The alarm went off rather early this morning for our last full day in San Fran. We had a tour booked with Extranomical Tours...a small company that only takes 12 people max on a variety of tours. We decided on the Muir Woods and Winery tour...it was only $25 more than the other tour, that just took in the woods...and Iz did drink a fair share of wine today! Our first stop on the tour was the Muir Woods, a forest full of 1000 year old, giant Redwoods. It was so serene walking around the sunlit paths, amongst these tall [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today started out with a sleep in and a late breakfast at 10am. The plan for today was to check out some of the architecture in San Fran and walk around the Golden Gate Park. The first stop was a tram change at Castro, the homosexual capital of USA - note the rainbow flags! Our second stop was Alamo Square to check out the most photgraphed street in world... apparently. It's known as Postcard Row. The houses are pretty cool. There are dozens of these style houses around San Fran, which is quite amazing considering most of the city was [View Full Entry]

---

---

This morning started like any other ordinary day...first of all I managed to block the sink when I poured my leftover cereal down the plug hole. Izzy then tried to unbock the sink, and pulled off one of the pipes (by accident). He kept saying, 'I'm an engineer, I know what I'm doing Chelle', and I kept saying, 'If you touch one more thing Iz, I'm calling reception!' Water was flowing onto the floor at this stage, and I was worried about the imminent plumbing bill. Izzy did touch one more thing, so I got on the phone, and we [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today was spent cruising the bay at San Fran checking out Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge. The day started with the watch alarm buzzing at 6:45 in the morning - it's sad I know, but we have been sleeping in till 8ish lately! We grabbed a quick bite and caught a couple of trams to Pier 33 for our cruise to Alcatraz - leaving at 9:30. Turns out that the trip to the pier was a bit quicker than we thought. We rocked up at about 7:50 and had to gate crash a cafe that wasn't going to open [View Full Entry]

---

---

D Day...ie: Drama Day. Today was filled with it. Our stay in LA was great, but as we waited patiently for our Super Shuttle to collect us from the hotel, and take us to the airport, the minutes ticked by... and the shuttle didn't show. At 9:15, I decided to check out what was going on...LUCKY! The company didn't even have our booking! The next shuttle couldn't collect us until 9:50, which didn't leave us a huge amount of time to catch our 12:00pm flight from LAX. We continued to wait patiently, and thankfully, a shuttle DID arrive. The driver [View Full Entry]

---

---

Izzy and I made sure that our last day in LA was a memorable one, by realising that our camera had NO POWER as we exited the metro red line....GREAT!! I wanted to get a photo of the escalator out of the metro...it soared into the air at a very steep angle and would have been a fantastic photo. But after my short disappointment, we headed on to our first stop...Downtown LA and the Grand Central Market. We had both skipped breakie this morning, as we woke up late, and after speaking to the oldies via Skype, there were only [View Full Entry]

---

---

Or was it just smoggy one moment, not so smoggy the next? Today started out pretty dodgy with a complimentary 'Continental' breakfast (bagels or croissants with butter or cream cheese and fruit juice..... and that's it!) The plan for today was to slip down to Muscle Beach - check out the wild life, duck over to the La Brea Tar Pits - try not to 'stick' around for too long, and then cruise over to Beverly Hills for some pretend shopping. Well, after the hearty breakfast, we caught the bus to Venice beach and walked to Muscle beach. The idea [View Full Entry]

---

---

G'day G'day! Today we've experienced the bright lights of Hollywood...well, more like smoggy lights. We did get a quick glimpse of the famous sign on our way into LA from Anaheim...and Michael Moore was right...you can hardly see it due to all the pollution. This would have to be one of the smoggiest towns we've been to...and we haven't been to many yet, but we've still had a good day. It has been difficult adjusting to a normal sleeping routine...as I type, Iz is lying in bed asleep beside me. It's 8:18pm, and he's been out for about 1 and [View Full Entry]

---

---

Tonight is our last night in Anaheim, and we've had loads of fun at the theme parks. Yesterday wasn't as crazy as we thought it would be, and we managed to get through most of Disney, except for a few rides. It was a very hot day, and I'm now wishing I had packed a few white tops, and a little sundress, but I'm sure I can pick these up in LA. Apart from the heat, it was a great day...although Disney is a little overrated...lots of merchandise and very repetitive. Still, we did have a blast...and as I'm typing [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well, we finally arrived in sunny LA at around 12:30pm today. The flights were pretty good...Brisy to Auckland was GREAT as we were on the big 747 jumbo...but from Auckland to LA we had the crappy 777 - a much smaller plane in comparison. The flight was packed and there was quite a bit of turbulance. Still, Iz and I managed to get about 2 hours sleep. The check in process at LA is pretty crazy...had to give fingerprints and get mug shots. It took us over an hour to get through all this protocol, before boarding our speedy shuttle out [View Full Entry]

---

---