Christmas News 2014: Christmas News Part II

Hello everyone! Since my last blog post I have been to the California and Arizona in the United States. There are some highlights I would like to share especially my trip to the Grand Canyon courtesy of my cousin David Schibler and his wife Lorraine. A few of you will already be familiar with some of my itinerary as I included it in my email Christmas Letter. However I did not have a chance to include the photos. So here they are - as far as possible captioned. All the Grand Canyon photos were taken from the south rim. The facilities on the north rim, which is about 1,000 feet higher (i.e. 8,000 feet) closes at the end of September and is pretty much inaccessible. By that time there is often snow and the roads are closed.

Grand Canyon

The 'Super Eight' Williams

Eastern Gate Arch into Williams

On the Wednesday we drove the 465 miles from Encinitas (California) to Williams (Arizona) in just over seven hours including a number of breaks. Williams is about an hour from the south rim and we were booked in to a 'Super Eight' motel having entered the township through an impressive arched gate. The dominant economy is tourism. Together with Flagstaff Williams is the gateway to the Grand Canyon. Some enterprising entrepreneur (Santa Fe Railroad Company) built a rail track from Williams right up to the South Rim. You can take a ten hour train ride on the 'Southwest Chief' Amtrak from Los Angeles to Williams and then change trains. Some of the tourists use this

El Tovar Main Entrance

option but the majority arrive by car, coach, light aircraft or helicopter. Like us they

Sunset from the El Tovar Terrace

stay in Williams, Flagstaff or one of the hotels, lodges or campsites located in the Grand Canyon National Park. We were very fortunate with the weather and the sun shone for us most of the Thursday. The rain that had been promised by the forecasters did not arrive until the late afternoon by which time we had checked in to our second night's accommodation at the El Tovar on the south rim. This stone and wood building is just a hundred yards away from the Grand Canyon Railway station and is one of the canyon's first hotels, opened in 1905. By sunset the clouds were threatening but after several attempts I managed to take a picture (left). The park service provide several free shuttle bus routes to transport tourists to the different vantage points. The following photos were all taken on the south rim to from different vantage points west of the main entrance on the red bus route.

After this we took the opportunity to explore the Lookout Studio with excellent views of the Bright Angel trail that leads down to the bottom of the canyon and Phantom Ranch where it is possible to stay for the night.

Bright Angel Trail zig-zagging down

Dry river bed leading into main canyon


Bright Angel Trail (bottom left corner)

After returning to the visitor centre we collected our car and drove east to Desert View which is 25 miles away. By climbing the Watchtower at Desert View (see below) we were afforded magnificent views of the Colorado River.

Watchtower constructed in 1932 as a replica of an Indian tower

Colorado River (centre)

Colorado Canyon basin looking North East

Closeup from the Watchtower

After a delicious dinner and early night at the El Tovar we departed the south rim early on Friday to return to Encinitas via Williams where we stopped off for a traditional cooked breakfast at the Pine Country Diner. Williams by the way is located on Route 66, one of the oldest highways in the USA, stretching from Chicago to Los Angeles, often referred to as the 'Main Street of America.' During the Gold Rush and the Depression it was the route taken by many moving out west in search of work and fortune. A blocked interstate 40 forced us on to a diversion via Route 66. One soon got a feeling for what it was like for those early settlers travelling out west in their horse drawn waggons or on the first steam trains. What they did not gave to contend with was the volume of traffic around Los Angeles on the I5. Like our UK motorways you just have to get used to it! Actually there are not so many 'parking lots' on the US interstates. It is just the volume and speed of the traffic.

San Diego - Place of Learning and Research

There are several important universities in San Diego. One of them is the University of California San Diego (UCSD). It is part of the University of California which has campuses in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Davis and Irvine. UCSD is endowed with some amazing facilitiesd amonh which is an arts centre where musicals, plays and concerts are performed. I was lucky enough to be invited by my cousin Greg to 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' in the La Jolla Theatre. It was an excellent performance which easily came up to the standard one would expect in the West End. UCSD is also famous for its Scripps Institution of Oceanography which is essentially a series of aquaria with different species of fish, many of which are indigenous to the North West Pacific coastline.

Entrance to Aquarium

Me, Lorraine and David in front of the mackerel

The Scripps pier which stretches out to one of the deepest ocean escarpments

From the Aquarium looking towards La Jolla

Just managed to escape being eaten by a shark!

A manned submarine for underwater research (now done robotically)

San Clemente and Christmas Lights

My departure back to the UK on December 1st was preceded by two different events preparing for Christmas. The first was the 'San Clemente Glitz' and the second was the 'St Regis Hotel Christmas Tree Lighting.' The town of San Clemente is right on the coast halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. It is often referred to as the 'Spanish Village by the Sea' and was conceived in the spanish style by a former mayor of Seattle Ole Hanson imposing strict planning criteria. Perhaps, more famously, it was the location of President Richard Nixon's 'Western White House'. In late November the main street is pedestrianised and lit up in preparation for Christmas. All the shops remain open and there are stalls selling food and craft gifts.

Taking up the same theme one of the luxury hotels in the area, the St Regius, opens its doors to the local community for its annual tree lighting ceremony. This year the lighting was performed by the basket ball player Magic Johnson.