Blue Moon Sunrise

After a great time in Chicago, just two stops lay ahead of us on our way back home to North Carolina. But these stops were the kind that would be easy going and relaxing, more about the people that we would see and hang out with than the sights and adventures we would go on.
The first stop was to Cleveland, Ohio, a place that Nash and I have been to a time or two to see friends. We were staying with our roommate and one of our best friends, Andrew. It was so good to finally see a familiar face after 500 more miles of driving. Andrews parents fed us with some great burgers, we laughed all night as his dog, Ben, sexually assaulted a Patrick Star stuffed animal as we hung out slowly nodding off to sleep.

The next morning, we woke up, and Andrew decided to take us to a city park right down the road to go hang out at. Despite all of the amazing natural beauty and amazing spots that we found along our explorations of national parks, this was one of the coolest, most fulfilling places that we found. It was a river, much like the Eno River for those of you from around Durham, but this spot was manmade, and the engineers made it right. A maybe 6 foot waterfall split the river into two parts, on top of the waterfall, ankle deep water lay over ice-slick rock. We skated across these algae-covered rocks in our bare feet, trying our best not to slip and collapse onto the concrete death that lay at our feet. But once at the waterfall, you could could climb down and sit in waste deep water, or if brave enough, leap out into a hot-tub sized area of neck deep water. We let the day slowly slip away, as we horsed around the waterfall, hunted giant crawdads and relaxed in the shallow waters.

After a full day of swimming, chatting, and playing around, we decided reach our goal on time and let our friend Andrew go off to Europe on an amazing summer abroad in the Baltics.

