I woke up Saturday 2 hours before anyone else, so just pottered about packing some last bits, then when everyone else got up we loaded the car and headed out for breakfast/lunch at a local Rubio's (The Mexican place we had in Arizona) As we had a couple of hours spare we thought as it was close we would head to Venice beach. Big mistake! It was heaving, we couldn't even get near to it, let alone park, and the petrol light came on - Could we find a petrol station - No! Eventually found one - stuck $5 (£2.50!!) in [View Full Entry]

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Not really a shock, but didn't sleep that well last night - May have something to do with the ghosts, or the fact it was really hot, or the fact we only had one double and one single bed - So myself, Nige and Joe were squeezed into the double. Before we left the Queen Mary, I had to get one of the ice creams I had last year - I was devastated when we got there and the shop was closed. We nosed round a few other shops and by the time we were ready to leave it was open. [View Full Entry]

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We left an hour and a half behind our planned schedule today, bloody alarm! We continued on Route 101 through towns/cities such as Guadalupe, Santa Barbara and Ventura then into Hollywood. No sooner had we parked we were jumped on by people trying to sell us the tours. Joe and mum wanted to do this anyway, so we bartered for a price and booked them on one that left almost immediately. Myself and Nige unsurprisingly went and waited in a bar! We had a few drinks then made our way back to meet them, they both really enjoyed it. We soon [View Full Entry]

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Now sing the title to the tune of 12 days of Christmas....! Crap I know but amused us...!! We thought we would have breakfast at our hotel this morning before we left as we had a 50% off voucher, glad we waited till the last day, it was pretty mediocre really - (Excuse the arrogance, have got used to being spoilt with all this American food!) We hadn't even driven out the car park and came across our first bit of 'road rage' over here. To be fair we was blocking the exit but only for all off about 30 seconds. [View Full Entry]

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We concluded our stay of San Francisco by completing our Wharf Pass tours. We got back on the open top bus tour and took the hour ride round to China Town, We took a slow walk in and out the shops, then concentrated on picking a restaurant for lunch, We picked the Four Seas. They brought the Dim Sum out for us to choose from and obviously with the language barrier in China Town it was hard to know what they were offering us, we just picked what looked good - and it was. Most definitely beats the chinese we had [View Full Entry]

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We started our first full day in San Francisco by collecting our Wharf Passes. These are a little booklet of San Francisco attractions that are paired up making five tours - then you pick the ones that appeals to you, there are 10 to choose from. So first up was the San Francisco city sight-seeing open top bus tour(Christ, that's a mouthful!!). Valid for 48hrs. Just like any other city tour you can hop on or off at certain points or just stay on for the duration. It took us passed the Transamerican building (tallest in San Francisco) round the shopping [View Full Entry]

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We left Mammoth Lakes at 6:45am, and it was just like waking up on Sheppey - A bit cold and dew on the ground but a lot more picturesque. There is no direct route from here to San Francisco and in fact the 'quicker' route is through 'Yosemite National Park' We knew they have had fires here recently so were prepared for a less scenic drive. As we approached the temperature began to drop and about 20 minutes into the park it was at below freezing at 36F! There was us in our shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops and literally everyone else [View Full Entry]

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Before we left Vegas, we had a quick bet for Joe - $20 on roulette, he came away with $10. Then we had the task of trying to get everything in the car - Oh yeah did I forget to mention we bought a suitcase?! Luckily 10 minutes later we were on our way, with the boot absolutely jam packed. We programmed our next hotel into the TomTom - 8 hours it said. A few sighs and and we were off! We passed through some near derelict towns, and some really pretty ones. There were a few scary moments like last [View Full Entry]

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Shocked ourselves today - only had 5 hours sleep, Up bright and early and had a quick gamble then took another walk up the strip (Joe stayed in the room on the internet!) Viewed Harrah’s, Casino Royale and then the MGM - My favourite! Went to see the lions, and then spent an hour or so in there gambling. We got the monorail back to save my mum’s legs! She decided to go back to the room for a sleep so myself and Nige played Roulette for a couple of hours won a little bit - Lucky number 2..! So went [View Full Entry]

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We made the 3 hr car journey to the hoover dam by 10am, parked up and took a walk around, even managing somehow to lose my mum at one point - but that’s another story! It was so hot here all 4 of us were literally soaked through - Not a nice sight. For some obscure reason we got back in the car and decided to put the roof down (making us ten times hotter). Shortly after this a light appeared on our dash, and with our knowledge of cars (the manual) we discovered it meant ‘take your car to a [View Full Entry]

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