25 November 2007
San Francisco
Started the morning at Golden Gate Bridge to take a few tourist photos then headed back to Fishermans Wharf with the intention of visiting Alchatraz Prison- only to discover that there were no tickets left. Instead we headed upto Castro (gay village) for a coffee. Following that we then headed up to Lombard St which is reputed to be the windiest Street in the world for mpore tourist photos. The evening was spent in China Town where we feated on ymmy steamed buns and noodles.
26 November 2007
Yosemite
Having had our fill of the City we next headed off to Yosemite for a bit of outdoor adventure and met a great bunch of people there. The afternoon activity was mountain biking down a mountain. Having not ridden a bike for twenty years and having seen the sheer drops I opted out.
The evening was spent in the lodge with yummy homecooked food and a beer followed by a trip to the amazing spa they had on the site.
27 November
Yosemite
Oh dear - didn't realise what we had let ourselves in for when we signed up for a full day of treking in Yosemite National Park. The first trek was to El Capitan mountain which nearly killed me! The second trek was to the half dome which just about finished me off. Being very unfit and suffering from altitude sickness meant I only made it half way - hopefully it will be easier when we get to NZ.Fortunatley the third trek was easier and very impressive through the Sequoia trees some of which were 2500yrs old although I am told they can get as old as 3000yrs!!! I was grateful for another evening in the spa!
28 November 2007
Las Vegas
What a journey from hell!! Sitting around at the Greyhound Station the bus turned up 1 hour late - apparantly some kid had overdosed on the bus earlier causing it to be late. The bus driver was a Hitler wannabe and we were told that we were not allowed to talk on the bus or we would be kicked off of the bus! To top things off I was sitting opposite the most scariest man I have ever met. I soon discovered that he had just been let out of prison that afternoon and had jumped straight onto our bus. Fortunately some guy who had also been inside sat next to him and I got to listen in to their stories of "homies getting knived in the yard"
29 November 2007
Las Vegas
Spent the day checking out the hotel casinos.
30 November 2007
Las Vegas / Grand Canyon
Early start with a wake up call at 5.00AM. Our tour to the Grand Canyon started well with a free upgrade to the west rim of the Canyon due to 19 people not making it. The scenery on route was stunning and we got to see the Hoover DAm and the Joshua Tree National Park, Unfortunately just before we arrived at the Canyon it started to rain. We were told by our driver that it only rains here 10 times a year and rarely for more than 15 mins. 2 hours and stuck at the top of the Canyon the rain showed no sign of clearing up and to make matters worse a really thick fog descended meaning that we had zero viability of the canyon. To make things worse I happened to overhear a worker at the Canyon mention to a fellow collegue that she was surprised that they were still allowing tourists up at the canyon as one wrong turn on the bus would plunge it down in to the canyon! We were grateful to arrive back in Vegas in one piece!!
Having had a realtively unlucky day, we decided to try our luck in the casino. Jule manged to win $33.75 on the slot machines without even putting any money in ???? We bored quickly of the slot machines and headed upstairs where we discovereda race horse game similar to those at Blasckpool, where you have to roll the balls into differetn coloured holes to move the horse. Jules won a seal and I won a tiger who I have named Dave as everyone round here has that name.
1 December 2007
Santa Monica
For our last leg of our US trip we decided to head back to the beach to chill out before we head off to the Cook Islands on the 2nd.
