Having just about recovered from my jetlag, which has manifested itself in an odd form of narcolepsy, rather than any lasting tiredness, it's now time for some piccies and blurb! You can see all the piccies here.
Piccies & BlurbGetting there...The flight over to the States was relatively uneventful, but I did miss being in an Airbus (as with US Airways). Instead I was in an aging Boeing courtesy of Delta for the 9 hour flight. I had a 4 hour stopover in Atlanta, where I was assaulted by some terrible Chinese food, before then next hop on to Reno. I had two seats to myself on this 5 hour flight, but most importantly, there were personal video screens for each seat. I was also introdcued to a quiz game where I could compete with other passengers. After a shaky start (it was the equivalent of 2 am for me and I'd been awake 20 hours) I was victorious, winning in straight sets and leaving a highest score of 5800, which was unbeaten by any of the 30 other passengers playing, hehehe.Reno...
[Room with a view]
Reno is an odd place in all fairness. I thought I'd hate it, but thankfully there was a huge biker's meet in the city that week (Street Vibrations), and there were literally hundreds of the most excellent Harleys and OC choppers lined up outside The Nugget, where I was staying. 
[Picture from Mathieu]So after flaking out for the night, I was up to have a craic with the rather worse for wear bikers - drinking Bloody Marys - as they polished their bikes. Most of these guys are lawyers, lol, but about 2 weeks before their roadtrips they let it all go and grow in the handlebar moustaches. Guys after my own heart ;-)Fallen Leaf Lake....
The conference was at Fallen Leaf Lake. This is a small lake just south of Lake Tahoe and sits at 6,300 ft in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains. It is the location used in The Bodyguard when Costner takes Houston and co to his winter retreat; and also where Meg Ryan's character takes Nick Cage after he "falls" in City of Angels.
[Fallen Leaf, and Tahoe in the distance. Taken on my hike]It is a beautiful place! As soon as I got there, still jetlagged, I grabbed one of my old conference buddies and headed up a further 1500 ft to a lake called Cathedral Lake, though it was more of a pond at this time of year. Having run the final steps we realised that the air was too dry and thin to catch our breaths, so after a small panic attack, we hurriedly descended and nursed our altitude headaches, along with everyone else, for the next few days. I spent the whole week verging on dehydration, which was annoying. The days were warm and sunny, but the nights were freezing.
[Early morning from my cabin deck!]I didn't see any Bears, though saw their scratchings, but did see plenty of Chipmunks, Squirrels and Stellar Jays. As far as the conference centre (Stanford Sierra Camp) is concerned, if you ever get the chance, go stay there. The place is absolutely fantastic. Great timber buildings with open fires. The staff there are great, so friendly. They really made the trip I think.The Roadtrip...
[The 1000 mile route]All too soon, the conference was over and everyone had left. I was left sitting by the lake, although in the company of some of the great staff, waiting for my fellow roadtripper Rob to turn up. I met Rob at the same conference in Pittsburgh in 2002, and again in Corfu in 2004. We've always stayed in touch and this trip had always been on the cards.Rob turned up in a dog ugly Chevy Malibu, lol, but it was new and it moved, so that's all that matters. We gave a fellow conference delegate a lift to Davis, halfway between Tahoe and San Francisco. Davis is an odd little place. Somewhat boring in terms of it's 70s architecture, but it has a geeky, student vibe that friendly enough. We ate pizza whilst deciding what to do on our roadtrip.
[On the road]
[....and heading in the right direction!]Needless to say, there was a lot of road, but it was all new, it was all California and it was all good! We headed straight to Sonoma, having decided that we wanted a grand entrance into San Francisco the next day. We didn't see much of Sonoma itself, under cover of darkness, but we grabbed a half decent motel and got an early night. 
[Dreary morning in Sonoma. I can imagine the scenery in early Summer would be great]
Alas, the next day was overcast, misty and dreary. We decided to forego the planning drive through the Sonoma valley and instead headed due West to get onto the Highway 1 to travel some of the famous coastal road.
[Rob, and the Pacific Coast]Travelling down Highway 1 took us straight to Muir Woods, a national monument of ancient coastal redwoods. I also knew this place, as a Hitchcock fan, as the place that Scottie (Jimmy Stewart) brought Madeleine (Kim Novak) in Vertigo. Muir Woods, being the site of enduring redwoods, was also the site for one of the first meetings of the newly formed United Nations.
[The Redwood cross-section used in the movie - the tree was over 900 years old when it "fell", the white markers denote important dates in history]
[Me. Dwarfed by a redwood]On the road again, we were a mere 15 mins from San Francisco, and entering a tunnel we emerged to see the Golden Gate Bridge.