We rolled into Chicago after a 10-hour drive from Tulsa OK. We had not been able to leave as early as we would have liked, and it had just gone 2am when we finally arrived. The house we stayed at belonged to the parents of Paige’s boyfriend Brendan. After a quick introduction, the team was quickly in bed with the Cub’s game as the plan for the next day.
The train we took into the center of Chicago left the station at 10:30am, so after a great breakfast we were soon boarding a double decked train, which after 2 stops turned into an express service. The result of this was our journey time into the city was pretty much halved. The train was packed with kids our age. It was Memorial Day weekend, and the city would play host to a number of festivities and parties. After about 20 minutes, the skyline of the city came into view. The Sears Tower dominated, being over 100 stories high; this manmade wonder really is amazing. Before long we had pulled into Grand Central station and Brendan led the way to get the subway from Jackson. The plan for the afternoon was to get to Wrigley field and watch the Cubs game. Phil’s uncle had season tickets, and had very kindly left 4 tickets for us to pick up. After a little bit of disorientation we found the shop that was holding the tickets, and headed for the bleachers!
The first thing to say about the game was the temperature. It was nearly 90 degrees, and the lack of wind meant that we were feeling it. After hydrating to near bursting point, we settled down to enjoy and afternoon of America’s past time in one of its most famous stadiums. Wrigley really was a great place, it was not huge, but the atmosphere was electric and from the bleachers you got a clear view of the Chicago skyline a few miles away, a constant reminder of the mega metropolis we were in. The game was, well, a little slow. The Cubs were doing well to begin with, but as the afternoon wore on they started to make mistakes. Their defense had at least 2 or 3 mistakes, and this combined with less than effective pitching meant that the Cubs confirmed their nickname that Phil had told us ‘the loveable losers’. It wasn’t all bad though, the Cubs fans seemed to have enjoyed the game, and nothing confirmed this more than when I saw a t shirt for sale after the game with the slogan on it ‘Win or lose, we still booze’. Wrigley was great, the stadium was fantastic and we got to see a great afternoon of baseball in fantastic weather in one of America’s great cities.
After the game we met up with Brendan and Paige, who had also watched the game after being given free $70 tickets in a Starbucks! We got back on the subway and headed downtown. We left the train at Jackson and headed to Buckingham fountain. The fountain was huge, nestled in the heart of the city this seemingly out of place tourist attraction provided some much needed water spray! After seeing the fountain and the shore of Lake Michigan Brendan and Paige took us through Millennium Park. Now this was cool. Consisting of little rivers, flower gardens, an amphitheatre, and modern art displays, this place of relaxation was surrounded by huge skyscrapers. We saw what Paige referred to as ‘the bean’. It was an enormous, well, I don’t know. It was a huge, shiny, mirror like, curved, thing. You could walk around it, and underneath it and see yourself several times reflected to your left, right, and above. We then proceeded onto see a water pool with two big walls at wither end that featured peoples faces looking at each other. We walked in the centimeter high water, enjoying the scene on this particularly warm Chicago day. There were people everywhere enjoying themselves, and looking around, it was amazing that we were in a city, an art gallery, a playground, and the business district all at the same time. Chicago had sculpted its downtown to accommodate for everyone, no matter what your interest. It felt like a perfect cocktail, no single element overpowered the other sights and scenes.
After a little deliberation, we decided on Gino’s for dinner. We were going to try the famous deep pan Chicago style pizza, and Gino’s we had been told was the best place to go. We walked down Michigan drive heading towards the water tower and the Hancock building. This walk allowed us to really appreciate the architecture of Chicago. Buildings such as the Chicago Tribune looked perfectly normal, but then at the top it looked as if there was a mini Notre Dame with flying buttresses and all. The buildings were a mixture of Mies van der Rohe modernism, which screamed functionality, and clean lines of glass and steel, but then you round a corner and there is 2 storey stone mansion that looks as if it has been lifter straight from Pride and Prejudice. For anyone who has the remotest interest in architecture, Chicago is simply amazing.
We made it to the Hancock tower and found out about the observatory, which was open until 11pm. The plan then was dinner and then the observatory to catch sunset if we were lucky. We found Gino’s and after a 20-minute wait were seated and ordered 2 medium pizzas, one sausage, and the other cheese. When they arrived we saw why Brendan and Paige advised mediums, they were huge. Not so much width, but the deep pan style meant that it was more like a pie than anything else. In short, it was great, and there was even a slice left over at the end!
After Gino’s, we made the 5 minute walk to the Hancock building, and after a 40 second elevator ride in ‘North America’s fastest elevator’ we were 94 floors above the city. The view was phenomenal. We were there just in time for sunset, and we saw the pinkish sky becoming steadily inkier. After 30 minutes, the sky was completely black and the city was lit up below us. You could see in every direction for literally well over a hundred miles. We were lucky, the night was completely clear and the only restrictions to the view were the horizon, and the limits of the human eyeball. We spent a good hour or so up at the top, looking around and reading about the city and the construction of this amazing building. There were all sorts of cool facts that we found out about the city, such as the flow of the Chicago River had been reversed after pollution in Lake Michigan had resulted in outbreaks of Typhoid. Anyway, the view was amazing and well worth seeing.
We headed back to the station in a cab and after an hour or so, were on our way back to Brendan’s for the night. After a less than pleasant train ride we finally made it back at about 11:30pm. We met Brendan’s parents as well as his brother who were all extremely welcoming. We soon took a seat outside on the decking and put our feet up in front of the fire to reflect on the day and just relax. During the course of the evening we met a number of Brendan’s friends and we talked until the early hours. We eventually retired to bed, exhausted after what had been an action packed day.
After a proper nights sleep in beds, the next morning we were ready to hit the road for Cleveland. A big thank you must be said to Paige, Brendan, and his family for putting us up for 2 nights. We all had a great time, and it was undoubtedly one of the best times that we have had on the whole trip. Also showing us around the city meant that we saw the city in a way that few tourists do. There was very little messing around and thanks to Brendan; we were able to see the best bits of the city quickly and without getting lost. Chicago really was an amazing city, and the group agrees pretty much unanimously that it is possibly the coolest place we have seen so far. No matter what your interest you could find it in Chicago, and it is definitely a place that deserves a good week to explore. It is one of those places that will be returned to by at least one member of the group, I guarantee it. We scratched the surface of this awesome city and loved what we found.

