Kate: After such a wonderful time in Montverde but feeling a little tour guided and wildlife watching out we decided to head for La Fortuna which is home to one of Costa Rica's active volcanos' Volcano Arenal. Steve had never seen a volcano so we were pretty excited. The journey was slightly shorter this time- thank god- and we took the bus-boat-bus option to break up the journey a little. As far as we had worked out and people had told us we decided that we would only make it a short stop to Fortuna as once you have seen the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Steve- The last night in Tamerindo was quite eventful. We went out for a few drinks when halfway through the night a Boa Constrictor was founf in one of the toilets! There was a bit of commotion from the staff before one of the chefs went in and got him. He was about 5 feet long and the chef posed for photos with him before letting other people in the bar pose for photos with him. They then rang the local rspca to take him away. What a night to forget the camera! We left Tamerindo the next afternoon and thankfully [View Full Entry]

---

---

Kate¨- So we had a bit of an akward flight to Costa Rica from L.A- not because anything went wrong but just because it was at 2 am and we had to stop over in Guatemala for about and hour before getting to San Jose so all in all is was around a 7 hour journey. By the time we got our luggage and hailed a taxi to take us to our hotel it was around 10am. We got to our hotel, a typical Best Western that we had pre booked and just vegged out for a bit in our room. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Steve: We decided to do the Grand Canyon as a day trip from Vegas this meant that the only bit we could reach in a day was Grand Canyon West which is not part of the National Park but owned by the local Indian tribe. It is however the home of the Skywalk! Its a bit of a strange up though as they are just in it for the money. You have to pay $20 for parking, $30 for a hop on hop off bus pass (even though there are only 2 look out posts) and then $30 to go on [View Full Entry]

---

---

Steve: The drive to Yosemite from San Fran was pretty easy but took a little longer than expected due to the mountain roads on the approach to Yosemite. Its a great drive though and the scenery constantly changes which eases the boredom of a long drive. I am loving driving the new car too much, much quicker than the old one - shame about the strict speed limits! We have been staying at a resort called Curry Village which offers camping (the tents are already set up for you) and log cabins. We took a cabin for the first couple of [View Full Entry]

---

---

Kate: So again the drive from Yosemite to Vegas was long (surprise surprise) so we decided to stop off after around 6 hours on the road and then complete the journey the next day. We stopped in a random little town called Barstow and found this really cool motel for the night. You really feel like your in America when you stay in a motel, car outside the front door- little bit seedy- i loved it!! plus our room had a round bed! ha ha very 60's chic! Because we had made good progress on day one of driving it only [View Full Entry]

---

---

Kate: So we headed back to San Fran for our second visit and it was a long old journey down- 6 hours + with the car making some really weird rumbling noises! OIt ws defintely worth it though. There was still so uch for us to explore so we were both relieved to back............. on our first evening we went out for an amazing fish dinner,, right by the water front- lush. We both had shrim and crab cocktail to start and steve had shark for main (another animal to tick off the eaten list!) Day 2 i am sad to [View Full Entry]

---

---

Steve: Late on the sunday evening we drove up to Arcata to stay with Sam for a few days. It was a long drive in the dark through windy roads but not too bad. The next day we were pretty tired so didn't do much other than try to do the blog which was a pain and took a lot longer than we expected so i hope people are enjoying it ! It was cool staying at Sam's place as he is iin student halls and they are a lot nicer than english ones. It was also nice because we have [View Full Entry]

---

---

Steve: Ami - This post is for you! Alcatraz is amazing!! It books up really quickly and you need to sort out tickets about a week in advance. Sadly we didn't know this and had to pay way over the odds from a ticket tout but it was worth it. Its without a doubt the best visitor attraction I have ever been to (even better than the SS Great Britain!) You get given interpretative headphones when you arrive and these guide you round the Cellhouse. They are really good and give you a good idea of what life was like on [View Full Entry]

---

---

I love San Francisco!!! It is one of those cities that just has a bit of everything, amazing buildings, beautiful streets, a huge park and of course the bridge- i could definately live here. The drive from L.A to San Fran was brilliant. We picked up our hire care on Friday morning. We were both really excited but also a little scared of driving to San Fran in a hire car which we had never done before. When we got to the hire car place the lady at the desk sorted out or paper work and then said to us go [View Full Entry]

---

---