This post has been a little delayed, and while it doesn't quite wrap up the story of the trip, it will cover the last flight home to Perth and our arrival at Perth International Airport.
We managed to get quite a bit of rest at Auckland Aiport, after hiring towels for the grand sum of NZ$5 each and having a shower shortly after arrival, we changed clothes, had breakfast and found somewhere to rest, sort photos and charge the laptop, all without leaving the International Departures Lounge at the airport.
The flight to Perth started with a fair bit of turbulence, which didn't help Kate out much, however the Air New Zealand flight staff were quick to pick up on this and made her as comfortable as possible, which made the trip a lot more bearable for her, and probably helped the surrounding passengers more than they'll ever know.
Once we arrived back in Perth, we saw how well the SmartGate system can work when everything is functioning properly. While we'd seen the system work in New Zealand on the way to the United States, we'd also seen the Perth system fail last year on our trip, when it was still fairly new. The system cuts processing time down to an absolute minimum by having you answer the relevant Customs related questions before you get to the Arrivals gate and then using automated systems and facial recognition to process your passport. The only downside of this system is that you don't get your passport stamped at the electronic gates, meaning that the only stamps we picked up in our passports this year were from Immigration at San Francisco. After clearing the Arrivals gate, we picked up our luggage, passed through the final Customs checkpoint and headed out into the terminal, where Kate's mum was waiting to take us home.
For me, the only (minor) dissapointment about our arrival in Perth was the realisation that every other airport we've passed through has nice "Welcome to XXX" signage, or in the case of Auckland, a huge carved archway, greeting visitors to the country. In Perth, we have a sign above the Customs checkpoint in a restricted area where I wasn't allowed to take a photo.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Sunday, September 5, 2010
The Trip Home - Part 1
Our last day in California was spent doing some last minute shopping, including our "duty free" alcohol purchases, which included full Californian sales tax but still worked out as a better deal than buying at the airport, which you appear to be able to do only once you have already checked your bags in, making it a little difficult, thanks to the current restrictions on carrying Liquids, Aerosols and Gels in hand luggage.
We also picked up a couple of new bags to fit all the stuff we've bought over the last 5 weeks, including another four pairs of shoes I bought yesterday. I'd picked up a new pair of Nike runners the day after we landed, and they've served me so well in the last 5 weeks that I went and bought another pair exactly the same. I also found another pair slightly cheaper that I liked just as much, and ended up with 2 pairs of brand new Nike runners for less than the cost of a single pair back home. The Nike purchases were on top of another shoe purchase, that of two pairs of Converse All Star Hi Tops for a grand total of US$33 at the Converse Factory Outlet store, making it a total of three new pairs of Converse shoes I'd bought for myself on the trip.
Once we'd finished shopping, we headed back to David and Nicoles place to worry about packing. I'd decided that I would be happier having an extra bag that we had to pay for, than having to leave stuff behind or repack bags at the airport, both of which we'd ended up doing last year. As a result, we went from having three bags on the flight over, to having six bags on the return flight. Thankfully, Darrell hadn't bought as much stuff as we had, and he was able to check in one of our bags for us, so we were only out of pocket US$100 for the final bag.
We left San Francisco International around 9pm local time on Saturday night, and it's now almost 9am local time in New Zealand, and we've been here since around 4:30am, although thanks to the international date line, it's now Monday morning. We'll landing in Perth around 7pm tonight, and both Kate and I are back at work tomorrow, so we're hoping to get as much sleep as possible on the way home. Fortunately, we had a pretty good flight from San Francisco, and both of us managed to get plenty of sleep. We're also camped on some comfortable seats at the airport and planning on stretching out for a few hours here.
We also picked up a couple of new bags to fit all the stuff we've bought over the last 5 weeks, including another four pairs of shoes I bought yesterday. I'd picked up a new pair of Nike runners the day after we landed, and they've served me so well in the last 5 weeks that I went and bought another pair exactly the same. I also found another pair slightly cheaper that I liked just as much, and ended up with 2 pairs of brand new Nike runners for less than the cost of a single pair back home. The Nike purchases were on top of another shoe purchase, that of two pairs of Converse All Star Hi Tops for a grand total of US$33 at the Converse Factory Outlet store, making it a total of three new pairs of Converse shoes I'd bought for myself on the trip.
Once we'd finished shopping, we headed back to David and Nicoles place to worry about packing. I'd decided that I would be happier having an extra bag that we had to pay for, than having to leave stuff behind or repack bags at the airport, both of which we'd ended up doing last year. As a result, we went from having three bags on the flight over, to having six bags on the return flight. Thankfully, Darrell hadn't bought as much stuff as we had, and he was able to check in one of our bags for us, so we were only out of pocket US$100 for the final bag.
We left San Francisco International around 9pm local time on Saturday night, and it's now almost 9am local time in New Zealand, and we've been here since around 4:30am, although thanks to the international date line, it's now Monday morning. We'll landing in Perth around 7pm tonight, and both Kate and I are back at work tomorrow, so we're hoping to get as much sleep as possible on the way home. Fortunately, we had a pretty good flight from San Francisco, and both of us managed to get plenty of sleep. We're also camped on some comfortable seats at the airport and planning on stretching out for a few hours here.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
We Went Shopping And Then To The Movies.
Today, we started off the day by heading out to some San Jose shopping spots. First up was the Eastridge Mall, where Kate headed back to her favourite San Jose shop, Daiso. Daiso are a store that specialise in selling products produced either in Japan or for the Japanese market.
We also headed to Santana Row, one of the more expensive pieces of shopping real estate in San Jose. Amongst other things, Santana Row has a whole bunch of upscale eateries, one of only a couple of Pinkberry stores in the San Jose area, an Oakley store and a Gucci store.
