We set off this morning for the 120 mile drive to visit the world famous San Diego Zoo. We made good time until we got close to San Diego where the traffic was quite heavy and slow moving. The weather was great and we were both looking forward to the zoo. After paying the entrance fee we first visited the reptile house where there were numerous snakes and lizards on display. We then took the 'Skyfari' to the far end of the zoo where the Polar Bear plunge is situated. This is where you can watch the Polar bears both on [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday we woke up to sweltering hot sunshine and set off to find something for breakfast. There was a little breakfast cafe just up the road from the hotel which was good. We left Morro Bay and headed south for Los Angeles. We passed some fabulous scenery along the way and found a place called Carpinteria where we stopped for a while on the beach and had some lunch. While we were walking to the beach Chloe discovered, much to her amusement, that I had left one of the stickers on the back of my new jeans. After lunch we made [View Full Entry]

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Today after breakfast we left San Francisco and headed south along highway 1 for what was supposed to be some spectacular scenery, only no-one told the weather that. It was raining when we left and got progressivley worse. It did brighten up for a little while but most of the day was miserable. The roads were amazing and so was the scenery that we did manage to get a glimpse of. Our destination tonight was Morro Bay and about an hour before we arrived we spotted a crowd of people standing by the beach alongside the road. We stopped to see [View Full Entry]

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Today we were woken up by the sound of a Helicopter hovering outside our hotel window at 8.00am. I opened the curtains to see it slowly disappearing down between the two buildings opposite us. It then reappeared with some construction equipment slung below which it then placed on top of one of the buildings. After breakfast we ventured out to explore San Francisco. Our first experience was 'Crazy Street' where every 5 yards there appeared another crazy person, people talking or singing to themselves, people shouting at themselves or somebody else. There were people standing on the pavement [View Full Entry]

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Today we woke up to find that it had rained overnight and was looking like more to come. We set of for an uneventful drive from Fresno to San Francisco. When we arrived the weather had brightened up so because we were too early to book into our hotel we took a drive over the Golden Gate bridge. After taking some photos we drove up to some higher viewpoints to take some more. On our way back to the hotel we made a detour down Lombard Street which is famous for being the crookedest street in San Francisco. More on San [View Full Entry]

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Today we set of for the Sequoia national park to see the giant redwood trees. We left Barstow and headed towards Bakersfield passing through one of the biggest windfarms we have ever seen. Bakersfield was full of oil fields and not very interesting. From Bakersfield we headed north towards the park. We entered the park and immediately saw signs warning us that the Bears are wild animals and should not be approached. Ten minutes later while negotiating some tight bends in the park we spotted a large black bear about 40 feet from the road. We stopped the car and got [View Full Entry]

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Today we went back to the Canyon to see how it looks in daylight. We took loads more photos and went to several different viewpoints. We drove around the Grand Canyon National Park for a while trying to spot some more Elks but were unsuccessful. We called in at the trading post / general store for a browse around but Chloe wouldn’t let me buy a cowboy hat. Next we made our way to the Grand Canyon Airport for our helicopter trip. Our pilot seemed very young but the weather was perfect for our trip. Chloe was very apprehensive but did [View Full Entry]

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Today we left Vegas and started our 260 mile drive to The Grand Canyon. Our first stop on the Way was to visit Hoover Dam. As you can see from the photos the water level is extremely low at the moment and has been for some time. We left Hoover Dam and made our way south to the town of Kingman, where we stopped at Popeyes for some chicken and biscuits! After lunch we headed east along I40 towards the town of Williams. The scenery along the way changed from desert to mountains, mountains to forest and back to desert. At [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday after spending the night in Barstow, which is on the old Route 66, we left on Interstate 15 to Las Vegas. The scenery on the way was spectacular, we went to almost 5,000 feet throught the mountains and then dropped dramatically down to the desert. The traffic was quite heavy, made up mostly of convoys of large American Trucks. The roads were mostly straight with a bend thrown in every 10 miles or so. We arrived at Vegas and immediately spotted our hotel against the skyline. After checking in we hopped on the Deuce bus which runs continuously up and [View Full Entry]

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Today we visited Universal studios. The weather was fabulous but the park wasn't very crowded so we didn't have to queue to get on any of the rides. We did the studio tour and saw lots of film sets. Chloe was petrified by the Van Helsing haunted house. We went on the city walk and did some shopping and ended up going to see the Borat movie, which was one of the funniest films we've seen. [View Full Entry]

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