Postcard from Alisha Lockie

U.S.A 2009

I took two months travelling around America.
My travels included California and the West Coast with most times spent in L.A,
San Francisco, the Napa Valley, Yosemite National Park and Las Vegas.

One of my most favourite travel memories ever is waking up in Yosemite and being absolutely gobsmacked by El Capitan and Half-Dome towering over me – and the amazing, fresh, fragrant smells of the trees. We had arrived by train late the previous night and because it is so dark at night we had no idea of the visual feast surrounding us. We camped out at the very basic climbers camp “Camp Four”, in Yosemite and loved every bit.

We hiked up to Upper Yosemite Falls, the view was definitely worth the big
hike! We had to hole up in our tiny, rented tent during a thunderstorm and the sounds of thunder echoing through the valley were unlike anything I’ve heard before, it just felt massive. Yosemite is such a powerful place for reconnecting with nature. Everything about it felt large scale.

Los Angeles was also a great experience. I particularly enjoyed hiking up the Hollywood Hills to the Griffith Observatory – best view of the city. I stayed out in Venice Beach for a couple of nights and hired a beach cruiser bike. I really loved being able to cruise down the beach.

I also took some time out and volunteered on a horse ranch at Santa Rosa, just north of San Francisco in the Napa Valley too. Here I learnt a LOT about manual labour and horses! It was really cool learning/remembering to horse ride and connecting with the outdoors again after the craziness of L.A. We borrowed bikes and rode down to St. Helena, a quaint wee town in the heart of Napa Valley, and did wine tastings and enjoyed the North Cali sunshine.

San Francisco was super fun, my favourite memory hand down is seafood chowder in a sourdough bread bowl…heaven! But walking the same streets as Ken Kesey and Jack Kerouac in Haight Ashbury was a close second.

And then there was Las Vegas – Disneyland for grown ups…a lot of people say you only need a couple of nights here, but I had a week and could have easily done longer! Vegas was crazy, full-on, glitz, glamour and tack…but you can be guaranteed there is always something to see and do, and worst case scenario the sun is shining!

I got the full Vegas experience and attended the authentic Vegas style wedding of a family member, complete with a serenade by Elvis. The Hens do at Lavo in the Palazzo was also a night to remember…or to forget! We started the night in the MGM Grand’s Skyloft apartments, complete with private butler, and then caught the Crazy Horse Paris show. After that we moved on to our V.I.P booth at Lavo (Kim K had her 30th here).

View from Griffith Observatory, LA                                                   Santa Rosa ranch 

Yosemite Falls hike