We had lunch at the El Jardin Tequila Bar and Restaurant, on the island in the centre of the street that is Santana Row and after lunch, Kate and Darrell had icecream from Ben and Jerry's, while I headed straight for the Pinkberry store for a froyo fix.
With lunch (and now dessert) taken care of, we headed to the Oakley store, which is where I managed to find a couple of Oakley's Mad Scientist stickers last year. Unfortunately these appear to now be out of production, and I haven't been able to find any more since then. I ended up buying a couple of other stickers and some long sleeved t-shirts before we moved on once again.
Next stop was just over the road at the Valley Fair mall and the local Safeway, but all we brought home out of that excursion was a couple of 52 ounce Bubba Keg mugs. The Bubba Keg's are an insulated mug, and the 52 ounce version in particular, stays cold for a very long time, which is handy as 52 ounces roughly equates to 1.5 litres of drink. I've been on a mission to stockpile as many of these mugs as I can to take home with me, and between the Safeway mentioned above and a stop at a Target on the way back to David's place, I added another 6 to the collection today.
Tonight is our last full night in San Jose, and we to commemorate this occasion, we went to the local Drive Ins with David and Nicole. This particular drive in theatre features 6 screens and every screen had well over half the viewing bays in front of it taken by paying customers. They also have a rather large restaurant, bar and arcade area that appears to be shared with the local flea market (not the San Jose Flea Market, but another one).
Tomorrow night at around 9pm we should be taking off from San Francisco International Airport, headed for home, well, after a brief stopover in Auckland, New Zealand. The plans for the Cadillac at the moment involve it following us on a boat not long after, though we still have to sort the logistics of getting it from San Jose to Los Angeles and work out where the money's coming from to pay the importers bill.
We also headed to Santana Row, one of the more expensive pieces of shopping real estate in San Jose. Amongst other things, Santana Row has a whole bunch of upscale eateries, one of only a couple of Pinkberry stores in the San Jose area, an Oakley store and a Gucci store.
We had lunch at the El Jardin Tequila Bar and Restaurant, on the island in the centre of the street that is Santana Row and after lunch, Kate and Darrell had icecream from Ben and Jerry's, while I headed straight for the Pinkberry store for a froyo fix.
With lunch (and now dessert) taken care of, we headed to the Oakley store, which is where I managed to find a couple of Oakley's Mad Scientist stickers last year. Unfortunately these appear to now be out of production, and I haven't been able to find any more since then. I ended up buying a couple of other stickers and some long sleeved t-shirts before we moved on once again.
Next stop was just over the road at the Valley Fair mall and the local Safeway, but all we brought home out of that excursion was a couple of 52 ounce Bubba Keg mugs. The Bubba Keg's are an insulated mug, and the 52 ounce version in particular, stays cold for a very long time, which is handy as 52 ounces roughly equates to 1.5 litres of drink. I've been on a mission to stockpile as many of these mugs as I can to take home with me, and between the Safeway mentioned above and a stop at a Target on the way back to David's place, I added another 6 to the collection today.
Tonight is our last full night in San Jose, and we to commemorate this occasion, we went to the local Drive Ins with David and Nicole. This particular drive in theatre features 6 screens and every screen had well over half the viewing bays in front of it taken by paying customers. They also have a rather large restaurant, bar and arcade area that appears to be shared with the local flea market (not the San Jose Flea Market, but another one).
Tomorrow night at around 9pm we should be taking off from San Francisco International Airport, headed for home, well, after a brief stopover in Auckland, New Zealand. The plans for the Cadillac at the moment involve it following us on a boat not long after, though we still have to sort the logistics of getting it from San Jose to Los Angeles and work out where the money's coming from to pay the importers bill.
Friday, September 3, 2010
The Googleplex and Candlestick Park
Today we went to have lunch with David at Google's Mountain View Campus, had a brief tour of some of the buildings there and took a few photos. Photography inside the Google buildings is prohibited, but out in the publicly accessible areas it's a different story.
Google's Android team are rather proud of their creation and have a set of statues on display commemorating important moments in the mobile OS's history, including an Android to symbolise the operating system itself, a Cupcake for the first major system update (appropriately named Cupcake), a Donut, Eclair and a giant cup of Froyo for subsequent releases and an oversized Nexus One, the first (and to date only) phone released by Google themselves, which of course ran the Android OS.
After leaving Google, we started making our way to Candlestick Park, home of the San Francisco 49ers, as we had tickets to their preseason game against the San Diego Chargers. We also made a slight detour to Palo Alto to have a Jamba Juice Smoothie. For those reading in Australia, Jamba Juice is similar to the Boost juice bars, except that Jamba Juice make their drinks in sizes that include a "Power" size, which is approximately 24 ounces, much bigger than the biggest Boost size. The wonders of the US economy also result in this 24 ounce mother of all smoothies costing quite a bit less than a similar (but smaller) Australian smoothie, at less than 6 US Dollars.
We then headed to Candlestick Park, as it was almost 4pm, and the gates had been open for some time. Even though the game had a 7pm kickoff, the 49ers actively encourage early arriving and tailgating at their games. They even permit tailgaters to bring outside alcohol and barbecues into the carpark and provide disposal bins specifically for hot ashes. With that said, there is no shortage of warning signs that remind spectators that excessive drinking and unruly behaviour will not be tolerated.
Inside the stadium, there are numerous fast food, beverage and merchandise outlets wherever you turn, with beer available in aluminium bottlecans, plastic bottles or plastic cups, but no glass. If you don't want to eat in your seat, there are sit down restaurants, but we were happy eating in our seats. Especially as our seats were right in front of the Papa Murphy's Pizza outlet, which also happened to serve 20 ounce cups of beer.
