The Marathon Film Festival Redwoods Yosemite Alcatraz Hearst Castle Vegas Tour

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I'm not sure which idea sprouted first: run the Vancouver Marathon with my sister, go to a film festival in Seattle, visit my cousin in Danville, CA, or ride the Pacific Coast Highway. I guess it doesn't matter, but this past April, I thought it might be a fun idea to hop on the Yamaha and ride out to the left coast for some neat adventures.

And if you're thinking, "April sure is early for motorcycling," well then you just might be on to something. And if you're thinking, "That's a lot of stuff to carry on a motorcycle," well then you're right!

It all fits!

The plan is to cut straight across the northern U.S. states all the way to the Pacific, then up into B.C. from Washington State. I've always been a bit wary of riding across the U.S. Something to do with an irrational fear of guys with shotguns in pick-up trucks. But I've already cross Canada twice by motorcycle. Time for a new route.

This is the Ontario/Michican border in Sarnia. I survive a few hours of pretty serious rain along the 401 and 402.

It's dark as all get-out when I arrive at the Big Bear Lodge in Alpena, Michigan. This is a shot taken the next morning. Cute little motel with a giant stuffed bear in the lobby.

Dinner is a cup of steaming ramen, with water boiled with this tiny little stove.

The next morning I am greeted by a completely dead battery in the motorbike. Last night I had done too much idling while trying to find the motel in the darkness, and the electric vest I had been wearing drained the battery dead.

Luckily the nice motel owner gave me a boost.

Goodbye Room 28 of the Big Bear!

The next morning I am treated to the unwelcome sight of ice on Lake Huron.

I freeze my way over the impressive and beautiful Mackinaw Bridge, which takes me into northern Michigan.

A stop for greasy chicken and to plan my stop for the evening. The original plan had been to ride west on U.S. Route 2, which runs all the way to the west coast through the northern states. But the cold is getting to me, so I decide to try cutting south to find some warmer temperatures.

I bump into this fellow from London, Ontario, who also happens to be riding to Vancouver via Route 2! We don't end up riding together, as we seem to be on different schedules.

I get to ride a little bit of Route 2, and it really seems like a lovely highway.

Another long, cold day.

I end up at this hotel in Wisconsin. Not bad.

Not bad at all. This turns out to be one of the better hotels I get to stay at. I use booking.com to find all my accommodations, and always just choose the cheapest!

 

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Dinner is a wonderful assortment of salty carbs, complimented with some fine generic fish product.

The Weather Lady decides to taunt me with threats of really, really bad weather in the direction I was planning on going. Originally I had wanted to take a northern route, and I decided it was too cold. Then I changed to a southern route, which it turns out is too hurricaney. It looks like I have to veer north once again.

The next morning dawns bright and frigid. See that snow!

So the rain begins, and I abandon any plans for taking leisurely back roads, and I take Interstate 94 across Wisconsin, through Minnesota, and into North Dakota. The rain itself is bad enough, but the gale force winds are worse. There is what I am guessing a westerly crosswind of 50-80 kph which threatens to blow me right off the road.

At first, I am completely stressed out by the powerful winds. They are not only strong, but gusty, which means they come and go randomly. But soon I learn that by chopping the throttle, I can basically compensate for the sudden wind gusts. It still sucks, but I don't have to slow to a crawl in the heavy, interstate traffic.

Home tonight is at the beautifully decorated Jamestown Motel in North Dakota.

I'm not sure if that's a picture of the motel owner's wife or daughter on the cover of the information binder. But either way--va va va VOOOM!

The next morning brings me more rain. But at least the crazy windstorm from yesterday has dissipated.

This motel is not depressing at all. It just looks that way.

Is it kinda getting cold out here, or is it just me?

It started to snow on me in western North Dakota. I kept waiting for the snow to accumulate on the pavement, but luckily it was just warm enough to melt the snow.

