The scenic drive from Redding to the coast .......
This cross-section of a redwood tree shows that it is more than 2000 years old!! The plaques mark importnat events in human history that have happened while the redwoods have stood silently watching....alive all that time! The feeling was incredible walking through the forests, they are very silent forests, not many birds and perhaps the noises are muted byt the sheer grandure of the trees. We fell in love with these national parks and spent a few days camping and wandering...
Some of the native animals that we luckily didn't see in real life...this is a native Bob cat..
A mountain lion...
A coyote....
A bear! At all the campsites there were signs to not leave out food or sleep in a tent with food because of the bears! Scary!
Enormous trees reaching up to 110 metres...
These trees can survive for so many years for a few reasons... they can survive fire because the bark doesn't burn and if the inside burns they can still transport the water from the roots along the outside layer, there bark is poisonous for bugs, there root system allows them to survive floods and they are very fast growing so manage to reach the sunlight in the forest ecosystem to get what they need...amazing!
The three grandmother trees...i lay here for so long!
A fallen redwood showing it's roots...
Wow!
A good place for contemplation!
Big Sur is a famous area of the coast that looks very similar to the Great Ocean Road in Victoria...stunning!
A state park we camped at by the beach on our way down the coast...
Some interesting houses driving through San Francisco, after driving across the famous red Goden Gate that you see in so many films!
A misty morning still driving down the coast...beautiful white limestone rocks and cliffs...
Some very cheeky squirrels who wanted tourists leftovers!
The amazing sight of hundreds of Elephant Seals and Californian Sea Lions lazing in the sand!! Wow! We stayed for hours observing their antics! Hilarious! There were so many different personalities, the annoying ones, the hyperactive ones, the lazy ones, the really fat ones! They alos went in and out of the water, which was a sight to behold as they so clumsily moved along!! They also called out to each other and threw their heads back and howled! Hilarious and a sight I will never forget!
Once arrived in LA we had a great weekend at a friend's camp called the "HeART of Community", which was at an incredible artists' house in the hills of LA. His painting lined the walls and it was the most amazing house I'd ever seen, set up with a craft room, an art studio, a costume room for dress-ups, an outdoor theatre space, a jacuzzi! Let's just say , it was incredible! We spent the weekend there, lazing about, playing music, meeting creative people, having fun, doing a talent show, all sorts of fun things! After the weekend we followed my friend Laurie back to Santa Monica beach in LA, where she lives and started to explore that area...now we have been here two weeks, loving the very creative boardwalk art murals, the lively and sporty lifestyle by the beach...there are kms of boardwalk and so many activities as you will see below...there are also hundreds of homeless people wandering the streets adn livign by the sea...a very sad sight to see people constantly rumaging in the bins outside of very posh hotels. Such a contrast!
We have found a yoga studio where we go daily and have made great connections, have done walking and bikeriding and even a bit of jogging ourselves and of course lots of reading for me by the ocean! I'm finally starting to get into the swing of travelling as I was finding it a bit of a difficult transition to begin with, going from sucha terribly busy life for so long and being on such a mission with finishing my degree over the last 3 and a half years...I felt a little lost and unsure what I was feeling for awhile there, feeling bad that i wasn't able to relax and ebnjoy my situation! But I am happy to say, that I am feeling finally like I am very relaxed adn loving this time of my life!!!
Lots of murals are dedicated to artisits...Starry night-Van Gogh
Part of the boardwalk...
Brown and small pelicans fly overhead all day long in their hundreds!
The Boardwalk...
Street artists make their living by living on the boardwalk...
Chagall......
Living in the Dodeg vana dn loving it! What a view!
Meeting Giovanni's long lost relatives living in Hollywood...the lady is Giovanni's father's cousin and there is a long story involving a scandal (of course, they are Sicilian!) and three brothers being adopted out to different families 100 years ago because they were products of an affair with the housecleaner! A lovely visit where we heard Larry Covelli play the saxophone (a famous jazz musician in LA) despite his 85 years!!!!
Some incredible street art which we see every day...
This was a great expereince, really loud music playing and lots of people grooving it out on their roller skates (which are officially back in!)...sucha fun vibe every Sunday on the Boardwalk of Santa Monica...It is like a constant festival here!
The awesome skate park! Amazing tricks are performed with no helmets! So incredible and scary to watch!
About to watcha street performer...
A little backflip amongst this breakdancing performance! Amazing dancers, lots of black guys and guys from other cultures, lots of Latinos are incredible at breakdancing and pull out their moves on the streets!
A drumming circel ont he beach that I danced at and Giovanni drummed to his heart's content!
Another day another dollar eating breakfast by the beach!
Yes, offcially relaxed!
Hope you have enjoyed this last lot of photos! I have enjoyed sharing them because these have been some very fun and fascinating times! We are heading off from here in week......
Lots of love to you all
Jess and giovanni~
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