LA 2 LV

I introduced to M & J the awesome films of Star Wars. Well, the first trilogy (episodes IV, V and VI) were better than the recent trilogy (esp viz a viz II) and I showed them the back end of III (the turning of Anakin to the dark side) then IV and of course VI when the Jedi returns. I am not exactly sure what VII is about, since it's entitled The Force Awakens but surely having returned wouldn't Luke the Jedi have gone on to restore the force? Hmmm.

Anyways, here I am standing in line at Cinemark in Tanforan Malls in San Francisco. An hour ahead of time because it's free seating and I wanted us all to have the better seats in the house. When I arrived though, there were already 30 people in the queue. Good seats ensure the maximum experience, surely nothing less to feel the force esp awakened one! 

We were truly immersed in an other-worldly experience last night. I managed to procure (albeit rather expensively) stall seats where trapeze artists were ha binging just overhead and in the aisles. We were all in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay One, and watched Michael Jackson "awakened" with the help of Cirque de Soleil. It was a true multimedia show and a special "appearance" of the King of Pop in life-like hologram. Science fiction stuff. So, it stands to reason that we follow that up with Star Wars. 

We are actually at the tail end of our 16-day trip across the West Coast of the US of A. Those following this blog would have read about our drive to San Francisco to Los Angeles. The last week has been about heading east, to the bright lights of Las Vegas and more importantly, beyond to Arizona the aptly named Grand Canyon state. 

In a way, this trip mimics (in many aspects) to the golden triangle I did two dozen years ago. As a newly minted airline executive I flew for the first time (on vacation) in business class to Tokyo, then on to Los Angeles with the obligatory side trip to Las Vegas/Grand Canyon and then on to San Francisco. Then, I was travelling alone (backpacking on a shoestring, I might add) and managed to also pack in a visit to Disneyland, Six Flags and Yosemite National Park. 

This time, Yosemite didn't make the itinerary on account of weather and we are all too old for Disneyland, and no longer need thrills from the roller coasters at Six Flags. Instead, we went to Mojave National preserve and its monuments, the Joshua Trees and the wide open natural space was thrilling enough. The sights that I did want to repeat and meaningfully with my family are two sights that awed me the last time: Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. 

Hoover Dam stood out as a true engineering feat, of man's attempt to master nature, in this case damming the mighty Colorado River. Another couple of hours drive away, nature 'fights' back, or rather simply re-asserted itself and reminded us what it could conjure up through the simple fact of erosion over the years in the Grand Canyon. The canyon is truly the first place that was the first time that truly took my breath away, and the family found it equally breathtaking!

Vegas was different to everything else we saw before. Everything, from the buildings to the lights to the people (including the tourists there) are just over the top. The buildings replicate Rome, Paris, Luxor and of course New York. The buskers and street performers entertain but without real magic (that used to be there in Las Ramblas). The people are superbly rich in obscene stretch limos and painfully poor begging for change on walkways. 

In a way, this is the USA we know. A land of opportunity but with a dark side to it. So it's all quite fitting that I conclude this blog just as the movie that really portrays the human condition so well: the force and the dark side. The drive to excel in the former, the passion of the former, the humanity of the former... All can lead to the other side when taken to an extreme. "Learn from this, you shall" as Yoda would have said.

Pacific Coast Highway (aka California Highway 1)

I left my heart in San Francisco, not.... for now I have seen other equally, if not more, charming cities, towns and villages in Palo Alto, Monterey, Carmel by the Sea, Cambria, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara. 

But first San Francisco remains a beautiful and I am reminded a hilly city! It does wonders to one's calorie burn, not to mention negating the need for warm winter wear. 

Speaking of winter, the weather here is unpredictable. Almost a microclimate with microseasons within a day! We were lucky sunny days followed rainy cloudy ones, enabling us to "literally" peel away the fog to reveal the sights underneath.

And in the rain, in Muir Woods, D slipped and landed on her derrière.... And her ego was bruised way more than her butt and as luck would have it, it happened seconds after I asked if she was fine. Talk about jinxing it!

The mother has been central in this trip, including playing a starring role (not!) in knocking over a spider web as J was about to attempt his umpteenth (unsuccessful) snapshot of the glistening arachnid creation.

The glitter (and I mean, money literally) of San Francisco I felt had moved south, to Palo Alto and Silicon Valley: home to HP, Apple and Google. And of course Stanford University. We drove out in the rain but it stopped just as we arrived and serendipitously just in time for the next guided tour. Unpredictable as the weather is, it's been kind to us. The locals are well accustomed to this weather changes, like Nathan the student guide at Stanford University who could wear a thin cotton tee in 10'c

What also really struck me is the ferocity of the restless sea, juxtaposed against the famous mild temperate climes of the California

The winds cause the seas to roar, but what courage the trees show against them, especially the lone Cypress Tree along the scenic 17 mile drive in Pebble Beach

Ah yes, the famous Pebble Beach golf club: a truly beautiful enclave for the Rich and famous. I never thought about it but totally got it when I saw what they had on the beach: yes, you guessed it - pebbles!!!

