The name says it all…

Goodbye Yucca Valley…and hello Death Valley! Ever wondered who would call a National Park Death Valley? Well when you are realize it’s as hot as hell (53°C the day we were there), and that is pretty much the only name that perfectly describes it! With that being said I have to tell you it is beautiful! There are some amazingly spectacular views along the route. Unfortunately some of them you have to walk to which meant that Nina and I drenched ourselves in water two steps out of the car in the hopes that we would not boil internally if we could keep our external body temperature down, and we drank so much water in those few hours…it was crazy!

Death Valley

Loving the view

Zabriskie Point, Death Valley

We drove to Scotty’s Castle which was closed for tours but we still managed to have a look around the outside of the buildings. I loved the look of the castle, crazy that anyone would want to live there, but it really is beautiful! 

Scotty's Castle, Death Valley

We also got to see the most magnificent sunset and a wonderful open patch of sand, the reminded me of a scene from Pirates in the Caribbean.

Our piece of paradise

Once we had fired all our internal organs we decided to head to Las Vegas…or our new home as we were staying for two nights!

Sunset...

Amazing!

Scratched up, snake bites and rocks…

Then we headed to Joshua Tree, which is filled with like 70% rocks, which is why Nina renamed this National Park Joshua Rock, I however would rename it Death Wish National Park, because apparently that’s what happens to me when I go to a park that is made up of trees and rocks…

Joshua Tree, CA

After exploring most of the National Park we headed towards a giant rock pile which I thought would be a great idea to climb. It was, as I got some beautiful pictures!

Some more of Joshua Tree, CA

Me...with a Joshua Tree

When faced with the next pile I attempted the same thing. Bad idea! I managed to get stuck on the rocks! Yes, I was lying on the rocks like a beached whale on the beach (no weigh jokes…) And while in distress my “good” passenger thought it would be more fun to take pictures of me stranded on the rock than help me…nice one Nina!

Thanks Nina!

Jump shot!

My next smart move was to step on a cactus! UGH! First one was relatively easy to remove, the second one not so easy! I immediately reached down to pull it out of my foot, realized this was not smart once my fingers got stuck to the cactus that was stuck in my foot, managed to free my fingers and called to Nina to help…who straight away tried to grab the cactus, and got her fingers stuck…then I told her (once she was free of my foot cactus) to stand on the cactus so I could pull my foot away and end up cactus free! 

Joshua Tree, CA

Cactus stuck in my foot

After we managed to get rid of the cactus

Okay, this was round about the time we decided to head back to our room. Oh, and that is where I managed to whack my back on an open cupboard door when I stood up…definitely bed time for this accident prone lady.

Scratched leg...

"Snake Bite" looking injury from the cactus

Cupboard injury...

Bashed knee...

Yucca Valley…and our hotel…

We drove to Yucca Valley where our hostel is, which luckily is situated very close to Joshua Tree. As we entered Yucca Valley we welcomed by a shiny glittery sign…so I pulled over and Nina went to capture this wonderful memory, that’s what good passengers do. Then we went and off loaded all our luggage at our room (and discovered we were running low on back seat food supplies.

Welcome :)

A beautiful Park in San Diego…

We arrived at Balboa Park and I was amazed at the beauty of this little piece of paradise. There were lush green trees everywhere as well as fountains of fresh water and many pretty flowers.  I of course spent half my time in San Diego tripping over nothing apparent, although I prefer to say I was just testing gravity, by the way… it still works!

Balboa Park, San Diego

Beautiful, huh?

I love this place!

So amazing

Magnificent architecture

After taking in the amazing sights of the old Spanish Style buildings in Balboa Park we started on the trip that takes us to the next adventure of Joshua Tree/Rock, I’ll explain later…

One last one...Balboa Park San Diego!

Apparently it’s comic con…who knew?!

Arriving in San Diego late at night means we are pretty wiped out by the time we pull into Ocean Beach’s parking lot. After checking in, I walked outside to check on the car and had a creepy Spanish boy sign to me and offer to make me pancakes…I promptly went straight to my room and locked the door! Nina managed to get a load of laundry washed and folded (thanks dude, like a ninja!)

The wonderful view we found the next day

Breakfast time the next morning and we hit the snooze button and decide the extra sleep is worth missing out on the free breakfast. Finally up and ready to rock we make our way to Cabrillo Point. This is a beautiful lookout point in the National Park, where there is also a monument dedicated to Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese explorer. This was a really gorgeous Park to drive around, and there were many look out points to take amazing pictures.

Cabrillo Monument

The view from Cabrillo Point, San Diego

Then we headed to the Gaslamp Quarter, in downtown San Diego. Nina and I had not, only never heard of “Comic Con” but we had also not realized that this was the weekend when San Diego streets were flooded with comic characters, people dressed as comic characters and some people that were just plain weird.  It was okay though we still managed to see everything we had intended to see. Quote of that part of the trip “Are we the only people in the whole of San Diego who have no freaking idea what is going on?!”

Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego

Yes...a rainbow unicorn winding it's way through the streets of San Diego for Comic Con...

This is going to be an interesting trip…

We arrived in LA after a 7 hour drive ready to just fall sleep and re-charge. Then we got to our hostel, this was by far the worst hostel I have EVER stayed in. The location was pretty good as it was right on Hollywood Boulevard.

Hollywood!!!

Although there was a mariachi band playing obnoxiously loud music right cross the street from our room’s window. Great! The hostel wasn't too bad, although the bathroom left much to be desired. So I opted to go shower less and just do a little water pat down.

Part of the Hollywood tour, CA

After hours of lying awake wishing that my earplugs were more effective it was finally time to “wake-up” and start our day. We made our way to the hop on hop off bus terminal on Hollywood Blvd. This bus took us on a wonderful expedition of the playground of the rich and famous.

Our tour bus, CA

Santa Monica, CA

Beverly Hills, CA

Hollywood, CA

After a short drive to Laguna Beach we met up with Donna (the wonderful lady I visited in California in 2009) and Vince for dinner. They were very excited to hear about our adventure thus far, our plans for the rest of our trip and even more excited to feed us, and I was excited about this too! Real food that doesn’t come from a packet or a box, really?… yum! And to top it off death by chocolate cake… Wow, I am truly blessed to know some amazing people, but now it’s off to San Diego.

Real dessert :)

Dinner with good friends

Beautiful Beach, a huge park and Sushi!

Our day starts at Ocean Beach, which is a beautiful beach West of where we were staying. After a long bus ride we were able to relax in the sand and tipped our toes in the (cold) water, it felt great to be on a real beach again!

Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA

Our next step was walking through Golden Gate Park, which is 50 something blocks long and filled with many little ponds and wonderful gardens. We got a little lost walking through the park, but that’s okay it just means we got to see a lot more than we planned on.

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA

Once we were done exploring the wonderful gardens of the park we made our way back to the hostel and got ready for ½ price sushi at Nara sushi, a few blocks from the hostel. Filled up on sushi, sashimi and edamame we had to leave Golden Gate City, and head for Hollywood, LA! Bring on the famous people!

Nara Sushi...so good!