Unluckily for me, my electric vest chose today to start working intermittently. It wasn't long before my teeth were chattering and I was shivering violently, probably well into genuine hypothermia. I kept fiddling with the electric vest's cable, and once in a while I would get a few minutes of warmth, and then--nothing.

I94 passed right through geologically stunning Theodore Roosevelt National Park. In between shivers, I enjoy the cool rock formations.

And pretty much as soon as I enter Montana, the next state over, it begins to warm up! No more snow!

Must... not... comment...

After a long, cold day, I stop for the evening in Billings, Montana. I look out my motel window to see two little birds playing tag around my bike. I take it as a positive omen!

 

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I decide to really shake things up for dinner...

...with some health food! I bet you didn't know SpaghettiO's were a part of a nutritious lifestyle, and that a can contains half a cup of vegetables.

Montana proves to be quite lovely, and for once, it's not precipitating or blowing like crazy.

Mountains! Not quite the Rockies yet, but more of a precursor range.

This is pretty much all cattle country.

And as I climb into the mountains... SNOW!!!

And just what might I be doing, stopping in a Harley dealership near Bozeman, Montana?

Buying this! A working heated jacket! Oh blessed electrons of heavenly warmth, comfort me in your powered embrace! No more freezing on this trip.

To celebrate, I stop at my favourite fine dining establishment.

Check out the crazy low gas prices. That works out to 96 cent Canadian a litre. Gas was cheapest by far in the central states.

In the McDonald's parking lot, I tear into the battery wiring to install the new electric jacket cable.

And I find the culprit which has been giving me hypothermia for the past three days. This wire was faulty, not the wire coming from my old electric vest. So it turns out I only needed to replace this wire, not the whole vest. Oh well. The new jacket will be awesome, nevertheless.

Montana continues to be beautiful.

 

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And a word about the Interstate.... People like to malign the Interstate highways as being dull and soul sucking. But on this trip I found them to go through incredibly beautiful scenery. Plus they weren't very busy except near the biggest cities, and they were all immaculately maintained. They didn't have the charm of two-lane country highways, but they were fast and enjoyable.

Leaving a mountain range.

And approaching another mountain range.

I pass briefly through Idaho.

I settle in at a really weird hotel outside of Spokane, Washington. Most of the residents in this creepy place rent by the month.

I stop for a little break somewhere in Washington.

This day I must pass over several different mountain ranges, then through Seattle. In Seattle, I discover the confusing freeway system, and that it's hard to find gas and impossible to find a place to pee.

And several hours later, I am on the street where my sister Catherine's family lives. I pause under a stunning Cherry Blossom tree, which is in full bloom.

Made it! This is my sister's house in the lovely neighbourhood of Oakridge in Vancouver.

Another stunning tree, right on her front lawn.

 

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On the very night that I arrive, we are off to see my niece Patricia in concert at her school. My sister Catherine is the one holding the camera.

This is the Grade Four strings ensemble. They were pretty great.

So one of the things I made this trip for was to run the Vancouver Marathon with my sister. On Friday before the race, we biked downtown to the race expo to pick up our bibs.

The dude to my sister's right is well-known to runners in Canada. He is John Stanton, founder of the Running Room franchise.

A brush with celebrity!

By this time, my lovely wife Allison had arrived in Vancouver via Westjet. She joined us for a carbo loading dinner with some of my sister's running friends.

It's a rainy, cold day that we have chosen to run 42.2 kilometres on. Catherine and I try to stay warm in the athletics centre near the start line.

The race itself is pretty amazing. It's a gorgeous course, with a doozy of a steep hill at Kilometre 10 (Camosun St.). I spend the race pacing my sister and one of her friends. My sister does really well, but we lose her friend to cramping around the half way mark. The rain and wind begin to increase as the race goes on, and by the time we run around the seawall of Stanley Park for the final ten kilometres, it's a little rough.

Catherine ends up having another gear for the last eight kilometres and picks up the pace to the finish. I can barely hang onto her! Here we are kicking towards the finish.

