Golly, my second Australia Day away from Home.
We won't be thrown a prawn on the barbie, or a lamb chop or a banger or two. We don't have a barbie y'see. Technically they are illegal where we live (well can't be used within 9' of flammable stuff), though about 30% of the flats around us have one on their patio.
Plus I don't think I've got any lamb chops. We do have bangers though, funny American Italian bangers.
There's a few things I miss here in the States. Bangers for starters. Getting a good sausage full of lord knows what bit of the animal is really difficult. Americans don't do sausages. They do these funny little breakfast links, which are often skinless. They do hot dogs, which are about the right size and shape, but they aren't bangers (though the source of "meat" is probably similar). But they do not really get the idea of mixing mince (ground) meat with seasonings and rice meal (for gluten free bangers) and sticking it in a casing (real gut or synthetic, your choice).
Another thing I miss is the good old Aussie meat pie. Again, meat of uncertain, often chewy, origin seasoned (usually overly) with salt and pepper all wrapped in plain pastry. Mmmm, pie-y goodness, and I used to be able to buy them frozen at the supermarket. When we get back to Oz I am going to stuff myself full of pie-y goodness. Yum yum yum. And eat lots of sausages. I might turn into a banger myself!
Why is it that the foods that are bad for us taste so good?
So on this Australia Day, well I still call Australia Home. I might live in the States but this is not my Home. It is home for the time being. It has enough Aussie-ness that I can survive quite well - the place is riddled with blue gums (eucalypts) so it isn't as it I can find the odd eucalyptus leaf to crush and smell. Plus there's a range of other Oz plants too. That is enough to keep me going. Sooner or later I'll get a recharge of Australia(n-ness). One day I expect to live there again. Hope it will wait for me!
Monday 26 January 2009
Sunday 25 January 2009
Day 2, part 2, the exciting bit!
After leaving Morro Bay, we headed southwards to San Luis Opisbo. We didn't hang around, just stayed long enough to fuel up and choof off inland.
I think you can get an idea of how dry it is in this part of California by the pics. Ther are not that many trees and those that exist are either reallly tough local oaks or growing in drainage lines.
Then we hit California Valley. Oh my. What a benighted place! This technically isn't California Valley itself, but it is darned close and is a better pic than the others we got.
Imagine land developers thinking, hey who wouldn't want to live here? Soil is alkaline, there's a soda lake down the road, the water supply is from an aquifer that is a bit iffy, there's no trees, it bakes in summer and freezes in winter (overnight), but there's plenty of sun! Let's set up for a town of 50,000 people or so. The road map of California shows a heap of roads to be set up in a grid.
Ahem.
Well some people set up house and still live in the area but really you'd have to enjoy being isolated.
There isn't that much to do in California valley. We drove along Soda Lake Road, to see the soda lake.
It has a top notch recycled plastic boardwalk, for those times when it is wet I guess.
Not much can grow in the alkaline clay soil.
See those wrinkly hills on the other side of the valley? Well those would be the Carrizo Plain part of the San Andreas Fault. Yep, The Big One!
How'd you like to live right next to one of the most notorious faults in the world?
We'd stumbled on one of the best places to see the San Andreas, and it was getting too late to go exploring. We had driven down Soda Lake Road (mostly paved but with a 10 or mile stretch of unpaved road) just randomly and there we were, driving through a national monument and beside the San Andreas.
This is a bit of a punt but I think the fault runs through this valley. There was a really odd dip, like a creek bed that had moved, near the end of the road that made us very suspicious.
This is a really dull pic but from Google maps and digging around online, I am pretty sure that the San Andreas fault runs right next to the road here, through that puddle.
Sunset was pretty - you get too many pics of it :-)
I think you can see something lurking in a couple of those pics. Lurking just down the hill and waiting to swallow us whole.
I hadn't realised how high up we were until we hit the fog bank and kept driving down down down. Gods it must be dull in Central Valley if it is foggy for half of winter. The fog was pretty dense at first but soon I had plenty of visibility to do the speed limit. We stayed in Bakersfield at a cheap but perfectly adequate motel that even had a microwave and bar fridge! Yay for microwaved dinners :-)
I think you can get an idea of how dry it is in this part of California by the pics. Ther are not that many trees and those that exist are either reallly tough local oaks or growing in drainage lines.
Then we hit California Valley. Oh my. What a benighted place! This technically isn't California Valley itself, but it is darned close and is a better pic than the others we got.
