USA West Coast Driveathon 2016

We woke up a little late due to the phone alarm not going off properly.

We then had a coffee at reception and went to San Diego Old Town to take a look around. Very old historic tourist town. It had a old western style to it. We bought some cigars in the Cigar shop there. The choice of sugars was huge and even another room for more! They were selling guns, knives, pipes and all sorts but mainly smoking related products.
They did huge cigars and even the guy behind the desk was smoking one whilst he served us on the counter. He was a friendly guy dressed up with the western theme like everyone else that works in the town. A cool experience.
I ate a sandwich with egg, pesto and bacon. Tasted very nice but it was very small. I also had a bag of potato chips.
We then walked around and looked at some cacti and we saw two donkeys.
Dogs are not allowed near the donkeys because they apparently give off the same scent as a coyote which hunts the donkeys.

We then tried a caramel filled Chirro. It’s like a long donut with a filling.

We then went over to San Diego Zoo. Brilliant zoo and it was not that busy which was nice . It was very rare that you had to queue or push through crowds.
A lot to do there you could easily spend a full day there.
Looks like they are expanding the zoo with loads of developments going on around the park.
Food and drinks are very expensive.
I do recommend going there.

Look closely below at the picture there are two animals in there.

We then watched the Ice Age 15min film in 4D. Below is a photo of Sid and myself.

We then went to an “In and Out” restaurant. It is like the Wendy’s but not as big and not as many options. I personally didnt think the fries were as nice as Wendys.

We then started travelling down Route 8 to the East (8 E) to Blythe.

The drive down was about 150 miles and the road went through the middle of the deserts and loads of sand was blowing over the road. There were big sand dunes everywhere it would have been a great view in the day. It was very dark.

We also had to stop due to Border Patrol officers. Questioned us to where we ste going and what we are doing etc. They wanted to see our passport but i said it was packed in luggage and he said dont worry drive on.

We stopped at Budget Host Motel in Blythe.

We woke up to a waffle maker, cereal and coffee and a little cake.
I poured the batter in the waffle maker, closed it and flipped it over then waited a few minutes and it was ready to eat. Poured some syrup over and ate it. Quick and easy tasted ok.

We quickly drove to the San Diego California Temple to take a few photos of the outside as we were passing it.

We visited the USS Midway Museum which was very interesting. Plenty to look at and that could have easily taken a whole day.
We went on a simulator where we fly a plane and whatever we do in the game the simulator does. Even flips and rolls trying to shoot down other AI planes. We even flew upside down and attacked the other planes was hilarious hanging in your harness upside down and was an experience for around $8. The computer graphics are very out dated but the simulator impressive.

We drove through the Gas Lamp area of San Diego and it was solid traffic at 17:00 as bad as London but many more lanes and many one way streets and no right hand turns etc.

We drove down to Pacific Beach and stopped at one Inn on the front and it was very expensive so we went to a Motel just around the corner and that was much more reasonably priced at about $111 and was near the restaurants and pubs and sea front. It was called Mission Bay Motel.

We went for a meal on Pacific Beach I had guess what…?! Another burger and fries to make a change.

We then went to a few bars and they all required passports as a driving licence ID was not good enough as thats what the local police request the bars to only accept.

Had a couple of drinks and watched people dancing and then we went back to the motel.

Vagabond Inn – Breakfast – Woke up late for breakfast 9:48 and breakfast closes at 10 and our alarm didn’t go off. Plus we were really tired from the previous day and night. We paid $80 for a double bed room.

What did i learn… not to eat little yellow jalapeños on the at Carneys on the train. The consequences of eating jalapeños are so not worth it when you are travelling!!!

We ate all the donuts in the restaurant. Pretty funny!

We then headed to Shoreline Village and parked up and had a quick look around the Hat shop and a few other shops there. $2 to park for an hour. You have to put your credit card in the machine for that exact parking bay. Each bay has its own machine. It flashes green when youve paid and flashes red if you havent or have overstayed. Probably easier for the ticket warden to see if you have paid aswell.

