California Dreamin'
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA ADVENTURES:
My grandma and I first went to Leeds Bradford International Airport because we needed to fly from Heathrow to San Francisco, and flying is the quickest way to get to London (it only takes about 40 mins compared to +2 hours on the train). And before we knew it, we were in Heathrow! Heathrow is an absolutely massive place, but we didn't have to transfer terminals which was good. We had a few hours to kill before our flight to San Francisco, so we just sat in the waiting area until further details of our flight were announced. Like with Florida, I was not prepared for the epic duration of this flight. It was bordering on 11 hours. When we arrived in San Fran we queued to go through the American border, which wasn't really as scary as I remembered from Florida. Arless (my uncle) picked us both up from the airport and drove us back across the San Mateo bridge to where he lives in Livermore (on the opposite side of the bay to SF).
A couple of days after our arrival (and managing to battle off jetlag) we caught the BART (a sort of train service that connects San Francisco with the East Bay area) and walked up the Embarcadero to the Piers. I'd read in my guide book that a must see sight was Pier 39 where you can see sealions chilling on boat docks. When we arrived there was only about 5, and this number quickly diminished upon returning to the pier later on. After that we caught a cable car, climbing up hills which definitely rival those of Yorkshire and got off at the Westfield SF Centre, which is possibly the most beautifully designed shopping centre I have ever seen.
The following day, we all went back into San Francisco and drove in instead to Golden Gate Park. Looking back now Golden Gate Park was actually my favourite place in the city that I saw. I'd wanted to specifically go to the Japanese Tea Garden because I've wanted to go to Japan for ages, and the park brought me a little bit closer to Japan. Afterwards we went into the Castro Area for dinner and went to a bar for drinks (non-alcoholic since I'm not old enough to drink over there) and California Gurls was played!! The next couple of days were slightly overcast, so it was something of a relief from the daily temperatures topping 40C. During this period of weather reminiscent of England, we went back into Golden Gate Park, initially wanting to go to the de Young art museum (which turned out to be closed Mondays) and since the California Academy of Sciences is only across the road, we decided to go there. I absolutely loved it here, there was an earthquake exhibit and with the rainforest thingy I was in my element. So if you're going to San Francisco, goddamit go there, it is definitely worth it.
Fast forward to the following Saturday, when we were due to drive down to Santa Cruz and then later Marina, I was up in bed reading on my Kindle when I felt the house shake slightly. I looked out of the wind to see if a freak gust of wind had cause the house to shake. There was very little wind. I checked to see if it had been traffic. The house was located at the end of a cul-de-sac. Earthquake. I noted down the time and checked later, and it turned out it was an 2.8 magnitude earthquake. As a geographer it was pretty exciting to experience this geological event in a earthquake prone area. A couple of hours later we were at Santa Cruz beach, looking ahead at the Pacific Ocean. After exploring the boardwalk and discovering the very delicious funnel cake, we headed to Marina where we would stay the night before going to Monterey. The following morning before going to Monterey, we had lunch at a restaurant in Moss Landing which turned out to be a mistake. As the heatwave raged across California, the restaurant was packed and we didn't receive our food for at least an hour, and with no apology given for wasting so much time that could've been spent in Monterey. The purpose of our trip to Monterey was to see the aquarium, which was included in the CityPass booklet of tickets. The aquarium itself was really well set out and THEY HAD OTTERS!!! Otters are cool.
When we arrived back on Sunday night, missing San Fran's Gay Pride parade, there was news of a BART strike. At first I didn't think much of it, thinking that it would be over in a couple of days at least, but no it was 5 days. However the strike wasn't all bad. Although Arless had booked the week off, intending to accompany me and my grandma to see some of the sites in San Francisco, he took us to this old quarry site which had been transformed into an artificial beach. The heat from the weekend kept the temperatures high, so we swam in the water and relaxed in the shade. The actual place was called 'Shadow Cliffs' but Arless insisted that we called it 'The Livermore Riviera' which is a much more appealing name. By 4th July, the strike was still on so we decided to go to the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton (the town next door to Livermore), which was also a dangerously hot day. The fair was a lot of fun, but we left early as the heat became too much.
The next day the BART strike was called off and we were able to go back to San Francisco. You've all probably heard about the Asiana Airlines flight 214 crash at San Francisco International Airport, we were actually heading into San Francisco when Arless told us the news. When we got into San Francisco, we retraced our footsteps of where we had been with Leslie on our second day for the long anticipated bay cruise. The cruise had fantastic views and we were all in good spirits despite the chilly weather on the bay. When we got back, I checked my messages and I saw a message from Nuril and Charmaine thinking that I had been involved in the plane crash. There was some misunderstanding about when they thought I was leaving (6th July, the day of the crash, when I actually left on 10th July), so I just told them that I was okay.
I did in the end briefly see the wreckage from the crash as our plane passed it on the opposite runway, which was a very strange experience. Thankfully the flight back home wasn't as long, but there was a period of time when there was some turbulence and the put belts light came on, which was pretty scary considering a few hours before I had just seen the wreckage of a recent plane crash. All in all, my time in California was brilliant. I didn't get to do everything I had set out to see (saves more for my next visit~) if I was allowed to (and it wasn't desert style heat ALL THE TIME) I would have gladly spent all summer there.