PLEASE TRY AND VIEW ON SOMETHING WITH A LARGER SCREEN THAN A MOBILE PHONE

HONG KONG (third try!)

Hong Kong is a city of contrasts. We first visited in December 2019, just as the early stories about Wuhan and 'a virus' were starting to emerge. We stayed at the wonderful Icon Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui and kidnapped their most English-fluent concierge. A few vc's later, we adopted her! This enabled us to go back for round two - after a break of 4 years and about half a dozen Covid shots each! In January 2024....... a week or so after we returned, Helen uttered her, by now commonplace, "BA have their sale on" catchphrase and we booked for California (see below). In almost the same breath she 'wondered' how much we could get a business class flight to HK for. Well it proved to be more than first class to California but those nice people over at Air France/KLM were happy to take our money nevertheless. Being of a certain age, long haul is starting to become a (literal) pain and so we are now fully paid up members of the lie-flat bed club. HK in 2023 was in Premium Economy, so we did try to curb our profligate spending! Anyway, thanks to what is proving to be the trickiest bit of any multi-leg journey (unavoidable when you live in Northumberland) - airline cancellations and changes - we ended up going out on KLM and back on Air France. A (very familiar to us now) Boeing 777 out and - a new plane alert! - an Airbus 350 coming back. Our stay courtesy of Dan and Elly who are very tolerant of us and put themselves out no end to ensure our comfort, safety and enjoyment. True stars!

Anyway, returning to the city of contrasts bit (!) if you close one eye and ignore the fact HK is composed almost entirely of skyscrapers, restaurants and shops and so could be regarded as very non-contrasty. However, there are skyscrapers and skyscrapers, restaurants and restaurants and shops and shops. I've tried to bring some of that out in the images below and the accompanying blurb will explain what I mean. I've been quite good (honestly!) at limiting the number of skyscraper images, so hopefully this trawl through won't be too tedious for you. Enjoy!

People and food

After 'Goblim' Flowing Heart Egg Crisp Cheeze flavor wafers, it's all downhill from here! Unlike the States - where we had to take out a mortgage to pay the tip, let alone the food bill, you can dine out like a King in HK for a fiver........no, seriously. And, what's a tip? We slashed our spendies budget in half, despite eating out in restaurants every day, sometimes a couple of meals and a breakfast 'snack'. Every type of Asian food you could dream of and a few worthy attempts at Western food too. I even ate fish and chips on Lamma Island - purely in the interests of research. And who knew Korean pizza could be so good!

Seriously though, this section will be one of the biggest. Not only is HK a foody paradise but it is the people and the food we get so much of a kick out of. It's part of the daily routine for us and so many HK-ers. I suspect food will even creep into other sections. It's all-pervasive over there, from its wet markets with their stunning and ludicrously cheap produce through to more Michelin-starred establishments than you could shake a stick at....... but more of that later!

Starting modest and working up, the HK equivalent of a McFlurry. That's the McFlurry on the left and one of my favourite pictures of Helen eating said delicacy. Sweet Potato ice cream - it's the future!

This time we sadly only had Umi (Elly's little helper) for the first couple of days as she had business elsewhere for the remainder of the holidays. However........ never one to be put off by hard work........ it's almost impossible to stop her cooking breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, snacks for you. Here's just one example of the gorgeous tasty food she works so hard to produce. I'm salivating on my desk!

Hot Pot time with Dan and Elly!

A recommendation from a Chinese-Medicine Doctor, no less......not sure what he would think about having private dining rooms where you can smoke or vape at the table......a first for a few decades for me!

A very common sight in many windows around the city.

And a stunning example of how it might end up if you go to the right places. We'd been good and only had two half ducks between three of us, instead of our customary three halves!

Ducklicious - purveyors of the stunning duck and pancakes you see (above right) is one of our favourite restaurants. Visit count this time was just two...... but could easily have been three or four! Despite the display of gluttony with the multiple ducks, we always manage to have some 'little extra' (or BIG extra if truth be told!). Our 2024 tour saw such delights as sweet and sour fish, lobster in cheese sauce and prawns in salt egg-flavoured breadrumb coating. My desk is in danger again!

Staying on a theme of poultry.......here's a lovely fresh example from the wet market in Tsuen Wan West, where we stayed. This lady was determined to pose for the 'white person' with the camera. One of two stand-out personalities we met there.