Meanwhile, on the field, the 49ers were chasing a perfect preseason record of 4 wins from 4 games. Things were looking good with a touchdown on their opening drive, and when they held the Chargers scoreless for the entire first half, adding a field goal to their own tally in the second quarter, things were looking even better. Two touchdowns by the Chargers in the third quarter turned things back in San Diego's favour, but the 49ers came through in the fourth quarter with another touchdown and managed to shut down San Diego's final charge with about 25 seconds left on the game clock.
After a visit to one of the larger merchandise shops at the stadium, we headed back to the Caddy and off towards San Jose, although the best route to San Jose after a 49ers game involves heading further north towards downtown San Francisco before you can get away from the traffic and head for home. By this time we were all feeling like a bit to eat, so we stopped in at an In'n'Out for a burger and some fries.
Google's Android team are rather proud of their creation and have a set of statues on display commemorating important moments in the mobile OS's history, including an Android to symbolise the operating system itself, a Cupcake for the first major system update (appropriately named Cupcake), a Donut, Eclair and a giant cup of Froyo for subsequent releases and an oversized Nexus One, the first (and to date only) phone released by Google themselves, which of course ran the Android OS.
After leaving Google, we started making our way to Candlestick Park, home of the San Francisco 49ers, as we had tickets to their preseason game against the San Diego Chargers. We also made a slight detour to Palo Alto to have a Jamba Juice Smoothie. For those reading in Australia, Jamba Juice is similar to the Boost juice bars, except that Jamba Juice make their drinks in sizes that include a "Power" size, which is approximately 24 ounces, much bigger than the biggest Boost size. The wonders of the US economy also result in this 24 ounce mother of all smoothies costing quite a bit less than a similar (but smaller) Australian smoothie, at less than 6 US Dollars.
We then headed to Candlestick Park, as it was almost 4pm, and the gates had been open for some time. Even though the game had a 7pm kickoff, the 49ers actively encourage early arriving and tailgating at their games. They even permit tailgaters to bring outside alcohol and barbecues into the carpark and provide disposal bins specifically for hot ashes. With that said, there is no shortage of warning signs that remind spectators that excessive drinking and unruly behaviour will not be tolerated.
Inside the stadium, there are numerous fast food, beverage and merchandise outlets wherever you turn, with beer available in aluminium bottlecans, plastic bottles or plastic cups, but no glass. If you don't want to eat in your seat, there are sit down restaurants, but we were happy eating in our seats. Especially as our seats were right in front of the Papa Murphy's Pizza outlet, which also happened to serve 20 ounce cups of beer.
Meanwhile, on the field, the 49ers were chasing a perfect preseason record of 4 wins from 4 games. Things were looking good with a touchdown on their opening drive, and when they held the Chargers scoreless for the entire first half, adding a field goal to their own tally in the second quarter, things were looking even better. Two touchdowns by the Chargers in the third quarter turned things back in San Diego's favour, but the 49ers came through in the fourth quarter with another touchdown and managed to shut down San Diego's final charge with about 25 seconds left on the game clock.
After a visit to one of the larger merchandise shops at the stadium, we headed back to the Caddy and off towards San Jose, although the best route to San Jose after a 49ers game involves heading further north towards downtown San Francisco before you can get away from the traffic and head for home. By this time we were all feeling like a bit to eat, so we stopped in at an In'n'Out for a burger and some fries.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
San Francisco and Marin Headlands
Today we headed up to San Francisco for the day, visiting Fishermans Wharf first to look for souvenirs and to have lunch, before heading across the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin County.
We visited the former Nike Missile Site SF-88, in the Marin Headlands, the only former Nike Site in the United States that has been restored and opened up to the public.
SF-88 is a fairly typical Cold War era Nike Missile site, of which there were approximately 300 throughout the United States and it's overseas bases. The site has been restored by a team of volunteers to a point where it appears to be almost fully operational, and is under the care of the Goldan Gate Park and the National Parks Service.
Nike Site SF-88 was constructed in 1954 and originally built for and equipped with Nike-Ajax Surface to Air missiles. In 1959 SF-88 was converted to fire the Nike-Hercules nuclear warhead missiles, which carried a payload roughly equivalent to twice as powerful as the bomb dropped on Nagasaki at the end of the second World War.
SF-88 was part of an 11 site Coastal Defence network for the San Francisco area, and all the missiles it housed were designed to fire at air borne targets. By 1974 the face of warfare had changed again, and the Nike missile system was no match for a fleet of submarines launching ICBM's at targets thousands of miles away. This site was shut down in 1974 and for at least the last 20 years has been in a constant state of restoration to maintain it as close to it's early 1970's appearance as possible.
After leaving site SF-88, we headed over to the local town of Sausalito for some gas and for a look around. Sausalito is home to the Bay Model, a huge scale model of the San Francisco Bay, however as we didn't leave SF-88 until almost 4:30, we were too late getting to Sausalito to check out the Bay Model.
We then headed back towards San Francisco, stopping at the Marin County end of the Golden Gate Bridge to take a few photos and look out over the bay, before taking a drive around some of San Francisco then back to the Presidio district and down to Fort Point, where I had been to take photos a year ago. We had a walk around the outside of the Fort, which was not open to the public today, took a few photos and then jumped back in the Caddy.
Another short drive later and we were at the Palace of the Fine Arts. Last time we were in San Francisco there were signs at the Palace of the Fine Arts announcing an intention to restore the Palace area to it's former glory, and today I was happy to see that the outdoor part of the Palace has been fenced off to begin that restoration, even though it meant that we couldn't walk through the tall columns and under the enormous dome of the Palace. Instead, we viewed the Palace from the other side of the lake, took a few photos and then headed back down to Fishermans Wharf for dinner, although we did detour to drive down the windy part of Lombard Street, something that I've done before in the long Caddy, but I still find enjoyable.