Stopped at Gardena in South Los Angeles at Wendy’s a fast food restaurant. Had a quick meal at 16:00 which was a Davids Triple Beef Burger with large fries and a large soda. It was huge and I tried some root beer from the drinks machine. Pretty cool you can try all the different drinks just fill the cup up with what ever you fancy.

It is hard to appreciate how big that drink cup is!

We visited Compton and as we were coming in we could smell a very strong amount of mariuana blowing into the car. Everything was gated and fenced off. The windows and doors had metal bars all over them. There were lots of police around. Looked like one of the Five-O had gone into a shop and one was standing outside guarding the entrance. It was like they expected company and he was looking around a lot.

To be honest I don’t think the area was for me but worth a look to make my own opinion. It didn’t feel like you could relax just driving through. The area did certainly change as you went into Compton from the surrounding areas. Nothing seemed to be in nice condition and very messy and just looked like its being run into the ground.

We drove to “Rolling Hills” there is a road called “Eastvale Road” which has Peacocks walking around the housing estate which had large houses on. The peacocks were on thr roofs, in their gardens and everywhere. Pretty cool noises they were making. You can see one in the front garden posing for me.

We then travelled over “The Vincent Thomas Bridge” on Route 47 then onto East Ocean Boulevard and stopped at Long Beach. Yoga classes were being done there and loads of people doing keep fit stuff on the open grass near the beach.

Just incase you cant quite see whats going on..

Lovely scenery!

We then made our way through to Route 1 to carry on down to Laguna Beach.

We had a quick look around and then we went on Route 5 South towards San Diego. Time was getting on and we wanted to have a more organised evening for once, so we decided to stop earlier than San Diego at a place called Oceanside. This seems a really nice area and there are lots of shops and places to eat.

We finally checked in to a hotel called Super 8 on “Mission Avenue” early which was at 21:40. (early for us!)
Cost $63.42 all in including a 10% discount code i found.

We travelled from the hotel in Oxnard to Los Angeles and quickly popped into Malibu on route.

The most shocking breakfast I have ever had! A baby would have better tasting puke than this lol. But saved us some money on food as it is expensive elsewhere.

It looked so fashionable in this hotel..

We drove through a “Thousand Oaks” to get back on to Route 1.

We went to Malibu to take a look around the shops quickly and checkout the views.

We noticed an extremely curvy and windy uphill road on the sat nav so we went off course for a bit of exploration and a few photos. After this we then drove through a tunnel and headed further south. Reminded me of the roads on Top Gear that Jeremy Clarkson would drive on.

We stopped off on the windy road for a few photos and to take a look at the view.

This road reminded me of so many arcade racing games I have played on the consoles in the past.

We drove past the houses at Beverly Hills and they were absolutely huge and put Sandbanks to shame! The roads around there were so busy with everyone driving through doing videos and selfies and stopping in the road. Would be a pain if you lived there with people doing that the whole time I would imagine.

We stopped near the Original Muscle Beach for some food in a corner shop and had a banana, chocolate nesquick milkshake and Cheetos crisps.
I heard a boy say to his parents this beach looks just like the beach on Grand Theft Auto (GTA). Hilarious, because I have been thinking the same thing the whole time in the USA.

Dons Larger Than Life CD.

The shops on the new Muscle Beach.

A guy spoke to us going by the name Don who was selling his own music CD. He was from Compton and loved my t-shirt but what salesman wouldnt. He said he had some dope for sale and wrote his number on the CD case. He said we should come out with his boys and he would take us to where the parties are at. Show us some ladies and we could smoke with him.. Kept saying look at my eyes this is good dope. (his eyes were screwed) He offered us to try some but I said we were all good lol. He sat in his car all gangsta like with his homies.

Met some tramp who sang about me in my Straight Outta Compton t-shirt and he made the song up as he went along and he was terrible.
The tramp said a white guy wearing a black t shirt with Straight Outta Compton on it is a bad idea especially if your going into Compton.
He said you dont want to wear that or red or blue tshirts.
He also stated dont go through later than 19:00. He said dont even go through at all there is nothing to see.
We then bought some clothes and he was getting arrested by the Five-O.

