To the Jazz Festival!!!

ROAD TRIP #2

Gotta love a good road trip. This one certainly involved covering a lot of road surface! 4,000km in total of which a good portion was along the coveted Route 66. The impressive statistic is that we did this over only 5 days of driving whilst sight-seeing (many of the sights were petrol stations mind you but you get to meet some interesting folk in them!).

This is my first time in the land of Dairy Queen, Motel 6 and F150s. Starting in San Francisco and finishing in New Orleans means you cross six states, over-take about 10,000 trucks and get a brief feel for American culture and how it varies in different regions. America culture is an oxymoron I know but there are definitely difference from state to state, namely speed limits.

Given the warp speed at which we were travelling the recollections below will invariably be brief.

San Francisco
A bridge, a harbour, beaches nearby, some nice cafes and restaurants and expensive housing....sounds like a certain city in Australia but with the misfortune of being full of Americans. Stayed at Eun's lovely apartment for a couple nights in a very nice part of SF. As you do, one must have a photo taken with the bridge to verify your actual presence in the city and go to Ghiradelli Square as this is just what you do. We also did a trip out to the Mossman of SF, Tiburon for a late lunch on the harbour and witnessed the couple next to us having a dramatic yet contained "misunderstanding" involving the throwing of a fork. Dinner was at Aziza, a well-regarded Moroccan restaurant. Thumbs up from all in attendance.

The streets of San Fran

Eun and me

At Aziza

Drive to LA
The following day we jammed a lot in. Lunch in Santa Cruz, afternoon drinks in Monterrey, a sugar and caffeine hit at Carmel (a picture-perfect American town on the coast that is home to Pebble Beach Golf Course), a long cruise down  Route 1 (the equivalent of the Great Ocean Road in Victoria) and then inland a little to the not-so-touristy Lancaster where we would spend three nights. Our gracious host David worked for NASA which has a secondary base in Lancaster.....an hour from LA but in the middle of freaking nowhere.

Other than a NASA base, the next most interesting thing to see/do (and I didn't get to go to NASA as I needed more time for the security clearance) in Lancaster is to drive along the musical road. Yep, drive some more. It really only works well if you have a standard length wheel based car and drive at the speed limit but Honda designed a section of road to play different notes when driven over. It is actually quite clever and it works....well. To find out the tune you will have to drive on it. (I didn't recognise it I'll admit).

Monterrey

Not the famous Margaritaville in LA

Carmel

Pebble Beach is to the right

Route 1

Sunset on Route 1

LA
Big, loud, gaudy and everything you would expect from Hollywood. Rodeo Drive. Santa Monica. Beverley Hills. Universal City. And of course Disneyland. Disneyland was definitely the highlight. It is quite surreal. It is for kids primarily but it was interesting to note that many adults went without kids. Didn't expect that but now I know why. Had a bit of fun there as some of the photos may suggest.

Universal City is... well I am not sure what exactly it is or what it is trying to be. Bright, bold, neon, tacky, commercial. It is just weird. We had dinner there at Bubba Gump. Now I wouldn't ordinarily venture into an establishment such as that but nevertheless I did and actually had a half decent meal and a surprisingly drinkable bucket of margarita which I promptly removed the artery heartening quantity of salt lining the rim.

Choking a princess

Choking Jane

Mickey and.... Mini

Universal City

Flagstaff, gateway to the south of the Grand Canyon, Arizona
What a lovely town. Apparently one of the food meccas of the US. So many restaurants of good quality. So we headed to a gastro-pub called the Beaver Street Brewery and had a very good meal. My first lesson in America's incessant desire to serve more food than a normal person can possibly eat. The sweet potato chips and steak were excellent. Yelp it!

The following morning we headed off to the canyon, about an hour away. A lot of money has been spent on managing the hoards of tourists that visit here every day. We were lucky enough to visit during National Park Week which meant free entry to all parks. Score!! There is plenty of information about the canyon, its formation and statistics for the numbers buffs. The south of the canyon is wider than the north and arguably more impressive for this reason (as stated by the folk from the south) as the Colorado river that flows through the canyon gains in volume the further it progresses. Anyway, it is a long way down. One mile in fact. Definitely no time to hike down given our tight schedule. So it was the rim walk only for us. Very pleasant and plenty of places to stop and sit and take it all in. Don't be a hero like some people I saw....it really is a long way down and I think it might hurt, a lot.