Finished! Catherine pulls out a time of 4 hours, 11 minutes, which is pretty great for a first (and last?) marathon. We ran the entire thing together! How's that for a bonding experience?

Hardware!

Had another wonderful stay in Vancouver with my sister and her family.

 

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What better way to recover from a marathon than to jump on the motorcycle next day and ride 3000 km down the West Coast?

We luckily bump into my sister Catherine just as we are leaving, and she takes this picture of us.

Soon we are in slow but steady traffic headed south.

First stop... Seattle!

Using Hotels.com, we find this genuinely funky little boutique hotel for not much moolah right in the tourist area of Seattle by the water. We figure the good price is due to the fact that there are shared bathrooms. I've found that shared bathrooms are nothing to freak out about, as they tend to be very clean and not too busy.

Our very modern room.

Everything is funky about this place.

Bathrobes are a nice touch.

For dinner, the hotel receptionist recommends a bistro across the street.

The place turns out to have amazing food. Reasonable too!

These oysters are my appetizer. Allie passes.

This is my fried chicken and collared greens. So yummy.

Allie has a Mediterranean platter, which is fairly massive and delicious. I generously offer to help her finish it.

Another view of our hotel. Our room is right on the near corner. It's also above a noisy bar right below, but it doesn't keep us up too late.

 

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And here is the reason we are stopping in Seattle.

My film, "Unhappy Happy" has been selected to screen at the Seattle True Independent Film Festival. The festival just happened to be happening right during the two weeks of our trip! When I found out, I contacted the festival director and asked if he could schedule my film to show on the Sunday after my marathon (I didn't give him that reason!), and he did it! How amazing is that?

The Grand Illusion is one of the theatres showing films for the festival.

This theatre is so fun, right down to the quirky lobby, and the emo girl at the candy counter.

Me with a festival staff member. Notice the greatest festival t-shirt ever. Aaron, one of the stars of my film, got one!

The theatre begins to fill.

The screening itself is wonderful. Afterwards, people congratulate me on the film and give very thoughtful comments on the themes. Once we get outside, a guy drive by in his car and yells at us that he liked my movie!

We retire to our hotel room with some variety store wine and snacks. A beautiful way to end a magical night in Seattle.

The next morning, Allie and I cleverly combine running and sightseeing and do a whirlwind tour of Seattle's Pike Place Market and the waterfront.

The running might not have been the best idea for my post-marathon legs, but the experience of running in a beautiful, new place is always worth it.

This little piggie probably makes it into a lot of tourist shots.

The market itself was just waking up, so it was almost completely devoid of tourists--just the way I like things!

Obligatory Space Needle shot.

After our run, we pack up and hit the road south. Marathon--check. Seattle True Independent Film Festival--check. What's next?

 

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WOW! What a great trip! Thanks so much for taking the time for a good ride report!

 

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Thanks, Lytehouse! I'll post more of the trip when I get the chance.

 

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We start riding our way south and west towards the Pacific. Before hitting the ocean, we stop in Alma, Washington at a super rustic country restaurant.

Should have bought a mug!

I'm not sure if I got the chicken fried chicken or the chicken fried steak. Odds are, it was the steak.

We stop for a quick "butt break." These need to happen every thirty minutes to an hour, or your aching butt gets so sore that you can't enjoy the ride.

Sometimes when I take too many pictures, my wife protests.

We finally make it to the coast. Let the stunning scenery commence!

The Pacific coast just doesn't disappoint. We are awed over and over and over again on this ride.

Oregon turns out to be rugged and beautiful as well.

We stop for the night in Newport, Oregon. Time for a little poor man's charcuterie! With $6 wine! I believe the whole bill for this bounty ended up being under $15.

Who needs plates?

Next day, we continue to work our way down the Oregon coast, which is just gorgeous, and stop here and there for interesting butt breaks.

We find a path to...

... a pretty little cove!

It's time for lunch, and we randomly choose this cafe in North Bend, Oregon.

I get the meatloaf. Allie tries some and decides that she likes meatloaf. She says she was never crazy about meatloaf, until now.