We stopped at Carneys for some Beef Tacos, fries and a drink. Cheap and very tasty.
The restaurant was inside an old train carriage on Sunset Boulevard.

We drove up to as near to the Hollywood sign as we possibly could. The sun was setting behind it which made it hard to take a photo I recommend coming early on in the day than when we went.

The sun setting near the Hollywood sign.

Griffiths Observatory in Los Angeles near Hollywood.

A selfie with Einstein.

The amazing view from Griffiths Observatory at night looking over Los Angeles.

Extras:
We also stopped at Pier Point Landing to take a few photos.

We stopped at Malibu.

Travelling from “Knights Inn” down the coast was our next venture. Before we set off for our long road trip we ate loads of the free breakfast cereals coffee, apple juice and biscuits.

We drove in and out of Point Lobos National Reserve. It was $10 to get in and we didn’t have much time available today as we had planned a lot of travelling and a few places to visit. So we decided to skip this.

We drove through the Big Sur and enjoyed all the curvy and windy roads on route 1 which were brilliant and the view was great. There were a few roadworks along there due to the cliffs falling and covering the road in rubble. So they had big diggers/bulldozers clearing the roads.

We visited San Luis Obispo to grab a large coffee with a couple of donuts at the “Do Nut Co”. The best donuts I have had and pretty cheap around $5 or so all in.

We went to Elephant Seal Vista Point to take a look at the seals and there were hundreds. It did smell bad there because of them all.
The male seals have a small hole on the belly where their genitals go into their body and when they are required they come out.

We stopped at Morro Rock as a volunteer from where we saw the elephant seals recommend it. That was a nice view. We drove over there and saw the seals and also some ground squirrels. I fed one a piece of a biscuit and stroked one of them.

We drove to Pismo Beach to take a look around the pier and in a few shops. We played a game of table ice hockey. We also met another guy living on the streets once again.

We drove into Solvang for a very quick look at the swiss buildings.

We then drove to Santa Barbara we drove through it and stopped at “The neighbourhood” it had a nice atmosphere where people were watching basketball, baseball and playing ping pong. The double beef burger with cheese and fries was very tasty and cost $12.95.

We then booked out next place to stay and the cheapest we could find on route was one at Camarillo Executive Inn & Suites in Oxnard for £51.39 which was for two queen size beds with free breakfast, swimming pool and wifi.

We booked a shuttle van from San Remo hotel to San Francisco Airport to Collect the Ford Mustang GT V8 5.5 Litre.
We had to catch a free Airbus at the airport to take us to the car rentals area of the airport. The cheapest way we could find was to use the shuttle as a taxi was over $65 dollars or so and may go up if you get stuck in traffic. I think it was $28 in total for the shuttle.
We were collected from San Remo Hotel at 08:10 and needed to be out the front by 08:00. We also needed to checkout of the hotel at 08:00 when they open. San Francisco Airport was quite a distance from the hotel.

We got to Hertz early and the Mustang was not available after we reserved that exact car. We spoke to the manager about this and he said he thinks it was in a crash. He didnt seem confident that it had been, most likely just an excuse for bad management. So we took a look at the Ford Mustang Shelby and that was an extra $250 for a limited edition car and 500 in total were manufacturered. It was fully modded with all the extras.
We almost went for that but it wasnt an extra $250 for the three weeks it a daily extra charge. Plus you could only do 75 miles in total a day and to do our trip it would have cost an additional $8000 for that car so we did decide to pull out of this upgrade. (Car photos below)

We were then offered a Chevrolet Camaro SS V8 6.2. We made out it was a inconvenience as we wanted that exact model. All we could get extra was a full tank of fuel and return it empty at the end of the trip.
Took photos of some minor marks on the vehicle before we drove off with the car.
Ryan drove first and we certainly had huge smiles going on! (Photos below)

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We decided to drive on Route 1 on the coastal drive as it has been recommended to us by several people.

We drove down San Andreas Road to explore that road a little.

