california - ktz.

Death Valley

These desert vistas absolutely boggle my little mind. Most people come to Las Vegas for the brash, expensive and over the top spectacle. Indeed, it is fun for a night or two. But given the choice between a night in Vegas or another night on those dunes, there's simply no contest.

USA-Roadtrip-2017

Death Valley, Manzanar and Mobius Arch

Day 9. Words fail me but I'll try anyway. 49C. That really is hot. That was the maximum temperature recorded by the car in Death Valley today. We continued our roadtrip from Mammoth Lakes, in the mountains near Yosemite, to Beatty on the edge of Death Valley National Park. Rewind. The first portion of our day involved driving South and descending (thank god!) down to around 3700ft where we pulled off the highway and visited Manzanar, a Japenese internment concentration camp during WWII. P

USA-Roadtrip-2017

Yosemite

Day 8. I'm feeling rather bleary eyed this morning after less than 4 hours sleep. We rolled into Mammoth Lakes after leaving behind the Bay area in the morning at around 10pm. At an altitude of 8000ft (2450m) I'm really feeling the effects when trying to sleep. Perhaps that's not too surprising given that we're effectively in a town on top of an Alp. It's like a cruel joke. The conscious part of my brain is able to tell me that I'm fine and not about to suffocate but the moment I nod off that

USA-Roadtrip-2017

Silicon Valley and Incubus

Day 7. So much of my world is dreamt up in these few square miles, actually being here is almost daunting. Where to begin? What to see? In actual fact, there isn't much save for the outsides of company HQs and organic coffee shops. That didn't stop us trying though! After a lie in we hopped into the car and headed out for breakfast. Soon after we found a cafe where we could have breakfast and I could write up yesterdays adventures in San Francisco. Afterwards, we drove past Tesla, VMWare, Micr

USA-Roadtrip-2017

San Francisco

Day 6. Visiting somewhere as famous as this is either a massive dissapointment or hugely fun and a bit surreal. I'm happy to report the later is true here. Despite the pervasive mist that has perma-shrouded our time here I found the city to be delightfully charming. No trip here would be complete without a ride on one of the famous cable cars. Not fancying driving around downtown or paying huge amounts for parking we stuck to our British roots and took the Bart (Bay Area Rapid Transit) from

USA-Roadtrip-2017

Napa Valley and Giant Redwoods

Day 5. Wow, is it really only day 5? The last few days feel like they've all been two in one the amount we've managed! Today we visited Calistoga, a charming small town about 30 minutes north of Napa. The drive north was really quite lovely. Row upon row of vines nestled in a wide, sunny valley. We, of course, had to sample the local fare and stopped for a wine tasting at the Huge Bear tasting rooms. The Huge Bear tasting rooms were right in the centre of Calistoga in a gorgeous old Bank

USA-Roadtrip-2017

The Pacific Coast Highway and Laguna Seca

Day 4. Suburbia. Stifling. Still. Safe. Suffocating. The natural habitat of the American. Everything you could seemingly want or need is catered for, usually with a few minutes drive. And yet, I couldn't ever see myself living there. Too bland. Too... homogeneous. The town high school was nearby, a massively massive place. The Pioneer Valley Panther's Football field proved quite alluring for a drones eye view, would love to catch a game for real one day alas - schedules didn't quite permit

USA-Roadtrip-2017

The Roadtrip Beginneth

There was a Starbucks next door attached to a grocery store which had, like most things here, a really astonishing amount of cheese. Not good cheese though, just slightly different types of pre-grated or different rubber compounds like hard, medium and soft.

USA-Roadtrip-2017

Venice Beach and Griffith Park

Day 2. We began the day around 9.30am by walking a couple of blocks to a bike rental place nearby, as recommended by our Airbnb host. It didn't open till 12 though - time for plan B. Uber! It was only a couple of miles to the beach and the Uber fare was estimated at around $9, approaching what it would cost us to drive and park there - I really wanted to try and avoid that madness. So, we opted for Uber pool instead bringing the estimate down to $5.50, much more agreeable. I think Uber itself

USA-Roadtrip-2017

Endeavour and Downtown LA

Entrance to the Space Shuttle Endeavour exhibition hall was $2 each, more than reasonable in my view. This was just the coolest thing. Who doesn't love the idea of a reusable spaceship!!!