Imagine land developers thinking, hey who wouldn't want to live here? Soil is alkaline, there's a soda lake down the road, the water supply is from an aquifer that is a bit iffy, there's no trees, it bakes in summer and freezes in winter (overnight), but there's plenty of sun! Let's set up for a town of 50,000 people or so. The road map of California shows a heap of roads to be set up in a grid.
Ahem.
Well some people set up house and still live in the area but really you'd have to enjoy being isolated.
There isn't that much to do in California valley. We drove along Soda Lake Road, to see the soda lake.
It has a top notch recycled plastic boardwalk, for those times when it is wet I guess.
Not much can grow in the alkaline clay soil.
See those wrinkly hills on the other side of the valley? Well those would be the Carrizo Plain part of the San Andreas Fault. Yep, The Big One!
How'd you like to live right next to one of the most notorious faults in the world?
We'd stumbled on one of the best places to see the San Andreas, and it was getting too late to go exploring. We had driven down Soda Lake Road (mostly paved but with a 10 or mile stretch of unpaved road) just randomly and there we were, driving through a national monument and beside the San Andreas.
This is a bit of a punt but I think the fault runs through this valley. There was a really odd dip, like a creek bed that had moved, near the end of the road that made us very suspicious.
This is a really dull pic but from Google maps and digging around online, I am pretty sure that the San Andreas fault runs right next to the road here, through that puddle.
Sunset was pretty - you get too many pics of it :-)
I think you can see something lurking in a couple of those pics. Lurking just down the hill and waiting to swallow us whole.
I hadn't realised how high up we were until we hit the fog bank and kept driving down down down. Gods it must be dull in Central Valley if it is foggy for half of winter. The fog was pretty dense at first but soon I had plenty of visibility to do the speed limit. We stayed in Bakersfield at a cheap but perfectly adequate motel that even had a microwave and bar fridge! Yay for microwaved dinners :-)
Wednesday 21 January 2009
Morro Bay, day 2
DH has fond memories, or at least memories, of visiting Morro Bay back when 'e were a lad. So we drove there - wasn't exactly hard as we followed the coast road.
I think I'll let you form your own ideas about what dominates the seaside town of Morro Bay....
(loved this drippy sandcastle)
From the beach, Morro Rock looks like some great stranded leviathan.
It looks a little more mundane from the harbour.
Someone wanted chippies.
Someone else could smell goodies in the seawater irrigated holding tanks.
Someone else found a goody flopping around on the pier
but its slimy gooeyness was a bit hard to deal with.
Morro Bay was such a mix of different things - the old town area was very laid back but the Embarcadero/harbour area! Oi vey, and this was in winter, admittedly on a lovely sunny holiday. Cars everywhere all looking for a place to park, yet the foreshore is lovely, the beach is lovely, the Rock's carpark is horrid and then there is the power station glowering over all! It is right on the harbour - I guess that means it has plenty of cooling water. Apparently it is old, gas-fired and running at only 5% capacity whilst its replacement is wrangled through bureaucracy. (More info at this wikipedia page.)
I couldn't resist taking pics of this rubbish bin, decorated with turkeys.
When I think beach, I do *not* think turkeys, but obviously someone saw them as important.
Finally, before we turned our heads inland, this tough yellow flower just begged to have a photoshoot. It grow on the foreshore area so it is well adapted to large doses of salt - just look at those fuzzy leaves!
Next, we travel inland and cross one of ze most notorious geological features in ze world!
I think I'll let you form your own ideas about what dominates the seaside town of Morro Bay....
(loved this drippy sandcastle)
From the beach, Morro Rock looks like some great stranded leviathan.
It looks a little more mundane from the harbour.
Someone wanted chippies.
Someone else could smell goodies in the seawater irrigated holding tanks.
Someone else found a goody flopping around on the pier
but its slimy gooeyness was a bit hard to deal with.
Morro Bay was such a mix of different things - the old town area was very laid back but the Embarcadero/harbour area! Oi vey, and this was in winter, admittedly on a lovely sunny holiday. Cars everywhere all looking for a place to park, yet the foreshore is lovely, the beach is lovely, the Rock's carpark is horrid and then there is the power station glowering over all! It is right on the harbour - I guess that means it has plenty of cooling water. Apparently it is old, gas-fired and running at only 5% capacity whilst its replacement is wrangled through bureaucracy. (More info at this wikipedia page.)
