Hooray for Hollywood...What's your dream?

So last day of our tour and we spent it seeing LA - good job too as it's a bitch to get around on your own as we found out on the first day! The weather was a little chilly to start but soon brightened up though it was extremely foggy. We stopped at Santa Barbara first, which you could hardly see due to the fog! But I'm sure it was lovely!! We went for a walk on the pier but couldn't exactly see the view! Though i did step in dog poo - booooo, why can't people pick up after their dog!















We then made out way through Santa Maria and Malibu before entering Santa Monica for lunch. We did go past some lovely houses - massive mansions when you can only really see the entry gates, but we get the impression they would have been nice - including Cher's house though my pictures doesn't do it justice as it looks like I've taken it of her shed! Ron was driving too fast for my camera!! We also went past the actual Baywatch beach where it was filmed but our first stop at Venice beach better suited Baywatch than this one.

Since we'd been to Santa Monica on our first day trying to get somewhere we didn't go on the pier with the others but hit the shops. We found an awesome shop, Forever 21, which we have since found out is coming to Europe in 2010 - fab. We got so caught up in the shopping area, which i might like to add was no smoking ever though it was a street, that we thought we were going to be late so grabbed a McD's on the run!

We then saw how the other half live - and boy how do they live in Beverley Hills. The posh shops, fancy houses, we also went passed the Beverley Wiltshire where Richard Gere stayed in Pretty Woman, what's your dream? Mine would be to have enough money to live here! We made our way to Hollywood where we saw the Viper Room - Johnny Depp's club that River Phoenix died outside of. Yet another morbid sight on our travels!















We started to take a trot down the Walk of Fame until we came to a stop as they had shut the street due to a premiere! Typical! We didn't see anyone famous - except Superman, but the red carpet was out ready! Hollywood is not what you'd expect. Beverley Hills definitely is as it is very glam but Hollywood is not glam at all. If anything its a bit of a let down considering how much Hollywood and the movie industry is worth.















We got back to the hotel and everyone was a little glum - except the two going back to Vegas, wish that was us! You always feel rubbish when you know you have to go home - wherever you have been. We went for our last meal back to Islands, where ironically the waitress remembered us! Must have made an impression - just like our trip had made on us! Oh well back to reality and ready to plan the next holiday!!!

Chillaxing in Carmel

Quieter day today - time to chillax a little. We make our way through loads of agricultural land, which turns out they flatten the land with lasers as it turns out it's not naturally flat, towards Monterey. We did find out this morning form Kurt the other guide that during our 2 days in San Francisco there was 2 earthquakes! Luckily they were only 2.2ish on the Richter scale and we couldn't feel them, so no panic or need for the emergency earthquake kits we've seen in the shops.

Fisherman's Wharf at Monterey was our first stop - it was that early they were only just setting up on the pier - i was in stitches when Mark our guide was waving and saying hello to a sea otter! It was so funny i was almost in tears. To begin with i couldn't even see what he was looking at as the seals and otters looked like rocks on the shore! Oh well, back on the road down to the world famous Cannery Row. This is where all the sardines from the bay used to be canned, it's quite a cute place really. John Steinbeck wrote books based here - I'm sure it was Of Mice and Men he wrote. Anyway we continued down the coast, where we saw a dead shark, then into Carmel.











A very odd town, extremely posh, randomly had a Tiffany's and Louis Vuitton there and rules on how to behave in the shopping area. Clearly a place where the men go off to work and the town is for ladies who lunch! Need to find me a sugar daddy, haha.

Final stop of the day after driving down the freeway that James Dean died on was Pismo Beach. Morbid i know but our guide likes to tell us all!! Tea at a Japanese Sushi restaurant was nice - they had hot plates where the chefs cooked it in front of you - one of them got a little eager tossing his spatula around, but all good fun and the beef teriyaki was fab. Back to LA tomorrow, boooo that means we are near the end of our tour :(

Escaped from Alcatraz!!!