So it turns out that this is a subsidized, charitable restaurant which was opened to help out the people in town who were struggling to make ends meet. The people working there were super nice. I think the charge for each meal was $1.50. We left considerably more.

This advertisement was just next door. Welcome to 'Murica!

 

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California!

Our next overnight stay is in Crescent City, where we take the time to go on another run, this time in the late afternoon after checking in.

We take a chance on a touristy looking restaurant near our hotel, The Good Harvest Cafe, which claims in its menu to cook with "healthy" ingredients and methods (cough, cough).

Allie gets the first of many seafood chowders that she orders on this trip. This one is very tasty!

This is my seafood platter. There was pretty much every type of seafood on this, including fish, scallops, clams, oysters and shrimp. It was AWESOME! Lucky it was healthy!

So we had carefully chosen Crescent City due to its proximity to Redwood State Park, home of some of the most magnificent trees in the world.

In the morning we drove the bike a few kilometres out of town to Howland Hill Road, an amazing gravel road which snakes its way through the Redwoods.

Our destination was this!

The Boy Scout Trail was incredible. We didn't encounter a single person the entire 9 km hike, probably because rain was threatening all morning.

At the end of the out-and-back trail, you are treated to the sight of a sweet little falls.

What a fantastic and unreal experience.

 

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And here is another amazing way to experience California's Redwoods. This road is call the Avenue Of The Giants, and it's a twisty narrow road that runs for fifty kilometres right through the giant trees. Some of the trees are only inches from the road.

The speed limit is 30 mph, and we were reluctant to even go that fast, as the drive is stunning.

It was a magical and surreal experience to drive this road. Add to that that there were almost no other cars. This was one of Allie's favourite experiences on this trip.

Butt break!

After the Avenue Of The Giants, the weather took a turn for the worse, with steady rain and fog. The road I was on, Route 1, was a fantastic motorcycle road. It wound around mountains, with tight turn followed by tight turn.

Unfortunately, it was also a difficult drive because of the weather. I could barely see due to the rain and fog. Luckily Allie enjoyed the ride! I guess it was a lot less stressful being a passenger.

This is where the road finally opened up and stopped twisting so crazily. We were back at the Pacific.

The relentless rain had managed to penetrate our "waterproof" gear, so were were forced to improvise some drying racks.

We had stopped in a city called Fort Bragg, which was a bit rough around the edges. Yet when we went for our morning run, we discovered some of the most amazing ocean views you could possibly want!

Our running path.

If this town just figured out how to capitalize on this amazing location, they could probably compete with posh Mendocino down the road.

Great run!

 

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When you go to California, you're supposed to stop in Napa or Sonoma. Even though we had twelve days for this trip, we just couldn't fit in every iconic California stop. So sadly we chose to skip Napa. For another trip.

Instead, we skirted San Francisco and made our way inland, toward the city of Danville, half an hour outside of San Fran.

Even though we skipped Napa, vineyards and wineries were everywhere.

Danville is an immaculate community just half an hour outside of San Francisco. It's also the home of my cousin Tony, and his wife Terri, and their two kids, Hannah and Sarah.

It's been almost fifteen years(!) since I last saw Tony and Terri.

They took us out to El Nido for some Mexican food!

Una plata calerifico!

Fajitas are fun.

That evening Tony breaks out the fire pit and we all enjoy some Cali wines.

Sadly, we only spend one night with the Yehs. They are absolutely amazing hosts and really great people.

We head even further inland to the dusty streets of Jamestown, a sleepy place that has probably seen better days. We use the town as a base of operations for exploring nearby Yosemite National Park.

We stay at this old and odd inn.

Allie examines the inn's borrowing library in the breakfast room.

Our hotel in the middle of main street.

We go in this place to stock up on hiking supplies of bread, cold cuts, fruit and water.

Next day we ride into Yosemite. Jamestown is actually a good hour and a half outside of the park interior. We chose Jamestown because it was half the price of hotels closer to or within the park.