Also at the market, this gentleman was a very popular fishmonger.

Doesn't this just have you scrambling for your knife and fork! Chopsticks just aren't fast enough!

In the markets, on the streets.......

....... In the malls

Now, one of the things you soon realise in HK, is that Michelin operate ever so slightly differently! I posted a pic of us in our converted washroom on FB while we were away but here is the main part of the restaurant......it's a few levels below school dinners isn't it! We had our feet on wet corrugated cardboard and supply/rubbish carrier bags underneath our countertop. A good few of the HK Michelin establishments like Kam's Roast Goose and Tim Ho Wan's dim sum places are similar. Clearly the concentration over there is on the quality and taste of the food, rather than ambience and stylish service.

A lot of the food is VERY fresh!

A fascinating one to finish off the food pics. This was actually part of our Christmas lunch! A great little family Thai place in Kowloon City where the ladies worked at tables in the back of the seating area chopping and preparing ingredients. Lovely friendly service and (yet another first - HK is full of them!) the dish on the far left......looks like Scotch Egg......is actually something called 'Century Egg' - eggs preserved in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime, and rice hulls for several weeks or months to the extent that the white in particular assumes a completely different colour and texture. Very tasty!

When I arrived in Kennedy Town, at the very east end of HK Island, I wasn't really sure what was going on. There were more girls than this but the shot shows the 'logic' which eventually helped me work out what they were doing.......without being too nosey and intrusive!

Part of my confusion arose from being a photographer who is not into selfie culture and other forms of modern 'look at me' behaviour. The background was poor.......a murky distant view of Kowloon and a mid distance with road Armco barriers, signs and litter bins. However, for some reason, Kowloon must be this month's de rigeur backdrop for aspiring fashionistas! In a style so very telling about the polite culture in HK, the girls were 'forming an orderly queue' to have their photo taken by an accompanying friend, then swapping subject and photographer so they had their turn. You can see the girl in the beige mac at the right hand side adopting the classic Asian photo pose while her friend in the winter-defying black shorts plays David Bailey. Weird!

And last, but certainly not least a very small, hairy person. At a sprightly 15 years of age, Muffin is adorable and kept us entertained in between meals. If you're wondering about the jaunty apparel....... medical reasons!

Celebrations

One of the most common questions we got asked when friends found out we were 'going away for Xmas' was....... 'do they celebrate Xmas in HK?' The short answer is - not really. The commercial answer would however beg to differ. You'll see some of the decorations in the coming few images. HK-ers make more to do about the Winter Solstice than Xmas. This decoration was taken on my last day out and about, at the base of the massive 118 storey International Commerce Centre (13th tallest building in the world) and is ready for Chinese New Year - more familiar as an Asian key date.

But, back to Christmas. The mall underneath where we were staying.

And a, somewhat grander, effort from our good friends at Dior, outside K11 Musea on TST Promenade....... just in case you thought I was exaggerating about how big commerce view the uncelebrated event!

The first of three (handheld!) attempts at capturing the magnificent 12 minute display of fireworks over the harbour to welcome in the (non-Chinese) New Year.

Fireworks a la Monet!

Taken from the 51st floor of The Arch, atop Kowloon MTR station.

Planes, trains and automobiles

........and boats and ambulances!

KLM did a great job once we got to Schipol. The lounge there was really done out with an eye for design and some nice festive touches.

A rather nice touch was the model Delft house display either side of the escalators heading up to the restaurant.

And the provision of a massage function on their seats - another first for us.

Once in HK we lost no time re-acquainting ourselves with their MTR rapid transit system.......the tube but with clean, safe, spacious and airy stations........

........and trains!

Many of the stations are vast underground cities. Even a 'small' station like our 'home' one at Tsuen Wan West (above) can have multiple levels and several access points, linking to malls etc. Here's an example from HK MTR station which gives you some idea of the complexity attached to a medium/large station complex. Stations like East Tsim Sha Tsui can have dozens of exits and, depending on which ones you choose, have you going downstairs at one end of TST Promenade and coming up almost at the other end....... that's almost the length of the main HK harbour waterfront on the Kowloon side!

And some even have facilities to check-in your luggage during the day for an evening flight. Thirty check-in desks at this station alone.......that's as big as Newcastle airport! You can relax, safe in the knowledge your luggage will be taken to the airport for you so you don't have to lug it around town or pay for a left luggage facility.