Back to Flagstaff for a late lunch at Diablo Burger, reported to be one of the best burgers in the States. Now when I think of the food in the States, I tend to think they could make a mean burger so to have this kind of reputation was rather exciting. Interesting toppings and the ability to choose how you want to have your burger cooked. A great start. First issue for me, it was served in an english muffin. Wtf. Second, it was rather small...for the States. Excellent rosemary salted chips mind you. I rate is 7 out of 10. Try a fancy burger with some funky sauce on it.

San Francisco Mountains

Get down now!!

They love a flag or two....just in case they forget what country they are in.

Sunset at 85 mph

Santa Fe, New Mexico
We stayed in a themed motel here, The Silver Saddle. I couldn't work out exactly what the theme of our room was. Had some Route 66 memorabilia and other vintage photographs but nothing that tied it all together. It was a comfortable place to stay though. Santa Fe is well known for its arty farty-ness. Canyon Road is lined with expensive art galleries, most with sculptures which were pretty cool. Not practical souvenirs.

Dallas, Texas
Another day, another State. Whoa, Texas is flat.....really flat. Makes driving boring as hell but you can go a little faster here. Saw our first police cars on the road here. I think this State has some money. You could have driven a million miles an hour in Arizona or New Mexico with zero chance of anybody pulling you over. In Texas, there are Texas Rangers. No shit. It says it on the side of their cars. But the positive is that it means meat and lots of it. Smokehouses everywhere....delicious smokehouses everywhere. That night we met up with Michelle's friend Randy and went to another gastro-pub, Holy Grail Pub, and had another decent meal and a good brew.

New Orleans, Lousianna
A solid day of driving today broken up with Dairy Queen and lunch at the Texas Smokehouse. Wow. Quality. Amazing pork ribs. Massive serves. So tender the meat just fell off the bone. Outstanding work Texas. The table next to us was occupied by six middle-to-late aged Texans chowing down on the full serving size of ribs (I went the half and it was enough), no surprises they were all grossly overweight. I understand. The ribs are so damn tasty! Grabbed some jerky on the way out.

Stopped in Lafayette for dinner on route to New Orleans. We go there and asked for directions to the city centre and a kind couple walked us there as there was a festival happening. I had forgotten. Lafayette hosts the largest free festival in the country and it happens to be the same weekend at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. After trying some rather delicious local canjun food at respectable prices for a festival and listening to some music we plowed on to New Orleans, a further two hours away.

New Orleans, what can I say. Loved it. Maybe it was because there was the festival happening but it had a really cool vibe about it. Southerners are so friendly and welcoming and yes they speak just like you think they would speak. Here it is criole food. Not sure what the difference is between cajun but it was bloody good. The food at the festival was top notch and a good variety of heart-attack inducing goodness. You could even tuck into a huge plate of crawfish if you were keen enough to deshell them.

So the festival itself. Great feel to it. Something like 16 different stages of all types of worldly music. It is the Jazz and Heritage Music Festival so I guess anything goes but the blues and jazz theme reins supreme. Highlights for me were Diance Reeves, BB King and good ol' Billy Joel. USD50 for a day pass. Bargain.

I the evening after the festival (it finishes up at 7pm) we headed into Bourbon Street for a looksie. Trashy, not dissimilar to Kings Cross, but if you venture one or two streets off of it you are immediately on rather ritzy streets with flashy stores and classy restaurants. So we went to dinner at one of these places, Sobou, still in my festival gear, singlet and shorts, and had an excellent meal. Very good cocktails for the most part, although I think I chose poorly initially.

The following night we went to Frenchman Road instead, home to many a small bar and live music venue. This was more my style. Gastro-pub number 731 for the road trip, Three Muses. Brilliant. Food was great and there was a live band of five people crammed into a shoe box in the corner playing very fine music. Wish I could have spent many a night on this street. There is music playing every night of the week.

In summary, if you are anywhere near New Orleans, drop by. I don't think you will be disappointed. The waistline may expand - just a warning.

So that was my first taste of the State. Very hospitable people. Exceptional food if you search for it. And plenty to see and do. I will be back.

Lafeyette Festival

Good to see the oil companies sponsoring events in the far south

New Orleans.....

Bourbon Street

Diane Reeves

On the Sunday it pissed down....fun times

BB King

Dinner at the Three Muses on Frenchman Road

Random street jazz band on Frenchman Road