Although Mark and Dale were back home, Ollie still had a week before he flew back to Abu Dhabi. There is not too much to tell here and what there is does not need to be included in our blog. The week was spent trying to organise some photos as 4 still cameras and 2 video cameras over 9 months have created rather a large amount. We also ventured on a few nights out but the drinks were considerably more expensive than we had generally been used too, however at least the accomodation was free! All I can say is that [View Full Entry]

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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. [View Full Entry]

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By this point, we were finally coming to terms with the fact that soon we would be back in the UK. Hence, Tuesday was a very dull day: we got up around 10am and "enjoyed" our very lame complimentary breakfast, After that we walked to a nearby laundrette as it had been quite a while since the last wash. After freshening up our garments we headed to...yeah you've guessed it....Subway, for our lunch. The remainder of the day was spent in front of the TV as the realisation of going home had really hit us hard. Wednesday was only slightly more [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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By default, Ollie enjoyed the complimentary breakfast-for-1 again! We were all very excited today as Dale had booked some tickets for the San Francisco 49ers against the Seatle Seahawks NFL game. We thought that parking the car may be quite a hassle so we decided to take the public bus instead. We had no idea which bus to take or whether it went anywhere near the stadium but we patiently waited at the bus stop. After 20 minutes, we gave up and took the car instead. The stadium was relatively close to our hotel and parking was much easier than we [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Today, as with many others, had a very loose fitting schedule. We had our continental breakfast in the hotel before watching some TV and then hitting the road around 11am. It did not take long to reach San Francisco and after only a few hours we were crossing the Bay Bridge into central. We were unimpressed by the hotel prices in central San Francisco and so opted for the cheaper accomodation nearer the airport to the south. We checked into a hotel with an outdoor pool and wonderful views of the 101 highway! After settling in, Dale drove us back to [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Since we had been staying in 4-star hotel, we checked out using the TV remote control and headed for breakfast. This was the 'popular' choice of Subway. Ollie was not able to stomach two meals in a row at Subway and so opted for 2 big fat greasy sausage and egg McMuffins instead. Feeling rather full (and fat!) it took us a while to navigate our way out of Las Vegas. As Ollie was directing, he is considered responsible. Eventually we were on our way back to California through the very hot and baron Nevada Desert. We kept our eyes open [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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