Pacific Coast Highway – San Diego

Day One – San Diego.

A few wee twists with the road trip this time around.  Firstly we dropped the kids off at the airport and they headed to the UK and their grandparents in Scotland for a month so this is a parents only adventure.

Secondly, we drive from Texas this time.  We’re only having a few days away so we flew out to San Diego to start the drive up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco.

We actually stayed at the airport after dropping off the kids (who are accompanied by Ben’s friend Wesley) and got a flight mid afternoon.  Alaska Airlines do a really good deal to a few place but SF and SD are some of them so we got a multi city ticket for an excellent price.  So off we went.

We arrive in San Diego at 4pm on the Friday and our hotel was right beside the airport.  So much so that we had to drive 15 mins out of our way to get our hire car then drive 15 mins back to get to the airport.  We could have shuttled quicker!  Note to self if staying at the same hotel again…leave the hire car till the next morning.

The Hire Car.

We wanted to do the journey in a way that was memorable so we pushed the boat out for an open top Mustang from Sixt and they gave us a ‘beaut Clark!’.  Wee sleek red number and we were very impressed.  It’s going well so far but I’m worried about being pulled over by Ponch or Jon from CHiPs so I’ve not gone all out with it!

Hotel.

We stayed for the night in the Sheraton Resort at the Marina in SD.  Very nice hotel, you do pay a resort fee but you get that back in drinks vouchers and bike/paddle board vouchers.  It’s right on the water and when we checked in we were moved from out lower tower room to a ground floor room which looked out on the bay so a nice little upgrade!  We had a nice walk around the resort then settled in one of the six bars/restaurants for a bite to eat.  The Tacos in Shoreline were excellent and we thought we’d be good but we should have ordered more as we got hungry later.

After dinner we moved inside to the hotel bar and sat there people watching for a little while.  The University of St Katherine had a ton of people in town for some conference so they created a party atmosphere.  We were pretty tired though so ended up in bed by 9pm! (to be fair that was 11pm our time).

I wish we could say we slept well that night but with the kids being on their first transatlantic flight it was a worry so we slept for a couple of hours but kept waking up when they had to change flights (they were Austin – JFK – Dublin – Glasgow).  According to my Fitbit we got about 3 hours of sleep in total till they touched down at the other end and were collected by their Grandad!

Woke up early the next day and as we were awake we got on the road early.

Roadtrip #3 – Day Eight – Lake Charles -Home

Well we made it back in one piece.  The last day started pretty misty but cleared up pretty quick.

We stayed overnight in in Lake Charles and it was a lovely wee place with perhaps a bit more confederate memorabilia and statues than we would like but the history of the place shone through.  Interestingly they had US flags around the bottom of the CSA monument which was interesting and shows the confusion that still exists I think in some of these little places in the Deep South.

Sitting on a lake (hence the name) it had some nice little eateries and a quirky art gallery which had a live chicken wandering about in it.  We had lunch and tried the Boudin balls in Tia Juanita’s Fish Camp for lunch.  Food was great and decent service too.

After a walk around and checking out the lake we got on the road for our final stint.

Once across the Texas border we stopped for our obligatory selfie with the state welcome sign and this rest stop was a wee bit different as it had a walkway out onto the swamp at the back so you could go out and try to see the gators or snakes.  We spotted a small turtle and nothing else but we’re sure these other things are in there.

After 2600 miles and 5 states over 7 nights we got back to Round Rock about 7pm on the Saturday night.  A good roadtrip and we saw so much of the country.  We may need to go South or West next time!

 

Roadtrip #3 – Day Seven – Orange Beach to Lake Charles

Day Seven.

Another travel day but with a stop.  We set off later from Orange beach because it was such a nice view and we got to wander on the beach.  I went down for a wee dip in the Gulf of Mexico but it was pretty cold.  The hotel obviously had a sense of humour which was nice and it was a nice relaxed way to start the day.

