California - Bodega Bay

Bodega Bay is about an hour North of San Francisco and is a small fishing village.
This is my first return house swap, hopefully the start of many more
The house is located within a private golf course and has a magnificent view of the Bay.

View over golf course to Bodega Bay

Keeping an eye on things

California Photos Slideshow

I don't for one minute believe all exchanges will be this good as they really went out of their way in hosting me at their home which is about 30 minutes from Sacramento.
They live in a wonderful Delware over 50s village that has approx 7000 homes and includes 2 x  18 hole golf courses, and two village centres that have all the facilities and entertainment that you could ever want. Very impressive.

From Lincoln I drove to Bodega Bay with Janine's Honda RAV4, a perfect car for my trip.
I spent a few relaxing days at Bodega Bay trying to forget about work....
The views were fantastic and life was at a nice and slow pace.
At Bodega Bay I was introduced to their famous Calm Chowder soup, and had a few bowls.
I left Bodega Bay on Memorial Day and traveled 6 hours away into the Sierra National Forest to a place called Mono Hot Springs.
I chose this place because it was remote, had hot springs and had a nice river for fishing... Did I forget to mention that I bought my fly rod?
The trip to the campsite was on a one lane "road" but once there was a beautiful part of the country.

Road to Mono Hot Springs

The San Joaquin River was a nice size river, a little on the small size but quite good for fishing. This river like a lot of other rivers in USA is stocked with fish. There were a few other fishermen there but not too many. I caught a few but they were all small compared to NZ standards. All catch and release.

There used to be a resort on the bank of the river making use of the thermal springs. One resort still exists next to the campsite, but the resort on the opposite bank has been demolished. There still exists several spots where you can use the concrete lined baths which are topped up by the constant flowing natural hot spring water. They all are different temperatures ranging from very hot to tepid and all have great views of the river below.

On the first day, of a four day stay, a Bear arrived at the campsite. It was about 25m away from my tent. The campers next to me tried to scare it away but when it hung around they decided to relocate their tent closer to other campers leaving me all on my own. But I was not to worried as I slept in the tent with my pocket knife. I have a photo on my other camera and will download once I get access to a laptop.

On day 3 when I was fishing the river started changing colour from clear to muddy, then it started rising. Apparently they were releasing water and flushing out the river. So that put an end to my fishing on the river. I was stuck on the opposite side of the river from the campsite but I preferred that as I made my way back to the hot springs and stayed there for a few hours chatting with others. There was a bridge nearby so I could easily get back to the campsite.

The next day I explored the surrounding area and went to Florence Lake and Ward Lake. Ward Lake was very picturesque and there are a few campers that stay there to fish.

From Mono Hot Springs the intention was to spend several days in Yosemite National Park. The scenery was great and there is a nice river running through the valley .... But just too many people.
I had wanted to stay in Tuolumne Meadows but that area was not open.

So it was just one day in Yosemite to say that I had been there. 

Next I traveled to Markleeville where I stayed for a few days, and included a trip over the Sonora Pass. The river nearby was the East Fork Carson River. It was a nice size river with a lot of fish. But unfortunately even more fishermen. Every favorable spot had a car or two next to it with several fishermen. There was little chance of walking along the river, you had to go to a spot and stay there. It was the weekend when I arrived. I did catch a few fish here but that appeared to be more by luck. Like most rivers there is a technique for the river that I did not work out. If I was relying on my fish to live of I would starve.

On my arrival I took the last campsite and after that the Full sign went out. The weekends are very popular. The township of Markleeville doubled in size with all the weekend motor bike and street bike riders arriving for their days bike ride and to stop for lunch and one of several restaurants. It was a very nice and tidy town but not sure where everyone came from.

From Markleeville I went across the Sonara Pass to Dardanelle and the Stanislaus River. All very nice but the river was very hard to fish as it had trees on both banks.
My last destination before returning to Lincoln was to Lake Tahoe.
I initially did not think I would like Lake Tahoe but was impressed with the place. It was obviously geared up for skiing with Heavenly Village the heart of South Tahoe. My accommodation was in the BlueLake Inn, just a short walk from the Village. There was plenty of entertainment and on Friday and Saturday the village provided outdoor music from 5pm till 9pm.
MerryGold was the folk/country/bluegrass band that played on Friday evening and they were great, loved their music... Bought their CD to remind me later on.
I spent a lot of time on the private beach a few minutes walk from Motel. They provided a free beach pass as part of the package, and a small breakfast. They also had free wifi so I was quite impressed. The mid week costs were $35 per night so not all that much difference to the $20 per night I would pay for a campsite but all the luxuries.

On the Saturday night I had aleady pre booked at an alternative Motel. It was a dive and if I had spent all days at the Motel I may not have enjoyed South Tahoe as much.
From South Tahoe it was back to some more pampering from Janine and Donna before my departure from Sacramento to Cabo

Ward Lake

Yosemite National Park

Before my departure from Melboure... The story begins

John (my boss) has traveled through LA a few times and thought that I did not have enough time in transit between a International and Domestic as the queues in immigration can be long, but as soon as I got of the plane I rushed to the immigration counter and got to the head of the line. So his warnings of there not being enough time in the transfer did not eventuate and I was waiting for the plane to a sacramento with 30 minutes to spare. A lot of time for me. I could see how you could miss a onward flight though as if I was at the back of the line or more planes landed it could of easily been an extra hour.

The real adventure was at the Melbourne airport before my departure.

When I got to the counter they asked me where I was staying and I said I did not know, that I was being picked up. They said that they could not let me on until I could provide them a physical address. I check all my emails and I have never been told of the address of the Sacramento house or the Bodega Bay address. 

I got collected by Janine and Donna at the airport and they hosted me for a couple of days, so I had no need for an address, all I had was a phone number.

After about 10 minutes of standing at the counter, but letting others go past, and trying to find an address I came up with the name of an address of a property in Sacramento using Google Maps. I just got the street from the Map, added a street number and there it was. The lady Behind the counter thought it was suspicious but I convinced her that I had a pin placement on Maps and that is how I found it, and that I had been looking in the wrong place. I gave a valid street name and one that you would not suspect as being made up. It was 10 Waterwheel Lane.

So that was the first obstacle out of the way and of course by now I was running late.

So she proceeded with the creation of the ticket and then said that I did not have a visa. I said that I thought that I did not need one.  I did not realise that you had to apply for a ESTA which is a visa waver document, slightly different. That will last for 2 years so next time I come here I should not have to worry about it.

So then I was taken to another counter where they had a computer so that I could fill out the ESTA. So that was done and payment made so now I was really late but they did check my bags in. I was escorted through to the departure lounge going to one of the checkouts with no people, so that got me to the plane after boarding had closed, but still I was only the second last person on the plane.

So after all that I was fearing the worst for LA, and was trying to think of any alternatives.

Also bad in departing LA was the 45 minutes waiting in the plane waiting for our 1 hour flight to Sacramento.

I got collected ok and had no jet lag. I did not sleep on the plane so had been awake for a while.

The address that I chose ended up only one street away, so that was a good guess. I knew the house was located within a golf course so that did narrow the search a bit.

My Flight Itinerary:
Melbourne, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Phoenix, San Jose Cabos, Los Angeles, Melbourne