Clare and Dan

Well this is it, the last and final blog… although we have been back for over a week now, busy catching up with everyone, we have finally got round to saying our final good byes. We would like to thank all of the 12,000+ viewers to our blog for the past 5 months. For all of the lovely messages and kind words we have received, via the blog, or emails or just being up at weird hours to speak to us on messenger! To our parents to have worried, stressed and followed our every steps - often through gritted teeth! As you can well imagine, it has been a trip of a lifetime and we have enjoyed every minute of it, and would like to apologise in advance if we put you through endless stories ... read more

OH MY GOD WE´RE HERE!!!!!! This is nearly the last leg of the trip and one I have waited for since I was small! We are in Recife in east Brazil (look on the map) where my uncle Albert and his family have lived for nearly 15 years. It was a nightmare journey from Miami- first there were some amusing security issues leaving the USA where Dan and I had a special search!, then we had to change in Sao Paolo making it a 17 hour journey overnight. The chaos and disorganised SP airport was horrible, but we and our bags arrived safely- something we thought wouldnt happen! so we were knackered when we arrived for lunch with the family. We are lucky to have my aunt Dayse off this week to act as our tour ... read more

We arrived in Vegas late on 5th March and managed to fluke one nights stay at The Luxor- the big black pyramid on The Strip. It was amazing, the place is enormous, holding more then 2,200 rooms in the pyramid, let alone the other 1,700 in the extension out the back! We spent the evening exploring our massive Egypt themed hotel and casino before checking out our neighbouring hotels/ casinos, the Excalibur (a fairytale castle) and Mandalay Bay (tropical setting of flowing water, lush foliage, and exotic architecture). Tues 6th March we spent walking- we had previously been told that the Vegas strip was too long to walk and that you need taxis to travel from one end to the other- well we were told this by an American! After all the walking we´ve done on ... read more

This morning when we woke up and opened the curtains we were quite taken aback as to what had happened over night... SNOW, 2-3 inches of the stuff, everywhere! Slightly panicked as to what would happen to our plans for the dayand tickets already purchased, so we went to check out the situation. All traffic was still heading into Yosemite National Park, but all vehicles had to have snow chains - good job we weren't driving, neither of us had used them before or even knew how to fit them, let alone the risk of damaging our hire car. So the bus tickets we had purchased yesterday were definitely a good decision. The bus took 2 1/2 hours, slightly longer then usual, as we stopped to put on snow chains, build a quick snow man, throw ... read more

After a tiring day yesterday and with tired feet today, we started off procedings a little easier today! We rented some bikes and decided to cycle the Golden Gate Bridge. Being cold again today, we wrapped up nice and warm and headed off, past the piers, boats moured in the marina, the many runners, dog walkers and other cyclists... not exactly solitude! As we approached the bridge there were a group of surfers in the water... I know - surfers... they must have been freezing - we're used to 30 degrees c water temperature now, the idea alone made us feel colder! What was funny was once they got out of the water, they stood in washing up buckets at the back of their SUV's and defrosted their feet! After watching the surfers for a while ... read more