Some methods of transport aren't quite so modern! The 'ding ding' stems from 1904.

And this one continues to perpetuate the Xmas myth!

But perhaps my favourite mode of transport is the 19th Century 'Star' Ferry.......best almost free view for about 30p!

If Postman Pat made ambulances! One of the tiny ambulances on Lamma Island.

And home, for the first time on an Airbus A350-900

Shenzhen

Or a day trip to 'proper' China.

With Shenzhen only being just over half an hour away from the station beside where our HK adventure first started in 2019 it seemed stupid not to visit when we had the services of a fluent English/ Mandarin/ Cantonese/ Indonesian/ etc/ etc speaker to smooth the linguistic challenges for us. Shenzhen is third only to Beijing and Shanghai in Chinese city population size at around 18m. Its GDP has now surpassed that of HK and is in the top 10 of largest economies. It has the fifth highest rating for number of billionaires, second for the number of skyscrapers and has the fifth highest one of those in the world, a frustrating metre short of being 600m tall! Read on for titbits from our short trip (Chinese immigration turned out to be more of an issue than we expected, so we only had a few hours there after lengthy walks between HK and China immigration, returning and then back again for another try!). They probably saw my CTC security clearance level and thought I was a spy!

A nice stroll to start! No, this isn't the Chinese equivalent of those awful shipping container 'Stack' blots on the landscape. Instead, immaculately clean mobile food stalls for roll-out at local events.

The alleyways were just as 'mind-bogglingly compact' as some of the HK ones, but a lot cleaner underfoot.

Back to what I mentioned earlier about HK's contrasts. It's mostly high-end or low-rent, with not a a lot in between. The number of men and women swilling pavements clean in Shenzhen was quite something. Brought back memories of granny cleaning her front step!

This mural was very large and very well done.

A lilac Tesla with a Swarovski crystal bling boot badge.......Helen couldn't resist this one!

And who knew Xiaomi made cars as well as mobile phones!

It's not just the great cities of Europe who enjoy pavement cafes!

And, continuing with the food theme, how's about some of this........

Or this........

Or these totally yummy skewers? Yours for 30p!

The Environment

Back to HK and a collection of what, I guess, could be called 'miscellaneous' but this sounds more enigmatic, plus it does centre around the built environment. So, one last cuppa, then you're ready to go!

And I suppose a good place to start is where we stayed - Tsuen Wan West. This is my 'aal porpose' (Geordie dialect word, for those in exotic parts who won't understand what I am on about) shot of TWW. This is what I refer to as the TWW 'High Street' - Yeung Uk Road - it's not the biggest road, but fronts many of the stores, restaurants and housing.

It's back to my 'contrasts' theorem again. The left hand side, quite swanky, the right not so much. However, it's the best 'average' view I took during my time here to offer a realistic picture of life in TWW.

And, for completeness, here's the right hand side. Somewhat run down but I always felt when we crossed that bridge (light blue, extreme rhs) to some of the restaurants on the other side, it was very photogenic. Shoot me for sounding like a pretentious prat!

Staying in TWW, those of you who followed our travels in 2023 will be sick to death of this view by now........BUT........what a view! A quick trio as samples of the dozens I've taken 'over the years'.

Rush hour!

That famous sunset!

From luxurious vistas to luxurious living. Dior's stunning facade to their 'shop' in the Hallmark Mall.

Not a 5 star hotel reception area but the entrance lobby to The Arch 'apartment block' - where we watched the NY Eve fireworks from. These types of buildings are stunning, both from an aesthetic and architectural point of view. I could post pics of them until you all fell asleep. What do you mean, you have fallen asleep!

Mixing things up a bit with a switch to the wildlife environment. Turtles/ terrapins/ whatever you want to call them are very common in HK. A lot of basking going on, seeing as it was a perishingly cold 70F! Meanwhile, back home, brass monkeys were lagging themselves!

A beautiful spotted dove on Lamma Island.

Also on Lamma Island.......WTF! Dogs basking on sand bars while an Egret looks on. They were so stock still we thought they were dead for a good while until one flicked an ear.

Continuing with the WTF theme.......just what you normally find at your typical town bus stop!

A little back alley interlude to get you away from the beauty of nature and some of HK's architecture. I've borrowed a couple from our 2019 trip as I visited Chungking Mansions again this time but didn't risk the camera (!). (Still) trying to keep the contrasts theorem going and, although I don't have any truly mucky examples, you can't deny these locations aren't as pristine as in Shenzhen!

