Home at last. It feels very odd. Leeds was hotter than SF on our return. The dog has acquired an entire new set of vocalisations in our absence and is keen to use them as much as possible. I’ve gone back to having no idea where anyone is any of the time. I don’t know … Continue reading
Tagged with travel …
The El Tovar Restaurant, South Rim, Grand Canyon
I was moved to review this restaurant on. Trip Advisor. This is what I said. ‘What a huge disappointment this was. Ignoring the dark and loud main room, and the fact that my request for a round table for the 6 of us had been ignored (we got the largest joined together tables ever,thus making … Continue reading
Racing Arizona
So is this the Real America? In my mediated view of America through cinema and literature, I’ve got loads of wildly different ‘Americas’ in my head but over the last thirty years I’ve only experienced urban US. The big East coast and West coast cities, with Chicago and New Orleans and Florida thrown in to … Continue reading
Hola La Jolla
La Jolla beach After a final pineapple juice-soaked carb-high session of late night poker, we left Surf City on a high note and headed still farther south to San Diego via La Jolla. We couldn’t miss La Jolla since a close friend spent a couple of expat years there with his family after considerable extensive … Continue reading
Spreading Ashes
So yesterday we were travelling South, from Huntington Beach to San Diego. Just north of San Diego is the less known enclave called La Jolla. It’s pronounced La Hoya. I’d heard of it because one of my oldest and best friends had spent a 2 year, yes 2 year, ‘sabbatical’ there, 5 years ago. It … Continue reading
A Spiritual Side to Beverly Hills
The Caffe del Arte, Beverly Hills There are a couple of tried-and-tested ways to get under the skin of a place when you have relatively limited time available. Our favoured approach is to do all the stuff we do at home as much as possible: except do it in the unfamiliar/exotic location. A good starting … Continue reading
The “Real-ness” of Santa Barbara
An enticing glimpse over the hotel balcony into the hidden alleyway opposite Classic promenade view Travel always feels to me like a search for the real. Distinguishable from mere holidays, of course, which are a search for hedonistic pleasure. I’m generalizing, of course. It’s a bit of an intellectually arrogant distinction with a kernel of … Continue reading
When is a View Not a View?
Cliff top dwellings I was very excited to wake up yesterday morning at Shell Beach and see a view of the Pacific out of the bedroom window. A beautiful view, framed by the ubiquitous cochineal-red oleanders, grey-blue succulents and ochre gravel. To the right, a cliff top path. To the left, another cliff top path. … Continue reading
Passing Paso Robles
Cambria Main Street This morning saw a successful and timely win against Satnav, who in a spirit of provocative meanness tried to force us down Highway 101 again for our journey south. It took a hundred miles before the spoilt brat stopped demanding a legal U turn at the earliest safe opportunity, but we closed … Continue reading
The Carmel Zone
The Thomas Kinkade Experience If Carmel (CA) didn’t exist you couldn’t invent it. The hyperreality of a Disneyland experience is hard-pushed to match a walk down Carmel’s main thoroughfare. Gingerbread cottages and cutesy boutiques selling everything you don’t know you need or want, but still you fall for it all. I’m ashamed to own up … Continue reading
A Chevy for Six, Please 