• Birgit Cross
  • Fergus Cross
Aug – Oct 2022

Travelling through the US 2022

A 44-day adventure by Birgit & Fergus Read more
  • Trip start
    August 25, 2022

    Only one more sleep

    August 24, 2022 in England ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    One day to go 🥳

    Preparations for our trip are in full swing!
    Suitcases are nearly packed, the To-do-list is getting smaller and we have started on our Timeshift Program ... staying up late with bright lights everywhere, going to sleep even later and avoiding light in the morning.

    Feeling rather tired now but maybe it's a good thing as it's only 1am in LA and tomorrow we should be asleep at this time.

    🤞 It all works 😬
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  • Finally, we are off ...

    August 25, 2022 in England ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    After months of planning and a lot of rejigging in the last week, we are finally on our way. Yippee 🎉

    Leaving Portsmouth in the pouring rain 🌧️🌨️
    Still trying to minimise exposure to light. At least the weather is helping

    Can't wait for LA sunshine later today 😎☀️
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  • One of these days ...

    August 25, 2022 in England ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Traveling is an adventure and one has to deal with whatever is being thrown at you ..

    ☝️Taxi 10 min late
    ☝️ Horrendous driving conditions to the airport
    ☝️Change of aircraft over night with us ending up with different (and not so good) seats
    ☝️ Flight over an hour late
    ☝️Being flagged for special security screening - apparently decided by the agents in the US (hope that's not linked to my passport all the way through)
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  • The day seems continues as it started..

    August 25, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    by not going totally to plan

    ✌️ordered vegetarian meal but by the time they come to serving it, they miscounted and didn't have one left
    ✌️plus the screaming baby, so much for trying to sleep for seven hours.

    Wondering what else the day has in store 😬

    8800 km and 10.5 hours later we landed s&s
    Just over an hour late.
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  • We finally arrived

    August 25, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    After queueing up for a long time to get through immigration, having a job finding transport to get us downtown we finally arrived at our hotel.

    Journey duration - 20 hours door to door.

    Think we deserve a little drink 😜
    Not sure that helps with staying up late 🤔
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  • A hooray for Timeshifter

    August 26, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Slept pretty much all night following our Timeshift plan. So in theory we are back to our normal rhythm already.

    After a day without caffeine yesterday, its back to fully loaded today - at least until 2pm

    ☕☕

    and then bright sunlight ☀️☀️ until 10pm

    Not sure how that's going work as sun sets at 19:30 and the lighting in the hotel is more mood lighting than daylight 😃
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  • In the hunt for breakfast

    August 26, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    With breakfast not included in the hotel rate, we thought it will be easy to find something close by.

    Close by indeed but oh boy, not the most healthiest option. When I asked for oats or muesli, they only shook their head.
    Ordered the smallest thing on the menu and still a huge plate. Note that flat sausage on Fergus' plate.

    Riding a caffeine high now after unlimited ☕ refills. Certainly enough to last me the day.
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  • DTLA - Art, History and Architecture

    August 26, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Explored Downtown Los Angeles aka DTLA this morning - walking along Broadway with all the theatres (all of it looked pretty run down and shabby) Pershing Square and the famous Millennium Biltmore Hotel right up to Walt Disney Concert Hall, Grand Park and City Hall.

    Wanted to go up to 22nd floor of City Hall but that was sadly closed for a private event.
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  • Santa Monica

    August 26, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    More walking - this time through 3rd Street Promenade and along the seafront in Santa Monica

    Dinner at Uovo - a pasta restaurant claiming that the pasta is made in Italy and freshly imported over night.Read more

  • Hiking Griffith Park

    August 27, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Went on a hike in Griffith Park today. A very hot and dusty affair but still very interesting hearing some of the stories connected to the park and Los Angeles itself.

    ☝️ The park is named after Griffith J. Griffith, a guy original from Wales who used to own this land
    ☝️ Griffith emigrated to the United States in 1865, eventually, making a personal fortune in California gold mine speculation.
    ☝️ In December 1896, Griffith gave 3,015 acres of his Restate as a Christmas gift to the people of Los Angeles to be used as parkland.
    ☝️When Griffith died, he had left a sizeable trust fund to complete the dreams he had for the park - construction of a Greek amphitheater (the Greek Theatre, built 1930) and an observatory and hall of science (Griffith Observatory, built 1935).
    ☝️The park and the conservatory have also been used as backdrop multiple Tinseltown productions - such as Jurassic Park, The Terminator, LaLa Land, Charlie's Angels and many many more
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  • Griffith Observatory

    August 27, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Spent the afternoon at Griffith observatory.
    It's is a unique hybrid of public observatory, planetarium, and exhibition space. It was constructed with funds from the bequest of Griffith J. Griffith (who donated the land for Griffith Park in 1896), who specified the purpose, features, and location of the building in his 1919 will. Upon completion of construction in 1935, the Observatory was given to the City of Los Angeles with the provision that it be operated for the public with no admission charge.

