The G&P June 2011 US/Mexico Road Trip

[Beatle]

enjoy the road trip ..hope u always find the internets for pics..

[Chris]

@Madame:

I love how the Defenestration is a "hoppy" beer.  Terrible pun, but it amuses me nonetheless.

@Giles:

And here is proof that not all Mexican beers are watery yellow swill. coughCoronacough

Have fun tomorrow in Yosemite!

[that_was_easy]

Welcome to the Great Californian Bathtub, G and P.

I hope you escape without third degree burns, cause it be TOASTY up in here.

[hectic]

Any chance of a egg cooked on a hot stone in Death Valley?

[Winchy]

So many cool pics! Looks like you're having a blast.

Cya both when you return; please try to bring the sun back to England with you…..

[Finn666]

@Giles:

I decided to stop the questions…...

perfect answers to all the silly questions…i actually thought of sth. else as i saw the pic where kat did his work and haven`t heard of the other fact, so this is the real deal imo...

great pics and meetup yall...and first time i get to see a little smile on petes face

[Seul]

We love the names of the Belgian style beers:  they have a note on one of the boards that another beer, Procrastination, is coming soon - G and I thought it was a joke but K&D assure us it's a real beer.

[Blackheart]

Fun pics, glad to see you're enjoying your trip here! We're still socked in with June Gloom here so I'm happy
to see that you've found some sunshine. Miss you guys!

[Madame Buttonfly]

Yes, we have certainly found some sunshine.  We set off early this morning to get a few hours in Yosemite National Park - way too little time really but I still feel very privileged to have seen what we did, the scenery is SPECTACULAR.  The place deserves several days at least, and we'd love to go back and do some hiking there.  The weather was fabulous - sunny, clear and warm without being too hot (although now we've arrived in Lone Pine, just west of the Death Valley National Park it's a lot hotter, around 100 deg F).

So now G and I will both bore you with loads of Yosemite pix (lots of them of the same view), and his will no doubt be better than mine but here's a few to start with.

Just entered the park and driving towards the main valley:

The big waterfall from across the river:

Bit closer:

El Capitan, the largest lump of granite on our planet, no way to show scale here but I believe G has some pix of climbers (AKA nutters):

Random waterfall on drive east across the park:

View of famous "Half Dome" in the distance:

Giles looking pensive in front of beautiful lake:

[Giles]

I'll get a few more pics up later, but it is beer o'clock in Lone Pine CA.

I used to be a rock climber in my teens and one of my teenage ambitions was to climb El Capitan.  So going to Yosemite today and seeing the rock was something special.

I don't know what they put in the tea at school, but seeing El Capitan in person made me re-address that particular ambition.

Holy Feck

There are 2 climbers half way up there (I promise)

In the red square are 3 climbers who look like they are in the process of hauling stuff up

And to give you a sense of scale, this is the red square super zoomed

[jacoavlu]

Thanks for the pics G&P
Glad you're enjoying the travels

[Katsushin]

Looks like a blast!
I always take for granted how amazing California is…

Had such a great time the other night, I feel bad for not posting to thank you sooner, but I think my hangover is just clearing up...   They may have Iron Hearts, but those Padmores certainly seem to have Iron Livers as well!

It was great to meet Pete and Arrow (fellow Asian IH wearing reggae lovers) and see Lando again (and a special thanks to Lando for rolling with me on a late night burrito mission).  Couldn't ask for a cooler group of folks, serious family type vibe.

Look forward to doing it again!

P.S.  Thanks for not posting the pic when my pants came off in the bar (seriously, wasn't pretty)........

[Beatle]

beautiful..ur gonna wish u had more days

[Finn666]

wow…now that`s what i call a perfect view, perfect waterfall and a bigass El Capitan...any infos on how high it actually is?...

[jimmy]

Damn that's a biiiiiiiiig rock

[Giles]

Vertical height is 3,000 feet (910 m)…

[Madame Buttonfly]

@Katsushin:

Had such a great time the other night, I feel bad for not posting to thank you sooner, but I think my hangover is just clearing up…   They may have Iron Hearts, but those Padmores certainly seem to have Iron Livers as well!

Kat, it was wonderful to meet you, too.  And I can assure we were both suffering on Wednesday morning, not a lot of chat in the car on the ride out of San Francisco!  Thanks for texting the recommendation for The Priest bar near Groveland for Wednesday evening, I have to admit that we didn't make it… so maybe our livers are softer than we think...

[Madame Buttonfly]

Stayed at the Dow Villa Motel in Lone Pine last night, I wish we didn't have to leave town so soon - place is amazing, a genuine old American motel which used to house stars of the old Wild West movies (John Wayne, William Boyd, Roy Rogers, Stewart Granger, Errol Flynn, Robert Mitchum and Clayton Moore to mention a few).  At 8:30 am it must be 90 degrees outside overlooking the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada.  Off now to take a quick, closer look at Mount Whitney then heading East across Death Valley to Las Vegas - we've got a wedding to get to!

Jake's Saloon where had a couple of beers last night:

Inside Jake's Saloon:

Picture in motel room:

This morning's view from motel room:

[Giles]

More pic overload, sorry…..

Yesterday.

Looking up Yosemite valley

Super duper waterfall

The one and only El Capitan

Tumbling river

Yosemite Falls

Yey another waterfall

At about 9000 feet, there was quite a lot of snow still around

Mme B and lake

I got out of the car here to take this photo and saw a bunch of Marmots, Mme B didn't (she stayed in the car saying it was too cold to get out)

[madmonday]

thanks for all the photos.

feel like i'm riding in the backseat with you all.