New York to San Francisco

I am writing to you all from the birthplace of West Coast coffee culture, Caffe Trieste, on a sunny morning in San Francisco. I have no flowers in my hair but I am a little but in love. It's just so pretty! There are long wooden piers with people fishing at the end, Sea Lions, huge butterflies fluttering over flower-laden stairways. 

We arrived here yesterday from New York so apart from a wonderful first impression, I can't tell you much about this city yet (although to give you a bit of atmosphere an old drunk Irishman just walked past saying "argh! Get outta me face, you're an asshole!" to everyone he passed) except that as we passed the yoga room at the airport we crossed paths with a policeman on a bike followed shortly by another on a Segway. 

I can also tell you that we have hired a car (we named her Greta), and drove a hard bargain to get her. We weren't good at haggling in India, but it turns out that being relatively poor is a huge asset in these negotiations. Woohoo! 

This is not to say that we didn't also have a wonderful time in New York. It is a stunning city. The first day we walked into Manhattan over Brooklyn Bridge and it is just astonishing to see those skyscrapers appear. We also took the Staten Island ferry that evening (and it's free- Hello!). The sun was setting over the Statue of Liberty as we crossed the bay and it's was just beautiful. 

However, as great as it is, New York also has it's downside: The Subway. London gains serious points here because it has MAPS and SIGNS! Are you listening New York? And there are several lines in the same colour with a seemingly random letters/numbers system. Too confusing! It is important to always ask if this is the right train because it's very hard to tell once you're on board and going in the wrong direction. 

And that image you have of helpful America. Sometimes not true. From the airport our human interaction is as follows: Subway employee tuts "stupid!" at Kirsty as she hesitated at the turnstyle; I ask lady if she can tell us what road we were on and she looked angry and told me to go away. 

Animal interaction was confined to a MASSIVE cockroach waking us up one morning as it ran across our bed. Shudder. 

On the other hand out Airbnb hostess, Joan, was super lovely and greeted us with champagne; and we met a nice man called Bruce at a bar and he showed us lots of photos of his children doing New York things. 

After meeting Bruce we went to see Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Go see it. It's very cool :) 

Other recommendations I have for you? Walking the Highline, boating in Central Park, the Museum of Natural History, and a great sandwich shop at the south side of the park. Mmm...sandwiches! 

That's all. We've got to go climb some really steep hills now. More soon. 

Packing

Hurrah! There is just over a week left until Kirsty and I embark once again on a quest for adventure, sunshine and the perfect jumping shot. We have our visas, insurance and passports ready to roll so now it's time for the tricky part: packing.

Last time was hard enough. We were away for longer; needed clothes from the beach to the snowy Himalayas; and we'd never done anything like that before. This time (seasoned pros that we are) is both easier and more complicated. 

I'll explain. 

In true American road trip style we are hiring a car. This means we can pack not just our backpacks full of necessities, but an extra case with floral dresses, straw hats and other nonsense. Then, when we don't need the floral dresses, into the car they go and magically our load is lessened.

But here comes the hard part. The reason we chose this trip is for some trekking. We had planned to do the John Muir trail but sadly, when it was time to enter the wilderness permit lottery six months ago, we missed out. Instead we are doing lots of shorter bits of the trail, climbing some mountains and letting the balmy Californian breeze take us where it will. 

We have trekked before so we know what we need but last time was probably quite a luxury. The most obvious reason for that luxury was Krishna, our porter-extraordinaire. He carried everything and we skipped happily along a couple of miles behind him/fell over a lot (even with all our baggage he was significantly faster than us). This time we have to carry everything ourselves. I'm so glad I once walked to work with a weight in my bag. It'll make all the difference don't you think? :-/

And this brings us to problems two and three. In Nepal we stayed in tea houses along the route. We were fed, watered and given a bed to sleep in. In the national parks there is acres and acres of nothing but nature, so like a pair of tortoises we shall carry our home on our back. When we pack for trekking there needs to be space for a tent and when we are in the tent there needs to be room for our packs. In fact our tent is so small we will be spooning each other and our packs. At least it'll be warm I suppose.

And then for the worst news. There also needs to be room for food. Five days of food is heavy enough but this is bear country and it all needs to be safely hidden inside bear canisters. We can't get these until we get there so today I had a practice of packing all this :

The rucksack is at the bottom. Everything needed to go in leaving the main central pocket free for bear canister and cooking stuff. And guess what!

Here I am, packed and ready to go. And I look damn cool! Which is obviously the most important thing. I wonder how cool I'll look once the food is in and I'm bowed under the weight, slightly sunburnt and plagued by mosquitos....?

It's OK... I'll buy a baseball cap and jobs a goodun.

So success in stage 1 and see ya!!