My favourite from Chunking! You can't believe, a mere stone's throw away from this dubious location, the shops of Rado and Rolex abound. Yes, you may be approached in the street asking if you would like to buy a 'Rolex', but I mean the real Rolex shop!

Two very similar images, again from Chungking. This first one is more to provide some recognisable context as........

........trying to fathom what umbrellas and cables are doing all mixed-up in one image might not be so easy otherwise!

More visually chaotic as dark and dingy......but you get the idea!

And there's no disputing that this structure has seen better days! These last two from Lamma Island.

A little light relief needed after that last foray into HK's seamier side. This one should, strictly speaking, have gone into the people and food section but the overall architectural context saw it moved here instead, so there!

Another 'pretty' one. A mural on the jetty at Kennedy Town. Those girls should have taken their pics here instead!

One of Helen's of an entranceway into Kowloon Park. I like the Park, there are surprises round every corner.

What we really need around here is some more PINK! I think, although the mind is going, this is somewhere beside the MoMA shop in K11 Musea.

Back to HK MTR station...... you're never more than 100m from a MTR station in HK....... unless your feet are tired that is!

Just stepping outside the station for a bit...... the pics don't stop once you get out either.

Or indeed, even if you go up on the roof!

Light and shade. These benches are very popular come lunchtime.

A big stitched panorama from the roof garden looking across to Kowloon. The International Commerce Centre (I mentioned its 118 storeys earlier) to the left. And K11 Musea (also mentioned previously) the tall dark building to the right.

Last one from the roof garden.

I was saving all the lookie up at skyscrapers ones till towards the end....... lull you into a false sense of security!

That's it, I promise!

Something quite different to contrast. Gotta love all the reading material outside HK restaurants. I think it's because a lot of them have queues at peak times!

Another photographer-y one, like the grubby flats in TWW.

And finally. A very typical covered walkway on HK Island.

So, there you have it........ HK 2024/25. My first ever Christmas away from home. Did I care......no! I nearly got brussel sprouts on the 25th though...... that lovely family-run Thai place in Kowloon City had them on the menu as part of a dish we nearly ordered. That would have been fun. But, if it meant missing out on the century egg......no way!

At this age you are never quite sure whether or not you will ever get back to see places. However, HK is a jewel and, thanks to the generosity of our friends, we have managed to spend far more time there than your average English tourist.

If we do get back sometime, I'll try and get up some really mucky alleys for you!

OUR CALIFORNIA ROAD TRIP 2024

A right mixture of images from three sources - my Sony A77ii/Tamron 16-300 'travel' combo, Helen's mobile phone and.......for the first time ever, my phone images outnumber those taken with the SLR.

A true 'sign of the times' and a testament to, firstly, my evolving skill with using such a device and, secondly, the vastly improved quality of phone cams these days.

Nothing too professional or fancy, just a relaxed collection of images that truly do illustrate our travel style these days.

Departure

Helen starting life as she hopes (!) to go on, with a Bucks Fizz breakfast, in Heathrow's sumptuous Concorde Room restaurant.

Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

Arrival

Anybody over the age of 50 would recognise that we had arrived in the US, at John Wayne Airport!

Las Vegas

Well it was straight into Vegas' excess, when we went down for breakfast, with one of a whole range of Halloween-themed confectionery displays in the Aria Patisserie. This glass case was about 12 feet across.......this wasn't a cake-topper!

Even the corridors are spectacular!

Walking through the Bellagio was actually more jaw-dropping than many of the sights on 'The Strip'. They had a huge 'grotto' area with the most amazing displays worked into micro-managed gardens.

Moving out of the grotto, the displays got only slightly less interesting.

The Malls are amazing.

Helen kindly stepped-in, to provide a sense of scale........that's a BIG chandelier!

Finally, we made our way out onto The Strip.

Shania is still a big pull. Unfortunately she couldn't fit us into her busy schedule - arriving a few days later.

Vegas can be very confusing. That's not a real sky!

Wherever you go, there's always something to tempt you. Of course we were probably the only visitors to both Vegas and Lake Tahoe in one trip who never gambled a cent!

Like I said.....temptation around every corner!

The Venetian continues to play tricks with your mind.

.......and exercises your jaw-dropping muscles.

How the Metro Centre should have done the Roman Forum!