    After nearly 67 years Griffith Observatory closed its doors in 2002 for a comprehensive renovation and expansion, the first major capital improvement to the building since it opened in 1935.

    The project was an engineering masterpiece.
    Due to its location, expansion was only possible below the actual building.
    To achieve this, the engineers put the whole building on stilts to achieve zero gravity and dig out a complete floor below. It's mind boggling how they managed it.

    Probably goes well with the mind boggling details of it's exhibition.

    ☀️ 🔭🌙☄️ What a fantastic place to learn about the universe, our solar system and galaxy and even have a peek at the sun 🌠🌌🪐🌍

    Fantastic show in the planetarium about 'Signs of Life'. We even qualified for 'seniors' 😃
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  • Goodbye LA

    August 28, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    First impressions weren't the best but in Fergus' words 'it grew on me'

    👎Walking through downtown, particularly along Broadway, everything felt pretty shabby
    👎 There are lots of homeless people around which gives the city a very sad look
    👎It's very expensive which might explain the above

    On the other hand
    👍The weather is just gorgeous
    👍It is very diverse - minority majority or in other words there is no dominating part of the population
    👍I loved the 'Duolingo' setup - English / Spanish everywhere
    👍 Griffith Observatory was so impressive that we would love to come back and it inspired us to get our 🔭 out when we are back.

    And note for future self: Immerse yourself more in Tinseltown. There are some fascinating titbits of trivia to discover. Like the story of Fox Plaza in Century City.

    During the construction of Fox Plaza, the building was used during the shoot of the 1st Die Hard movie
    as Nakatomi Tower. People in the know, will remember that the building got blown up in the movie.

    And after his presidency, Ronald Reagan, looking for an office to write his memoirs, decided to hire the top floor suite in Fox Plaza. FBI commented 'the ex-President decides to work in the office where we have shown the whole world how to blow it up!' 🤷
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  • Just arrived at San Francisco

    August 28, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Flying in over San Francisco Bay Area
    .

    First impressions
    👆Real contrast to LA, compact well ordered city with lots of hills
    👆Very steep hills, walking up and down feels like preparation for our Yellowstone hike
    👆Several degrees cooler, so much so that even Fergus is wearing a hoodie
    👆Good micro brewery scene 😃
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  • SF - Chinatown Autumn Moon festival

    August 28, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Very lively in Chinatown this afternoon with dragon dances and bands playing.
    Main through road seems to be very touristy. Trying to scout out a place to eat for later in the week, we didn't really fine something walking along.
    Apparently, Chinatown is still suffering the after effects of the Pandemic.
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  • Alcatraz - must see attraction

    August 29, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Spent most of the day on Alcatraz learning about the history of the island - morphing from a location of a lighthouse (during the gold rush in California in 1848/1849) to a strategic fortification as part of the US Army western defense plan (from 1864).

    Alcatraz was a prison pretty much from the start, initially for soldiers until the army decommissioned Alcatraz un 1907.
    In the 1930s, the island became the place for a high-profile, maximum-security facility it is known as. Some 1500 men did time on Alcatraz but only a handful were notorious. Most of the inmates were men who had proved to be problems in other prisons.

    There were 14 attempted escapes, the best known occured in June 1962, when Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Angkin slipped into the water.
    Chris, a tour guide we met in Los Angeles was telling us about this personal childhood memory living in San Francisco Bay area as a 5 year old at the time of the escape and how scared he was that the prisoners might get to him at night.

    Really enjoyed the audio-guided tour. All very atmospheric especially as it included voices from the actual inmates.

    Reminded me a little of Port Arthur in Tasmania. .
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  • A Dog's life in the city

    August 29, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    We are staying in the 'middle' of San Francisco and I am really surprised about how many dogs are around.
    Big dogs I mean!

    Sure there are a few small dogs but the majority we have seen are really big ones. Not the size of dog I would associate with living in an apartment. Unless it's a huge flatRead more

  • Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner in one

    August 30, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 16 °C

    Went out for breakfast this morning on the look-out for something not too stodgy but filling

    We chose a place called 'Farm Table' on Post Street after reading good reviews.

    Things to note:
    👆Only tables outside in parking area that has been converted into 'green space' - parklets
    👆A menu without any prices - we should have checked before we ordered
    👆Dogs eat for free

    In the end it was the most expensive breakfast but
    👍 very tasty
    👍 so much that we didn't need lunch and even had a 'doggy bag' for dinner

    So worked out not so expensive after all 😂
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  • SF sightseeing - Japantown

    August 30, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    There are only three Japantown's left in the U.S. niw. San Francisco's is the largest and oldest surviving one. The others are in Los Angeles and San Jose's Japantown.