We made it to Carmel by the Sea quickly had a look and took a few photos of the scenery. Some of the houses here are selling for $5 million dollars. It is a lovely area and very expensive there.

On route to Carmel by the Sea Ryan got pulled over by this car (photo below)

Only joking we saw the police car at Carmel by the Sea. It had shotguns and some other guns in the center between the front seats.

We went to ### for Battered fish and chips with a Cranberry drink and some warm bread. (photo below)

We tried to organise a place to stay here and it was about $350 but she could do a half price deal for us for one night for $180. That was too over priced for us as its only Day 3. So a lady randomly came in as we were chatting at reception and said there is a place at Montery called “Knights Inn” that do rooms for $74 so we went there. Huge rooms perfect for one quick night to sleep.

Below is a photo of the room we stayed at.

Alcatraz Tour & Boat Trip 09:10am
Just managed to get to Pier 33 with a bit of running made it by 2 Mins then they closed the gate.  So lucky we made it!

We then came back and visited Pier 39.

We walked to the far left hand side of pier 39 to take a look at the Sea Lions.  Very cool all laying on the water board platforms sunbathing. Extremely expensive food on Pier 39.
Walked to a local store for a quick Nesquick milkshake and headed back to San Remo Hotel for the map and to suncream up again.
I looked at the map and sat in the Panasonic massage chair which was impressive and inflates on your legs and really gave a good massage.

Just finished eating at 19:04 at Dick Lee Pastry. All you can eat. Everytime you go up he says take as much as you want take. I said ill take the container he said yes take the container. Lol..

Tasted ok but not entirely sure if it was really for me.
They had a toilet roll dispenser on the counter which i found funny. (Picture below).

We had a look in a couple of China Town shops they seemed pretty expensive.

We took the Cable Car from Union Square back to Mason Street which dropped us off right next to San Remo Hotel which worked out really well. If you want to find where to get on the cable cars you need to find the start or the end for a better experience. You can jump on at any Cable Car Stop Sign. It cost us $7 each to get from Union Square to Mason Street. I stood on the step and hung off with the camera. You are not allowed to hang off really far but you can a little. The driver was amusing. Some girls were chatting to him and asked him if they were his favourite passengers. He said yes. So i asked if I was his favourite too and he said yes haha.
I have a brilliant video of the whole trip and being overtaken by cars and also the driver going down the road very fast and round some tight corners you really do have to hold on tight otherwise you will come off! It went faster than I imagined. Up and down those steep roads. You can ever see Lombard street in the distance. There is a cable car that goes past this but we took a different route that was more direct to our hotel.

Dodge Challenger

Union Square

Corvette in Union Square

Cable Car Turning Point

Ryan hanging off the Cable Car

Me hanging off the Cable Car.

Mustang near the San Remo Hotel.

We had a quick cheap drink each $14 for two and it seemed very strong and had a Cherry in the drink.

A nice happy ending in the massage seat whilst I updated this blog with todays events. Sat here with a free coffee they offer at reception.
I must say the massage chairs are brilliant. Panasonic ones so that says it all! One on each floor.

We were walking towards the Golden Gate Bridge and on the way we went past the Palace of Fine Arts and took a few photos.

We saw several people cycling on rental bicycles and asked a group of girls where they rented them from and they were further back down the sea front to the East. The girl was from Twickenham near London visiting.
We then walked over to the Fort near Golden Gate Bridge took a few photos from there then came back and walked over to a bicycle shop near there which did not rent bicycles. The shop staff told us to go up to the Sports Basement Rental Shop. When we came out we had the map in our hands and a guy who was travelling told us of some good places to go and some places to not go because of the ICP and an area called Tenderloin which is where many tourists get abducted or robbed.  So made it clear to avoid this area.
We rented the bicycles for $32 i think it was and burrowed a D lock to lock the bikes up together.
We discussed that the bikes could be returned to three different locations.  Back to where we hired them from and the other location that was useful for us was Bryant Street.
This allowed us to cycle upto the Golden Gate Bridge and over it to the other side. Very busy bridge with many people walking and cycling so you have to take care and make sure your walking or cycling on the correct part of the pavement and remember to pass head on cyclists on the right hand side.
We then decided to cycle back over the Golden Gate Bridge and turned left at the otherside to go underneath to come out on the west side which allowed us to cycle to ####
We cycled on the west coast down which was a nice view with some up and down hill riding which was fun.

