California and Nevada, June/July 2007

 

DAY1-2: SANTA MONICA

 

 I’m scheduled to present a paper at ICIMP’07 in Silicon Valley and took a little holiday time first, planning to start in Los Angeles then moving on to Vegas and San Francisco. My sister had never been to the U.S. and so wanted to tag along. We flew out of a wet and grey Manchester at 11AM on Sunday, finally arriving tired and zombified at LAX 17 hours later.

 

I’m writing this in our hotel room in the Ramada Plaza in West Hollywood. We’re about to head down to Santa Monica for some food. After checking-in last night we crashed pretty quickly and we’ve just spent today pottering around Hollywood near the hotel. We’re in a pretty nice area I guess and there seems to be plenty going on. Anyway I better hit the shower if we’re going to head out here’s a photo of the view from our hotel room though…

View from the WeHo Ramada

 

We wandered around Santa Monica for a while and enjoyed the sunset from Santa Monica peer before grabbing a fast food lunch and a couple of beers... Below are a few shots of the lovely Santa Monica, maybe the nicest place to watch the sun set in LA?

 

Santa Monica Pier

Santa Monica City

Sunset over the Pacific

 

Notice all the people floating in the sea in shot two – I guess they’re just watching the sunset. Pretty cool way to do it eh? Santa Monica is nice enough and the sea front is picture perfect, but also a bit tacky and touristy.

 

DAY 3: VENICE BEACH AND HOLLYWOOD

 

Following our monster flight out, we felt like we should spend some time relaxing, so after a late room service breakfast we hopped a cab down Santa Monica Boulevard to Venice beach. The Venice boardwalk is an odd mix of hippies, expensive beach houses, activists and the absurd muscle beach, all set against the most unlikely and beautiful beach and ocean scenery. After walking down the main run of the boardwalk and failing to find a café where we could buy a real drink, we nipped in a liquor store for a small vodka and then subway for a large drink – hey presto, beach cocktails the beach police wont complain about :-)

 

Very Baywatch

Flip-Flops

Sunset over the Pacific

 

 

The beach was lovely, and I even managed a quick swim in the Pacific, which was lovely and warm. On the way out we finally found a beach bar that fit the bill – kind of a rough and ready surfer hang-out, but it did great margaritas. J

 

We thought tonight we’d check out downtown Hollywood and went for an after-dark exploration of the walk of fame and Sunset Boulevard starting at the huge, and impressive, Hollywood and Highland Mall. You can see all the sights from Mann’s Chinese theater to the walk of fame pretty well after dark as it’s all illuminated. We also walked past a crowded red carpet, which I believe was for the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards. Opposite is a shot of Kath outside of Mann’s Chinese Theater… Hollywood is a pretty fun place to spend an evening drinking, even in the touristy bits.

Mann’s Chinese Theater

 

DAY 4: Driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas

 

Well, its day four and time for a road trip – to Vegas! After hiring a car from Hertz (some crappy mid-range GM model) we headed south east out of LA, passing through the sprawling suburbs for at least a couple of hours before getting to the desert highway that heads up over the sierras then down onto the Nevada desert plains. Along the way we saw some beautiful scenery, from the green mountains to the bleak desert and a glorious sunset.

 

Leaving LA

Evening in the Desert

A Desert Sunset

 

After five and a half hours, we arrived at the Palms around dusk, ready for our first night out in Vegas, which we spent gambling, very unsuccessfully, in our own hotel, The Palms.

 

DAY 5-6: Las Vegas

 

OK… so not a lot of photos from Las Vegas, but then Vegas is much more about the gambling and partying than it is about the scenery. Long story short, we ate good food, relaxed by the Palms pool during the day and casino hopped at night. The Palms was a lovely hotel and very cheap mid-week at just £25 for two nights!

 

The Pool at the Palms

Moods of the Strip #1

Moods of the Strip #2

 

I won next to nothing, though my sister did quite well. In any case, we had a great time! J

 

DAY 7-8: Driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco via Yosemite

 

The drive from Los Angeles to Yosemite is spectacular, from the desert plains to the mountains and scorching Death Valley.

 

At the Wheel

South East Death Valley

North West Death Valley

 

All in all, it took us about 11 hours to get to Lee Vining, which is a quiet little mountain town at the gateway to Yosemite national park. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived in Lee it was too dark for photos, but don’t worry, we got plenty the next day on the drive through Yosemite.

 

An Odd Rock

 

Posing

Gateway to Yosemite

More Posing

Freshly Carved Mountains

Climbers

 

Yosemite has to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

 

DAY 9-10: Santa Clara and the ICIMP’07 Conference

 

Day 9 marked the beginning of the ICIMP conference in Santa Clara. I saw some interesting work, including some that’s very relevant to Isis, our forthcoming EPSRC online child protection proposal. Santa Clara itself is pleasant enough, with nice weather and the gentle bay hills ubiquitous in the background, but like many American cities, it has no real heart, but seemingly goes on forever. While Santa Clara wasn’t my cup of tea, the hotel was lovely and was right next to Paramount’s Great America theme park.

 

The Grizzly Rollercoaster

Relaxing by the Pool

The Pool Bar

 

After checking out the theme park on July 3rd, we were ready to head back to San Francisco for our last day in California.

 

DAY 11: Independence Day in San Francisco

 

We spent most of Independence Day wandering from sight to sight in San Francisco: down-town, China Town, Coit Tower, Fisherman’s Wharf and Union Square, while enjoying the sunshine and San Francisco’s many nice cafés and bars. Come the evening, we hopped a cab to Mason Fort Park to watch the fireworks over the bay… they were pretty spectacular and (sadly) a fitting end to our holiday.

 

Relaxing in a Fisherman’s Wharf Bar

From Fisherman’s Wharf to the City

View of the City

 

Independence Day Fireworks #1

Independence Day Fireworks #2

Independence Day Fireworks #3