Very excited - I'm off to prison! After getting our trolley down to the pier we boarded our boat to Alcatraz. A very harsh environment there, on one side of the island it overlooks the bay and the view of San Francisco. In a way it reminded me of Ellis Island in New York where the immigrants looked out to the Statue of Liberty. The audio tour is excellent with the ex prisoners and guards narrating your tour as well as background noises that at times freaked you out a little - like when they talked about the riots and escape attempts. The story of the 3 that did escape by making masks out of soap, paint, cement and hair was amazing and you have to give them a little credit for their creativity! The cells were tiny and depending which block you were in there was very little natural light.













Stories of this prison are really interesting from the guards, families that lived there but especially the prisoners. We had the advantage of leaving prison when we so wished! So off we went on the boat to the mainland to get clam chowder, mmmmmm.

As most of our day was spent in prison we ended the time we had left in San Francisco shopping at Union Square. At least the weather picked up today and wasn't anywhere as near as foggy, windy or cold!











I think i have now succeeded in seeing all major attractions in San Francisco from my two visits! Yay!

San Fran Foggy!

Before we knew it this morning we were travelling over the Oakland Bay Bridge and entering San Francisco - all before 9.30am! Turns out they are trying to make the first section of the bridge earthquake proof so they have rebuilt it and are going to move the rest of the bridge over to join the new section over the labour weekend. Moving a bridge in 3-5 days - is that really going to happen? We'll see!

Ron then drove us on a tour round the San Fran neighbourhoods. We saw some lovely Victorian houses, which they call painted ladies (we'd use that term for something else), went up Twin Peaks to look at the very fogy view of the city and also around the Castro district. I was glad we went round there as didn't get the opportunity to last time i was in the city, since we found out so much about it in lectures it's always nice to see for yourself.











Golden Gate Park was our first stop. We had time for a stroll around, in the cold i might add, saw the Japanese Tea Garden, Sarah 'walked like a man' through the centre of the square before making our way down to Golden Gate Bridge.

As ever the fog was still strong and you could see the glimmer of international orange through the mist. Whilst some walked across the bridge then went for lunch, we all went down to Pier 39 and had a few hours to potter about. Windy it was!











After fresh fish and chips we found a great left handers shop! Sarah was not amused! It was well good, full of gadgets, the guy in there said that in the US only about 10% of lefties are female - don't know how true that is - he also said that I'm losing my London accent, sounding a little like i was from Newcastle! He advised i visit London more often to not lose it completely, how sweet. We saw the sea lions and gazed across the bay to Alcatraz which we are visiting tomorrow.











Turns out our guide was telling us on the way to the hotel that the guy who hides behind the bush and jumps out on people was arrested as one person took it that badly and called the cops - I thought he was a homeless person - didn't realise he does it all the time, he scared the living daylights out of me the last time i was here!

Very excited as went to Bubba Gumps for dinner, overlooking he bay when the sun went down with a great night view of Alcatraz. The shrimp was lovely - as was our server, Luke. We had split a fab pudding of a giant chocolate chip cookie sundae, mmmmmm. Turns our Luke was also a leftie - maybe it was meant to be! To top our night off - aside from the 2 hour chat in reception with some of the others when we got back - another city, another free public transport ride! Though this time it wasn't out of pity - the trolley's pay thing had broken! Oh well!!

Yosemite - living in a picture

My my this morning is fresh in comparison to where we have been! Stop one, Tioga Lake on the way to Yosemite. Very nice, you can do ice climbing here in winter which looked cool. As yet we still have not seen a bear on bear watch!

We then continued to Yosemite national park - the mountains here are spectacular. We stopped at Olmsted Point, named after the guy who designed Central Park - i thought i recognised the name from when we studied it at uni. Our second stop was Tunnel Point or also called Inspiration Point - from here you could see a stunning view of Mount El Capitan which is famous for climbing - apparently the fastest climb time was 2.49 hours! That is crazily quick - it takes me like an hour to get up 5m! The slowest were a French group taking 2 and a half months but apparently they just did it to get into the Guinness Book of Records. The view was amazing, like you were looking at a picture.











The visitors centre at Yosemite was a completely different picture to the places we had already stopped - Japanese tourists everywhere! At one point Sarah turned around and couldn't find me as i was lost in a sea of Japanese! But as our charismatic driver Ron said ' that is why God gave us elbows - to get them out of the way as they hunt in packs!' He doesn't say much Ron but when he does it is very funny. Bear watch update - still 0 but squirrel watch was 10+. They were everywhere.

Tonight we are staying in Modesto - meaning modest in Spanish - turns out this is the home town of George Lucas! We went for a delicious meal, i had the Thai chicken mmmmmm, and the waitress gave us our desert for free as she forgot about us! Awesome! Though for the life of me i couldn't remember what cilantro was - remember now its coriander! Anyway turns out they have MSNBC on the TV here which has Lock Up on all night - brilliant, easy watching before the 6am wake up call tomorrow! Bear watch - still 0.

Bye bye Vegas, Vegas bye byeeeeeeee

Booooo the day started leaving Vegas - we were not amused and at having only 5 hours sleep! And in our grand plan we did everything bar see hot Josh from Las Vegas Uncut and Uncensored - booooo. But back on the road we must go! First stop - Death Valley. We stopped at a number of points - all of which were mentally hot - over 121 degrees F at the height of the day. The scenery was magnificent though, each part was different, hilly, desert like, green, sand dunes etc. At one place Sarah commented that the rocks looked like marble cake - it really did!











It was so hot that we spent most of the day sitting with the air con whacked up!! What a difference when we reached Mammoth Lakes. We passed the Alabama Hills and the Sierra Nevada mountains on the way which were spectacular - highest peak being Mount Whitney.

This resort is well into the mountains - where we are staying at Mammoth Mountain Inn is 9000m above sea level. What a difference, we thought it was freezing when it was only 77 degrees F! This place is beautiful with pines all around and surrounded by ski lifts but no snow! It does look a bit odd but it would make a great place to ski. The only thing we are slightly concerned about is the threat of bears - everywhere you turn there are signs about being bear aware! Definitely not something I'd want to come across on a dark night in the mountains. Or even a big black dog like before when it is that quiet out there! At last we have had a taste of a ski resort ready for the next holiday!!

Viva Las Vegas!!!

Well since there is so much to do in Vegas and time is not to be wasted i am now reflecting back on what happened over the last two days. But...as they say...what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, so I'm obviously limited as to what i can say!

Prior to entering Vegas we stopped at Zion National Park, another stunning area of natural beauty. Massive mountains with lovely colours and amazing rock patterns like the checkerboard - I won't bore you with the geography of how it got like that!! We stopped for a lovely lunch in the park before moving onto Vegas. No word of a lie we honestly thought we saw a bear!! This big brown looking bear was on the side of the road looking at getting to a dead rabbit! It ended up being a huge dog but seriously it looked like a bear!











We reached Vegas mid afternoon where we checked into Circus Circus and then hit the strip!!! We thought we'd take a poodle along the strip but it was more like a sweaty limper!!! We looked like we were going to pass out! We had a grand plan for the two days in Vegas which consisted of:
- visiting Krispy Kreme
- Easting at the Bahama Breeze
- Abercrombie and Fitch
- Seeing a show on the strip
- Have a little flutter
- Have cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory
- Enjoy some frozen alcoholic beverages
- Seeing hot Josh from Las Vegas the programme
At this point when we actually returned to Circus Circus all we achieved was getting a Krispy Kreme!! But they are very nice doughnuts!! Sooo we then thought we'd get ready and go out for dinner. We had a very nice valet, who would fit in well in the programme Las Vegas, working with Mike, who got us our taxi to Bahama Breeze - food was lovely. We then bought our gift shop crap and our frozen alcoholic beverages so things in the grand plan were looking up! Time now for a flutter - well our style which means 1c slot machines - but still we were gambling in Vegas!!! I bet $1, didn't have a clue what i was doing other than pulling the lever and somehow managed to win 25+ free turns and ended up winning $4!!!! Needless to say i was very excited, before we knew it it was 1am! I decided to save collecting my winnings for the next day!!

