Tonight we ate at the Fog City Diner, featured in the movie "So I Married an Axe Murderer" and recognisable to most who have driven along the Embarcadero as the shiny stainless steal diner with bright neon trim. The Fog City Diner is an upscale diner serving good food at reasonable prices, and we had an enjoyable night there before the drive home to San Jose.
We visited the former Nike Missile Site SF-88, in the Marin Headlands, the only former Nike Site in the United States that has been restored and opened up to the public.
SF-88 is a fairly typical Cold War era Nike Missile site, of which there were approximately 300 throughout the United States and it's overseas bases. The site has been restored by a team of volunteers to a point where it appears to be almost fully operational, and is under the care of the Goldan Gate Park and the National Parks Service.
Nike Site SF-88 was constructed in 1954 and originally built for and equipped with Nike-Ajax Surface to Air missiles. In 1959 SF-88 was converted to fire the Nike-Hercules nuclear warhead missiles, which carried a payload roughly equivalent to twice as powerful as the bomb dropped on Nagasaki at the end of the second World War.
SF-88 was part of an 11 site Coastal Defence network for the San Francisco area, and all the missiles it housed were designed to fire at air borne targets. By 1974 the face of warfare had changed again, and the Nike missile system was no match for a fleet of submarines launching ICBM's at targets thousands of miles away. This site was shut down in 1974 and for at least the last 20 years has been in a constant state of restoration to maintain it as close to it's early 1970's appearance as possible.
After leaving site SF-88, we headed over to the local town of Sausalito for some gas and for a look around. Sausalito is home to the Bay Model, a huge scale model of the San Francisco Bay, however as we didn't leave SF-88 until almost 4:30, we were too late getting to Sausalito to check out the Bay Model.
We then headed back towards San Francisco, stopping at the Marin County end of the Golden Gate Bridge to take a few photos and look out over the bay, before taking a drive around some of San Francisco then back to the Presidio district and down to Fort Point, where I had been to take photos a year ago. We had a walk around the outside of the Fort, which was not open to the public today, took a few photos and then jumped back in the Caddy.
Another short drive later and we were at the Palace of the Fine Arts. Last time we were in San Francisco there were signs at the Palace of the Fine Arts announcing an intention to restore the Palace area to it's former glory, and today I was happy to see that the outdoor part of the Palace has been fenced off to begin that restoration, even though it meant that we couldn't walk through the tall columns and under the enormous dome of the Palace. Instead, we viewed the Palace from the other side of the lake, took a few photos and then headed back down to Fishermans Wharf for dinner, although we did detour to drive down the windy part of Lombard Street, something that I've done before in the long Caddy, but I still find enjoyable.
Tonight we ate at the Fog City Diner, featured in the movie "So I Married an Axe Murderer" and recognisable to most who have driven along the Embarcadero as the shiny stainless steal diner with bright neon trim. The Fog City Diner is an upscale diner serving good food at reasonable prices, and we had an enjoyable night there before the drive home to San Jose.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Sacramento Day Trip
Today we took a day trip to Sacramento. Sacramento is the capital city of California, and around 2 hours drive from San Jose.
Our initial plan was to drive up in the morning, taking a small detour to check out a bikini barista stand in Warm Springs, spend most of the day in Sacramento and drive back in the early evening, stopping at Sonic Drive-In in Fremont on the way back for dinner. We almost kept to that schedule too, with a few small issues along the way.
The battery in the Cadillac let us down for the third time in the 4500 miles we've done in the last 4 and a half weeks, and we decided to replace it on the way to Sacramento, which we did outside an Autozone near Warm Springs, while sipping tasty beverages from the Your Coffee Cups coffee stands at the corner of Mission Boulevarde and Warm Springs Boulevarde. Your Coffee Cups is staffed by young female uni students in bikini's, who, asides from a $9 an hour retainer, work primarily for tips. They're also not bad at making coffee, and the owner reportedly has plans to open up more of these bikini coffee huts around the Bay Area.
Once we'd added a lunch break into the mix, we'd managed to add almost 2 hours to our original plan of a 2 hour drive from San Jose to Sacramento, but we did eventually pull up out the front of SoCal Speed Shop's Sacramento store around 2pm. We headed inside and did a little shopping, coming out with yet more shirts, stickers and badges, and even some car parts too. Being very early in the project at the moment, it was hard for me to find anything to suit my 37 Chevrolet pickup, but I did end up buying some air cleaners to suit the small Holley carburettors often used on flathead motors. I'm currently fairly well set on using a flathead in this build, and would like to attempt to get it working with triple carbs, so I bought 3 air cleaners for the job.
After leaving SoCal, we headed to the California State Capitol building in downtown Sacramento, and took a look around some of the historic office exhibits. We also managed to find some maps in the gift shop showing the states of California and Nevada on the same map, and actually showing almost all the locations we've visited over the last couple of weeks.
We then headed a little further out of town, to Sacramento Vintage Ford. Friends who had been here before had insisted this shop was a must visit while in Northern California, and they weren't wrong. The showroom here is huge, with several show quality cars on display, a huge gift store, a parts store and call centre and even a diner inside the showroom. Once again, shirts and stickers were a large part of the haul from Sacramento Vintage Ford and once we were finished up here, we headed for our final Sacramento stop.
Our last stop in Sacramento was a visit to the local outlet stores, where we visited the third Converse outlet store we've been to so far on the trip. These are my personal favourite when it comes to outlet stores, as they always have a different selection of very cheap shoes on the back wall, so that's where I head as soon as we come across one. This particular Converse store didn't disapppoint, with the three of us all walking out with a pair of shoes in hand.
