West Coast Adventure- Topdeck

I went on a seven day Top Deck tour called California calling. We started the tour in San Francisco and ended in Los Angeles. It was a tour for 18-35 year olds and we had a group of 14 people. On my trip we had people from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Scotland. Our guide was an American guy who drove us around on our private bus.

San Francisco

The trip started in San Francisco. I arrived two days early so I would have a chance to see more of this city. 

Hotel: I stayed at Hotel North Beach in China Town. It was just a hostel with about 100 rooms in an old apartment building. My room was tiny with just a single bed, cupboard and fridge and there was a shared toilet and shower in the hall way. The receptionist was friendly and helpful. While very basic it was adequate for the cheap price I paid. 

Tip! Always check the reviews of your hotels before booking. The tour recommended a different hotel called Hotel Metropolis. The reviews of this place were that it was a nice hotel but terrible location. It is right in the middle of the city where there are a lot of homeless people. There is a street around the corner from it which the locals call "Zombie land", because there really are thousands of homeless people down there. Not a safe option for a solo traveler.

Homelessness is a huge problem here. Some causes may be due to the emergence of new drugs and the hippy vibe in the 80's. There is a huge gay and lesbian culture here and also a large number of Vietnam vets have settled here and have not been cared for. There is approximate 100,000 homeless people in San Francisco. 

I did a tour to Alcatraz and Angel Island. The tours to just Alcatraz book out early, so to get there I had to do a full day tour and go to Angel Island as well. It was a cold rainy day and I didn't bring warm enough clothes. I guess I thought being close to summer and going to sunny California that it would be warm. But I forgot how far north San Fran is and didn't know about its cranky weather. I bought myself a poncho and boarded my ferry.

Whilst waiting in line to board the ferry i got talking to a couple and their son from San Diego. After having a laugh because they thought I was a lesbian since I said I was visiting my "partner" we all ended up hanging out for the day.

The trip over to Angel Island took about 30 mins. Once there we boarded a tram and did a tour of the island, learning about its history. It used to be used as a military base. We then had time for a beer and some potato soup to warm ourselves up. Then got back onto the boat to go to Alcatraz.

Alcatraz was not spooky like I thought it would be. With thousands of people making their way through the biulding it was hard to picture the conditions that the prisoners faced. When you get there you begin by collecting your audio head set which guides you through the cells. You learn about some of the escape attempts and how the prisoners took the guards hostage. They say that no man ever escaped Alcatraz alive.

Tip! Book early. Take warm clothes!

After the tour I said good bye to my friends and headed down to the Fisherman's wharf. I stopped by the aquarium for a bit. They had a really good shark tunnel and some cute furry animals called a chinchilla. But there wasn't really anything stand out about it.

Once I got right into the fisherman's wharf I looked around and did some shopping. There were all kinds of souvenir shops, pearl and jewelry, shells, wine and food stores. I stopped at the Crab House at peir 39 for half of a garlic crab. I then treated myself by continuing on to another sea food restaurant for some natural oysters. Satisfied, I left the shopping district and continued up the street. There were street entertainers, steel drummers, buskers and artists.

I decided to get a cable car home, as this is something you must do while in San Fran! I bought my ticket and lined up. I was on the outside of the cart, holding on for dear life! We went up a giant hill, making a few stops along the way. I hopped off in China town and walked back down to my hotel. I just got a cup of tea and chilled for the rest of the night.

The following day I met up with my tour group. After meeting everyone and getting papers and stuff in order we headed off to our first attraction; the Golden Gate Bridge. It really was quite beautiful. We walked across it, talking about an hour. It is interesting that this is the first major construction in histroy where Occupational Health and Safety was enforced and successful. A safety net was used to catch biulders if they fell, and hard hats had to be worn. Only 11 men died building this bridge where it is normal for one man to die for every one million dollars spent. There are help telephones along the bridge as it is one of the most popular suicide sites in the world. The red paint was originally just the base coat, but people thought it looked so good that they decided to keep it red.

Yosemite National Park

Death Valley

Las Vegas

Route 66

Grand Canyon

Lake Havasu

Los Angeles

Florida 2013

Life in Perth 2012

Groovin' the Moo!

 All the gang in Busselton before heading to the festival.

At AQWA

Fremantle Prison Tunnels tour. 

All harnessed up, breath tested and safety briefed for the lethal 20m descent into the historical tunnels. Come on, its fool proof. Interesting history though and cool paddling boats through the tunnels in the dark!