Tulsa, Oklahoma. Out of all of the places, it sounds like the most unassuming, boring place. But something made Tulsa a little bit more interesting for us, we were getting to stay with Nash’s Thompson side of the family. We arrived at night, after one of the longest, most dull drives of the trip through the entirety of Kansas. Around 11 we got to meet Andaddy and Amama (Mr. and Mrs. CT Thompson). As we met these two late at night, our suspicion that we were about to meet with one of the nicest families in America was confirmed. The Thompson side of the family; Andaddy, Amama, Jane, Sticky, Gage, Steve, John, Betsy, Kathy, Tom, Kyra, Summer, and along with the fiancé Shannon, were all kind enough, and loved Nash so much, that 4 random strangers were welcomed and treated like family to celebrate the marriage of Steve and Shannon. Just having us to stay there in the middle of preparing for one of the biggest times in their families life, shows how kind and caring the Thompson’s are.
The following day, having met the majority of the family members, all the kids in the family went together to the pool at Southern Hills Country Club. Southern Hills, along with an extremely nice golf course, tennis facilities, and country club, had a huge pool that we got to enjoy for the afternoon. Equipped with a high-dive, two other diving boards, a slide, and a ten-foot basketball goals, it was one of the nicest pools I had ever seen. As the Old Bean watched over us from his table, reading Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, the rest of us immediately started all the activities that makes a day at the pool so much fun. As Philip and I flailed off of the diving boards, Greg opted for his go-to pencil dives. But as the three of us just looked like fools, Nash and Gage started flipping and turning. It didn’t matter whether it was front, back, or side, they could land it. After everyone was content with their dives, we immediately moved to the slide. Under the careful watch of the lifeguards, Gage challenged me to see who could do the best spin on the way down. I went first, and as the slide twisted under itself out of the lifeguards sight, I turned a 360 sitting up. Next up was Gage. Using the same skillful timing, Gage went for the lay-down flip. Both safely down the slide uninjured, and pleased with both of our dizzying spins, a game of pool-basketball started. We didn’t really keep up with the score, as the presence of the four-point shot complicated the style in which the game was played. But finally, after two hours of this revolution from diving, to swimming, to sliding, to basketball, we decided to call it quits at the pool, and headed upstairs and ate a delicious meal from the club grill, where I enjoyed a particularity delicious salmon pizza. With stomachs content, and bodies drained of energy, we returned to the Thompson residence to watch Game 7 of the NHL Eastern Conference Finals between the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning. Over the course of the game, which was won by the Bruins, we decided to go and see The Hangover II at the local theatre following the game. As it got mixed reviews from the audience, we got home late and fell asleep quickly, everyone anxious for the big wedding on the following day.
The following day, around 6 o’clock, everyone got dressed up in their proper wedding attire and headed off for the wedding. It took place in a beautiful western art museum near downtown Tulsa. Housing hundreds of magnificent pieces of native and western American art, the museum was a perfect place to hold the wedding for Shannon and Steve. In the presence of close to a hundred friends and family, Steve and Shannon were kind enough to allow our traveling crew to come to one of the most important days in their lives. With live classical music playing in the background, the wedding went smoothly. The wedding was an absolute blast, and as we all felt like characters from Wedding Crashers, hopefully everyone taking part in the wedding were able to enjoy themselves as much as we were able to.

Lately I’ve been having a recurring thought when I look at myself in the mirror every morning. What the hell am I doing here? I couldn’t help but think that again as I lazily scrubbed my teeth the morning we were planning to leave Denver. For some reason the mirror seems to provoke some perspective, like I can see the thousands of miles we’ve already traveled rushing at me all at once. As bewildering as that feeling can be, it also reminds me how awesome this trip really is. It all seems like a blur, but it’s an epic, mind-blowing blur.
I’m not really a big city person, but much like San Francisco, Denver seemed like the kind of city you would want to live in. During one of our brain-storming sessions while we planned for the trip, I began to rack my brain for old friends or relatives I might have in various places so that we wouldn’t have to camp every single night. That’s when the idea of staying with Ginger came to me. I met Ginger in Ms. Clarke’s Latin class at Riverside, and had journalism with her for a semester or two as well. I had seen her only a handful of times since sophomore year when she transferred out of state. So naturally I was a little nervous about asking her if 4 random dudes and I could crash at her place for a night or two on our way through. But Ginger was just as friendly as I remembered. Even though she was in the midst of finals she let us stay at her place for two nights. Unfortunately we didn’t get to hang out with her much, but her housemates were just as nice and gave us some good company while we were around.
I had heard great things about Denver in general before we arrived. Ginger gave it glowing reviews. After two days there I can’t say I disagree. Denver is a very clean, nicely spread out city, with lots of parks and generally good weather. The weather was gorgeous for our stay. As per the suggestion of Ginger and her housemate Ellen, we drove downtown and explored the 16th street mall. Traffic was blocked off in exchange for trolleys that ran up and down the mall, making the walk a much more pleasant and less dangerous one, not that traffic was particularly bad in Denver in the first place. Nash and I satisfied our morning munchies with some delicious cookies and chocolates from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. After that, we perused the street for interesting stores and souvenirs. The sun was out and the temperature was perfect for a very enjoyable day.
Tate, Nash and I got the next day to play some ball in nearby Wash Park. The park is beautiful, fully outfitted with tennis courts, a wide paved sidewalk for runners and bikers, basketball courts, and athletic fields. We found the hoops quickly and started to dust off our J’s. Once we got into a game, the mountain air got to us pretty quickly and we were sucking wind hard after two or three times up and down the court. We lost to some older guys who were clearly regulars there. We shoulda beat them though. Needless to say we would have had we had the homecourt advantage and not had rusty jumpshots from days of no exercise or basketball hoops.
After we got back and showered, one of Ginger’s housemates Frank invited us to come bowling with him and a few of his friends that night. We were skeptical at first, but for $1 a game and just $3 to rent shoes we couldn’t pass it up. Armed with our bowling shoes and more Big Lebowski jokes than Walter had F bombs, we laced up and got our bowl on. If my jumpshot was rusty, then there was certainly no shine left in whatever had been of my bowling game. After a decent 113 the first game I made good friends with the gutter in the second game, bowling a dismal 84 and finishing in last place. Nash kicked his hustle into gear and coolly won a closely-contested second contest, narrowly edging Frank after the last frame. All things considered we had a blast. Tate made the observation that if bowling was so cheap everywhere people would be banging down the doors to bowl. Some places in the Durham-Chapel Hill area charge $10 for just one game, not even including shoe rental. It’s a shame too because my rolling could use some work. This creep cannot roll.
The next morning we heard the road calling to us again, so we prepared for the long drive to Tulsa. We packed up our things and said our goodbyes. You know we gotta give some serious shout outs to Ginger, Frank, Ellen, Mary, Nick and their awesome dog Molly and all the others who put up with our company during our stay in the mile-high city. Denver was our second stop that I could definitely see myself living, and I plan on definitely getting back there someday.