Luckily the ride in was pretty great.

Riding into the park, you are greeted by views of stunning granite mountains dotted with picture perfect waterfalls. We drive very slowly and admire the views. This is probably one of the most photographed parks in the U.S., and for good reason. A lot of the mountains here are iconic.

We park the bike and make our way to the trail head.

We are doing the Mist Trail, which passes both the famous Vernal and Nevada falls. It's about an 11 km round trip, with 580 metres of elevation gain.

The first stretch is paved.

There are steps cut into or made out of rock on the approach to Vernal Falls. It was also super busy, even this early in the season. The steepness of the climb freaked some people out, and we witnesses one woman climbing down the steps on her butt. Add to that the slipperiness of the wet steps, and you've got yourself an adventure!

 

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Getting closer to the top of the falls.

The very last climb before Vernal is this cool narrow pass.

Stage two of our hike is towards Nevada Falls.

The nice thing about heading up to Nevada Falls is that there are way, way less hikers than the leg up to Vernal. Vernal got pretty crowded at times. I guess most people are not keen on doing all day hikes.

View from the top. With the people relaxing at the top, it felt like a big, granite beach.

Looking back at Nevada Falls as we make our way down via a different trail.

These silly tourists were riding horses along the same trail as us, leaving a nice sprinkling of crap over pretty much the entire trail. We had to slalom through their poop for a good couple of kilometres.

After conquering the peaks of spectacular Yosemite, we ride back to our humble hotel room in Jamestown.

We are glad we didn't skip Yosemite, as we had considered it at one point to make our trip less hectic. Yosemite is a must see for anyone who loves nature, and The Mist Trail is an iconic hike for a reason.

Yosemite--done! Strike another fabulous experience off our list!

 

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It's a new day and time for a new city. So we're back on the road and headed to San Fran.

We meander over little used roads in the quiet countryside.

Our hotel in San Fran is perhaps the quirkiest of all, in a trip full of quirky accommodations. The San Remo Hotel is over a hundred years old, and an embarrassment of charm. It's only a short walk from the Wharf, which is Tourist Central.

Did I say charming?

It's not posh, but it's a room and a bed. Done.

This place.

In-N-Out Burger is a magical place where burger dreams are made and consumed. We shall return. Soon. I promise.

It's run time! Today we have a real doozy planned. Not only do we run on vacation--the run IS the vacation.

We break out of the too-touristy Fisherman's Wharf area and head west along the waterfront, views of San Francisco Bay to our right.

So the plan is to run west. And keep running. And keep running. Then run all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. And keep running!

If we make it to the bridge, that will be 7 kms, one way.

Posh homes along Marina Boulevard. I don't even want to know how much these houses go for. OK, I DO want to know, out of morbid curiosity.

We made it! Had to ask for directions how to mount the bridge.

So what do we do now? We run across it, of course!

There is no turning back now!

It's not really golden, is it?

Made it across!

The bridge alone is 2 kms, one way!

Our original plan was to take a taxi back to the hotel. Instead we say, "Screw it," and start running back.

I wonder what's out there. Looks like a resort of some kind.

Our run comes to a stunning conclusion at legendary In-N-Out. We just ran 17 kms. I think we earned these burgers.

I've been waiting YEARS to taste an In-N-Out burger again, and it's darn good. Sadly, Allie is not quite as enraptured as me. She thought it was good, but not DARN good.

 

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We are headed your way!

Any trip to San Fran must begin and end with Alcatraz, the ultimate tourist experience.

We head down to the wharf to kill some time before our Alcatraz trip. We enjoy the sight of the sea lions at Pier 39. Such joyful, smelly creatures

We take the pleasant ferry over to the island, strap on our headsets, and roam the corridors of America's most notorious federal prison. It's crowded, but only just.

Allie does her best Martha Stewart impression. — with Allison Shaw.

The yard. If life was like the movies, this is where the cons would hang out, pump iron, shiv each other, and plan their escape. What they really used this for was for the occasional game of baseball.