Traipsing around - with approaching 25,000 steps in 104 degree heat - really takes its toll on thick-blooded Geordies. As the golden hour started to manifest itself, we turned back past the Bellagio fountains and headed for 'home'.

The longest day

We had a 376 mile drive the next day. I've possibly been a bit remiss in omitting one of the stars of our show up to now. Yup.....big daddy......a 7-seater Jeep Grand Cherokee carried us in comfort (if you ignore the bends) for the grand cost of about £50.......we averaged just under 30mp (English) gallon during this part of our journey. Using Costco at every opportunity kept fuel to as low as $3.39 per (US) gallon......yeah.....you do the math! Our little cottage room No.1 at the New Haven Inn Solvang was, indeed, a welcome sight.

Solvang

Not so welcome was the continued heat, although it had abated a bit from Vegas' 104F to just 103F.......phew, what a relief! Solvang is the 'Danish capital of the USA' - a real quirky oddity in California. You'll see what a lovely little place it is in the next few photos. We had originally chosen this as a low-cost base for Santa Barbara. However it was such a delight, and the annual film festival would have rendered getting about in SB unrealistic, therefore we got lucky.

Well, it was 103 degrees!

And I was trying to remain cool and unruffled at all times! Note skin still 'pale but interesting'! No, people didn't laugh and point in the street saying "there's another Englishman"!

The town was very welcoming, as you can see.

Even the ghostlies looked happy to see us.

There were also some extrovert personalities, despite the overall genteel aura of the place.

And we were sorry to leave.

San Luis Obispo

Part of our 'Solvang as a touring base' itinerary was a short visit to SLO (as we Californian's call it!). What a lovely town. Enjoy the images.

Paso Robles

(for San Simeon)

Paso Robles wasn't the most photogenic of spots but, using it as a touring base, we took the opportunity to cover the short area of Big Sur to the south of the landslip which has seen the iconic drive 'severed' for some time now. Passing through numerous vineyards as we crossed the mountains to the coast, we popped out at the other side beside the Hearst (Patty - kidnapped heiress) estate.

We walked down to the beach beside the pier.

The area also contained quite a bit of wildlife. Here a pushmi-pullyu!

I couldn't catch the numerous hummingbirds that zoomed amongst the blossom trees using my travel lens, so settled for this slightly easier target.

And things got wilder the further we went up the coast.

Marina (for Monterey, Carmel and Big Sur)

After an unprecedented welcome to our lodgings, we seemed to pack a lot into our stay in Marina. Like Paso Robles it lacked photographic merit.......but it was a HECK of a lot cheaper! Starting north in Monterey and working south, towards the other end of the landslide on the Pacific Coast Highway.

Carmel is eye-searingly well-to-do, and pretty.......you can see what attracted Clint to it!

With apologies for the intrusion of that yellow Hummer (!) and Helen's pink evening ensemble........but that tree!

The houses just keep getting better and better.

Continuing along the bay.

To the end.

Then back towards the car as the golden hour started to take effect.

It was blue sky....fog....blue sky.....fog all the way down Big Sur. We just managed to squeeze this shot of the local inhabitants.

The 1932 Bixby Bridge that you will see in all the tourist shots. This time being coy and peeping out between mist banks.

Pleasant Hill/Concord

Our first stay of more than 2 nights (we later went on to calculate that we slept in 12 different beds over the duration of our holiday!). A chance to partially unpack! A quick '20 years on' photo trip round Concord, to capture some 'then and now' memories for our beloved Elly in HK who attended college there. Then off to what was one of the first highlights of our trip, an evening cooking and relaxing with Lisa in gorgeous Moraga - this view is from Lisa's stunningly beautiful house.

Our one day opportunity to travel (via BART) into The City by the Bay. We had a simple plan, largely predicated around our inability to tackle SF's many steep hills.......into Powell St, onto the cable car, tour Pier 39/Fisherman's Wharf and return on the cable car.

And the ride (there and back) was truly memorable. A cacophony of noise, the angle of the climbs, hanging on for grim death as everyone 'slid' into you on the steepest sections and SF all around you with its quirky mix of old and new buildings in a unique style.

We arrived!

Our visit coincided with Fleet Week and so we saw some displays of naval shipping and aircraft.......including the Blue Angels display team - don't even think about comparing them to the Red Arrows!!! Alcatraz looked just as formidable as you'd always heard (and a lot closer!). We declined the $120 opportunity to tour it as Helen had been before and......well, you've seen it on tv so many times before, haven't you! We settled for watching a helicopter fly-past instead.