After our complimentary breakfast (Carol is obsessed with ‘complimentary breakfast’) we hit the road for a 3.5 hr drive to New Orleans (or N’awlins as we now call it).  This was our second roadtrip that took in a stop in New Orleans. I have to say it’s a bit too much for me really.

She’s on her holidays and she shared with her brother!

Very busy, very dirty and very touristy.  Bourbon street has a smell all along it which I am pretty sure is illegal unless you go to Canada or Colorado!  The roads are a nightmare and it literally took us 90 mins to find a place to park and fight our way across town to get to it.

Having said all of this I think we have been getting the town at it’s worse as it was Friday night and it was Thanksgiving week.  We’d like to come back at a quieter time to see if it felt as intimidating and frankly uncomfortable.  A lot of homeless people and beggars and people out to make a quick buck.  It’s the bane of all tourist places I suppose.

 

We did do the rounds though – visited the French market, had Beignets and did Bourbon street (albeit briefly).  One last criticism – being from Austin and listening to excellent live music every day meant that the Bourbon street banging and crashing sounded amateurish…anyway. One of our family guilty pleasures is NCIS and Carol and I watch the New Orleans version of it so it was interesting to hit the sites from the TV show.

 

We visited the bar that is owned by the lead character in the show, Dwayne Pride, and it is always interesting when you see TV sets.  The bar looks the same on the outside but obviously it’s a sound stage for the show so is completely different on the inside.  The same with the main office location.  It’s a realtors car park but they use it for the base in the show.  Nice to see but I was glad when we paid the car park fee and got on the road.

Our last night on the road was at Lake Charles on the border between Louisiana and Texas.  The journey was interesting as there was a thick fog all the way and it was dark so there were no travel highlights!

Checking into our hotel was interesting as we did it all on the Hilton app.  We checked in then used my phone to open the room.  So no conversation with anyone at the hotel! We’re going to see if we can check out without a single human interaction…it’s an experiment we’re not anti social ;-).

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Roadtrip #3 – Day Six – Back on the Road Orlando – Orange Beach

 

Longest day for travel today with over 400 miles covered in a day,  Not a lot of major highlights but it was Thanksgiving,  Started out the day relatively early after a short break at the beginning to do a little souvenir shopping.

Carol drove for first stint as usual and we stopped to pick ups breakfast at an Orange Visitors center (nothing to do with sectarianism ;-)) and picked up some nice fresh oranges and saw a baby gator!

We snacked along the way and waited for our final destination to eat our Thanksgiving Dinner.

We were staying at a Hampton Inn in Orange Beach.  We paid extra to have a beach facing room and it was worth it for the excellent views and the lovely sunrise in the morning.

We popped into  Bubba’s in Orange Beach for our dinner which was really nice food then rested with a beer in the hotel room.  It was not lost on us that we were eating in a place called Bubba’s in the South.  It was really nice actually although I would have liked draft beer.

It was a travel day…so that’s all we’ve got…

 

RoadTrip #3 – LaFayette – Destin

4 States in one day (Texas is so big that it always takes a day just to get out then you can breeze through the other states.

Sophie is the author today.

Day Two.

Once again we woke up in darkness, with a 5 am wake up we were out of the hotel sharp by 6:10.  As we drove through Louisiana we saw the mist roll over the swamps and fields like invading troops.  After a while of driving we hit the Mississippi state line! Almost a mile over the line we hit a rest stop where Dad and Ben stopped for a quick toilet break and Mum and I took a few pictures with the sign and grabbed a wee coffee in the visitors center.

As we got on the road again we decided to take about 20 minutes out of our journey to take the scenic route by that time we had switched seats with Dad complaining about the space in the very small back. (Editor note: it was too small for my torso and after 17 hours like that I was dying…17 hours may be an exageration).  Set up was – Ben in the middle and Mum and I in the front, me navigating and Mum driving. After a few minutes of driving we decided to stop off at the beautiful white sandy beach and then  some ice cream at Sonic then we got back on track to Florida!