Trying one on for size.

The view of the city from Alcatraz. This view is said to have driven the inmates mad, and on a New Years Eve evening, an inmate could hear people partying on the mainland.

 

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Today is time for walking tours. We string together three different tours into one mega tour.

Here we relax in some shade just outside Washington Square Park. Another hot one.

Fifty cents a picture!

We got some fortune cookies too. They were delicious.

All this walking around Chinatown made us HUNGRY for--you guessed it--CHINESE FOOD. We randomly chose this place based on its nice (but not TOO) nice appearance, and the fact that Chinese people were eating there (always important).

Okay, so our tastes aren't all that sophisticated, but we enjoyed the heck out of it!

 

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It's a new day and it's time for another epic run. This time we plan on running all the way to Golden Gate Park (not to be confused with the bridge).

This cityscape says a lot about San Fran.

"Painted Ladies" of San Fran.

We made it to Golden Gate Park, despite the unrelenting heat. It's a massive park, probably on the scale of New York's Central Park, and the twisting paths make it very easy to get lost in. Even with a map, I got us lost a number of times. In fact, half the time, I had no idea where we were!

We ran through half the park, then realized we were completely exhausted, and probably suffering from heat stroke. We needed to cut through this frisbee golf course to escape the park.

Allie recalled seeing a lovely little Italian restaurant near our hotel, so we headed over.

Pescatore turned out to be a delightful yet classy restaurant, perfect for a relaxing evening of slow eating, talking, and sipping wine.

This polenta with tomato sauce and cheese was a revelation. Inspired, I have made a version of this at home twice now.

P.S.: Polenta is super easy to make.

My roasted sea bass. Delish!!!

Why have one desert (tiramisu)...

... when you can have TWO (molten lava cake)?

Pescatore was a lovely way to end off a great visit to San Francisco, despite the heat. It's funny how a lot of the best things on vacations are happy accidents, like this meal. So here's to happy, delicious accidents!

 

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Today it is farewell to San Francisco and the steamy San Remo Hotel. We are off to continue our ride down the Pacific Coast Highway.

Things get pretty very quickly. And it's gorgeous, cool weather to boot.

We stumble on Pigeon Point Lighthouse completely by accident during a butt break.

We stop here for lunch after some very pleasant riding.

The prices here are touristy high, but the food is good. I go with my go-to, fish-and-chips.

I know a lot of these pictures will look familiar to anyone who's done the Pacific Coast drive.

So remember those gas prices way back in Montana? Say hello to special California tourist gas prices!

Does spectacular ever get boring? NO!!!

Butt break.

 

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Look what we found on the beach!

It's an elephant seal. No wait--it's two! So romantic!

This is the Elephant Seal Rookery, near San Simeon. This is a very popular spot to look at the many elephant seals who come here to molt (shed their fur) as part of their yearly migratory pattern. There is even a parking lot for visitors (people, not seals).

This guy looks HAPPY.

Our hotel room for the evening in Cambria is a violent departure from our customary accommodations. This time it's big, beautiful, comfortable and environmentally controlled (i.e.: not boiling hot). We decided to splurge for this one night. It was hard to leave here the next day!

The next day we take a short ride back up the highway to visit William Randolph Hearst's tribute to excess: San Simeon, also known as Hearst Castle. Hearst was a millionaire newspaper magnate. "Citizen Kane" was based on Hearst's life.

Our guide spends a few minutes here going over the front exterior of the castle, explaining how crazy rich people will order expensive stuff from Europe and obsess over every little detail. Sounds a bit like every other home renovation I've heard about.

The main hall. The room is ironically lit by standard incandescent bulbs, which Hearst was fond of.

The dining room, which was usually filled with Hearst's many celebrity friends. The longer you stayed at Hearst Castle, the farther away you were seated from William Hearst.

The library, where it is said that Harpo Marx would perform cartwheels. True fact.

Place for important business meetings.

The Roman Pool, which was heated.