Saturday July 10th

A quick report from The Windy City, which was not at all windy, to which we were safely delivered at 6pm this afternoon by the California Zephyr. We left San Francisco at 9.50am on Thursday and enjoyed the trip across here enormously. We met some lovely people and saw some absolutely astounding scenery - it was one of Murray's more inspired ideas to travel by train rather than fly. As you can see from the following photos, the train was huge - nine double decker carriages (3 sleepers, 3 coach carriages, 1 dining carriage and 1 sightseer lounge pulled by 2 diesel locos, each over 2,400 horsepower (I hope the train buffs amongst you are impressed with this information!). We were in an upstairs sleeper.

The train travelled from San Francisco, along San Pueblo Bay, the Carquinez Strait and Suisan Bay to Sacramento. From here we travelled up into the Sierra Nevada and here the 'wow' moments started. This photo shows the America River from 1,500 feet above

We travelled through Salt Lake City during the night and then spent the morning travelling through the Utah desert, with its huge mesas and colours reminiscent of areas around Coober Pedy. 

The Colorado River runs through a series of canyons and mesas and as we travelled along we saw lots of kayakers and rafters travelling down the river.  Again, some wonderful scenery.

After this excitement we looked forward to the beginnings of the Rockies and we travelled through some great canyons and the Winter Park Ski Resort (winter temperatures of -50F and an elevation of 9,000 feet) as we made our way up to the Moffat Tunnel, a six mile long tunnel which cut the journey by 176 miles when it was opened in 1928.  The Continental Divide occurs in this tunnel. As the train made its way down to Denver from here it went through 29 tunnels and a steady 2% grade.

From Denver we travelled through the American mid-west & when we awoke on Saturdy morning we were well into farm areas - predominantly corn with some soy bean.  We crossed the Missouri River, which was in flood, passed through many small towns and eventually crossed the huge Mississippi River.  This area was not quite as flat as we had expected but SO green!
Arrived in Chicago at 5.40pm on Saturday.  The weather was lovely and warm so after we dumped our gear at the hotel we went for a wander - up and down the Magic Mile and around a few other streets but our description of this will have to wait until next time to do it justice. By then we wiull have done our Architecture Institute boat tour and will be much better informed about the beautiful buildings we saw.

Wednesday July 7th

Just a short update!  Spent yesterday in the Sonoma & Napa Valleys - the wine district north of San Francisco.  Had a lovely day - drove through a couple of really lovely towns, saw some beautiful redwoods and visited a Petrified Forest (reputedly the largest in the world) which had some amazing petrified redwoods.  Managed to force down a very pleasant lunch at yet another lovely little town - Calistoga and then drove down through the Napa Valley.  It was so green and so neat and has so many huge vineyard buildings and houses.  Called in to the Beringer Vineyard and what a vision the old "house" there is! Rhine House was built in the late 1800s and is stunning both inside and out.  We are not sure if Fosters still owns Beringer, but if they do and any of you are shareholders you should demand a subsidised visit.  Here is a photo so you can get inspired and start your planning.

Today we wandered around Pier 39 on the waterfront and checked out the Sea Lions down there, which is a pretty amazing sight.  I was very taken with this one!

We then caught a ferry across to Sausalito, passing Alcatraz on the way.  It is a very attractive area to wander around.  Lunch today was at Horizons, a beautiful old waterfront building that was once the San Francisco Yacht Club.  It is behind the building you can see in the photo below.

Tomorrow we catch the California Zephyr train for a two and a half day trip to Chicago so I am guessing that we won't have internet access there, so stand by for the next instalment after we reach Toronto on Sunday. 

Tuesday July 6th

A real report straight from the heart of America - well, San Francisco anyway!  I am writing this as we are sitting in the dining room of the gorgeous old Queen Anne Hotel having brekky & preparing for our day's exploring north of San Francisco (this will inevitably involve checking out some wineries in Sanoma & the Nappa Valley).
We arrived safely in LA at 6am July 4th after leaving Melbourne at 6am on July 4th - isn't the world a wonderful place?  Great flight & the Business Class space worked well for me.  Grabbed our car, as you can see below & headed out of LA, travelling along the Pacific coast through Malibu.

The ranges coming right down to the coast were pretty impressive (despite the very low cloud) but the buildings were much less so.  One truly amazing thing was the number of Winnebagos & trailer homes parked right along the roadsides by many beaches for the long weekend - one miscalculated step & the inhabitants of these would be roadkill!
Once we reached Morro Bay ( a beautiful little fishing port) we left Highway 101 & travelled along the coast on Highway 1 - much less inhabitated  the cloud had lifted a little so the views up into the ranges were astounding.  The coast was absolutely amazing - huge cliffs and towering rocks diving into the water.

A real bonus was an Elephant Seal colony at Piadras Blancas, all males which were ashore moulting. As you can see, this fellow was enjoying the sand on his scratchy skin.

We arrived at Big Sur after a long drive & spent the night at Deetjens Inn, a beautiful quirky place surrounded by redwoods.  This photo is looking up into the canopy.

Yesterday we spent the morning at the Monterey Bay aquarium & it was as fascinating as Murray had led me to believe it would be.  Sea Otters & the jellyfish display were the highlights.

From there we travelled to San Francisco through Carmel (gorgeous) and moved into the hotel.  Spent the remainder of the afternoon exploring Haight Ashbury (reliving our hippy days) & the area around Pier 39, which will deserve a better exploration tomorrow.

Nearly time to go!

Decided I had better have a little practise at this blogging stuff.  It is 10.00 Saturday night & we are about to try & get a bit of sleep as we have to be up at 2.00am to head off to the airport.  It almost seems real now!

Next report will be from the US.  We land in LA & then head for Big Sur.  Might even try for some photos.