One of the most amazing things about the landscape of the western United States is the constantly changing landscape. Southern Utah is a great example of this dramatic change in action. Vast, dry plains interrupted violently by giant rock forests protruding at various angles from the ground. Suddenly flat then rocky, then flat again before you know it. The geography of people in Southern Utah is similar to its landscape. Suddenly a desolate desert, then you come over a ridge and the small but bustling extreme sports mecca of Moab. Moab is the kind of place any moderately-outdoorsy person would want to spend their 20s. Sandwiched between Canyonlands National Park to the southwest and Arches National Park to the Northeast, even just on a map Moab looks enticing to any hiker or adventurer. The slickrock abundantly found in the surrounding countryside provides terrain for legendary mountain biking, ATVing, and any other off-roading activity imaginable.
I first visited Moab on my initial out west adventure 3 summers ago. My family and I camped in Arches, did the devil’s garden trail and also did some ATVing. We couldn’t get a spot at the campground inside the park this time, but we managed to easily find another campground near town with vacancies. After arriving and setting up camp, we got a little much needed hooping in on the ancient 12 by 12 concrete pad at Slickrock Camp and RV. After Tate ran shop for a little while, we retired to watching the pros at the nearest local sports bar. Tate was lookin pretty good in our 21 games, but Dirk looked a lot better. The Big German (one of the best nicknames in the league, by the way) showed the killer instinct I never thought he would have in his furious barrage of ridiculous jump shots that rallied the Mavs into overtime and eventually to victory.
As we watched, we debated whether or not to order one of the delicious looking, albeit expensive, local beers available at the bar. Naturally the four American were quickly distracted by our massive burgers (/veggie wraps). Adam stayed the course and made his move the next time our waitress came by. When asked for an ID, he explained that he had left his passport back at the… but our waitress was already sold. Since his accent clearly affirmed his britishness she took him at his word and delivered with a nice dark ale of some kind.
We retired to our tents with full bellies and big plans for the next day. Moab surprised us with a midnight downpour, and as a result we were a little sluggish getting going the next morning. Once we finally managed to fold up our sopping wet campsite, we set off for Arches NP. After failing to find a campsite in the park to stay that night, we made up our minds to hike the strenuous devil’s garden trail.
The trail was crowded, mostly with Europeans. We took our time in the beginning, moseying through the sand in no particular hurry to catch up with the French people who might just have been the only tourists in the park that smelled as bad as we did. The trail got interesting soon enough. Quickly the slickrock rose up on all sides of us, and we were forced to make many tricky climbs to stay with the trail. The Old Bean was intimidated by the first such of these, but after seeing a 60 year old scale it relatively easily he plucked up his courage and tally-hoed like a proper outdoorsman. The rest of the trail was far more confusing than I remembered. We frequently found ourselves walking through the washes of the desert instead of on the trail itself. Fortunately, we never strayed too far and managed to find our way back relatively easily each time. Eventually we came to a viewpoint of… you guessed it, more rocks. This rock had a huge O-shaped hole in the top half, and a smaller circular hole below it. The smaller O was easily accessible, which is no fun. Tate and I decided to scale the rock face and climb up into the big O. Tate managed to scramble up on his own, I needed a little boost from Nash but after some tactical climbing I made it up as well. The view was good but the climb was better.
After getting lost at least 3 more times on the way back, we finished the ‘Primitive Loop’ and made it back to our car just in time to catch the Asian-heavy afternoon phase of the tourism wave. We debated our options for a while then decided to push on to Denver.
I would love to stay in Moab for longer sometime, maybe a week or two in the Summer, but then again that’s true for most of the places we’ve gone so far. One of the cool things I’m realizing about this trip is that as cool as it is, it’s just a beginning. The places we are visiting are the places where we might take future vacations or apply for grad school or even try to live someday (scary). Even though this may be Adam’s whirlwind tour of the US, I feel like for the rest of us it’s just a great eye opening adventure into our own backyards.
As I write now, we’re driving into Denver and a snowstorm at the same time. I had to check and make sure the date is still… yeah. May 24. Could it get any cooler than this???

