Pictures

Pctures from the trip are available here

Debriefing - TOP lists

Starting with TOP lists, shoutout to the top road trip resource web sites:

1 - Road Trip USA (www.roadtripusa.com)

Really good maps and descriptions of the locations, sights, restaurants and other places of interest which you can print out free of charge. Described for 10 different trips across the continent. Our main resource for stopping information on US50 (the loneliest road), I-40 (Route 66) and Hwy 1 (Pacific Coast Highway). Well written and comprehensive.

2 - Roadside America (www.roadsideamerica.com)

Best site for comprehensive listing of weird attractions, the true americana in our books; responsible for pointing us to Mike the headless chicken, Mystery Spot, Pez Museum of California to name just a few. Bonus points for a very good 'Electric map', the sights mapped on Google Maps user interface. Really convenient. Also special thanks for all the information on Colorado's own Alfred Packer, the maneater.

3 - American Byways (www.byways.org)

Official site listing all scenic and historic byways in the States, with excellent pdf-printout capabilities. We had >20 byways printed out along our route. Good maps, less information on the locations.

4 - Lonely planet USA discussion forums (http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com/categories.cfm?catid=26)

Excellent FAQ concerning road trips, tipping and other stuff. Also good road trip information especially from user Willysnout and a couple of other frequent posters there. All the basic information comes up there if you search the archives a bit. And do believe them when they say that you cannot go coast-to-coast in 4 weeks!

5 - Chowhound (www.chowhound.com)

Discussion forums for best restaurant information and suggestions, great for on the road.

6 - Priceline (www.priceline.com)

Best site for booking hotels on the road (and the only one with the web site managing to work in our mobile phone browsers!).

Last days in San Francisco

On Saturday 21st we went for a wine country tour to Napa and Sonoma. Taking a bus tour made more sense than going around in own car, since a) there were so many wineries to go to and we hadn't researched them, and b) drinking (even just to taste) and driving really didn't mix in our book. So, on a tour we went.

The bus tour was guided and driven by rather Ed Harris -looking guy who had a very incomperensible american-italian (?) accent and good story material for all the trip. We visited three wineries on the trip from a small, boutique-style winery to very large bulk-type winery producing millions of bottles per year. However none of the wines were so much to our taste that we would have bought them. Our stereotype of Californian red wines being light and not very full-bodied seemed to be reinforced (even though the ones from Central Coast we tried in San Luis Obispo had also full-bodied varieties. Oh well).

After the trip we did a quick visit to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. It clearly is San Francisco's most popular tourist attraction, with lots of people and souvenir shops and amusement rides. Not completely our kind of place, we headed to North Beach for an italian dinner, on the trip home we wondered the steep slopes of Russian and Nob Hill.

On Sunday 22nd we first went shopping, because we had only one day to go anymore, and shopping sprees weren't that effective in the centre; we needed a shopping center or a mall. We aimed for Hillsdale Shopping Mall 20 miles south of SF, actually pretty close to Milbrae where we spent the very first night of the trip. So, we got Patsy out of the parking and headed there. Hillsdale had good shopping to do, we managed to get clothes and shoes and stuff; also the Harry Potter book we didn't have time to get earlier. When we got back to the hotel, we noticed that a screw had punctured Patsy's rear tire, but luckily the leak wasn't that bad so we didn't have to change it (and luckily we had to drive only to the airport anymore).




As Sunday was our first wedding anniversary, so we had deciced to go eat well in the evening. Unfortunately our prime candidate for fine dining, Gary Danko, had no free tables so we decided to try something more local. We had actually become a bit bored of eating at restaurants, so we weren't in a hurry to try to book another "famous" restaurant. We went to Brick, a restaurant just next to our hotel, which looked like a pretty trendy one with californian style food but a bit mixed reviews on the net.

The food in Brick was found to be excellent! Really well made and presented, with very good service. The funny thing was that one of the complaints on the net, portions being too small, was actually a very good thing! For the first time on the trip (well, excluding Bouchon) we could eat all three dishes of the meal and not feel absolutely too full; in contrary we felt excellent. So all in all, a very good experience.

After the dinner we went to Top of the Mark (a restaurant on top floor of Mark Hopkins InterContinental hotel with great views of the city) for drinks. The city was at the time, and typically to the time of year as I understand, quite covered in fog, which gave it more atmospheric and dream-like ambiance. So a very successfull evening.

On monday we had our flight at 3pm, so we decided to do a bit of last-minute shopping, and went to Tamforan shopping mall which we remebered from the beginning of the trip and which happeded to be right next to the airport. The flight left mostly on time, and for some reason the flight seemed to go really quickly (we probably had gotten used to sitting ;), which of course was nice. Had a stop in Amsterdam, where we had lunch and immediately noticed the difference in service levels in European restaurants (to the benefit of American ones, of course) and did the last quick hop to Helsinki.

We arrived home on Tuesday, 24th at around 5pm, a good 29 days and 12 hours after leaving, bit tired, but happy!

Total number of miles by car: 5066
Final results of 'heppa' game: 27-27 (a tie, no less!)