We cycled through a park next to a lake at #### it was nice and there were stepping stones and a waterfall at the end. Ryan cheered me on and encouraged me to cycle over the stepping stones I made it until the last stepping stone and my front wheel fell into the water and got stuck between the stepping stones and almost launched me off. Im sure that will be a funny video to watch!
So close to making it over and to coming off lol.

We cycled through this park with a huga garden area and loads of people were having a BBQ loads of food and drinks and it looked like a great atmosphere.
We cycled on through the woods near a Boat House.
The next plan was to make our way to the Twin Peaks which we went up and down many roads and some were very hard work to cycle we made it up 90% of the route and collected a huge freshly made roll like they make at Subway but stuffed full of filling the guy had go force it in! It was the small one and it was so filling! I cant imagine what the medium or large one would be like! That was roughly $5.99 or so each.
A really friendly guy served us and I saw an ADT service engineer in the queue also although I didnt speak to him.
We decided to stop and eat our rolls at the next bench but we never actually found a bench. We made our way to a huge water reservoir near the Twin Peaks and decided to sit in the shade as we were beginning to burn.

Stuffed ourselves with the “small” rolls. Then cycled up the road to the Twin Peaks. The best view I have ever seen anywhere you can see for miles in all directions and you can see Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge and so much of the city. You can see the long straight Market Street which I believe was the main route into the city many years ago before it expanded in size.
We went up both peeks and took many photos and videos.
Ryan decided the route to take to get down from this extremely high view point and we cycled down.. Well rolled down at some amazing speeds with no peddling required. Hard to believe we cycled all the way up there!
Many of the cycle lanes merge in with the car routes so you have to pay attention. Most of the time it was easier to come off the road and onto the pedestrian crossing to cross roads.
We came all the way down Market Street and followed the signs for Route 101. We then headed down Valencia Street and visited Clarion Alley.
Clarion Alley is a road that has walls and garages the whole way along covered in graffiti. Some really crazy designs.
There was a lady that was totally off her face talking about Cocaine to herself. Ive never seen someone so destroyed from drugs. Such a shame and completely in a different world.
Several people chilling out down that road. That area didnt feel that safe as there were many homeless people near by and dodgy looking people. All was fine thou.
We made our way over to the Sports Basement to drop off our bicycles that we rented before 21:00 and made it with loads of time to spare.
Dropped the bikes off and it was so easy to do and the people in the shop were very friendly and helpful. No problems at all.
We then made our way to a pub called ####
as we really needed and deserved a refreshing drink. We had a Colorado Coors bottled beer and it was the most refreshing drink I have ever had maybe because we really earnt it with all the cycling and such a hectic day amd actually tasted good! The bar lady recommend us to goto hate Street where so many famous people have been and its suppose to be a Hippy area I think she said.