I couldn't resist taking pics of this rubbish bin, decorated with turkeys.
When I think beach, I do *not* think turkeys, but obviously someone saw them as important.
Finally, before we turned our heads inland, this tough yellow flower just begged to have a photoshoot. It grow on the foreshore area so it is well adapted to large doses of salt - just look at those fuzzy leaves!
Next, we travel inland and cross one of ze most notorious geological features in ze world!
Tuesday 20 January 2009
Beach lumps - New Year's Drive day 2/part 1
So overnight on NYE we stayed at the Ragged Point Inn. It was pleasant, not cheap mind, but pleasant. We dined at the associated restaurant, again quite pleasant but I had not dressed for the occasion (mind you I was not naked either but sweat pants, aka trakky dax, are not exactly classy). We did not make it to midnight - I had done some hard driving and DH had done some hard sitting.
Can you see the little road halfway up the hill?
(southwards)
The motel has great views on either side of the point, as I discovered when I went for an "early" morning walk at 9am...
(northwards)
(outwards)
These aloes are very popular in the area. I guess it is hard to find things that grow. Also given their prickles, they may resist being removed...
Cypress and the hill inland from the motel complex.
I was lucky to get those pics when I did as only a few minutes later, fog began blowing up from the ocean. It was like it had been set on fire or something. Within a couple of minutes of returning to our motel room, the view out the window went from
to
DH never saw the views in person, only in the pics I took.
So we drove onwards, ever onwards. It was all very Scottish according to DH - the hills were moving away from the road and there were flattish spots and all was draped in mist. We passed a LOT of cyclists over the next 20 miles - they were all going the other way. Good luck chaps - not too much in the way of bike lanes are marked along the coast road!
Occasionally we saw views like this
and this:
The coast seemed less rugged in some ways - a precipitous hill no longer fell straight into the ocean but it was pretty darned rocky. I wouldn't want to be landing a boat on it. I'm guessing that the lighthouses were/are absolutely necessary given the fog that benights this coast.
At one point we drove past a very popular car park. "Seals" pronounced DH. Whatever, I've seen seals before. "Elephant seals." On go the brakes and around we go - of course I checked the traffic before chucking a U-ey.
Yes, indeed elephant seals.
There are some youngsters in that pic and some mums-to-be as well from their shape. I have a video of one calf trying to work out where to get some tucker. Mum's flipper wasn't the go, nor her ?elbow? ?wrist? Here's mum flopping over and trying to prod the kid downwards but golly, I have no idea how these critters have survived if the calf takes five minutes to work out that the top end of mum does not have food but about 2/3 the way down does.
Apparently the chaps are all ready to make more baby elephant seals. I guess it takes all kinds cos I wouldn't want him making love sweet love to me!
And one intrepid ground squirrel with a great beachside home.
One of our aims was to visit this place, even though they can't spell Hurst.
Alas, it was closed on New Year's Day.
So onwards, ever onwards.
Can you see the little road halfway up the hill?
(southwards)
The motel has great views on either side of the point, as I discovered when I went for an "early" morning walk at 9am...
(northwards)
(outwards)
These aloes are very popular in the area. I guess it is hard to find things that grow. Also given their prickles, they may resist being removed...
Cypress and the hill inland from the motel complex.
I was lucky to get those pics when I did as only a few minutes later, fog began blowing up from the ocean. It was like it had been set on fire or something. Within a couple of minutes of returning to our motel room, the view out the window went from
to
DH never saw the views in person, only in the pics I took.
So we drove onwards, ever onwards. It was all very Scottish according to DH - the hills were moving away from the road and there were flattish spots and all was draped in mist. We passed a LOT of cyclists over the next 20 miles - they were all going the other way. Good luck chaps - not too much in the way of bike lanes are marked along the coast road!
Occasionally we saw views like this
and this:
The coast seemed less rugged in some ways - a precipitous hill no longer fell straight into the ocean but it was pretty darned rocky. I wouldn't want to be landing a boat on it. I'm guessing that the lighthouses were/are absolutely necessary given the fog that benights this coast.
At one point we drove past a very popular car park. "Seals" pronounced DH. Whatever, I've seen seals before. "Elephant seals." On go the brakes and around we go - of course I checked the traffic before chucking a U-ey.
Yes, indeed elephant seals.