    Japanese began moving to the Japantown area in the Western Addition neighborhood after their homes were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. Most had been living in areas near Chinatown or south of Market Street.

    Western Addition was west of Van Ness Avenue, which was the fire break, so the fire that destroyed a large part of San Francisco never reached the Japantown neighborhood.

    The Japanese population was one of the largest outside of Japan by the time World War 2 began.

    The biggest atrocity for the Japanese Americans happened in the name of National Security as all West Coast residents of Japanese ancestry were ordered by the military to "evacuate" their homes and submit to government custody.
    On May 20, 1942, the last of the City's 5,280 Japanese American residents boarded buses, leaving their homes, community and friends for an uncertain exile.

    The neighborhood was filled in with African-Americans working in the wartime industry.

    After the war, some Japanese moved back, but most relocated to other parts of the Bay Area and Southern California, or out of state

    Today, most of the Bay Area Japanese live elsewhere, but many come to Japantown to eat and shop, and they've done an impressive job of recreating a Japanese look and feel to this small area of San Francisco.
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  • A hint of France in San Francisco

    August 30, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 18 °C

    Staying in a slightly different type of hotel in San Francisco and one with rigorous Covid measures still in place.

    The hotel looks and feels very French - in fact the owners are French. And it's firmly located in the French quarter of SFO - if there is such a thing.

    No cleaning of the room unless our stuff is ALL packed away so that they can spray everything with whatever antivirus/bacterial stuff they use. It takes them a couple of hours and we can't return to the room for another hour or so.

    Definitely not something on a daily basis. I rather tidy up myself.

    And everything is wrapped up separately in plastic for germs not to spread.

    Having said all that, the room is comfortable and spacious. The hotel is in a good position.
    So no complaints to the travel agent - aka Fergus 😃
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  • Rediscover San Francisco

    August 30, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    It's been 34 years since I visited SF, it's like discovering a new city. And boy, it feels like we walked every street in SF.

    Up and down the streets all day long - over 20700 steps, 67 floors up and 77 floors down.
    It was supposed to be a rest day 😳

    Things I learned ... in no particular order
    👆There is a wonderful mixture of architecture and style, old and new right next to each other
    👆Famous Lombard Street is not the most crooked and even not the steepest street in SF.
    The crookedest is actually Vermont Street, in the Potrero Hill neighborhood on the other side of town.
    And the winner of the steepest road is Bradford Street with a gradient of 41% gradient whereas Lombard Street is just a mere 27%
    👆Nob Hill aka Nobel Hill is one of the most affluent hoods in town. A one bedroom apartment can easily set you back 4000 dollars a month.
    👆 Pacific Height is another one of these classy neighborhoods. Julia Roberts just bought a place there a few months back. And with neighbors like Danielle Steel and Nancy Pelosi it's not surprising that these are top dollar.
    👆 There are more dogs in SF than kids
    👆SF is famous for the fog rolling in from the coast. So much so that 'Karl the fog' has its own Twitter account posting pictures of ... fog - what else 🤷
    Check it out if you don't believe it.
    👆After the great fire in 1906, the city tried to entice people back with big exhibition in 1915 to celebrate the opening of the Panama canal. The Palace of Fine Arts was one of ten palaces at the heart of the Panama-Pacific-Exhibition. Today the palace is aka R2D2 - but no sound effects 😃
    👆Pier 39 and Fisherman Wharf is still a very touristy even if a lot less crowded. Apparently, tourism is roughly at 70% of pre-pandemic levels.
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  • Wine Country - must taste attraction

    August 31, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    There are 'must-sees' and there are 'must-tastes'
    Wine country is definitely a 'must-taste' for us!

    Being in California, we had to add another wine tour to our list.

    Booked with 'Edge of the World' Tours. We didn't go to there but it was definitely an experience. Made even more special by our guide Anthony aka Nino Firetto - a very colourful character.

    Anthony/Nino not known to the non-English/British world but famous for ITV children programs, music shows (e.g. ITV Music box), some movies, DJ-ing in lots of countries/cities. He still has his own radio show that he records.
    He definitely had lots of stories to tell not least the one where he and his wife were gate crashing the closing down party of the studio where Fleetwood Mac recorded 'Rumours'.

    But back to the wine tasting ...
    We visited three boutique wineries (less than 5000 cases a year) in Sonoma. All three with different approaches to winemaking and style.

    Homewood Wines - we thought the wines were ok but nothing special. But Steve, the guy who took us through the tasting, comes from Portsmouth (UK) of all places. You might just be able to imagine the banter going on between him and Fergus, especially around Pompey.