The Golden Gate was closer than I'd imagined too!

Never really thought of pumpkins being associated with fountains....but, hey! it's America in the run up to Halloween. Seriously, I've never seen so many pumpkins!

After a brief browse of the Ghirardelli chocolate shop it was back on the jingle jangle tram of old San Francisco town.

Orinda

I guess you could say this was the underpinning 'foundation' for our trip. For the 24 years we have been together, Helen has jabbered away non-stop about how great her life was when 'she was a nanny in the States in the eighties'. Regrettably it has taken us far too long to make the trip, so she could show me her 'best years'. Earlier this year, I took her to watch the Isle of Man TT Races - my 'heyday' from almost the exact same period. That (and the ever increasing cost of travel insurance) perhaps acted as a catalyst to get us out to Ca. at last. I had been lucky enough to meet Joan and Frank Maxwell (and Liz and Frank Jr) when Helen and I were married. It was unbelievably nice to see them again after 21 years.

And their lovely home with its mountain-like driveway (!). How much is this view from the deck worth!? We saw some incredible things and met some super lovely people but this Sunday was the absolute pinnacle.

Nanny (now 'Granny') Helen, with the gang.

Where did those 4 nights go!

It was Monday and time to pack up (again!). Our trip had two parts. The first 2 weeks were our 'self-guided' road trip. The second 2 weeks fulfilled another long-awaited 'must do'. Jennifer and David had, so generously, offered to 'put us up' for the fortnight. After 4 years of constant (regular and lengthy) video chats Helen and Jen got to meet-up in New Jersey in April........ Helen's - 'Don't worry, I've had 4 stents put in 2 weeks ago' Tour! I had spoken (fairly regularly and at fair length) to Jen via the vc but hadn't had the pleasure of meeting in the real world. The idea of David taking over the driving from me and avoiding having to decide who had right of way at the endless 4-way intersections was a treat I was relishing, for sure!

Stockton

Although we (finally!) got a chance to unpack properly and infest our new base there would be more exciting road trip action to come. Two 'must sees' were Lake Tahoe and Yosemite National Park. Stockton is so conveniently located for touring both it would be 'stupid not to'. Photos from the two trips will follow.

More spooky goings on, just around the corner.

And wtf, peacocks everywhere!

(FtoR) Brie, Jen and Izzy

Me and my best pal !

Lake Tahoe

Tahoe, viewed from our hotel bedroom window in two very different conditions.

Virginia City

Strictly speaking, part of our Tahoe trip. However, Virginia City was such a stand-out element of mini road trip #1, I have awarded it a section all to itself!

Looking over from the town to the old mining settlement at Gold Hill Nevada.

You saw 'Big Daddy' earlier on.......well this is Big Daddy's gym-honed bigger brother. With so many pleasurable miles behind the wheel, due to David's superb driving, we just couldn't miss giving it an honourable mention.

50......surely not!

Our 2 week homestay was so well worked out. Tahoe in wk1, Yosemite in Wk 2 and, in the middle, a landmark birthday party. Sorta like Lord of the Rings, just different! There was a party tree though and a lake. There may have been fireworks too.....but it was too bright to see them! We got to meet Jen's lovely family (again in the case of Kathleen) and had a superb time at the Michael David Winery in Lodi.

Probably the only picture ever captured of me in sunglasses!

If it is week 4, it must be Yosemite!

Can you believe it, from those happy smiling faces, we'd been on the road for almost 4 weeks at this stage! Also, note the difference in skin colour from the shot of me outside Whiskey 'n' Rye in Solvang! It was a tad chilly in the shade of the mountains, so this is probably the most clothing I wore during the trip.

Yosemite......so picturesque eh!

Just can't get enough of those stunning vistas!

All joking aside this is the sort of place that gets younger photographers very excited! To be truly exciting for me it would have to be the really old pre-electric style gas pumps. But I'm still incapable of passing up an opportunity such as this! One of the strangest things (for me) in California was the diversity in petrol prices. We saw a range of $3.39 to $6.19 per US gallon during our travels......insane! Fortunately.......and some of this is down to Costco.......we never paid more than $4.69, so the petrol bill was moderate - despite the Jeep guzzling at just under 30mpg (UK). That was one of the reasons we got rid of Helen's X2 M35i. It probably comes with the territory of being in the 300+bhp club!