We then headed for home, but with one more stop programmed in the GPS. I'd heard of Sonic Drive-In before, and in particular was keen to see their carhop service in action. Unfortunately, we pulled into the lot about 5 minutes too late to actually be able to partake of the carhop service, which involves ordering into one of the microphones placed next to each of the parking bays in the Sonic lot, and the server bringing your food out to you when they collect your payment. As it was, we had to be content with ordering and picking up our food through the drive through window and then parking in a bay to eat it, before making the final half hour drive back to San Jose.
Our initial plan was to drive up in the morning, taking a small detour to check out a bikini barista stand in Warm Springs, spend most of the day in Sacramento and drive back in the early evening, stopping at Sonic Drive-In in Fremont on the way back for dinner. We almost kept to that schedule too, with a few small issues along the way.
The battery in the Cadillac let us down for the third time in the 4500 miles we've done in the last 4 and a half weeks, and we decided to replace it on the way to Sacramento, which we did outside an Autozone near Warm Springs, while sipping tasty beverages from the Your Coffee Cups coffee stands at the corner of Mission Boulevarde and Warm Springs Boulevarde. Your Coffee Cups is staffed by young female uni students in bikini's, who, asides from a $9 an hour retainer, work primarily for tips. They're also not bad at making coffee, and the owner reportedly has plans to open up more of these bikini coffee huts around the Bay Area.
Once we'd added a lunch break into the mix, we'd managed to add almost 2 hours to our original plan of a 2 hour drive from San Jose to Sacramento, but we did eventually pull up out the front of SoCal Speed Shop's Sacramento store around 2pm. We headed inside and did a little shopping, coming out with yet more shirts, stickers and badges, and even some car parts too. Being very early in the project at the moment, it was hard for me to find anything to suit my 37 Chevrolet pickup, but I did end up buying some air cleaners to suit the small Holley carburettors often used on flathead motors. I'm currently fairly well set on using a flathead in this build, and would like to attempt to get it working with triple carbs, so I bought 3 air cleaners for the job.
After leaving SoCal, we headed to the California State Capitol building in downtown Sacramento, and took a look around some of the historic office exhibits. We also managed to find some maps in the gift shop showing the states of California and Nevada on the same map, and actually showing almost all the locations we've visited over the last couple of weeks.
We then headed a little further out of town, to Sacramento Vintage Ford. Friends who had been here before had insisted this shop was a must visit while in Northern California, and they weren't wrong. The showroom here is huge, with several show quality cars on display, a huge gift store, a parts store and call centre and even a diner inside the showroom. Once again, shirts and stickers were a large part of the haul from Sacramento Vintage Ford and once we were finished up here, we headed for our final Sacramento stop.
Our last stop in Sacramento was a visit to the local outlet stores, where we visited the third Converse outlet store we've been to so far on the trip. These are my personal favourite when it comes to outlet stores, as they always have a different selection of very cheap shoes on the back wall, so that's where I head as soon as we come across one. This particular Converse store didn't disapppoint, with the three of us all walking out with a pair of shoes in hand.
We then headed for home, but with one more stop programmed in the GPS. I'd heard of Sonic Drive-In before, and in particular was keen to see their carhop service in action. Unfortunately, we pulled into the lot about 5 minutes too late to actually be able to partake of the carhop service, which involves ordering into one of the microphones placed next to each of the parking bays in the Sonic lot, and the server bringing your food out to you when they collect your payment. As it was, we had to be content with ordering and picking up our food through the drive through window and then parking in a bay to eat it, before making the final half hour drive back to San Jose.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
USS Hornet and GolfLand
Today we visited the USS Hornet, a decommissioned aircraft carrier and floating museum at Alameda Point, on the San Francisco Bay. The USS Hornet (CV-12) was originally commissioned in 1943 to replace the USS Hornet (CV-8) that was lost in service in late 1942.
The USS Hornet (CV-12) survived World War II with an impressive record including over 1400 enemy aircraft destroyed, over 50 enemy ships destroyed and credit for assisting in the sinking of the Japanese super battle ship Yamato. In June 1945, shortly before the end of the war, the deck of the USS Hornet was severely damaged in a typhoon and she was returned to San Francisco for repairs.
With the war ending while USS Hornet was still in dry dock, she saw little more use before being designated inactive and decommissioned in 1947. However, she was to be reclassified as an Attack Aircraft Carrier in 1952 and recommissioned with the new designation CVA-12 in 1953, following extensive upgrades performed at the New York Naval Shipyard.
CVA-12 was upgraded once more in service before being converted to an anti-submarine support carrier and reclassified again to CVS-12, the designation she bore when retired from active service in 1970, after yet more upgrades had been completed to bring her into line with the more modern design of an aircraft carrier, including replacing some of the wooden deck sections with aluminium panels where damage from the heat produced by jet engines was most likely to occur.
The USS Hornet, as CVS-12, was also part of two of the Apollo lunar missions, recovering the crews of Apollo 11 and Apollo 12. Custom built Airstream caravans, built as Mobile Quarantine Facilities were loaded on board for the astronauts to inhabit while returning to port, as the environment of the moon was still very much an unknown factor at that time and the powers that be were concerned about possible contamination effects.
Although the USS Hornet was decommissioned in 1970 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991, she was only opened as a museum in 1998 and has been open to the public ever since, with a knowledgeable and enthusiastic team of docents providing tours of the carriers inner workings and answering questions. Today, in addition to working our way through the various parts of CVS-12 that are open to all visitors to the museum, we were also able to take a docent led tour of the carriers Island and Bridge. This is part of the ship that, due to both safety and security concerns, is off limits to unescorted visitors.
After we left Alameda Point, we headed up to the university town of Berkeley for lunch before heading to GolfLand in Milpitas, where we met up with David and Nicole for a round of mini-golf and some time in their arcades.