After a good night of sleep on real beds, we got into Moab early in the afternoon, and had time to go around and choose which campsite we stayed at for that night. With choices of Hotels and RV Parks, we found the name Slickrock RV Park just below the words hot-tub and wifi.
Looking forward to a night in the hot-tub, I stumbled across one of the most beautiful sights I have seen this entire trip, a ten foot high, burnt orange ring. With the scenic background of open desert farms, centered within a patch of four sketchy blocks of cement, it hung battle-worn chain from its height. In contrast to my regular black-top, well-kempt court at Morrison back in Chapel Hill, this court was falling claim to the arid desert and sand environment surrounding it.
But for some reason this court stuck out to me even more. There was something about the type of basketball game in develops. The determination of the cement blocks, protruding from the farm landscape, reminded me of the hard-fought rebounding of Tyler Zeller. The loose rim seemed to have managed to endure the beating of dunks from someone the size of Muggsy Bogues. The backboard seemed to be just soft enough that even Tim Duncan would have been happy playing on it. And in the beaten, but fully functioning chain-net, I was reminded of jump shots taken by a young Michael Jordan, punching his ticket to play basketball, win NBA championships, and go to the University of North Carolina, as each pass came in from his father’s hands. Everything about this court seemed too perfect about it.
With two of the best friends that anyone could ever ask for, who happen to also be basketball fanatics, we were able to start a game of Twenty-One. As Nash broke the game in with a high-lob from the top of the box-shaped court, the battle began.
The three of us, despite being on about the same skill level of basketball, each have our own unique style of play. One style that plays real old school, swishing mid-range jumpers and employs a trusty turn-around jumper from the corner. A second that uses length and athleticism to play both, a frustrating defense and drive to the basket to score. And another that handles the ball with finesse, and uses a lower center of gravity to unleash a flurry of both left and right-handed layups.
Each game was a blur, consisting of heavy collisions around the basket as shots went up, high-flying battles for rebounds, and shots rimming in-and-out. But each time, I was able to find little opportunities to take advantage of. In each of the four games I sat at twenty points, just one more made free throw away from victory.
The first trip to the stripe, my skin itched with the odd sensation between excitement and nervousness, to have the chance to end the first round of Twenty-One. Unsure of what was about to happen, I arched my shot. It twisted in.
The second time was plain excitement, I had the confidence of making the first game winner. I felt good about shooting for a second strait time to win. Swish.
Almost like the three-day hump said to be accompanied with quitting smoking, the third trip to the line was the hardest to mentally go through. The first two free throws seemed too good to be true, I was due to miss or even airball a free throw. Not nearly confident enough in my free throw stroke, I stepped up to the desert-worn spot that was the free throw line. With second thoughts of how I might mentally approach the shot, I hoisted up a decent looking shot. With a fairly steep angle coming down on the orange hoop, it clanked off the front and back parts of the rim, then straight down through the chains.
The fourth trip, wasn’t to the foul line, it was to the charity stripe. I was that young Michael Jordan that I had seen earlier playing on the chain net. It wasn’t a sense of confidence, it was the rare sense of destiny unfolding. I drained my fourth game-winning free throw.
4-0, while not trying to rub it into my friends faces for winning, was one of my greatest basketball memories. Not because I was that much more dominant during the game, but that I was able to have the feeling of stepping up to the free throw line, thinking about each shot, and close out the game.