There are some youngsters in that pic and some mums-to-be as well from their shape. I have a video of one calf trying to work out where to get some tucker. Mum's flipper wasn't the go, nor her ?elbow? ?wrist? Here's mum flopping over and trying to prod the kid downwards but golly, I have no idea how these critters have survived if the calf takes five minutes to work out that the top end of mum does not have food but about 2/3 the way down does.
Apparently the chaps are all ready to make more baby elephant seals. I guess it takes all kinds cos I wouldn't want him making love sweet love to me!
And one intrepid ground squirrel with a great beachside home.
One of our aims was to visit this place, even though they can't spell Hurst.
Alas, it was closed on New Year's Day.
So onwards, ever onwards.
Things I have learned
Today's thing I have learned is that dishwashers suck. Even manual dishwashers (ie me) can suck, but I'm really talking about the ones where you stick your dishes in a machine and hope they come out clean.
One of my great delights upon moving to the US was discovering that most (but not all) rental apartment kitchens come with a dishwasher. I'd never had one before, having lived in older pre-dishwasher houses. How wonderful - dishes go in dirty and come out clean! None of this scrubbing stuff in the sink. Plus you use less water because they are more efficient!
Weeeeelllll, maybe there are such dishwashers out there but I've not yet met one.
We eat rice and potato a lot. And vegetables. Dishwashers do not remove the rice and potato and vegetable grunge off the pots. Some would say "That's clean, it's been through the dishwasher" but I see gunge, old food that harbours evil nasties that are just waiting to inflict some gastrointestinal horror upon me (or DH). For all I know that gunge has gotten together with a gluten/casein morsel from DH's cheese and cracker plate and is now just biding its time, waiting to leap at me when I next use that pot.
I've learned that sticking said gungy pots and lids back in the dishwasher just bakes the gunge on harder.
Solution? Scrub pots and pans, give up on putting them in the dishwasher. Run the water slowly without plugging the sink cos the sink is HUGE and takes forever to fill even 7cm deep (enough to mostly cover a glass).
Dang.
Mashed potato also doesn't come off bowls well, nor does cake mix. Handwash time!
Dang.
Then there's the times when I forget to run the garbage monster that lives in the sink drain before starting a load of dishes and the drain backs up and our "clean" dishes come out covered with lord knows what. They also can't just be rewashed - they have to go into the sink for a soak and a hand wash.
Dang.
But I will admit when the planet are in the right alignment, the dishes have been rinsed and the great drain god has been appeased, the dishes come out pretty clean. Just make sure the cups are turned towards the centre of the machine, not the edge.
One of my great delights upon moving to the US was discovering that most (but not all) rental apartment kitchens come with a dishwasher. I'd never had one before, having lived in older pre-dishwasher houses. How wonderful - dishes go in dirty and come out clean! None of this scrubbing stuff in the sink. Plus you use less water because they are more efficient!
Weeeeelllll, maybe there are such dishwashers out there but I've not yet met one.
We eat rice and potato a lot. And vegetables. Dishwashers do not remove the rice and potato and vegetable grunge off the pots. Some would say "That's clean, it's been through the dishwasher" but I see gunge, old food that harbours evil nasties that are just waiting to inflict some gastrointestinal horror upon me (or DH). For all I know that gunge has gotten together with a gluten/casein morsel from DH's cheese and cracker plate and is now just biding its time, waiting to leap at me when I next use that pot.
I've learned that sticking said gungy pots and lids back in the dishwasher just bakes the gunge on harder.
Solution? Scrub pots and pans, give up on putting them in the dishwasher. Run the water slowly without plugging the sink cos the sink is HUGE and takes forever to fill even 7cm deep (enough to mostly cover a glass).
Dang.
Mashed potato also doesn't come off bowls well, nor does cake mix. Handwash time!
Dang.
Then there's the times when I forget to run the garbage monster that lives in the sink drain before starting a load of dishes and the drain backs up and our "clean" dishes come out covered with lord knows what. They also can't just be rewashed - they have to go into the sink for a soak and a hand wash.
Dang.
But I will admit when the planet are in the right alignment, the dishes have been rinsed and the great drain god has been appeased, the dishes come out pretty clean. Just make sure the cups are turned towards the centre of the machine, not the edge.
Monday 19 January 2009
Day 1 - A drive to Big Sur
Over Christmas and New Year, DH had some time off. He brought home a cold for Christmas and passed it on to me, thanks ever so, still suffering the effects 3 weeks later...
