attempted this method a lot earlier? Sorry for the inconvenience!

Day 15 - Pacific Coast to San Francisco!

This Masterpiece motel continues to impress! Fresh orange juice, hot chocolate, and even hard-boiled eggs and cinnamon chelsea bread for breakfast!

When we were packed and done, we left +-9:30am (that's pretty early based on our track record) and topped up on gasoline at the AM/PM. It cost $2.99 a gallon, and it's all self-service. When I asked for help in the station shop the lady almost fell over!

Fuel-drenched and summarily humbled by how much we take for granted in South Africa, I proceeded to use the change from the gas cash deposit (no credit here!) to purchase my next big American delicacy, a corn dog. On special for 79c, I enjoyed a cheesy jalapeno corn dog on a stick. I have to admit it was pleasantly good, but again I fear the oily snack would reduce my lifespan by several decades! As a rare novelty, it's a bargain at 79c!

Day 14 - Driving up the Pacific Coast

We woke up about ten minutes before the complimentary continental breakfast at the Best Western Inn at Oxnard. They had little tubs of peanut butter like we'd have jam at home, as well as sachets of honey! Score! The most interesting thing available was, wait for it, ROOIBOS tea, and it was even labelled ROOIBOS! Apparently the founder of the hotel (or the chain) is South African, so I guess his influence has rubbed off on their facilities!

I took my first stint at driving on the "right" side (not right as in NOT WRONG, but right as in NOT LEFT). My very first absolutest first ever moment on the road was driving out of the motel and into a funky FIVE-WAY intersection with a railway track down the centre. Yeah. Go figure.

Day 13 - LA (Lost Africanos)

EEEEK! Today is Friday the THIRTEENTH of our holiday!!

Enjoyed a continental breakfast sans the majority of Texan / Alabaman folk that were abounding the hotel the day before, and then printed out our wad of prepared google maps directions and checked out.

(TRAVEL TIP: some hotels, such as LA QUINTA LAX, gives free wifi internet as well as providing a complimentary desktop PC at reception. We used the wifi in our room to plan our directions using google maps [remember to include a displayed map when using this method] and then printed them at the front desk for free)

Day 12 - LA (dee dah)

(NOTE: Day 7 has been posted, finally!)

Woke up 7:30, grabbed complimentary breakfast (was okay, but at least it's free, so that automatically qualifies it as good).

The building is loaded with Texans coming for some college championship game called the Rose Bowl (football; it's Alabama vs. Texas but the final is played every year in LA). Since boarding the Milwaukee flight yesterday we could spot them a mile away with their CRIMSON TIDE Alabama outfits, and they were all over the place. It felt like there was a Southern invasion going down (get it? Down?)!

On the way down to breakfast we waited for ages for the elevator, and when we got it, so did everyone else, since it appeared to be the only one working. From floor 9 we went down to almost each floor for someone else to hop on (by floor seven this became "cram" on). By floor five the doors opened and the Texans waiting outside just gave up trying to get on, and said "we hope you get stuck" and left it at that. It was all in good jest - these Texans are a real hoot!

Day 11.5 - Los Angeles

'Allo LA! The Johnstons have landed! It's now 1am here, having woken up at 7:30am on the DC side. I believe we are now 10 hours behind the rest of South Africa so we are really feeling the disconnect and also the tiredness.

We've checked into La Quinta LAX and immediately Kat's missing our old "luxury" line of hotels, even though this one has breakfast included! I'm too tired to post pictures right now, so I'll do it ASAP. The airports along the way all had free wifi internet which was awesome, as did the planes! This hotel is probably the worst of the lot we've had so far, but it's still not BAD for the price!

LA is a lot warmer than we've been used to, and I'm actually quite sad to be seeing the end of the cold weather, because the snow was a novelty for me! Clint's black jacket has been immeasurably valuable to me, and I owe him big time (Clint; let me know what you want from USA). I have to say so far, I'm least impressed with LA, but again that may just have to do with my reluctance to return to warmer climates because it feels less like we're on holiday now and more like we're migrating back to SA (which I have mixed feelings about, since this holiday has been so awesome).

We did a stop off in Wisconsin / Milwaukee (the cow-tipping county) where it was -5C and there were spans of farmer-types. Quite entertaining :) We've been surroudned by Alabama fans - I think there's some NFL game going down... it's made it a little more entertaining!

Chat later - going to sleep now and off on a 1 hour+ metro excursion to Universal Studios tomorrow (today, rather)!

Day 11 - DC to LA

Hello people!

I know this post is presently out of sync, but we'll only be able to update the missing days when we have had a chance to sit down (which at this rate seems very unlikely) and go through the notes and photographs.

For now, I figured any update is better than no update!

We're waiting at Ronald Reagan International Airport ready to board at 5:59pm for our flight (stop off in Milwaukee). I'm enjoying the free high speed wifi in the airport (google's got boingo, and the airport's also got one but you have to pay for it unless you're with at&t) so while I wait for Kat's 'loo break, I can post an update!

Missing home a little bit, but admittedly I'm enjoying our trip a LOT. 8 more days to go, and it's so sad, but also good ;)

Chat later! Oh, and our Virgin Mobile number here is 202 607 1080 but we have to pay for any calls or smses we receive, so be gentle :)

God bless for now!

First stop, Milwaukee... And we've got our in-flight food (Kat's preferred cherry coke, and two slices of one topping pizza) for $5.74.