We spent quite a few hours at GolfLand before deciding it was time for dinner, for while we ended up going to the IHOP in Milpitas. IHOP stands for International House of Pancakes, and a lot of their meals come with a side of pancakes, although they're rather filling before you get started on the pancakes.
Tomorrow we're heading up to the state capital of California, Sacramento, to visit Sacramento Vintage Ford, SoCal Customs of Sacramento, to see some of the government buildings and also to do a bit more outlet shopping.
(As you can see, I haven't added photos to this post yet either, however they will be available on LandBarge.com. I'll add photos to this and other un-illustrated posts whenever I have the time to do so.)
The USS Hornet (CV-12) survived World War II with an impressive record including over 1400 enemy aircraft destroyed, over 50 enemy ships destroyed and credit for assisting in the sinking of the Japanese super battle ship Yamato. In June 1945, shortly before the end of the war, the deck of the USS Hornet was severely damaged in a typhoon and she was returned to San Francisco for repairs.
With the war ending while USS Hornet was still in dry dock, she saw little more use before being designated inactive and decommissioned in 1947. However, she was to be reclassified as an Attack Aircraft Carrier in 1952 and recommissioned with the new designation CVA-12 in 1953, following extensive upgrades performed at the New York Naval Shipyard.
CVA-12 was upgraded once more in service before being converted to an anti-submarine support carrier and reclassified again to CVS-12, the designation she bore when retired from active service in 1970, after yet more upgrades had been completed to bring her into line with the more modern design of an aircraft carrier, including replacing some of the wooden deck sections with aluminium panels where damage from the heat produced by jet engines was most likely to occur.
The USS Hornet, as CVS-12, was also part of two of the Apollo lunar missions, recovering the crews of Apollo 11 and Apollo 12. Custom built Airstream caravans, built as Mobile Quarantine Facilities were loaded on board for the astronauts to inhabit while returning to port, as the environment of the moon was still very much an unknown factor at that time and the powers that be were concerned about possible contamination effects.
Although the USS Hornet was decommissioned in 1970 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991, she was only opened as a museum in 1998 and has been open to the public ever since, with a knowledgeable and enthusiastic team of docents providing tours of the carriers inner workings and answering questions. Today, in addition to working our way through the various parts of CVS-12 that are open to all visitors to the museum, we were also able to take a docent led tour of the carriers Island and Bridge. This is part of the ship that, due to both safety and security concerns, is off limits to unescorted visitors.
After we left Alameda Point, we headed up to the university town of Berkeley for lunch before heading to GolfLand in Milpitas, where we met up with David and Nicole for a round of mini-golf and some time in their arcades.
We spent quite a few hours at GolfLand before deciding it was time for dinner, for while we ended up going to the IHOP in Milpitas. IHOP stands for International House of Pancakes, and a lot of their meals come with a side of pancakes, although they're rather filling before you get started on the pancakes.
Tomorrow we're heading up to the state capital of California, Sacramento, to visit Sacramento Vintage Ford, SoCal Customs of Sacramento, to see some of the government buildings and also to do a bit more outlet shopping.
(As you can see, I haven't added photos to this post yet either, however they will be available on LandBarge.com. I'll add photos to this and other un-illustrated posts whenever I have the time to do so.)
Monday, August 30, 2010
The Flea and The Lightning
Today we went to the San Jose Flea Market (The Flea), which claims to be the largest market of it's kind with over 2000 stalls operating on a regular basis and tonight we headed out to Oakland for a birthday party for one of David's colleagues, where he and his friends played with Jacobs Ladders, exploded fruit with electrical energy and cranked up some Tesla Coils (The Lightning).
The Flea Market is truly huge. It's easy to get lost in here (although easy to find yourself again too if you just follow the outside row of stalls back to where you came in) and the 2000 plus stalls sell everything from jewellery and perfume to car accessories, Western and Mexican wear to sofa's and other furniture. There are several food and drink stands set out throughout The Flea, although they all appear to be run by the same company and are actually very reasonably priced considering that they appear to have pretty much a monopoly on food inside The Flea. There are also a number of mobile 'beer vans' that dispense cups of Pepsi and beer as they drive around the markets, meaning you're never more than a couple of minutes from a beverage if you so desire. And that pint of Millers or Bud is only $4, the same price as at any of the fixed food vans.
I ended up buying some more Mexican blankets, as I figure I'll no doubt have a use for them in one of my cars in the future, and they'll at least have a little more of a story behind them if I've had to haggle with a Mexican shopkeeper at a flea market for them, instead of just buying them over the counter at a parts store. I also picked up a Western style straw hat, mainly to sit next to my Akubra at home. I'm still hoping to pick up a genuine Stetson while we're here, but will do a little shopping around for that over the next couple of days.
After we left The Flea, we came back to David and Nicole's, and piled everyone in the Caddy for the drive up to Oakland for Josh's birthday. Josh was one of the groomsmen at David's wedding last year, and he likes to play with things that most people would consider a little dangerous, including Jacob's Ladders and Tesla Coils.
With that background, Josh's birthday party was never going to be a boring affair. When we arrived he was shoving electrodes into an onion, which he then proceeded to blow up by charging up a large capacitor and then discharging it across the electrodes inserted in the onion. This process was repeated a number of times during the night with varying results, using a lime, a cantaloupe and a sausage.
Also in action was a Jacob's Ladder that ended up being used to cut through a watermelon and a cantaloupe in a manner not dissimilar to most welding processes. There were also two Tesla Coils, one smaller one of Josh's used indoors during daylight to demonstrate the principle and another much larger unit set up outside that was fired up after the suns rays started to fade and aside from the visual show, also provided musical accompaniment at certain points during the night.
