Turning North

We have turned north and are heading home.

It should take us about a week to get back to Victoria.  Both of us are feeling like we have spent enough time in the U.S.  We left Canada around the middle of September and it is getting close to the end of October.  A month and a half is more than enough time down here.

We did pay a visit to the San Diego Zoo.  It was very interesting with lots of interesting animals.  My favourite was the gorillas and Telen's favourite was the elephants.  When we saw the giraffes I thought how ironic it would be if a giraffe was born with a fear of heights.  Just projecting, I guess.

Male Ourang-Outan hiding from the crowd

We will miss the California weather, or lack thereof.  Back home we have an excess of weather whereas here they seem to have only sunshine and warmth.  Walking along the beach with the blue water and the palm trees feel very much like a tropical holiday.  A bit of a Pavlovian response, I guess, but we seem to feel more and more relaxed as the days wear on.  It would feel more like Mexico if everyone here had the Mexican attitude.  The California attitude seems to be “Hello, how are you?  How do I look?”  California is balmy…

California pose...  How do I look?

 There is not much else to miss… especially the traffic.

We had to drive through Los Angeles on our way north.  Telen did the driving and she was wonderful but I didn’t know she knew those words.  There are as many people in California as there are in all of Canada and California would fit into one corner of British Columbia.  That means population density…  and I mean that in more ways than one.  Driving from San Diego to Bakersfield is like driving at warp speed through a densely populated city alongside homicidal, psychopathic drivers with double lobotomies who think they are Hollywood stunt drivers.   No wonder there are freeway shootings.  People live like this every day, here!

We drove as far as Bakersfield the first day.  Once we got away from the coast the cities seem to become interchangeable.  Bakersfield is non-descript – it could have been anywhere.  Apparently it ranks tenth for obesity in the US.  There is something for a city motto!  

The next night we stayed in Modesto.  The only significant difference I could see between Bakersfield and Modesto is the size and quantity of the shopping centers.  In Modesto there are more and they are larger.  Modesto was where George Lucas was born and raised and where American Graffiti was filmed.  I did not hear an abundance of fifty’s music or see guys with crew-cuts or jelly-rolls cruisin’ in their 57 Chevys’ trying to pick up girls in poodle skirts.  Disappointed!

 The drive between Bakersfield and Modesto was considerably less stressful and when we got to Modesto we did not have to spend a couple of hours shaking and crying before we got out of the car.

We drove up the central valley of California, which is dead flat and very agricultural.  We saw lots of vineyards, cotton plantations, olive and citrus groves.  I guess this is where all the California produce that we get back home comes from.  Especially those California strawberries – you know the ones… look great but have no substance or taste…

Currently we have arrived in Redding California.  Tomorrow we go over the mountains to Oregon and a change in the weather.  Even this far north we see occasional palm trees and the sun is still very warm.  Once we are into Oregon all that changes.  I might even have to put on some actual clothes rather than my habitual shorts, sandals and sleeveless shirt.   That part I am NOT looking forward to…