Bon appetite!

Day 10 - DC

As much as our intentions were good and we wanted to wake up early enough to get to the museums when they opened, we couldn't seem to get ourselves out of bed!

Our 7:30am wake-up snoozed until 9:30am, when we slowly rose and geared ourselves up for the day. It would seem that an entire day of walking can be rather tiring!!

Day 9 - DC

Lazy start to the day; I think all this running about is finally catching up with us now! We eventually got up and out of bed and braved the anticipated 11F cold (that's -12C for those that can't make the conversion). Our first stop was a CVS (it's kind of like a chainstore pharmacy / Spar) for some health water and a breakfast muffin to supplement our oats. That cost us a mere $3, thanks to the handy coupons lying around the shop. I've been pondering buying a simcard / cellphone for our stay so we can avoid the excessive phone bills in the hotel, as well as have some way of being reached (which will be especially helpful in SFO when I'm on my own while Kat's working). It's $11 for a cellphone and simcard ... And then airtime will be $20.

From there we took a metro ride into the Smithsonian area. We started at the NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM, but had to detour because they won't allow food into the museum. This next bit is a vital piece of information:

DC TRAVEL TIP: if you're going to be bounced for stuff in your bag, find an isolated bushy area and stuff your goodies into a hedge! We did this rather successfully despite the surveillance cameras around us - without going into detail we managed to shield our suspicious activities and stow our stash. Just remember to find an isolated spot!

Day 8 - Charlottesville to Washington DC

A beautiful morning but alas again no sign of a deer.

We enjoyed another heart Virginian-style continental breakfast, only this time we tried to play our part to be good guests and tried to neaten up our rooms and prepare the breakfast.

When we departed the lovely Locust Lane (if I recall the name), we spotted a woodpecker. Woohoo! The real Woodie Woodpecker in Virginia!

Day 7 - Charlottesville

Charlottesville - a home away from home! We woke up this morning to a beautiful view. We kept an eye out for deer that sometimes graze in the woods outside, but alas, we never saw any. We were treated to a lovely homestyle breakfast of cereal and toast (and rooibos tea for me!). Midday, Jeni took us to Monticello (home of Thomas Jefferson). We tried to do a Priceline for $50 for four star deluxe lodging in DC, but it didn't work out, so we stuck with our original booking. I discovered that Kat thought Thomas Jefferson was the dude sitting on the big throne in the DC monument, so I knew this was certainly going to be an educational experience for Kat!

Day 6 - New York to Charlottesville

Today marks the sad day of departing from New York City. It also marks the exciting moment of grand new adventures in the rest of the USA.

From my perspective, I really loved New York City, and I'm sad to see it go - I know Kat found the masses of people overwhelming, but we both agree that the experience of being in New York City is something we really enjoyed, especially New Year's Eve and the fireworks in Central Park!

Day 5 - New York City

First of all, many apologies for the late posting - it's been quite a rush of late and it's been very difficult to find the time to post any blogs (and I was without internet access for the laptop during our stay immediately following New York). I've decided that rather than posting "all over the place", I should still post chronologically, so here's the next in line... again, sorry for the delays :(

In hindsight, this past week has been the most fitting way to end 2009 and to start 2010 – when we count the days we’ve spent in New York City since Sunday, we’ve had it all! Fittingly, quite a lot of it happened on 31 December 2009.

I woke up around about 8:30am after a much needed and much desired snooze in our new hotel, The Tudor. Actually, that’s not entirely true – I didn’t wake up so much as I was woken up (seems to be a pattern on this trip). I perhaps need to provide a bit of context before I continue: Kat and I had agreed to keep the window open during the night because we didn’t want to run the thermostat / air-con while we slept. Instead, we opted for the icy cold (but relatively “fresh”) Manhattan air over the recycled and dry air from the ventilation system. We were in room 1105 so we were high up enough to not have all the street noise.

So now that I’ve provided you with the context, let me continue. A nice comfortable snooze in a King-sized bed was abruptly interrupted by my wife exclaiming through an abrupt inhalation of air “huh! Bryan! Look!” … naturally, a husband’s (in fact, ANY man’s) first reaction to an abrupt inhalation of air followed by an exclamation is to enter fight mode, and as I was scrambling to commence my ninja defence maneuvers I muttered “What? What?” and she gleefully chimed “it’s snowing!” … and when I comprehended that it was all a false alarm, I rolled over, murmured “that’s cool”, checked out the window and admired the beautiful scene. Manhattan coated in a blanket of snow, and frosty flakes gently drifting over the landscape.

Our last full day here, and despite the beautiful snowfall, I was feeling very sad that it was almost all over so soon. We took a little time getting ready and waking up, enjoyed some instant oats (my cheap solution I brought across from Queens) and got on our way. Originally, this was to be our "free day" to fill in anything we want to lazily do, but owing to our unfortunate and unexpected illness in the party, Monday was lost, and Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday became the NEW YORK PASS days!

Day 4 - New York City

Late night, early start today, and for me, a little emotional too. Emotional, because it marks the first phase our US trip coming to an end and from now on, memories will be slowly overtaken by more checkouts, more moves, and a slowly increasing pace of closure to our holiday. To mark the bittersweet moment, the morning sunrise was beautifully captured by Kat's handy photography skills and gives a great indication of why I love Manhattan so much!