The Flea Market is truly huge. It's easy to get lost in here (although easy to find yourself again too if you just follow the outside row of stalls back to where you came in) and the 2000 plus stalls sell everything from jewellery and perfume to car accessories, Western and Mexican wear to sofa's and other furniture. There are several food and drink stands set out throughout The Flea, although they all appear to be run by the same company and are actually very reasonably priced considering that they appear to have pretty much a monopoly on food inside The Flea. There are also a number of mobile 'beer vans' that dispense cups of Pepsi and beer as they drive around the markets, meaning you're never more than a couple of minutes from a beverage if you so desire. And that pint of Millers or Bud is only $4, the same price as at any of the fixed food vans.
I ended up buying some more Mexican blankets, as I figure I'll no doubt have a use for them in one of my cars in the future, and they'll at least have a little more of a story behind them if I've had to haggle with a Mexican shopkeeper at a flea market for them, instead of just buying them over the counter at a parts store. I also picked up a Western style straw hat, mainly to sit next to my Akubra at home. I'm still hoping to pick up a genuine Stetson while we're here, but will do a little shopping around for that over the next couple of days.
After we left The Flea, we came back to David and Nicole's, and piled everyone in the Caddy for the drive up to Oakland for Josh's birthday. Josh was one of the groomsmen at David's wedding last year, and he likes to play with things that most people would consider a little dangerous, including Jacob's Ladders and Tesla Coils.
With that background, Josh's birthday party was never going to be a boring affair. When we arrived he was shoving electrodes into an onion, which he then proceeded to blow up by charging up a large capacitor and then discharging it across the electrodes inserted in the onion. This process was repeated a number of times during the night with varying results, using a lime, a cantaloupe and a sausage.
Also in action was a Jacob's Ladder that ended up being used to cut through a watermelon and a cantaloupe in a manner not dissimilar to most welding processes. There were also two Tesla Coils, one smaller one of Josh's used indoors during daylight to demonstrate the principle and another much larger unit set up outside that was fired up after the suns rays started to fade and aside from the visual show, also provided musical accompaniment at certain points during the night.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Pleasanton GoodGuys - Day 2
Today was spent at Pleasanton for the second day of the GoodGuys West Coast Nationals, there's not a lot more to say about this show, except that as big as it seemed yesterday, it was at least 4 or 5 times bigger today. The crowds were definitely there, there were several times as many cars as there were yesterday and all of a sudden there were actually lines for the food and drink stands.
We parked on the grounds today, at a cost of $8 for a spot only a short walk from the gate, with the threat of tow away zones outside the fair grounds, it seemed like a good deal to me, but not to the guy we walked past on the way in, yelling at one of the gate staff because he couldn't grasp the concept that he had to pay $8 for parking and another $18 to get into a show. Never mind that this particular show has over 3000 killer hot rods and kustoms of a variety and standard you would just never see in Australia.
As I sit here writing this, I'm also thinking of some of the cars I glimpsed from across the grounds and didn't manage to track down, and the ones I walked straight past, in a hurry to get somewhere else and thinking "I'll get to that one later" and never got back to. However, even with everything that I know I missed, I also took over 1200 photos over the 2 days of some really, really cool cars.
Even the food and beverage stands are something to be experienced, with flame grilled steaks, teriyaki chicken and polish, cajun and italian sausage dogs on offer as well as deep fried Twinkies, Oreos and Snickers, ice cream stands and much more. And where ever there were food stands, there were drink stands, serving 750mL of Corona at a time, but only in a plastic cup, poured straight from a bottle, margaritas and other assorted beers and soft drinks. There's no "licensed area" here, the whole venue is licensed, but while saying that, there's also none of the problems that we've seen alcohol cause at Australian car shows. Not only is this one hell of a cool show, it's also a genuine family outing.
After we left Pleasanton, we dropped in to Krispy Kreme's in Mountain View to pick up a box of donuts and came on back to David and Nicole's place for the night. A little later on, we went for a walk down to local burger joint Peggy Sues, a nice retro styled burger joint in downtown San Jose.
(Apologies for the lack of photos again, but it's almost midnight and I promised Kate I'd be up early tomorrow, so I better get some sleep - Photos will be added to this and all other photo-deprived posts as soon as possible)
We parked on the grounds today, at a cost of $8 for a spot only a short walk from the gate, with the threat of tow away zones outside the fair grounds, it seemed like a good deal to me, but not to the guy we walked past on the way in, yelling at one of the gate staff because he couldn't grasp the concept that he had to pay $8 for parking and another $18 to get into a show. Never mind that this particular show has over 3000 killer hot rods and kustoms of a variety and standard you would just never see in Australia.
As I sit here writing this, I'm also thinking of some of the cars I glimpsed from across the grounds and didn't manage to track down, and the ones I walked straight past, in a hurry to get somewhere else and thinking "I'll get to that one later" and never got back to. However, even with everything that I know I missed, I also took over 1200 photos over the 2 days of some really, really cool cars.
Even the food and beverage stands are something to be experienced, with flame grilled steaks, teriyaki chicken and polish, cajun and italian sausage dogs on offer as well as deep fried Twinkies, Oreos and Snickers, ice cream stands and much more. And where ever there were food stands, there were drink stands, serving 750mL of Corona at a time, but only in a plastic cup, poured straight from a bottle, margaritas and other assorted beers and soft drinks. There's no "licensed area" here, the whole venue is licensed, but while saying that, there's also none of the problems that we've seen alcohol cause at Australian car shows. Not only is this one hell of a cool show, it's also a genuine family outing.
After we left Pleasanton, we dropped in to Krispy Kreme's in Mountain View to pick up a box of donuts and came on back to David and Nicole's place for the night. A little later on, we went for a walk down to local burger joint Peggy Sues, a nice retro styled burger joint in downtown San Jose.