Back home

We still have few days to describe here. We decided we will create post of each day, since we saw so many things that otherwise we will not remember it ourselves! :-)

But other things we still be adding here are list about the experiences, TOP 5 restaurants, TOP 10 road trip music we listened etc.

The list I promised to give was about all the wild animals we saw during this trip so let's start with that:

-Wild horses and burros (wild donkeys) (the story behind the wild horses in US is a sad one, they used to be killed for fun, meat etc, but now as the laws protect them they reproduce in huge numbers and as they do not have too many natural enemies and the herds may grow too big to actually survive in the areas they live... SO EVERYONE, GO ADOPT A MUSTANG http://www.mustangs4us.com/!)
-Deer
-Black Bear
-Elk
-Beavers
-Different types of squarrels
-Whales (Humpback)
-Sea elephants
-Sea lions
-Sea otters


Birds (lots of them we do not recognize them so here only a few)
-Different types of woodpeckers
-Hummingbirds (Kolibri in Finnish, we did not realize they would come to Colorado, they always seem so tropical for us)
-Hawks and eagles
-Ravens (they move in pairs and seemed to be following us around, the Indians see them as teachers so we thought they were trying to teach us something (at least we learned they move in pairs...))

Arts and witchcraft

First night in San Francisco and we had an earthquake, 4.2 richter.
You could feel it but it was small enough to cause no damage.

Friday was a Harry Potter day (of sorts). In the big bookstore in the
center they were preparing for the publishing of the last Harry Potter
novel the next day, and they were preparing to start selling the book
at 12.01 am. We decided not to go for the numbered wristbands for the
midnight to buy the new book, they promised they should have it still
in the morning), but we went to see the new movie in IMAX, with parts
of it in 3D. Fun!

Before the movie we visited SF Museum of Modern Art where we had a
guided tour of their photography section. It was very good and very
interesting.

In the evening we aimed towards the waterfront and went there in true
SF style: with a cable car (a tram, not a gondola). We continued with
a little shopping and went to eat at Chowhound food site endorsed
vietnamise haute cuisine restaurant, the Slanted Door. We had no
reservation but we managed to get seats in the lounge area, even
though there was a lot of people there. Apparently, if a restaurant is
popular is SF, it is really popular!

On our way back to the hotel, we decided to go by the bookstore to see
whether there was a major Harry Potter partying going on there. It was
quite quiet there, just a couple of teenagers in costumes, just
reading or something. Apparently, the bookish types aren't at their
best in throwing a party... I mean, reading in a party, what's up with
that??

If you're going to San Francisco...

Yesterday we started the day by seeing whales!!! Amazing, we took a
whale watching boat to the sea, and saw humpback whales, mommy and a
baby. We have never seen whales; it is amazing how close they let the
boats to come and how big they are! We also saw Californian sea lions
and otter and seals (in Finnish we called these marine mammals
"meripunkerot", "sea fatties"), the seals came to see us and jumped
around the boat. We have seen so much wildlife during this trip we
have to add an entry listing animals we have met (some very close
encounters, others bit more distant like the black bear, fortunately).

After brisk sea trip we were quite hungry and ate the Monterey
speciality Clam Chowder (resembles Finnish fish soup but was bit
better in our opinion :-)) went to see what the Aquarium was like and
then we were done with sea life and wanted to see something completely
different...

And that we definitely did! we went to the Mystery Spot in outskirts
of Santa Cruz, in dark, mysterious forest. In Mystery Spot, mysterious
things happen! Such as balls roll downwards and people can't stand
straight on crooked surfaces :). But the guided "show" was
entertaining enough. Certainly, one of the strangest tourist
attractions we have seen, and not because of myserious forces working
in the area.

In the evening we came to San Francisco, it was nice to be in the city
for a change. We noticed being quite tired of all the driving and
running around so we decided not to plan too much for the weekend and
just relax (let's see about that...).

Miles: ~100 (forgot to check)

Total number of miles on the trip so far: over 5000!

Rosebud

We continued the coastline drive through Highway 1. We stopped for
excellent breakfast in Redwood Cafe in a sleepy tonw of Cambria. Best
breakfast so far during this trip!

Very near fast the first sight of the day, Hearst Castle. The Hearst
Castle was built by William Randolph Hearst, a newspaper magnate from
early 1900s, and the real-life of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane. And it
was very Citizen Kane indeed...

Also interesting thing to notice was that the Hearst Castle is the
second-most visited tourist attraction in the states, it's right there
after Disneyland.

Later in the afternoon we drove through Big Sur, stopped every once in
a while to take pictures of the amazing coastline and the sea, and had
a lunch stop in restaurant Nepenthe of the cliff by the shire (Orson
Welles had orginally bought a cottage in the restaurant's place for
his wife Rita Hayworth). On the way we saw elephant seal and otters
among other sea wildlife.

You wouldn't think it but the californian
coast has an abundance of sea mammals and other sea life.

In the evening we arrived to Monterey where we booked a whale watching
trip for the next day, did some laundry and went to fish restaurant
for dinner as you are supposed to do while in Monterey.

Miles: 160