After another successful night of camping, Greg rebuilding the fire awoke us. The fire gave us the spark and motivation to make moves, pack up camp, and start our journey on the nationally acclaimed, “ Loneliest road”. We ate and filled up the car with fuel before the approach onto the road due to the fact that we did not know when and where there would be fuel and food stops. After multiple frostys and frosty floats were ordered the journey continued. The road could not have been any more lonely; there is an over under gamble of 50 on the number of cars sighted. It was long and lonely with the only signs of civilization being a few small towns every two hours or so. One of these so described towns was the town of Ely, Utah. It was getting dark and rainy at this point so we decided that it would be best to find somewhere to retire for the night (the fact that there was a pivotal NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 3 about to air on TNT, definitely played no part in the decision making). So Ely became our choice destination to find somewhere cheap with wifi (and cable) that the team could crash. The winner in this motel ridden small town was The White Pine Motel. We were pointed in the direction of room 3 and after fighting of a magician and his pet dragon the five brave warriors were granted entrance into room 3.

Leaving San Francisco behind us, we headed east, the goal for the evening was Lake Tahoe, right on the border of California and Nevada. Before long we were winding around mountain roads, and all of a sudden the trees up here were much larger and greener. We kept climbing in altitude and could see the snow covered tips in the Eldorado National Forest. We found a small campsite in South Lake Tahoe, and when we rocked up to the actual pitch only then began to appreciate how isolated we truly were. It was a huge campsite right in the heart of the forest; there was 1 other group of people they but were well out of sight. Instinctively everyone donned warmer clothing immediately, it was cold enough for the snow to remain as snow, and the temperature was dropping as night drew in. After the tents were pitched, a campfire was established and nurtured by Greg who was adamant that it was essential as a form of light, heat, and protection from bears. Yes, bears. There was a safe storage box next to the fire pit that you could store food and belongings in so that it would be safe from any bears that came across your campsite. Splendid then, my half eaten Subway BLT sandwich would be secure behind lock and key while my sleeping bag and toothbrush were my defense. We didn’t see any bears.
After dinner, and a song from Greg, everyone was wrapped up tightly in front of the fire, but as supplies of firewood dwindled, we were caught in the dilemma of go to bed and be cold-ish, or get more firewood (in the dark) and remain warm. The former option was chosen without hesitation. Feeling relatively warm, but far from confidant after hearing the howls of wolves, we hit the hay with the plan of crossing Nevada the next day.

https://picasaweb.google.com/112059004954153113760/USARoadTrip?authkey=Gv1sRgCLGpwZfLtozvpgE&feat=directlink