"Id rather a life of 'oh wells', rather than a life of what ifs"

Irrelevant Elephant playing at Mojos

 Ice skating at Fremantle Winter Festival

Serpentine Falls

Nurse award 

Perth City from Kings Park. We went there for some nibbles and wine, then once the sun had set tested out our cameras on Perth's peak hour traffic.

Western Mudd Rush!

I joined Elissa and her friends in the Mudd Rush. Their were 18 obstacles and it was 8km long. It wasn't really so much a race, more of a team exercise as you had to help your team over hay bails, under pipes, over high walls, through tires, down a giant water slide and through lots and lots of mud!!!

Ballinup Medieval Carnivale

I spent a weekend with Emily down in Bunbury. Her, Dan and I visited the Ballinup Medieval Carnivale. There were people all dressed up in mideviel costumes. Businesses from around the area set up stalls to sell their products. We tasted lots of ciders, cheese, biscuits and mulled wine. 

Florida and Thanksgiving

Broome time

Brent and I joined Mum, Dad and Nana, as well as some of the surf clubbers on a trip to Broome! They were all going up there for the annual Broome Surf Club finals. Mum, Dad and Nana campervanned it all the way up there with the Joses.

Of course the trip began with some beautiful Broome sunsets on Cable beach. The water was warm and a welcomed escape from wintery Perth.

Sunset at Cable beach

A day on the green. (Although most of it was spent in the bushes looking for golf balls!)

Willy Creek

Pearl farm tour at Willey Creek. Learnt about how pearls grow and how they are farmed. Had a boat trip up the river to pull up some pearls.

Wearing a $39,600  pearl necklace! 

Beagle Bay

Now how many people can say they have been to Beagle Bay? As much of a national gem it is, probably not many, but we have. After about a two hour drive down a corrugated dusty red track we finally got to the quaint town of Beagle bay. It was just a small aboriginal community. We went their to see the church which was entirely decorated out of shells. It was really beautiful. We then realised that from here we could not go to the beach because it was all private land and also only mangroves near the coast. So we sat in the bush and had some lunch and a drink and made our way back down the track!

About 3/4 in we found this sign to say that the road was rough, no shit!

Fishing charter. We saw whales, turtles and ocean! Didn't have much luck fishing off the bottom, but trawling we managed to get a few big Spanish Mackerel and some Trevally. 

Fishing Trip

A highlight was our fishing trip me and the boys went on. Dad, Brent, John and I went on a deep sea fishing tour. The catch wasnt too impressive but we did catch some big Spanish mackerel and had plenty of fish for a feed.

Having a beer with lunch, this is when all the action began!

Spanish Mackeral! Catch of the day!

Outdoor cinemas. Sun Pictures is the worlds oldest picture gardens, est. in 1916. Its also the cinema used in the film Australia. We watched Salmon Fishing in the Yamen. 

Relaxing on the nudist's end of the beach. We walked for miles to find an empty bit of beach to take a skinny dip! oh the liberation!

Last sunset in Broome

Enjoying a Matso's Ginger Beer and the sunset.

Margaret River trip

Big Day Out Wine Tour!

We went to three wineries, one brewery, one spirits factory, chocolate factory and cheese factory.

Lakes Cave

 Megan and Andrew joined us at the Lakes cave. First you had to walk down a huge flight of stairs into the gully where the cave was. The cave used to be where we were but it collapsed, leaving a big crater. At the bottom is the entrance to the cave which has a lake and stalactites so big they hang from the roof, just touching the water.

Amazin!

We went to this maze park. It had a big hedge maze which we raced through. This is a stepping stone puzzle. The boys are trying to work out how to get from the start to the middle following the pattern white, red, black.There was also a turning left maze, bowls and quoits!

Having a seafood platter and Clancy's Fish Pub

Watching the people and dolphins surf at Yallingup beach

Watching Brent surf at Gracetown

Sunset from Busselton Jetty

Cape Naturaliste

Cape Leeuwin

Where the Southern Ocean and Indian Oceans meet

Ngilgi cave

Bootleg Brewery

Picnic at a winery

  Gloucester tree, Pemberton

Yes, we conquered this 60 meter high beast, revealing to all my fearlessness, strength and courage! Not! One tiny baby step at a time I inched myself up. It is sooo high! The view from the top was amazing and it felt like such an achievement to get to the top. When I finally got down it was so good to lie on the ground, and my legs and arms were like jelly!