First of all, I didn't take too many pics and the ones I took don't do justice to what I saw. Still, I'll post some pics here.
I started my journey from LA and finished in the same place after 9 days, driving from one place to another in a compact car. The road from LA to San Francisco is scenic; it goes along the pacific coast. The stretches where the road deviates from the coast are almost similar to what you would find in Texas - large areas of dry, grassy, hilly lands, marked by occasional sightings of cows/horses in ranches. I stopped at Pebble Beach to drive through what is called 17-mile drive: a scenic route inside the city, where you need to pay to use the road. My next stop was at redwood city, a city south of SF.
The next morning I took a bus to SF downtown. SF is full of confusing bus and train services as I (and blib) found out the hard way. SF downtown is a very busy place, but the traffic was somehow very smooth flowing and organized to my surprise. It resembles any other downtown: pedestrians crossing at every intersection, narrow one-way roads, no parking boards every 10 feet etc. It was a very windy day and I wasn't covered well to combat the cold wind. Soon as I met BR, blib and his gf, we went to Golden Gate bridge. From far I was disappointed by its small size. I had no idea how how huge it really is until started walking on it. BR tried to figure out if he could spot the place where Madeline jumps off into the bay in Vertigo, but I guess it is not possible to be sure looking from the top of the bridge. Our next stop was at Chinatown - this is not a model town based on chinese theme - it is a very real chinese-majority society right in the middle of downtown. The garbage and stink reminded me of Indian markets. One can see raw prawns, fish, crabs, octopuses, whatnot on display right on the sidewalks. Mrs Blib wasn't too pleased at my suggestion of having our lunch there, lol. After some aimless walking, with BR as our local guide, we found a place to eat closer to our next destination: Coit Tower. The steep climb on the steps to reach the tower tested my strength, while BR cruised smoothly with age on his side The view from top wasn't too spectacular. We quickly proceeded to catch the ferry to Alcatraz island. The audio tour of the prison was very interesting and it was surreal to imagine the life of the prison inmates and their escape attempts. We returned to the shore to have dinner. When it was time to return, we again had major confusion with the bus routes. Luckily I returned safe, after coming close to missing the last bus to my hotel.
The next day I drove to Napa valley, a town famous for its vineyards and wineries. It had rained all morning and the weather was beautiful, somewhat cloudy. There were vineyards on both sides of the road, some on plains and some on hills - beautiful green and brown leaves. We went to one of the oldest wineries, Robert Mondavi, for a tour of their premises. It was both interesting and educational - all the way from cultivation of grapes to fermenting and aging. We tasted a couple of wines, which were good. I am no expert to comment on their quality. I tasted a few grapes right out of the vines, they were among the sweetest grapes I've ever tasted.
Later that afternoon we drove to Lake Tahoe (Godfather 2 fans will know this place). The weather was crazy, it was dark by the time we reached there and it was raining heavily, with ice and snow on the roads. The trees were beautiful with fall colors amidst snow. We had to wait until the next morning to see the lake. It was gorgeous, clear and vast, right below snow capped mountains. The place where we went was very isolated from the main tourist activity in the lake, there was no one other than my wife and I on the beach. I wish I had planned this better, as I had to leave the place soon due to prior bookings at other places.
My next stop was Yosemite national park. The main road leading to the park was closed due to snow and we had to take a very long detour, which cost us a few hours and put all our plans for a toss. By the time we reached the park (which is a forest in actual sense, ridiculously vast area of wilderness), it was dark and we lost our way to the cottage. The road signs weren't very helpful and I was driving on precarious roads with sharp turns and hairpin bends with very limited fuel in my car. There weren't any gas stations until very very far off and there was no cellphone network coverage. For a place that I had to reach at 3 pm, I reached at 10 pm. But 10pm in that forest is scary as hell, with no lights and no one to contact for help. I had planned to cover death valley (a place that was 5 hours of drive away) over the next few days, but I abandoned the plan because of this. The next day at Yosemite was great. To our luck, there was water in the falls (which until the previous week was frozen). We also trekked to one of the falls. we also took a bus tour to one of the locations on top. The place in itself wasn't all that great, but the tour-guide's informational talk along the way to the top was worth the ticket price. The history of Yosemite, its native Indian heritage, invasions for gold, its natural life etc was interesting to learn about.
The next day morning was what I had awaited all the time - Mariposa grove. It is a grove of Sequoia trees. These are the oldest living beings, some living up to 2000 years. Huge, tall, wide, absolutely humbling experience... these trees totally kick ass in every sense. They survive several forest fires (which happen every 5-20 years) through their life span and compete with other trees for survival. Some of their branches are thicker than the trunks of other huge trees. I took some photos, but until you stand under the trees, you'll have no idea what I am talking about. 2000 years. Imagine that. Nature is so amazing in its working. These forests look static when observed over a short time, but there is so much activity going on in it in a much larger scale and humans look insignificant when you look at these old mountains and trees.
I left the valley in the afternoon and drove to reach LA in the night. LA is a busy busy place. When I first stepped out of the LA airport at the starting of my journey a week earlier, I was shocked by the levels of chaos there. Honking cars, unorganized traffic and swarms of people. But what I saw a week later on my return to that place was much different. LA roads are jammed like hell all the time. Even in the worst sort of jam, people gave way for the others to switch lanes and I rarely heard anyone honk in frustration. I quickly learned that I had to keep a buffer time of an hour or so on each direction of travel to account for traffic jams. The first day I went to Hollywood blvd. It was glamorous and busy. After visiting the Wax museum, I quickly drove to the top of a hill nearby where I could get a clear view of the famous Hollywood sign on the mountain. The roads up hill were ultra narrow and winding that I wondered how anyone could live in that place. I am sure they are among the richest people in the town living there. From there I went to Santa Monica beach. Beautiful view, but not too unlike many other beaches elsewhere.
The next day I went to Universal studios. The highlight of this place is the studio tour of famous sets. You just HAVE to visit this place to get an idea of how big an industry the Hollywood is. The scale of the sets are unbelievable, and you have to be there to appreciate the special effects they have created there. As someone aspiring to make films, I found it very scary that there is no way to match the scale or grandeur of these films.
The view from top wasn't too spectacular. We quickly proceeded to catch the ferry to Alcatraz island. The audio tour of the prison was very interesting and it was surreal to imagine the life of the prison inmates and their escape attempts. We returned to the shore to have dinner. When it was time to return, we again had major confusion with the bus routes. Luckily I returned safe, after coming close to missing the last bus to my hotel.