The Pacific Coast Highway is indeed one of the best driving roads in the world. Every turn set us upon breathtaking vistas of ocean on one side and mountainous cliff on the other. M commented that's it's like being on Top Gear

It helped that they were cool cars along the way. Like the time I tailed a Mercedes SLS "gull wing" and almost could imagine being in one :-)

We got to traverse concrete freeways and windy roads, passing big towns and small villages, through mountains and plains, and even vineyards. And some rather iconic places.

For one, Bixby Bridge which according to M is the Golden Gate's little brother. So true! It's less well known but just as breathtaking. Almost unimaginable, right?

Or stopping by a quaint little town called Carmel by the Sea, where we had lunch at a great restaurant with a window by the table. This and other meals (notably Toma in Santa Barbara and Bouche in San Francisco) are together moments to be remembered.

Indeed, this has been our first family trip together to USA. And we are so fortunate it's not just America we saw but Americana! The quiet charm in small towns as well as the loud garish ambitious ones. 

Cambria, for instance, is an old and gentle place where the pace is slow, and the people all friendly (taking the time to treat tourists like their own friends), the food is homemade but everything is vintage because the locals buy each other's used things in antique malls with quaint names like "Love Me 2 Times". The lack of youngsters - esp. teenagers - are sadly felt though in the church, where we had the good fortune to attend a catholic Sunday morning mass. There were no altar servers in this small community. While this town is still pretty and obviously had been successful once, now all I can think of is succession, or the lack thereof. Quite a few shops have signs that say they want to sell-out, not for lack of business but after 29 years, they want to pass it on to someone else.

Even more dramatically, nearby Harmony with its population of 18 and a few shops and houses sited on a large diary acreage surely point to a possible future.

Other towns, especially those with a younger population pyramid, like San Luis Obispo (where California State Poly is sited on) seem more vibrant and nothing says that more than Alex and Phyllis Madonna and their outlandish pink fairy tale castle of an inn. Everything here is over the top, from the colors to the architecture to the food.

Then there are college towns. I had mentioned SLO but nothing is quite built around the college community like Claremont, which is home to 5,500 (mostly undergrad) students and a thousand faculty and their families. So, the population here are either teenagers or seniors :-)

Whether young or old, they all do take care of themselves and the number of joggers I have encountered in my two sunrise runs (in Monterey Bay towards Lovers Point and Santa Barbara Beach towards Stearns Wharf) really attest to this fact!

Having started with a song, it would be remiss of me not to note that songs aren't written about places for nothing. San Francisco is indeed a charming place and so is Ventura Highway which America (who else?!) wrote and sang about. It's not easy to top the experiences of the Pacific Coast Highway but The Ventura Highway with its multiple lanes, high speed and mountain backdrop shining golden in the setting sun is indeed a drive worth making.

Not all who wander are lost

Common 'war cry' amongst those who has been bitten by the travel bug. It's something I caught 30 years ago. I took my first back-packing trip as a 19 year old, travelling over land, sea and air up the west coast of peninsular Malaysia, then up through Hatyai, Phuket, Bangkok and then Chiangmai. One month. One backpack. One thousand ringgit. And a well-thumbed dog-eared copy of Tony Wheeler's SEA on a shoestring.

Right now, a thousand RMs can't hardly buy a family lunch, especially where we are going. 

J is now 18 and had already made a trip on his own, with his classmates to Krabi to celebrate the completion of As. His Thailand trip involves comfortable flights and villas, courtesy of LCCs and AirBnB. His specialty is less about doing it on a shoestring budget, though I'm sure he can but rather he's a careful and well prepared traveller, like the scout he is.his bag contains a wet bag, a whistle and he's probably the only one in the cabin who paid attention to the safety video :-). 

He's about to set off to National Service and then University and family holidays together will become more difficult to arrange. So, we wanted a special one this time, to a place we've never been to altogether as a family: the US of A. The west coast to be precise, which is also where I first set foot in this country 25 years ago. We are going to do the golden triangle of San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, with the Pacific Coast Highway and Grand Canyon thrown in! Not to mention a few campus tours for J to check out potential places he'd like to spend time in.

But first we had to fly for 18 hours to get there. So, all these special forces emboldened me to make a grand gesture and have us travel in style. A real step up from my backpacking trip all those years back and also to commemorate that my first time in business class was when I was to Tokyo (on my way to L.A.) courtesy of an overbooking-inspired upgrade. 

M is the vacation queen of the family and already has plans to document the trip on video and on her travelogue. She did an excellent one for us during our trip this time last year to Southern Africa, bringing all four parents along on safari. All eight of us enjoyed that trip tremendously, and made all the sweeter with witty words and pretty pictures. She is picking up after her old dad who used to keep a travelogue too. (Which reminds me, I need to find them: these journals are somewhere collecting dust in one of our various storage spaces). In fact, I titled this blog so because she reminded me of this phrase.

But right now, she's just enjoying the ample space she has. Already adjusting her body to US west coast time. Woe to the rest of us, especially me who cope really poorly with jet lag.