We then decided to make our way to a overhead powered bus. Walked quite a few blocks to find a bus stop.
We waited at the bus stop and passed many people sleeping in tents on the street and with all their belongings under tarpaulins and in trollies. Reminded me of the game GTA. unbelievable to see that that is actually true.
We waited at a bus stop and there was a guy drinking alcohol sat there and we saw our bus and as we were getting on I was getting my money ready to jump on and pay and he said “Get on the back”..” Dont pay”.. “We dont pay, get on the bus and go straight to the back and sit down. As we jumped on he said “Welcome to San Fran” we said “thanks”. We didnt pay or have a travel card to scan. The bus continued on the route and we both burst out laughing about it. We decided to move from the back to some seats a few further forwards.
Some black girls and guys got on the bus and did exactly the same and sat on the back seats. Talking like a gansta would. “Alright Cuz” absolutely hilarious. We continued to use this saying the day after as it was hilarious.
We then got dropped off near Hayte Street and walked around for a while. We saw a huge pickup truck with extended and raised suspension and some guy was taking his girlfriend out in it. It was really cool and huge! We hunted for somewhere nice to eat for some time and then we found a place called #### and it had a really long queue so we thought it must be good food. We were in the queue and started chatting to a guy called Jacob. A really friendly guy telling him what we are upto and what we have been upto and our plans. His friend David joined the queue later on and we spoke to them about work and everything else. Such friendly guys and we found out they work for Google. Developing Android apps. They said it was a brilliant place to work and really sold it to us!
They recommend we should try their favourite drink they sell at this place called a Butchers Lemonade. It was a strong flavoured lemon drink with plenty of alcohol in it because I really felt the first drink! I had a beef brisket burger as they recommended the beef brisket.
Really friendly staff working there too. Jacob and David asked if we wanted to join them for the meal. So we sure did and chatted about so many things and had a really good laugh.
The place was so busy and had a grwat atmosphere and they made us feel really welcome. We decided to have another Butchers Lemonade and that really did hit me hard. They must have quite a bit of alcohol in them I think they were $8 each for a pint.
We then all finished and we went our separate ways. I think Ryan added them as Facebook friends.
We then left and started to walk and try to find a overhead powered bus again. We jumped on one and went to the back again for free using the drunk guys tip. We then jumped off to get a different bus on a different route and on the way we met some dude with a suitcase who seemed friendly and looked like he was maybe homeless and living out of this suitcase. He greeted us in the street and said “I know a place where all the English girls go that come here you want me to show you” I asked where it was and he said up there we have to get the bus and ill show you. We didnt trust him as he couldn’t actually state the name of the place or tell us where it was. He just kept saying “it’s where all the English girls go, french girls, German girls and Polish girls go.”
Questioned him where this was and he wouldn’t say. He said let’s go there, ill take you both there. “You like English girls?”, “Yes”, “Then lets go!” he said all we have to do is buy him a drink when we get there and we thought no chance are we going. He really was keen on getting us there. Ryan said to me on the sly “Shall we run?!” I said “Yeah” we said we dont have any money to get him a drink and he said “Just give me $2” Ryan said we dont have any cash we only have a card. The guy replied saying something like “thats good then we can get loads of drinks.” I burst out laughing and gradually walked off on the sly hoping Ryan was going to follow suit or run with me. In the end we both went off and I think we jogged for a bit as he was really keen to follow us for a little while with his suitcase. We were laughing so hard and running it was hilarious! We then couldn’t see him so we went to another bus stop and there was a lady waiting there. Possibly Chinese I think if I remember correctly. She saw Ryan with his map out and said “Your tourists?!”
She said something like” Tourists arnt safe here” and some other stuff ill have to find out what it was from Ryan but its like she was warning us in such a way it kind of made me think it was a threat too. So we just got on the back of the bus for free again. She was talking to the bus driver about things and us I think. The bus dropped off quite a few people and then me and Ryan fell asleep leaning on the seats in front of us. We just woke up then we pulled up and the bus driver said this is the last stop. So we got off not too far from the San Remo Hotel near Fishermans Wharf.

Golden Gate

Cycled over this and almost fell off on the last stone! Hilarious video!

Oysters, Shrimps and Crab with wine and garlic. Then a stroll back to our hotel.

Landed at 15:00 hours then got a fixed price $17 + $3 tip each) dollar shared ride van with a guy in his huge vehicle that reminded me of the music artist 50 Cent to San Remo Hotel. A taxi would have been $65 plus a lot more if they get stuck in traffic on the bypass and yes is it was very busy. Picked his daughter up from school on route to the hotel. Hilarious driver highlight of the day! Drove past Steven McQueens apartment from the film Bullit ( 1153—1157 Taylor Street San Francisco) and the shop opposite on route. Driver said that 6th Street is a bit of a dodgy area and it did appear to be. Many homeless there also. We also saw a cable car break down on the cross road.

Our Romantic Room below: