The last day in the US of A

Hey guys, that's us at the end of our US of A tour and what a blast its been. The last couple of days we've spent walking along the beaches of LA, browsing the hippy shops of Venice Beach and pulling all kinds of Baywatch manouvres along the golden sands. We also took another road trip down to San Diego to catch up with my god-brother Gavin and family. Met Maddie & Elle for the first time - his little girls, and they are sooooo cute. Got in some practice for looking after my up-and-coming role as Aunty. We had a few beers (vodka for me - still can't get a taste for the ale) and caught up on old times, new times and all times. It was a great night - and a very tiring one too. We were out for the count! We did manage to squeeze in a few sights round San Diego before we headed back to LA - including the World Famous San Diego Zoo. Now i swear someone told me there was a two-headed snake there but much to my disappointment there wasn't. Just your regular snakes, venom and all. Made sure we checked where they all lived - incase we meet a few round the world - eeeek! Saw hundreds of animals, big and small but of course, as always, the monkeys and gorillas were my favourite. I don't know what it is, perhaps we have something in common :-) Hmmmmm. Anyways then it was back to LA down the I-15, via a drive-thru McDonalds - it had to happen in the US of A, and a wind storm which was pretty scary. Kim kept her cool tho and got us down the freeway to the Travel Lodge - our first motel. He!he! And that my bloggers is the end of our trip to California. I will post some pictures soon (i have 100's) but unfortuantely this internet cafe doesn't have the links to do it. Hey, i got three weeks in Fiji to blog - not like i'll be sunbathing he!he!

More San Fran

So i'm not too sure where i got to last time due to the fact i can't view multiple screens but i'll pick up from the bike ride and hope i've not left too much out. In summary the bike ride was...painful. Exhilerating. Scenic. A struggle. All of those in one 6 hour bike trip (of which we cycled for about 3-4)! Where there were hills i cried, where there were views i snapped away like the tourist i am. And where there were steep downhill slopes i laughed and screamed so loud i swear a little pee came out (he!he!). Golden Gate Bridge is not as big as i thought but very pretty. And a windy struggle to cycle across. And once we got across to Sausalito on the other side, grabbed a coffee and some tacky postcards it was a quick ferry ride and a cycle dash back to the Pier to drop our bikes off. Since then we've also been to Lombard Street - the windy one you see on the postcards, and Union Square when all the Christmas lights came on. We also met up with Top Gun Ian from Glasgow and had our first big night out, followed by our first painful hangover. And that brings me up to speed as i type away. I would write more but our usual internet cafe is closed and i'm not so sure about this one (lots of bums around). So i'll say bye for now and post some more back in LA. Love ya x

San Fran

Its a little bit chillier here than i liked but makes hiking around a lot more bearable. After checking in on the first night and wondering what the hell we'd gotten ourselves into we've warmed to our crazy rooms and the shared bathrooms. Plus we've found we're near everything...union sq is up the road (tiffany's, Macy's, all those evil shops we can't afford - though i did get some diesel pumps with the girls money - thanks girls!), Pier 39 is down the road (which we travelled to by tram last night - hilarious!). Headed to Hard Rock cafe for some grub last night, bypassing the very noisy sea lions again. More cocktails and food...who would think we were travellers when the bill comes!?! Today we're off to hire bikes and cycle across the Golden Gate bridge. We're so fitness orientated its scary. Not long till thanksgiving and a big turkey dinner - yum!

LA & Road trip

Wow LA is one spread out, crazy city. Having walked for hours along Sunset Boulevard in 80 degree heat we got ourselves to Hollywood Boulevard, the Kodak Theatre and the street of stars. If you have a spare $1700 you can get your own. Think i'll settle for a magnetic version for the fridge :-)
Decided to hitch a ride with LA tours to the Hollywood Hills and Mulholland Drive to see if we could spot some of the celebrities for real. No luck but we did see the gates to their very impressive houses and what magnificent gates they were (if you like that sort of thing!). Actually, i can't lie the tour was really good (and relief to my blistered feet) especially as out guide was such a hoot and give us inside goss on the celebs. Even got up close to Matt LeBlanc's house you could see the curtains! And on route through the Beverley Hills and Rodeo Drive we even got a glimpse of the infamous toilet where the naughty George Michael got caught short...and the nearby police station where he spent the night! Jeez we're such tourists (or stalkers).
Our last night in LA (till next week) was spent at a Ranch style hangout. Huge portions, even bigger cocktails. With a combination of vodka, triple sec, gin, tequila, rum etc... it was a funny walk back down the hill to our colourful hotel.
Early start in the morning (6am!) and we finally tracked down a car for our road trip. Thanks to Laura, Kim's & Sharons fantastic driving we made it to San Francisco via Malibu, Santa Barbara and Victoria. Oh and some scary mountain and cliff edges on route 1/route 101. I can't take any credit - I just sat in the back like Miss Daisy taking in the views on the camcorder (someone's gotta do it, right?).
And now we're in the French Quarters of San Francisco. Our hotel is super crazy but loveable, once you get over the uniqueness. I hope to post some pictures this week so you can see what i'm talking about. We're still to explore San Francisco having spent the last hour in this internet cafe next door trying to find out all the goss from back home. Like who got kicked out of X-Factor? ha!ha!

Living in America

Hi guys.I'm a little underpressure here with the minutes counting down but just wanted to post a quick blog to say so far,so good. Seemed to take days to get here but it was only 12 hours...and five movies! Just bumming it around LA at the mo and the walking is killing me! You wanna see the blisters! Off to San Fran tomorrow where i hope to have more time to post a better -and bigger,blog and tell you about all the fab things we've seen so far. Until then...