…well three actually, but then it wouldn’t sound like an Enid Blyton adventure, with lashings of ginger beer and a jolly good time!
In a break from the norm, as so much has been said about Alcatraz, I’m just going to let my pictures do the talking.
Just in case you didn’t get my movie reference, there’s a huge clue to the left.
I arrived in LA just a few hours ago, after an uneventful 8 hour bus ride from San Francisco. I has wanted to hire a car and drive down the Pacific Coast Highway, instead of the inland route the bus took. But the one way charge the hire firms wanted was not accepted, particularly on my four month budget, so I told them to stuff it. I got dropped in the heart of Santa Monica and managed to find my way on foot to Mark’s friend’s flat, about half an hour before Mark arrived from the airport. So a huge thanks for Chris, who I have never met, for letting me stay at his house for five nights!
Tomorrow I’m going to find a broom cupboard at Universal, as a young Spielberg did in the 70′s and force them to let me direct some rubbish TV pilot…. or I might just stand outside and look through the gate in a non brash, polite English manor.
You’re a clever bunch so I’ll let you find them!
It took me by surprise when I looked at this self portrait, only to discover that I am in fact the same height as the Golden Gate Bridge… wonders will never cease.
See more pics here.
Also a San Francisco gallery is up and running.
For those who haven’t met him, Rupert is my great friends Rob and Debbie’s rabbit. I spotted this photo of him in disguise on a book cover in Oregon last week. But does anyone know which other animal he’s masquerading as? Notice the clever way he’s hidden his ears.
And I forgot to publish the photos from the Aircraft Museum we visited last Monday. They are here.
Pictures of the coastal drive from Portland to San Francisco are up. You can see them here.
San Francisco is a city that even those who haven’t visited know various things about. Such as the hills, car chases, the little wooden trams, the Golden Gate Bridge, the changeable weather and Alcatraz Prison in the harbour. But it’s the hills that have most surprised me. Some of them are ridiculous and so steep that cars have to park at 90 degrees to the curb so the tires keep them from rolling away, rather than the hand brake which probably couldn’t! And then there’s the San Andreas Fault. You’ve got to hand it to the American’s to persevere where others would have given up and built the city elsewhere. I suppose that’s what makes America, America. They do seem to do everything bigger and more ambitious than most nations. Anyway, I’m tired so I’ll write something more informative and eloquent tomorrow.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, please check out this link to see Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse’s Jeremy Clarkson parody, even if you do get this blog title. It’s very funny.
Right, on to business. As Pei and I made our way down the Oregon and Californian coast’s, we stopped off at various State Parks to go and see the giant Coastal Redwoods. This has long been a dream of mine and the trees didn’t disappoint. Walking through forests of ancient trees, many over 1oom tall, is a truly incredible experience. There are so many tall tress in some of the Parks, that it beggars belief. Sadly my pictures can’t possibly do the experience justice, so I highly recommend that you put a visit here on your ‘life list’.
We didn’t actually see the official tallest tree, known as Hyperion (what a name) as the experts keep the location of the tallest trees a secret, to avoid tourists damaging the area. Which I agree with, but I’d still like to him as they call these big trees him apparently!
However, Giant Tree that is pictured, is 11om, only around 5 0r 6m shorter than Hyperion. I measured the tree as around 9 Ben’s, using my arm span, which is also your height if you didn’t know. So he’s about 16m in circumference. Hyperion is 22m don’t you know.
I’m in San Francisco now and off out tonight, so I’ll put a gallery up tmw or Sunday.