Anyway, since he had this time off, we decided to go for a drive down the coast. We had been told the drive along the Big Sur coastline is a great deal of fun, if you don't get carsick. Sounded exactly like my sort of road!
So off we zoomed. Traffic was not as bad as I expected for New Year's Eve. Soon enough we had passed through Monterey and bypassed Carmel-by-Sea.
Soon the coastline started getting lumpy and bumpy and a bit more exciting. So did the road, well at least it began to wiggle more but was no more lumpy bumpy.
We stopped at the first bridge.
Mr Grumpy had not had lunch and things were looking grim. A snack bar and an apple helped but lunch was needed and lunch was not available.
We drove further, over many bridges and around many corners. Whiz, whiz, whiz! The road is mostly cut into the side of a very steep sided hill, though around the part where you go past the Big Sur visitor center, it swings inland for a bit. (And thank heavens for a bakery where DH got some sustenance.)
130,000 acres of Big Sur burned in June/July. Massive wildfire. The hill in the background of this pic is representative of what remains. The countryside looks so rugged there - any rain that falls will wash away whatever topsoil remains. It will be interesting to see how much of it regenerates and how well it regenerates.
Alas we had started our drive rather late and the sun fell low in the sky waaay too early for us.
We stopped for afternoon tea at one place but the cafe had already packed up for the day and the restaurant was pricey. I rather liked this driftwood sculpture of a bird.
We did get rather a number of shots (ahem!)
of the coast around and after sunset.
It is gorgeous.
I drove the next however many miles to Ragged Point in the dark, missing out on many spectacular views. Alas I did not make it to the 55mph speed limit very often - 45mph was more prudent, especially given the amount of roadwork happening along the way, with lanes not marked in any way shape or form. Staying on the road involved taking a punt and pointing the car at the middle of the darkest bits. I may love my corners but I also want to arrive at my destination in one piece.
This road is one of the Great Coast Drives. It certainly compares with the Great Ocean Road back 'ome. I think it was built with a similar goal to the Great Ocean Road - that of job creation. Tourism of course followed but really the road was created to provide jobs. It is an amazing drive and we will have to do it again, when it isn't dark. LOL
Anyway, since he had this time off, we decided to go for a drive down the coast. We had been told the drive along the Big Sur coastline is a great deal of fun, if you don't get carsick. Sounded exactly like my sort of road!
So off we zoomed. Traffic was not as bad as I expected for New Year's Eve. Soon enough we had passed through Monterey and bypassed Carmel-by-Sea.
Soon the coastline started getting lumpy and bumpy and a bit more exciting. So did the road, well at least it began to wiggle more but was no more lumpy bumpy.
We stopped at the first bridge.
Mr Grumpy had not had lunch and things were looking grim. A snack bar and an apple helped but lunch was needed and lunch was not available.
We drove further, over many bridges and around many corners. Whiz, whiz, whiz! The road is mostly cut into the side of a very steep sided hill, though around the part where you go past the Big Sur visitor center, it swings inland for a bit. (And thank heavens for a bakery where DH got some sustenance.)
130,000 acres of Big Sur burned in June/July. Massive wildfire. The hill in the background of this pic is representative of what remains. The countryside looks so rugged there - any rain that falls will wash away whatever topsoil remains. It will be interesting to see how much of it regenerates and how well it regenerates.
Alas we had started our drive rather late and the sun fell low in the sky waaay too early for us.
We stopped for afternoon tea at one place but the cafe had already packed up for the day and the restaurant was pricey. I rather liked this driftwood sculpture of a bird.
We did get rather a number of shots (ahem!)
of the coast around and after sunset.
It is gorgeous.
I drove the next however many miles to Ragged Point in the dark, missing out on many spectacular views. Alas I did not make it to the 55mph speed limit very often - 45mph was more prudent, especially given the amount of roadwork happening along the way, with lanes not marked in any way shape or form. Staying on the road involved taking a punt and pointing the car at the middle of the darkest bits. I may love my corners but I also want to arrive at my destination in one piece.
This road is one of the Great Coast Drives. It certainly compares with the Great Ocean Road back 'ome. I think it was built with a similar goal to the Great Ocean Road - that of job creation. Tourism of course followed but really the road was created to provide jobs. It is an amazing drive and we will have to do it again, when it isn't dark. LOL
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