Anyway, on with the road trip.......

Yosemite is famed for it's many stunning waterfalls. However, most 'dry-up' by about August.

.......And of course we were there in October - hoping to avoid the heat - Hah! So, all we had was a trickle coming over the bridal veil falls. Think this is payback for all the falls we saw in Milford Sound, New Zealand, in 2009!

And a real Ansel Adams style shot to finish the trio......wish I had brought my tripod and bigger camera!

The half dome (seen above in the stitched panorama) and El Capitan are the two best known of the Yosemite peaks. This final 'set of three' shows, not exactly a literal zoom-in, but the establishing shot here of the cliff face in its entirety.

Then a bigger pull-up, showing some of the incredible detail in the slab. You can actually see the climbers in this one...... they're the little white spot on the dark vertical band, half way across the frame and just under half way up.

And, finally, you should be able to see the lower pair of climbers with their associated ascent kit hanging-off and, an 'inch' or two up, the lead climber and his gear as he lays out the route. The fact that this was shot at the 35mm equivalent focal length of 450mm (or about 9x human eye magnification; a typical set of binoculars) shows just how massive the cliff face is. Alex Honnold actually solo free-climbed the face in 2017 for the first time. He finished by 11:56am! However, that's not to take away from the efforts of these guys......I hope they made it to the top!

Yosemite........ there or thereabouts

A few images on the way to/on the way back from Yosemite, with a number from the Columbia State Historic Park which, like Virginia City, was a very pleasant place to spend an hour or so.

Bonus extra feature!

David and I had originally intended to escape having to attend a quilt show with the girls on the Saturday before we officially arrived in Stockton. However 'the fates' conspired against us and, yes, that meant guess who had to go 'alone' to the quilt show with 3 avid fabric hounds! However, in what must be the equivalent of a penalty save in an FA Cup final, we got the opportunity to go again, while the girls were lounging about 'recovering' from all their shopping. And what a great day. Both being motorcyclists, we covered far more ground than at any time in the 4 weeks previous.....no shops and a 5.3l V8 truck to help speed us on our way!

Arlen Ness has been known to me since I started motorcycling in the early 80's. He's a sort of 'we're not worthy' figure who was the premier customiser of bikes in the USA for decades. When I found out that his work was still on display in a modern showroom run by the current owners it was a 'must visit'. David took no persuading whatsoever! It was just a 50 minute drive to Dublin Ca. - just round the corner in Californian terms! We found an (incredible to me being from the NE of England!) modern showroom selling the creme de la creme of European motorcycles - MV Agusta, Ducati, Aprilia and Triumph. We were impressed with the friendly but extremely well gauged low-pressure staff. David also got the opportunity to get 'hands-on' with the Triumph range for the first time. He found it very helpful and enlightening. I just have to sit for a few months now, fingers crossed, to see whether he plumps for one of them or goes down the BMW route!

After 5 minutes (!) in the showroom and museum we then pushed on with a fantastic 'trio of bridges surprise' - the Richmond-San Rafael, Golden Gate and Bay (lower deck) bridges. 'On the other side' I got to witness the most incredible section of State Highway 1 (far better than Big Sur!), Marin County, Sausalito, sections of San Francisco city itself I hadn't seen when on the cable car, including the world famous and mind-blowing Lombard Street. I wasn't sure whether a Chevvy Silverado would be able to negotiate it, but David made it look easy!

Goodbye California

Three shots from the plane on the first of our 3 flights home (Sacramento to Los Angeles to Heathrow to Newcastle). The first shows the very typical contrast in topography between the flat agricultural valleys and flanking mountain ranges, quite unlike anything we have in the UK. I've just found out that not all American roads are dead straight.....but their farmer's fields are!

Looping in from the coast to start our descent into LAX. Our home for the next 9 hours due to American Airlines having a cavalier disregard for customer service by cancelling our original flight. Thanks to Qantas' first class lounge for rescuing us and making the ordeal endurable! For fans of traffic jams you can see 'the 405' running down the left hand side of the photo!

And, sadly, this is the last image from our trip. If you squint really hard and uise your imagination, you can see the iconic Hollywood sign on the ridge towards the top left. The vast sprawl of Los Angeles in the foreground. Thank you for following this if you got this far. I hope you enjoyed the photos and commentary.

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