Rachel and Matt’s World Tour

Hello from Denver CO!

After Rachels last post we have covered more miles and visited some great places.

First of all was the trek we did in Bryce Canyon.
We did a cool 2.5 mile walk through some of the oddest rock formations, called Hoodoo’s. Though with knee high snow it was pretty hard going!

We then left Utah and drove along the I70 to Glenwood Springs, just in time to make the last tour of the day at Glenwood Caverns.
The pics don’t really give a good idea of the size of the caves, but they were massive, and the tour was well worth the VERY slow and cold, cable car ride back down the mountain!

The next day we drove further down the Interstate to Denver. We had a quick walk around the main shopping district (window shopping only!) and the Capitol building. We also stayed in our first hostel of many.

We had a list of things to do in Denver so today was pretty full.
First was a stop at the Hammonds Candy factory. We got to see how candy canes and other sweets are made, with plenty of free samples!

Next was the Colorado Railroad museum. Lot’s of big boys toys and the biggest model railway i’ve ever seen.

After that we had a short drive to Buffalo Bill’s grave on top of Lookout Mountain. The museum was very good and Rach got to play Cowgirl!

Another short drive back down the mountain and we found ourselves in the Coors brewery for the best stop of the day.
The brewery in a town called Golden is the largest single brewery in the world, and produces 1.9 million gallons of beer each day!
The tour is completely free as are the 3 beers you get in the lounge at the end. I was told that some people actually take the tour every single day for the free beer! I have decided i’m moving to Golden!

We haven’t made any plans for the next few days, but are heading back towards Salt Lake City in Utah.

Matt

Nevada is awesome. I love it. It’s absurdly vast, and there’s nothing there. We have crossed the entire state in 2 drives, and are now in Utah.

It’s still snowy so it wasn’t the imagined red and browns but white, white and more white. Again the roads got a little scary when very snowy, but much clearer than the Lake Tahoe area was.

We stayed in a town called Tonopah, which apparently has the clearest starry night views in the whole of the US thanks to its distance from any large towns. Unfortunately not seen by us as, yes, you guessed it, still snowing!

Today we drove down the Extraterrestrial Highway (route 375, not aka –  actually renamed) – no sightings to report. We did see the ridiculously large Government test areas – bunkers as far as the eye could see – hundreds.

We also drove through a ‘town’ called Rachel! Absolute dump – everyone lived in trailers within eyesight of the one bar, the Ale-inn, get it?!

Tomorrow we are going to Bryce Canyon – now we are recovered it is time to knacker ourselves with a days trek again.

Laters x

Lake Tahoe was a pretty little town, especially as the snow really hit while we were there, and all the buildings look like wood cabins (even Starbucks). Unfortunatey we didn’t actually see much of the area – the cable car up the mountain was $68 dollars each (say £90 for both of us!) so we didn’t go up and it was constantly snowing so we wouldn’t have seen the views anyway. For the same reason we didn’t see much of Lake Tahoe either!

So we left after 2 nights and attempted to drive south – as we left town it really started to come down, we battled on against the snow for an hour but as we hit an unploughed and lonely road the fear set in. We could see barely 5ft ahead of the car, at one point Matt got out to step up the bank to read a sign – and landed in it thigh deep! So being our sensible selves, and having seen too many ‘lost in the wilderness’ movies, we headed slowly back to Lake Tahoe. So 2 hours after we had left we were back but we made a second escape attempt by the busiest highway – mostly well ploughed but still a bit hairy in parts as we really were in a blizzard – and in the end we did make it to Nevada.

We left San Fran and travelled up the coast through Redwood country – we have seen many large trees – trees you can walk through, trees you can drive through, twisted and merged trees, hollow burned trees, the tallest trees, the oldest trees, the widest trees – you get the picture! There was also a brief stop at Doran Country Park (long enough to take a pic).

We crossed the border into Oregon and the weather was still cool but clear and dry. We bedded down in a motel in Medford – and woke up to snow and weather warnings of the coldest snow storms in 15 years! -26 degrees at night! The weather channel over here is so dramatic! We were heading to Yellowstone and Crater Lake parks – so we checked their websites – mostly closed! So we did an about turn and headed back south quick smart to avoid the extreme cold. So yesterday we headed south 400 miles to Lake Tahoe – still cold and beautifully snowy but bearably so.

We bought snow chains and were forced by the highway patrol guys to put them on before entering South Lake Tahoe. Matt decided to ignore their advice to pull in to the lighted area (it was dark) where they help to put thm on and instead pulled into the dark layby to do it himself. Half an hour of huffing and puffing later we did manage to move on – slowly – with chained wheels.

So today we are going to go ice skating and for a walk by the lake – we really want to go on a snowmobile trip but haven’t decided yet if the budget can take it!

Hello from San Francisco!

Since our last entry, we have learnt that there have been some redundancies at work. We are so sorry to hear this and we appreciate that the mood in the office must be pretty low right now.

We arrived here on Monday afternoon after a short drive from Modesto, via the Bay Bridge.

The first thing that strikes you about San Fran is how hilly it is. Some of the streets are so steep you have to park horizontally!

We’ve gone a little more upmarket with our accomodation (read $50 a night rather than $30!) and were pleasantly surprised. Great location and big rooms!

After we settled in, we took a walk down to Fishermans Wharf, a bustling, touristy area down by the sea front. There’s loads of seafood restaurants and even more tacky gift shops!

The next day we took a short boat trip over to Alcatraz aka “The Rock”.

After seeing Alcatraz in so many films, and reading so much about it, it was a little surreal being there.
The audio tour of the cell block was excellent.I wouldn’t want to spend much time in “D Block” (solitary)!

After leaving the island, we took a cable car to The Cheesecake Factory on the top floor of Macy’s dept store. (Thanks Lee. I think this was your recommendation)
It does what is says on the tin. Serves great cheesecakes.
Rach loves cheesecake, and was in food heaven.
Thankfully the meal did live up to expectations!

Today we hired some bikes and did a 16! mile bike ride over the Golden Gate Bridge and to some nearby towns further along the coast.
After the Yosemite trek and the hills in San Fran we found it a little hard going, but it’s a great way to see the surrounding area and the bridge if your sick of driving everywhere.

Afterwards we had dinner in China Town. Cheap and very tasty.

Tomorrow we’re off further up the coast.
No sure where we’ll stop but we’re sure to pass through the Doran Country Park!

Matt