Olliep

It was now the final weekend before we took the long flight back to London. Since it was a Saturday we didn’t have to get up quite as early for breakfast. This was lucky since we were all pretty lazy by this point and lacked the motivation to get out of bed - I don't expect this to improve for a few months anyway. After our munch we drove back into Hollywood and cruised Sunset Bourlevard and Robertson Drive once again. We parked up and enjoyed 2 hours of people and car watching in Starbucks on the corner of Robertson Drive. (well attempted star spotting!). After a few litres of coffee we began to get hungry and headed north to Hollywood Boulevard for a sushi lunch. We went straight to restaurant we had enjoyed so much ... read more

Ollie once again enjoyed the complimentary breakfast, either because Mark and Dale were scared of the culinary delights that lay ahead, or because there was cold pizza in the room that had to be eaten. Either way, we were on the road by midday and heading south towards Santa Cruz. We drifted the 100 miles south and arrived around 2pm. Luckily, Dale had booked a hotel before-hand and we checked into our mini-apartment, which was rather nice. In the afternoon Dale and Ollie ventured out onto the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, only to return very quickly as there was nothing there except closed shops and drunk bums! In the evening we made the most of our kitchen facilities and Ollie made a delightful vegetable pasta dish. After dinner we whiled away the hours with some beers and ... read more

After our wonderful meal the previous night, we also discovered that the "great deal" we had got on our hotel (which included breakfast) was infact not so great. Although there were 3 of us staying in the hotel, we were only allowed 1 breakfast voucher between us. Surprisingly there was no argument and Ollie volunteered to sample the delights of IHOP (Internation House Of Pancakes!). We had made the effort to get up early and make the most of our day in San Francisco. After Ollie had finished his breakfast, Dale drove us into downtown where we found the cheapest all day car park. It was still $19 though! From there, we hiked the rather large distance to Pier 33 to book our trip to Alcatraz. It was a great deal busier than we had expected ... read more

We got up for our standard complimentary breakfast around 9am and enjoyed stuffing our faces in preparation for the day. Fully fuelled, we headed north from Lone Pine to Bishop and then a small town called Lee Vining. Once we reached this quaint and limited town we drove into the Yosemite National Park! Unfortunately we had to pay an entrance fee once more. However, after just a few minutes we had seen some fantastic scenery. We decided to make the most of our trip into the National Park and picked a short trek to complete. It was only 1.3 miles but felt a great deal longer as it was uphill but mainly because we hadn't participated in any excercise for a long while! Once we reached Dog Lake we were very impressed by the views and ... read more

Skip breakfast, we can't afford it! After having a great time at the show last night, first task was to find some more cheap tickets for the evenings entertainment (as we clearly aren't allowed in their nightclubs and can't afford to gamble). So we went back to the half price ticket stand, only to be faced by a massive queue this time. However, we had spotted what we wanted to see, and so adhearing to the pirate code, stuck poor Mark in the queue while Dale and Ollie went off to find food. We eventually reached the desk but the joker behind the desk announced that they only had one 'Penn and Teller' ticket remaining! We thought Marks hours of waiting was all in vain, however, one swift phonecall, and lots more had appeared. Even more ... read more