San Francisco Signs we’re in America: the breakfast provided by the hostel offered a choice of bagel or waffles. Signs we’re in California: there are recycling bins in every room, and signs reminding you to save water. Amazingly, we were all awake reasonably early and managed to get breakfasted and out of the hostel without…
Met k-j-h again for dinner, at a surfing-themed restaurant we’d spotted earlier in the day on Pier 39. Much hilarity over dinner about DOS and FOS’s adventures with a can of spray cheese and our English roommates (who were bribed with junk food not to report DOS and FOS having illicit food in the bunkroom),…
On Route 101, somewhere between Santa Cruz and Ventura Amazingly, we achieved our aim of being up by 5 am and on the road by 6 (or 6ish, at least). Having left too early for breakfast, our first stop was a little roadside cafe in an old railway caboose for necessary driver caffeination. Very cute….
Ventura As we drove south, the landscape changed from the fresh spring greens of northern California to a dustier, drier look. Instead of strawberry fields there were oil wells (literally hundreds within an area of a few square km on land, and a few much bigger ones out to sea) and citrus orchards. The roads…
Dinner at El Pollo Loco (which translates as Crazy Chicken! :-)) – a chain version of the taqueria we stopped at for lunch. We’ve decided on a change of plans for tomorrow. Instead of following Route 66 out of LA, we’re going to head into Nevada and go to Las Vegas! Hmm, I suppose I…
Auckland airport, sitting at the departure gate. Ok, Auckland is officially evil. I knew I had 2 hours between flights, so once I’d walked from domestic to international (and may just have released a book on the way :-)) I went through passport control, then completed the important mission of buying a NZ flag (well,…
Fort Mason Youth Hostel, San Francisco. This has been a really long day! I managed to get a couple of hours’ sleep on the plane, but I never sleep well in vehicles at the best of times, and it was a pretty bumpy trip. It seemed like every time I started to drift off we’d…
Dinner at Fisherman’s Wharf, in a bakery’s restaurant. I had a crab and corn bisque in a sourdough breadbowl, which seemed like a good way to combine trying some seafood (well, you have to at a place called Fisherman’s Wharf!) with trying some bread (it’s a bakery!). Exciting plans for tomorrow, involving sealions, cable cars,…
Christchurch airport, about an hour before my flight boards. All checked in and through (domestic) security. It’s weird sitting here in this lounge, where I’ve sat so often in the last year to wait for flights to Wellington for boring work meetings, but this time what I’m waiting for is anything but boring! I’m here…
I finally got all my release notes done! Here’s the list: 1 AprilAuckland:The Flint Knife by EF Benson San Francisco:Female Friends by Fay Weldon (caught!)The Story of Benjamin Bee by Pat Wynnejones 2 AprilSan Francisco:Another Amy by Marilyn KayeWhose Side Are You On? by Alan GibbonsMidshipman Quinn by Showell Styles (caught!)The Zucchini Warriors by Gordon…