I had never been to San Francisco, but had heard great things about it from everyone, some saying that it was a cooler place than LA. On the outskirts of the city, the first thing that you notice is the grid system. The logical system of blocks is not something that you think would apply to San Francisco, as some of the hills are incredibly steep. One of the streets we saw actually had steps cut into the pavement going up the hill. Within about 10 minutes of being in the city we had already spotted Clint Eastwood driving downtown in a vintage gold Mercedes. For a short while, none of us were too sure where we were staying, the motels were outrageous, the local campsites were fully booked, and the nearest KOA was over an hour away. A place to stay was eventually found at Candlestick Park. It was mainly an RV, but the entrepreneurial owners had also branched out to accommodating tents by planting a 6-foot wide strip of grass. The owner was also adamant that the $49 a night was per tent rather than for a pitch. It ended up that we all slept in the one tent. It was cramped, but it worked. We also managed to download and watch Shaun of the Dead, which sent us to sleep with pleasant dreams.
The next morning we were hitting the city. The plan was to got to Alcatraz, and maybe see a baseball game that evening. We got to Pier 33 where the tours leave from, only to find out that they were completely sold out for the day. Infuriatingly we realized that it was the weekend, days names had lost meaning, back on the east coast and we actually had to check a calendar to be sure of where in the week we were.
Not to worry though, we had discovered that just around the corner was a submarine you could tour around. Only 2 of us (Tate and Adam) actually went around the submarine. It was the USS Pampanito, a WWII submarine that had seen action and survived. Cramped, dark, and terrifying. That pretty much sums it up. You could barely stand in a lot of areas, and anywhere you could sleep was pretty much a bed. There were even bunks on the torpedoes!
After the submarine, we decided to take a harbour tour of San Francisco, to see the city from the best possible angles. The tour left from the extremely lively Pier 39 which had a collection of shops and bars that was milling with tourists. The cruise left, and took us right under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz. They threw facts at us, such as 11 people died while making the bridge, and that 5 people escaped from Alcatraz remain unaccounted for. The Golden Gate really was quite something to steam under. It is enormous, and is not only an engineering marvel, but extremely graceful to look at. Sitting at the entrance to the Pacific, the Golden Gate seems like a welcome sign to the city, embodying what you associate with the city, innovativeness and prosperity. Alcatraz is no less impressive to look at. The former prison is now looking its age, but that only adds to the character as the inescapable rock just across from the city. Looking at it, there is an ominous feel to the whole thing, just knowing that it has been the ending place for a number of inmates, including Al Capone.
Seeing the city from the boat really was incredible. The variety of architecture that graces the San Francisco skyline is simply fantastic to look at. Unlike in LA, San Francisco is not overly congested, and the people around the streets look as if they take themselves a lot less seriously. There is no shortage of pedestrian friendly places to see and the melting pot of people you see appear a lot less pretentious than the ever smiling residents of Beverly Hills.
We decided afterwards that we wouldn’t stay for the baseball, and would instead make moves towards leaving California. After saying a farewell to the city from Hawk Hill, which offers spectacular views of the city, we put Lake Tahoe in as our goal. For the first time since the trip began, we were going east. It was a sad moment, we had set California as our main goal, we had done it and now we were starting to head back. Although it would still be a while until we all returned home, it felt as if we were staring to turn our backs on the whole trip.
San Francisco was the perfect place to see in California, it had all the qualities of LA, but few of its problems. It was a pretty whacky and varied place that deserved a lot more attention and time. You could holiday for a good week in the city and barely scratch the surface of what there is to do. It was definitely worth a visit, and is a place that will certainly be returned to again.

The spur of the moment campsite at Carpinteria between LA and San Francisco turned out to be a state beach. Yet again we were camped right on the edge of the Pacific. It was merely a pit stop, we were all in bed by about 10:30pm, ready for an early start to San Francisco the next day. The next morning however, we did have a dip in the Pacific. The water was incredibly cold, and at 7:30am the force of the waves was knocking us all over the place. By 8:30 we were on the road to San Francisco.

The first thing we did was head back towards Hollywood. I had booked a tour of Warner Brothers Studios and was very excited! The first thing that they did at Warner Brothers was show us a video, which included clips of a load of films that had been made by the company. The tour included the sets of the TV series True Blood, Friends, Chuck, as well as Ellen. The 110-acre lot that they have has sets that range from an exotic jungle, where part of Jurassic Park was filmed, to the set of the Gremlins. It really was amazing to see how they make the movies happen, and a lot of what they did was surprisingly lo-tech. Buildings had 2 or three sides to them, that could either be a courthouse, a suburban house, or an airport terminal. The versatility of what could be filmed in a relatively small place was mind blowing. The highlight of the tour included the prop warehouse, the car museum, and the general museum. The prop warehouse is the largest in the world. No matter what type of movie you were making, the props could be found here. Props that just happened to be near the tours that particular day included the samurai suits from the Last Samurai, the huge sideboard from Spiderman that is in James Franco’s apartment, and the painting from Scooby Doo that has eyes you can see through.
The car museum was even cooler. The cars included the car from Gran Torino, the futuristic cars from I-Robot, the Shaguar from Austin Powers, the Batmobile, and the Weasley’s flying Ford from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. All the cars were real, and had actually been the ones used in the movies.
The museum was certainly the highlight of the tour. The 1st floor had props and costumes from Inception, the Dark Knight (including Heath Ledger’s Joker costume), the real piano from Casablanca, a load of weapons from The Last Samurai (including Tom Cruise’s little warrior outfit), as well as a lot of other huge Hollywood blockbusters. The 2nd floor was solely devoted to everything Harry Potter. Costumes, wands, road signs, you name it; they probably had it if it was related to any of the Harry Potter movies. The museum was really great; one complaint though is that they should have given us more time. In total we probably had about a quarter of an hour in the museum, which was nowhere near long enough. I could have spent a day in there and still not have seen everything properly.
When I was picked up, the gang was a little disgruntled. They had seen Santa Monica beach, eaten at ‘In n out burger’, but had spent a huge portion of the day in the infamous LA traffic. We were debating whether or not to stay in LA that night, but after the traffic, the thought of another day’s worth of LA gridlock was not attractive.
We made tracks north, starting to head towards San Francisco. We stopped for a quick bite at ‘In ‘n Out Burger,’ and found a state beach at Carpintería, right outside of Santa Barbara, to stay at.