Vegas day 2 we were up and about early (well not as early as our normal wake up calls) to get to the half price theatre ticket booth. So we were there armed with our Krispy Kreme dying of heat at 9.30am under a giant yellow umbrella. About an hour later we were successfully holding our tickets to Jersey Boys. Yay - another item to tick off the grand plan list!! We were very excited as the people in the queue were raving about it - one lady had seen it 4 times! Now the shops were calling! Fashion Show Mall is bigger than you think but i did get some awesome clothes in Abercrombie and Fitch - that shop is definitely the best smelling shop i've been in! By the time we came out of there and then went down to NY NY for lunch it was time to make our way back to Circus Circus to get ready for the night. Things take longer than you think because it is so hot!











Glad rags on we were off to the theatre to see Jersey Boys. The show was at the Palazzo so it wasn't right at the other end of the strip, which was lucky as the deuce bus was sooo busy! We took our seats and had an amazing view - second row on the balcony and could see everything. The show was about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons - how they got together through to the end and it was brilliant. We didn't realise they sang so many songs that we knew. The actors were amazing as was their singing, they proper draw you in and makes you forget where you are. The character of Tommy DeVito was very arrogant but extremely likeable - as was the actor playing him who was hot and sang brilliantly, especially one of the filler songs Earth Angel. I lone that song! Even in Back to the Future it was great! The guy who played Frankie Valli had an amazing voice - to get up that high - fantastic singing. You end up loving all the characters even though they had bad boy days and then you remember it's actually a true story! Can see why that lady saw it 4 times.

We left the Palazzo all giddy, singing and headed down the strip to Caesars Palace for cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory - best cheesecake ever, seriously. This evening was brilliant and topped off our two days in Vegas nicely. Will have to download the soundtrack when we get home - relive the magic. To quote the Four Seasons, Oh What a Night or Ces Soirees-La. I love Vegas and will be definitely coming back again!!!

Wild Wild West...

Off we set again on the open road from Page. First stop, Glen Canyon. It was very similar to the Hoover Dam, massive concrete dam across Lake Powell. Turns out Mr Powell explored the natural river and named the features he saw. Glen Canyon was the most beautiful so he named it after his best friend - ahhhh. Later they built the dam and flooded Glen's canyon - apparently rumour has it he would be turning in his grave if he found out they named the lake after him! Too right too!!

On we went to Red Canyon - everywhere you turn in this area you are surrounded by stunning natural landforms and Red Canyon was no exception.











We then went Rollin Rollin Rollin into Kanab, the little Hollywood, where a lot of the old western movies were made, including The Lone Ranger. Off we headed into an actual old movie set to make our own movie - yes you heard correctly! Everyone was given a character and off we went to shoot our scenes. We were Indians! The general plot was that some wild coyotes roamed and scared the town. A couple came out to do their day to day business and were attacked by Indians (us - we had to do an Indian dance) who were chased off by cowboy type people. Then some showgirls were drinking in a saloon and got hassled by a bad cowboy. The good cowboy came - they had a shootout and the bad cowboy was chased out of town - all on wooden horses! It was called 'How the West was Lost'. It was awesome to do and so funny - this guy on our trip made a brilliant good cowboy! We then had a cookout - oh my god the food was fab - a brisket with bbq sauce and traditional lemonade - it was soooooo nice. After, everyone was quite giddy, thigh slapping, shouting yehaaaa.











We then headed onto where we were staying for the night in Bryce then onto Bryce Canyon. We stopped at a number of points, Bryce, Inspiration and Sunset points, all of which were spectacular. Yet another breathtaking place that words can not do justice to. The hoodoos definitely cast a magic spell over those that visit, they are amazing. We walked along the rim from 8300m down to 8000m and the colours in the rock are beautiful. Yet again i went rock collecting.











We spent the night in Bryce - a very quaint western looking town staying at Ruby's Inn - kind of like a motel, very road trip! Next stop...VEGAS!!!