Right as we hit Alabama Dad almost had a heart attack because we missed the rest stop and couldn’t take a selfie with the sign. (second editors note: I like the selfies with the signs…that’s not a crime).  After that fiasco was over we stopped off at Zaxby’s chicken for lunch and from then we pushed onward until we got to the Florida rest stop.

Across the Florida line at the rest stop we got a map, a selfie and some really nice orange juice then another hour and a half till we got to Destin;

In Destin we found our hotel room with a beautiful beach front view. After we got settled we went for a walk along the beach where we found quite a few broken pieces of sand dollar and then walked to the pier, taking pictures as we went.

Mum and Dad walked along the pier while Ben and I played in the sand down below. After our walk we quickly went back to the hotel room and got changed and went out for some Chinese a few miles away. Finally we ended the night back at the hotel room where we all got ready for an early night at 8:00. (Last editor note – we struggled to keep the kids awake…a new phenomenon).

 

Big American RoadTrip #3 – Day One Round Rock – LaFayette

Another big road trip.  We’ve been North to DC, West to New Mexico and now east to Florida!

We’re changing up a little this trip by having the kids do some of the blogging so the below is day one from Ben,

Before that the journey – We’re headed east from Round Rock and stopping at Lafayette, Destin then Orlando for a few days before coming back via Orange Beach and then New Orleans.  Thanksgiving break.

Day One

Waking up in darkness, the sun was still to rise at 6:00 am and my sister Sophie  and I were the last awake. After finishing up with the last bit of packing filled up the back of the car and clambered in. As we began to make our way across the country, I sat in the back cradling my guitar, due to the lack of space elsewhere to place it, while my sister sits just in front of me headphones on eyes glued to her phone screen. Mum and dad are sitting at the head of the car discussing where to go for breakfast. We eventually decide upon kolaches from Shipley’s donuts.

For the first day we attempted to make it to Lafayette swiftly, so we made few stops along the way, only stopping in Carmine for coffee and a bathroom break then later at Freddie’s Steak Burger and frozen custard for lunch. For reasons I am still unable to explain, most likely because I was tired, I became unreasonably panicked about finding my guitar pick that I lost shortly before. This later caused Sophie to be unreasonably angry due to my unreasonable panic. Dad, throughout all of this, is uncharacteristically calm throughout the trip which makes Sophie think that he might be having some form of stroke. If anyone is worried don’t worry, he’s fine. We checked.

Finally, after reaching Lafayette and checking into the hotel we make our way to Longfellow- Evangeline State Historic Site that Mum found out about online. An old sugar plantation where we learned about the fascinating history of the land and Louisiana in general. For more information on this see the link. We were shown around by a very helpful wee woman, who was 80, who told us about the history of the property and even introduced Sophie to a new game. For dinner we decided on traditional food for the area, so we got some gumbo and catfish at the Cajun restaurant Kajun King. Exhausted from the journey we decided shortly after this to go to bed early.

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Roadtrip 2 (Day Two) Odessa

Day Two.

Still in Odessa

Unlike our previous roadtrip we tried not to go too far each day (we had a deadline last time) so we stayed in Odessa for an extra day to explore the area.  We are glad we did though.  We got to do a lot of things that were great fun.

Morning

After breakfast we headed to Sandhills state park in Monaghans.  This is an amazing area of the world.  Like being on Tatooine with all the sand dunes etc. For a couple of dollars you can hire sand sledges for sledging down the dunes…and slide we did!  Great fun and well worth the effort.  The place itself is beautiful also.  We also bought some excellent walking sticks from the shop.  I got a Moose (Our Boy Scout troop adult troop is called the Moose Patrol), Ben got a Wolf and Sophie got a paw print one. 

‘Talk softly and carry a big stick’ is my new policy.