After a pit stop at the Coffee Bean, we were motoring towards the city of LA. The first stop was the Hollywood sign, which was actually surprisingly hard to find a decent place to take good photograph from. We ended up winding through very expensive looking neighborhoods and parked up near a stable at the foot of the mountain.
After the Hollywood sign was Sunset Blvd and Hollywood Blvd. Maybe it was just where we parked, but Sunset Blvd was nowhere near as exciting as Hollywood Blvd. On Hollywood Blvd, we followed the plaques that were embedded into the floor and were even attacked by some scientologists! They were a little crazy, and very pushy, insistent that we were all stressed, in need of taking a stress test, which then affirmed their claims that we were stressed. Right.
We soon found the Chinese theatre that had all the handprints outside it. The stars who had left their print included Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robin Williams, Steve McQueen, Sean Connery, the Harry Potter trio, and even R2D2 and C-3PO!
After a walk back down Sunset Blvd, I felt like I had completed a sort of pilgrimage, that every movie buff dreams of.
The game plan after this was to head to where we were staying for the night, via Beverly Hills. Beverly Hills was a surprisingly large area, that in short had lot of big houses, a lot of German cars on the road, and the residents seemed to all be victims of some sort of dreadful botox attack. Anyway, at least they were all smiling.
We were staying the night Teresa Kadlec, Teresa had lived with Tate’s mom at college so was a Tar Heel! She lived in Manhattan Beach and very kindly allowed all 5 of us to crash for the night. We met the whole family; the kids’ William and Abby, and Teresa’s husband Bob, also a Tar Heel. After a great dinner of pasta, followed by peach pie and ice cream, everyone was looking extremely content. Real food, a roof over our heads, an enormous flat screen TV, comfy sofas, wireless Internet, and power outlets. It all seemed too much to have at once after our week and half on the road! The next day, Teresa kindly made us a hearty breakfast, and after a hot shower, we were ready to hit the city for the full day. A big thank you to Teresa and the family for putting up with us, it really was an extremely comfortable house, and meeting all of you was great. We hope William’s final went well!

The day started with us checking out of the hotel with the Pacific as our goal. Finally, this stretch would complete our coast-to-coast odyssey. We made a quick pit stop at Taco Bell, after Tate had a sip of yesterday’s soda, only to half choke on a bug. We then crossed the state line. We were in California! For a long while, the landscape looked just like Nevada, and there wasn’t too much to see. However, we soon started to see the road signs for LA. The quantity of traffic on the road began to increase, and civilization seemed that much closer. Within a couple of hours we were greeted by our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean, dark blue waves crashing down on the golden Cali beaches. It was the first time I had seen the Pacific, another thing was checked of my list. We did not actually stay in LA our first night in California, but in San Clemente, a quaint town about an hour south of the city. Nash recommended it, as he had stayed here before with Casey, saying that it ‘embodied what I think of when I think of California.’ Well, he was right. It was a relatively small place, but the beach front was just incredible. We were soon checked in at Doheny state beach, which was a stone’s throw away from the Ocean. After a bit of messing around, the campsite was setup, and we explored the town. Nash took us to a pizza place called ‘Selma’s.’ While watching the NBA game in Selma’s after dinner, Mark Sanchez made a cameo appearance. The waiter pointed him out as he tried to be incognito, hiding under his hooded sweatshirt while leaving with his takeout. It was an early night after that, as we planned out what to do in LA the next day. Unfortunately Nash did not get the chance to go surfing, the surf shop was not open, and maybe it was still a little too early in the year. What we saw of Doheny and San Clemente was great, it felt like a local and friendly town, right on the verge of the mega metropolis that was LA.

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