    The wines at Peter Cellars (not the Pink Panther) - a winery managed by another English guy - were our absolute favourites. Peter received several double Gold (awarded when all of the 100 judges vote for the wine), Gold (about 80%+ of the judges agree) and multiple Silver medals for his wines.
    The wines were truly fantastic and we would have taken home any of them. Sadly the prices did put us off.
    Very relaxing time at the winery and totally enjoyed being able to talk with the winemaker himself.
    Rather hilarious that his dogs are called Harry, Meghan and Archie.

    Lastly we visited Séamus, a winery/tasting room under the leadership of an Irish guy. Wines were good but nothing special to our taste. Unless you are prepared to pay 70 dollars for a bottle which I have to say, some of our party did!!

    So just a couple of titbits at the end
    👆Do you know the 5 S's to wine tasting - Sight, Swirl, Sniff, Sip and Savour?
    Well, I only learned the 5 S's of Lean - Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardise and Sustain.
    Seems I still need to calibrate my mind 😂 🤣🤣
    👆Sonoma is the oldest of the two wine growing areas. It ultimately started with monks needing wine for Holy Communion. The monks imported vines from Europe, e.g. Zinfandel originating from a small village in Croatia (proven by DNA testing).
    And curiously enough, Zinfandel and Primitivo are virtually the same grape as they are both cloned from the same original from Croatia. Can you believe this?
    👆The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, also known as the Judgement of Paris, was a wine competition in which French judges carried out two blind tastings comparing French and Californian wine.
    To the disgust of the French winemakers, out of the top 10 wines 6 came from California.
    A re-tasting competition in 2006 the win of Californian wines was confirmed again.

    Think that explains, why we are not so impressed by French wines 😉
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  • SF Chinatown & Portsmouth square

    September 1, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Our last morning in San Francisco.
    Did we leave the best for last??

    Before setting off to the airport, we are trying to get our steps in by wandering around Chinatown and surroundings.

    First to know, almost all of Chinatown got destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire. In fact, apart from St Mary's Cathedral, nothing else survived.

    Even if Chinatown had been rebuilt after the catastrophe, the Chinatown Gate/Dragon Gate wasn't built until 1970 whereas the Sing Chong building was one of the first landmarks to built in the New Chinatown–style after the 1906 earthquake.

    Portsmouth Square the centrally located park within Chinatown, and has earned the nickname "Heart of Chinatown." But what's more, the park is home to many historical markers and statues, and holds its place within California history. It is the location of the first raising of the American flag within San Francisco in 1846, and here in 1848, the discovery of gold was first announced.

    Today, Portsmouth Square is a meeting place for locals who need fresh air and sunshine.

    Moving just beyond Chinatown, the Transamerica Pyramid is a 48-story futurist skyscraper and the second tallest building in the San Francisco skyline.
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  • Goodbye SF & California, hello SLC

    September 1, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Leaving SF and the Golden State. Heading for Salt Lake City (SLC) in the Beehive State.

    It's assumed that Utah is called 'Beehive state' as it's a leading producer of honey with thousands of pounds produced in the state every single year. In fact, the Honey Bee is even the state's official insect.

    Flying Alaska Air has been the most enjoyable experience: from being able to check in earlier than the normal check-in time, spending time in the lounge to getting on the plane.

    All pretty easy.
    Even had some entertainment in the flight in the name of Mitchell, an almost two year old boy who reminded me of our little granddaughter Clara and who wanted to be entertained.
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  • Living in 'The book of Mormon' 😉

    September 2, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Spending the day in hot Salt Lake City where the temperature hit 38 degrees today. Celsius not Fahrenheit

    We started the morning exploring 'Temple Square' - a huge complex owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints aka The Mormon.
    Attracting 3 to 5 million visitors a year, Temple Square is the most popular tourist attraction in Utah (apparently so!)

    Unfortunately, most of the area is currently under construction but we still managed to visit the Salt Lake Tabernacle, the home of the Mormon Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square.
    No rehearsals when we were there but lots of sisters engaging the public in conversation and reading passages from the Bible.
    "Ding dong, my name is Rachel" - not quite but close.

    Next stop on our sightseeing agenda was Utah State Capitol, the house of government for the U.S. state of Utah.

    The building houses the chambers and offices of the Utah State Legislature.

    A very impressive building that was build in 1912 to 1916 in Neoclassical design. The most grand and spacious rooms is the Rotunda. The dome stands 165 feet above the Rotunda floor. Floors and columns are carved out of Georgia marble.

    Not much more sightseeing in the heat, we opted for same retail therapy in beautiful and air-conditioned City Creek shopping centre.
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