 

Afternoon.

After grabbing some lunch at a highly rated Chinese buffet in Monaghans (it looked terrible from the outside but the food was good).  We headed to the 2^nd or 3^rd largest Meteor crater in the US (6^th largest in the world) – one sign says it’s the 3rd and the leaflet says the 2nd – the Odessa meteor crater..  We had tried going there first but it was closed till 1pm on a Sunday so it became our afternoon thing.  It looked great but unfortunately we didn’t get to go down into the crater as there had been a rain storm the night before and the clay floor was too slippy.  Cool place though.  Whilst there the leaflet for the place mentioned other things in Odessa to do…so 15 mins later we found ourselves taking pictures next to the largest Jackrabbit in the world!  We’ve seen a ton of Jackrabbits this trip (especially on the road to the meteor crater).  The roadside attractions are one of my favourite bits about roadtrips!

Evening.

Swimming, Hot tub and Sauna followed by a free bar for 1.5 hrs…that’ll do…

 

Mini Scottish road trip Part 2 – Taychreggan Hotel

We arrived at the hotel late afternoon for just an overnight break.  The drive from the main road was interesting including some fool in a Suzuki SUV thing getting annoyed despite the fact he passed his passing place before us.  The benefit of an open top car is when I tell him exactly what I think of him…he can hear me!  He looked like one of those folks who was permanently angry so I was quite pleased I might have set him further off.

However…the pleasant views and beautifully tranquil setting soon set me back on the straight and narrow (btw…I wasn’t the driver ;-)).  The place is in the middle of nowhere and right on the edge of Loch Awe which is a quiet loch and not even close to being as developed as some of the Loch’s further south.

We checked in and got a pleasant surprise when they upgraded us to the nicest room in the hotel!  I had paid US rates because I booked through my US account so I was already paying less than the quoted (which was nice) but to be upgraded to a four poster bed with the best views across the Loch in the hotel was really quite pleasant.  Molton Brown (which is apparently a good thing) toiletries in the room impressed Carol as did the enormous bath.

We opted at check in for the set dinner (they don’t have an evening ala carte menu) which turned out to be quite pricey per head (50GBP) but it was 5 courses plus canapes.  We don’t get away too often so we splurged for the meal.

After check in and getting organized we headed out for a walk about the grounds.  The place is beautifully place on the side of the Loch and had great views right up the Loch and across the Glen.  They have a number of small private spaces to sit and take in the scenery and they have obviously thought this thorough as each space is away from the other so people can have their own space even when the place is busy.  The same goes for the inside.

They do not have a huge number of rooms but they do have plenty of sitting areas to while away the hours quietly and undisturbed.

After a walk around we headed and got ready for dinner.

Dinner is an experience (the price tag reflects that ;-)) and you start with drinks and canapes in the bar.  We chose some wine and it got all set up at our table.  The waiting staff then walk you through individually to your table which is a nice touch.  

The five courses sounds a lot but actually each course is smallish in size so that you are still appreciative of the food by the end.  The beautiful setting was excellent, the fabulous room good too but the food was the highlight.  Incredibly tasty and full of flavour even in the small bites!

After dinner the staff walked us through to the sitting room with night caps and we sat there chatting for a while then retired to the Snooker room where they have a 12 foot table and played a game.  We are both rank rotten at the game so one game took best part of an hour (I blame the lack of chalk… ;-)).

Breakfast in the morning was decent and we checked out relaxed and ready for a day exploring the motherland.  The place was lovely and a lot of small items like a complimentary Carafe of Sherry in your room, spare wellingtons for walking around in, umbrellas, the red telephone box outside, the sitting rooms, the seats outside and other items made for a pretty excellent stay overall.

The single track road down.

Panorama from the dock

Random Peacock

The road down

Spare wellies to borrow!

Beautiful view from the dinner table

big snooker table

Red telephone box

View from our room