USA - California, Apr 07

Cruising Long Beach

My Easter treat was a trip to Long Beach to visit Kat my lovely girlfriend who I met in Venice in August 06. I took a few days off work and headed over to California for 12 action packed days. Kats apartment is just a short distance from the beach and downtown so on the first day we jumped on the bikes and headed out on a mission.

The classic RMS Queen Mary docked at Long Beach

We stopped in Kats favorite coffee shop for breakfast before heading on to the Aquarium. We got great views of the RMS Queen Mary a large ocean liner built by the White Star Line in the 30's. They were the same company who built the Titanic and you can see the similarities. The boat is a bit of a legend because it served as an allied troop carrier during WW2 and ferried thousands of troops from Australia/New Zealand and US/Canada to Europe. It was hunted my many Nazi U Boats but proved too fast for them. We finished our bike tour at a great little Mexican resturant which had awesome Tacos. It was happy hour and the Tacos were only 1 dollar each.. Yep we ate a few!

Kats treat, a Gondola tour of the Long Beach canals

I was totally suprised when we got back to the apartment and found out that Kat was going to take me out on an authentic Venetian gondola complete with an opera singing gondolier. As we met in Venice but never got round to doing it there it was the perfect idea. We sat eating bread cheese and drinking wine. Every time we passed under a bridge the gondolier stopped and burst into song, was great. He sang in Italian, German and English!

Brunch Party, my nephew Nicholas making sure Angus was not missing out

The first weekend was very festive, Kat had planned parties both sat night and sunday brunch. I met a good number of Kats friends and family, they were very freindly and welcoming. My brother Stig, sister in law, Joko and two nephews Nicholas and Criffer (Christopher) who also live in LA made it to both parties so that was great. Kats rabbit Angus was pretty tired after the parties as he was busy entertaining kids most of the time.. well he surely did not go hungry!

Huntington Beach

The brunch finished late in the afternoon and we felt like some fresh air and relaxation so we headed down to Huntington Beach in Orange county to catch the sunset.

We were not the only ones with that idea

It got pretty chilly as the sun lost its strength but definately worth hanging out for. After the sunset we headed into a Mexican resturant for dinner, it was a majic evening.. The next day we went for a walk, or prehaps I should say a hike.. It was great, I got nice and sunburned and we saw a 1.5m snake crossing the track too which made it exciting. The day after Kat had to work, I spent the morning surfing with one of Kats mates Qzar and the afternoon interviewing with an engineering company.

At the Angels Baseball Game We had a cool day at the baseball with Kats mum and aunt who are both big Angels fans. I did not have much of a clue about baseball so it was a learning experience. Luckily we were sat in the shade as it could have been pretty tough in the sun. After the game we went out for dinner at another mexican resturant.... yes there is a bit of a theme developing. Some of the best mexican in the world is found in California so it has to be done! We went home and packed our bags for our next adventure, a ski trip to mammoth.


The crew, Stig, Joko, Kat and I on the chair lift

Kat and I left early the next morning as Mammoth is a 600km drive north east of LA. Unfortunately it also mean travelling through LA during rush hour so we decided to leave at 6am to beat the traffic and avoid any delays. We got to mammoth around lunchtime and went for a nice walk around Lake Convict. We also stopped at some natural hot pools but unfortuately they were small and full of naked blokes so we thought better of it. Stig, Joko and the boys arrived that night and we got ready for an early start up the mountain.

Criffer learning the snow plough

It was Nic and Criffers first proper ski trip so they spent the first day in Ski school on the learner slopes. This was good as it gave the grown ups (and semi grown ups) the day to ski together, and ski we did.. We skiied most parts on the mountain which is pretty massive and even got a couple of runs in the half pipe.

The boys picked it up really quickly and by the end of the second day they were skiing the blue, intermediate runs.

Coronas for Lunch - Nice!
Feeling the effects of a big day followed by a couple of Beers
Everyone was pretty tired after a couple of big days and it showed. Our condo was great and it had a good sized spa which we used every day.

Snow balls fights on the way up to Panarama Dome Get him! You suck stig!!
On the last day at mammoth we went for a walk up Panorama Dome which would be pretty gentle apart from the fact that every few steps we sunk a meter into the snow. We had some awesome snowball fights on the way.. No one was spared!!

We were taken back by both the views and gusty winds at the top

After the walk we jumped back in the cars and headed home to LA only stopping only for lunch and a milkshake along the way. It was a great holiday and it was very sad to fly back home again the next day.

Joshua trees on the way back to LA