(Apologies for the lack of photos again, but it's almost midnight and I promised Kate I'd be up early tomorrow, so I better get some sleep - Photos will be added to this and all other photo-deprived posts as soon as possible)
Good Guys West Coast Nationals - Friday
Today was the first day of the GoodGuys West Cost Nationals in Pleasanton, and we were there to check out the cars and the traders displays during the day. We have every intention of being back there nice and early tomorrow to see all the new stuff that turns up in the morning too, as all cars are bumped out overnight and allowed back in tomorrow morning (along with a bunch of new cars that weren't there today).
We spent a fair bit of time checking out the various traders stands today, both inside pavilions and out in the open. In particular, I was happy that the Speed by Spectre guys and girls had a display set up, as I'm a big fan of their Infidel Streamliner, and while I'd gotten a fair few photos of the car at Bonneville, I hadn't actually found their pit area (it seemed to me that they spent more time in impound than at the pit anyway), so I hadn't been able to buy the Spectre merchandise I'd been craving until today.
We also found a heap of cool cars out in the general display areas that may or may not be in the same place tomorrow, as the show cars get bumped out in the evening and return in the morning, many of them changing locations overnight.
We also took some time to check out the swapmeet section of the show, with traders selling everything from cable ties and workshop tools to number plates, hub caps and entire steel hot rod bodies.
On the way home, we detoured to Livermore to have dinner at John's Char Burger, this is where we'd caught up with a couple of local car clubs last year, and we were hoping to do so again this year, however most of them were busy at the show and we didn't see many cars cruising the Livermore strip or at John's this year. We'll be back tomorrow, and will take a bunch more photos then as well. .
We spent a fair bit of time checking out the various traders stands today, both inside pavilions and out in the open. In particular, I was happy that the Speed by Spectre guys and girls had a display set up, as I'm a big fan of their Infidel Streamliner, and while I'd gotten a fair few photos of the car at Bonneville, I hadn't actually found their pit area (it seemed to me that they spent more time in impound than at the pit anyway), so I hadn't been able to buy the Spectre merchandise I'd been craving until today.
We also found a heap of cool cars out in the general display areas that may or may not be in the same place tomorrow, as the show cars get bumped out in the evening and return in the morning, many of them changing locations overnight.
We also took some time to check out the swapmeet section of the show, with traders selling everything from cable ties and workshop tools to number plates, hub caps and entire steel hot rod bodies.
On the way home, we detoured to Livermore to have dinner at John's Char Burger, this is where we'd caught up with a couple of local car clubs last year, and we were hoping to do so again this year, however most of them were busy at the show and we didn't see many cars cruising the Livermore strip or at John's this year. We'll be back tomorrow, and will take a bunch more photos then as well. .
Friday, August 27, 2010
Gilroy and Morgan Hill
Today we had a pretty late start, heading out for lunch a little after midday and then heading down to the outlet stores in Gilroy for a little shopping.
After we finished up at Gilroy, we headed to Morgan Hill where we met up with David and Nicole to check out their property in the hills overlooking the town. This is a pretty steep property on the side of a large hill, and this in turn means that it has some awesome views of the valley, lake and town laid out in front of it, which only get better the higher up you go.
About half way down the property, is a Divco van that David has been trying to identify, mostly because he'd like to get it off the property and into someone else's hands, but in order to do that he needs to properly identify it, including locating some sort of identification, such as a VIN or chassis number. These vans were also built in a very similar body style for well over 20 years, making picking the actual year of production quite a challenge. This particular van was fitted with some sort of flathead 6 cylinder motor, fitted with an updraught carburettor and appears to have most recently been used as a dry cleaning van. However, we've been unable to find any information on the company "New Process Laundry and Dry Cleaners" who's name appears on the side of the van, although a new clue did turn up tonight, with a much smaller logo for "Gallager co" and the text SF 510. 510 being an area code for part of the Bay Area, this could indicate that the company that painted the vehicle was from the Bay Area.
After heading back to the top of the property, we drove down to Morgan Hill, picked up the Cadillac, which we'd left back in civilisation in case there wasn't enough room to turn the big old girl around at the top, and grabbed some gelato before heading back to David and Nicole's for the night.
Tomorrow we're off to the GoodGuys West Coast Nationals in Pleasanton and will drop in to John's 1/4lb Char Burger in Livermore to catch the weekly cruise in there.
After we finished up at Gilroy, we headed to Morgan Hill where we met up with David and Nicole to check out their property in the hills overlooking the town. This is a pretty steep property on the side of a large hill, and this in turn means that it has some awesome views of the valley, lake and town laid out in front of it, which only get better the higher up you go.
About half way down the property, is a Divco van that David has been trying to identify, mostly because he'd like to get it off the property and into someone else's hands, but in order to do that he needs to properly identify it, including locating some sort of identification, such as a VIN or chassis number. These vans were also built in a very similar body style for well over 20 years, making picking the actual year of production quite a challenge. This particular van was fitted with some sort of flathead 6 cylinder motor, fitted with an updraught carburettor and appears to have most recently been used as a dry cleaning van. However, we've been unable to find any information on the company "New Process Laundry and Dry Cleaners" who's name appears on the side of the van, although a new clue did turn up tonight, with a much smaller logo for "Gallager co" and the text SF 510. 510 being an area code for part of the Bay Area, this could indicate that the company that painted the vehicle was from the Bay Area.
After heading back to the top of the property, we drove down to Morgan Hill, picked up the Cadillac, which we'd left back in civilisation in case there wasn't enough room to turn the big old girl around at the top, and grabbed some gelato before heading back to David and Nicole's for the night.
Tomorrow we're off to the GoodGuys West Coast Nationals in Pleasanton and will drop in to John's 1/4lb Char Burger in Livermore to catch the weekly cruise in there.
Labels:
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The Bonneville Run
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