San Francisco

Hey guys,
After our drive along Highway 1, we reached San Francisco last Sunday. The city is simply amazing: the architecture, the people, the cafés, the food, the shops etc... We loved it. Below our favorite photos of beautiful SF.
We are now in Yosemite National Park, continuing our road trip to some other crazy place! But more on this later.
Marie

Pacific Coast Highway 1.....Big Sur

Following the famous Pacific Coast Highway 1 towards San Francisco, we hit Big Sur.

Big change from the Southern California, nobody there, real wild, big cliffs falling straight onto the ocean.
We actually felt right at home, be it New Zealand or Brittany...(probably because it started raining too!).

Next update from the city ....San Francisco !

Aquatic residents of Central Coast

I am just crazy about them....

Marie

A grey Saturday in SoCal...

One cold windy morning a couple of weeks ago, we met Ron at Huntington Beach. After a quick chat he got interested by what we were doing and invited us for dinner to meet his girlfriend Angele that can speak a little french. Ever since we have been hanging out together quite a bit and they've been amazing with us, showing us all the good spots to surf, eat (my main activity now that I'm landlocked) and offered us a real bed to break the "van routine" :-). Thanks You guys for everything and you have a place to stay anytime in NZ!

We caught up for some surfing last Saturday while we were down south in San Diego. After a false start at Torrey Pines (close out !!),we found a little spot close to Cardiff-by-the-Sea, the sky was grey for pretty much the first time in a month but thats not a problem for surfing right?

Check out the ladies surfing !!....sorry Ron I got distracted by Marie for your last wave :-). The sun popped out right on time for a feast at Swami's Cafe afterwards!

Simon

Set up

Marie

Angele

Ron & Angele!

Lunch feast at Swami's Café

Marie@Trestles

Pick your peak !

Middles

Lowers

The new Timmy Patterson seems all good no ?

Carvin' Marie

Hi there people ,

Time to discover the south of SoCal right ? After a quick stop in Huntington Beach to catch up with friends we made our way to San Clemente with 2 missions: find a new board for Marie and surf the famous reefs of Trestles.
As you can see, both missions accomplished ! Marie found a nice little Timmy Patterson 5'11 and we caught a little swell that lit up the Trestles reefs. Check out Marie trying her new board !

PS: You all wonder how on earth she got me to take pictures isn't it? ...well you remember this sleepy early morning check gone wrong in Panama ..Well after surfing in pain for about a month turns out I ll have to be landlocked for few weeks to make my knee right for the rest of the trip....
To "survive" this, we ll go up north to spend some time in San Fransisco and then get lost in the wilderness in the Yosemite Park !! Not too bad for a plan B !

Californian coast in campervan

Hi guys,

So we have been cruising along the Californian coast with our awesome Catie van for around two weeks now. I think it is time to let you know of our awesome experience. First of all, the van enables us to move around with the swell, stay and camp in amazing places, and the weather here is awesome, so no trouble being in the campervan for so long (yet?!).

Our van is a Dodge Grand Caravan; we rented it from a small company based in San Francisco called Lost Campers (http://www.lostcampersusa.com/). If you are keen on doing the same, their fleet his awesome, they have three different types of vans depending on your needs! It is very cheap and the people there very nice! Enough talking, here are some photos!

We are currently in San Diego. We are planning on moving to the central coast next week. Keep you posted.

Marie

Early morning - Ventura County

LA street art!

Chillin'

After-surf reading time!

Life is good!

Flashback on our first few weeks in California!

Hi everyone,

After 2 months in South/Central America, arriving to Los Angeles was a bit of a shock and we actually felt more out of place than in Perù and Panama for the first few days. Soon enough though, after a few Starbucks coffees and traffic jams, it was back to business as usual, funny how fast it goes. My parents and youngest brother came from France to spend Christmas with us and wanted to make the most of it so the first 2 weeks have been pretty busy. We spent few days in LA to check the famous Venice Beach Boardwalk, Hollywood and Beverly Hills, Malibu, Ventura, and Santa Barbara. Then we headed south to San Diego via the desert (Joshua Tree and Anza Borrego National Park). I think we kind of all fell under the charm of San Diego…amazing coastline and super cool city…we stayed at La Jolla (mean the jewel) and it does deserve its name! Oh yeah there is also a massive oceanographic center and university overlooking one of the best spot of the region (Blacks Beach)…It made us seriously consider doing some more studies !

Hope you enjoy the pictures. We are now in Ventura, with our awesome van Catie. Videos, photos and updates coming soon!

Cheers,

Simon

Famous Joshua Tree

Monkeys at Joshua Tree Park

Venice Beach boardwalk

Venice by night

Oceanside, San Diego County

New Year in Las Vegas!

Hi everyone,

After cruising the Californian coast, we decided to have a change of scenery and get our freak on by going to Las Vegas for the New Year. For us, Las Vegas was one of those places you have to visit, because you have heard so much about. To be honest, we had mixed feelings about what to expect… The drive from Los Angeles takes around four to five hours and crosses the Mojave Desert. On the way, random ‘cities’ have grown to accommodate the gambling freaks and give you a little hint of what Las Vegas can be. We arrived at night and the city is pretty much standing alone in the middle of the desert, with its high casino towers. After a cosy night in our lovely van (her name is Catie by the way) we were ready for Vegas. Everything is done so that it is very easy for people to spend in the Casinos. The food and even sometimes the price of the hotel rooms are discounted to make sure you have enough money to spend on all those machines and tables ! Resort car parks are free to anybody, so we ended up parking (and kind of camping !) at the Treasure Island Resort, fancy isn’t it !! The Strip, as it is known, is a 5 km long portion of the Las Vegas boulevard, where all the big attractions, casinos and resorts are. The flow of people there is unbelievable. It took us 50 minutes to walk back to the car-park one time, because you are just stuck in the middle of the crowd. And surprisingly this crowd is a real mix of people, from the foreign tourists amazed by the whole concept, the Vegas gambling freaks, the good old bogans, to the homeless, street performers…and more ! In two days, we hardly had enough time to visit all the resorts, each having their own little ‘inside world’; the Paris casino/resort for example, as its own ‘Boulevard’, a representation of a French town. Anyway, I can go on and on about Vegas, but you got the picture: you might not be into the whole gambling/partying hard, but it is still worth seeing!

Happy New Year to all of you people!

Marie & Simon.

Welcome to Sin City.

New York City at Las Vegas!

The Strip.

Come and lose all your money people...

Paris at Las Vegas.