[Shrouded in mist, which apparently is usual]No sooner had we enetered SF, we left, via the Bay Bridge and went to Berkeley. We got a tour, via a contact, of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (we are scientists after all!), then took a walk around the UC Berkeley campus and ate fantastic Burritos and a Mexican place just off campus.
[The Bay Bridge]
We were staying at The Green Tortoise in North Beach (Little Italy). If you like your hostels, then you'll like the Green Tortoise. It was also in an excellent location, right in the hub of activity. We had a view of Downtown from the window of our private room, and also of the strip clubs that lined the street below ;-)
[That's the Transamerica Building on the left]
[...and the strip clubs below]
[But the fantastic City Lights Bookstore was around the corner...well worth a visit]The first night we ate at a restaurant called The Stinking Rose, in North Beach. Here the tag line is "We flavour our Garlic with food", and they certainly did. Great food, very garlicky!The one thing that bemused me about California though is the lack of restrooms. Every restuarant we visited, no matter how many people they catered to, had only one unisex restroom, with one toilet. Either they don't shit, or they all get colonics every week!?We also ate at Francis Ford Coppola's restaurant Café Zoetrope in the Sentinal Building. Very stylish atmosphere and half decent food. The wine was the best thing though, I was on the Coppola Rosso Merlot.
[Sentinal Building and Café Zoetrope]Doing San Francisco...So, on our first full day in San Francisco, we descided to get up close and personal and walk as much of the city as possible. We set out at 08:30 and didn't stop until 17:30.
[The route (blue) and bus trip back (green)]We started with Chinatown, as it was around the corner. Lots of funky smells, some disturbingly whole (inlcuding head and feet) cooked chickens, unidentifiable foods and jars of weird and scary things. It all looks a bit scatty, but it fits the image.
[Chinatown]
We made our way up to Russian Hill via the famous Lombard Street (the curviest street).
[Lombard St.]
[View East down Lombard]
[View West down Lombard, towards Alcatraz!]
So, we headed through Japantown, and through the Japan Center and made our way to Alamon Square to take a piccie of the famous Painted Ladies on Filmore.
[Painted Ladies]
[We also got the message ;-)]
We eventually got to Haight-Ashbury. What a load of fun that place is. Every shop is worth visiting, and their clothes stores are fantastic, I had to drag myself out! We ate at a place called Asqew Grill, which I can HIGHLY recommend!
We then wandered amisdts the hippies and vagrants in the Golden Gate Park until we found ourselves in Richmond, amidst some very expensive neighbourhoods. We wandered into one dead end that could have been Wisteria Avenue. I was sure we were going to be shot by some Soccer Mom fearing for her property, given our state after 7 hours on the street!
The final destination for the day was the Golden Gate Bridge. We'd walked all the way there and after hacking our way through the Presidio, missing George Lucas's graphics company completely and avoiding the Coyotes and naked old men running up and down the beach front, we arrived!
Gold Gate Bridge...as if you didn't know!]
We couldn't cope with the walk back, so I managed to nag Rob into taking the bus. I kind of feel bad about this as the poor guy got accosted by some mad old Southern black guy who was convinced Rob was in town to fight in a death match at "the ottagon". It took us sometime to figure out what the hell he was talking about. He walked up and down that damn bus telling everyone on board that Rob was hard as nails and could kick anyone's asses; and if anyone wanted a go, they'd get the "guillotine". Needless to say it was all very embarrassing, but most of the passengers were laughing, rather than grimmacing.
We got off at Union Square and walked back to North Beach.
Yosemite Sam....
The next morning, rudely early, we got on the road to Yosemite. After going in circles in a boresville noweheresville town called manteca, we finally found the 120 and started heading up, and up and up for hours.
[Up and up...]
BUT EVENTUALLY, we descended into Yosemite Valley and got our first glimse of the big boy. El Capitan.
[El Capitan]
[One of the Three Graces opposite]
We got up close and personal with the old man, which I don't imagine too many bother to do, but it's rude not to.
[I think he needs a shave!]
...and of course, I needed to climb the obligatory 20 ft - this isn't a staged shot, I sweated to get up here!
We went of in search of "The View" that everyone had been telling em about. We found it. Tunnel View. Beat that!
[Tunnel View]
We also visted Glacier Point, which is abit of a trek out, but we arrived at sunset and it was well worth it. A hell of a view!
[Half Dome and Cloud's rest - behind - at sunset]
And on....
I'll continue this later, I'll let you catch up. There's not far to go, just our trip down, me hugging a giant Sequoia(!), an alkalis lake and a visit to Bonanza.
I will share this with you. Every picnic bench in Yosemite has this nailed to it. I wonder, given the low quality nature of the food available, whwether they get the irony of this statement!?
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