Well it’s nearly four O’clock in the afternoon on Sunday 20th January, our last day in America. So time for one final blog and a bit of reminiscing of the past 7 weeks. I forgot to mention the other day (my head was too addled with flu) that we went on a great trip down to Castro; it has a great city village vibe and is the largest home to San Francisco’s gay community. In some ways it is very similar to Brighton, New Orleans’ French Quarter and Greenwich Village; everyone was extremely friendly, and there are some cracking shops, bars [View Full Entry]

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OK OK OK we know we haven’t written for a while but we were definitely dying and it wasn’t just a small bout of man flu either! We decided it was time to face the big outdoors once more and finish off our sightseeing (plus it really doesn’t take that long before you start to lose the will to live after watching so much American TV). So armed with a handbag full of various pills and medicinal cure-alls we headed off to the Golden Gate Bridge, in style, in a taxi. The weather was gloriously sunny and the temperature a pleasant [View Full Entry]

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Well we haven’t written a blog for a few days because we haven’t really done much except some more shopping and catching Jan’s flu and cough! We both feel achy and rough so we’re spending the day in bed (again) which is a real shame because it’s bright and sunny out but we’re stuck with it for now. Hopefully we’ll be OK to go to Alcatraz and Golden Gate Bridge later in the week, but in the mean time it’s cough mixture and a range of flu remedies for us… Song for the day: I Feel Good (not!) James Brown Nina [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday the weather was a glorious 60 degrees the sun was shining so we thought we’d have a wander around town. We’re right next to Chinatown so there’s millions of restaurants, shops and specialist supermarkets loaded with boxes of completely unrecognisable food stuffs….well we think they’re food! We’re also in the middle of the main shopping area with all the usual designer shops and brand names. There’s a huge Abercrombie & Fitch - Sham you’d be in heaven! We then discovered the Levi store and although they no longer make made to measure jeans you can still get your jeans customised [View Full Entry]

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Well today we finally hit the last leg of our tour, after driving up the remaining stretch of the Californian coast via Half Moon Bay (and Neil Young’s mega ranch Broken Arrow - he has the largest private herd of wild buffalo that were used in Dances with Wolves for you trivia fans), unfortunately the coast was extremely foggy in parts so you couldn’t really see much most of the time. We dropped off the car and checked into the Triton c. 1.00 - the good news is…. it’s another Kimpton hotel, the same as Washington, which means very different, boutique [View Full Entry]

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Today we travelled to Santa Cruz AKA Weston-Super-Mare or South End on Sea on a wet and cold January morning; drab dull and somewhat disappointing you can imagine the pikeys doing their thing on the waltzers in the summer. Somewhat surreally every where we went outside speakers blasted out Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits, reminding us both of “Tim Nice but Dim” playing air-guitar on his bed with a tennis racquet - 80s Harry Enfield at his best. This is where they filmed the Lost Boys which does give it some kudos I guess? Well after walking down the boardwalk [View Full Entry]

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Part 1 We left Santa Barbara in glowing sunshine and headed up the dramatic Highway 1; Gladys our sat nav took us on an alternative route via highway 154 and through Los Padres National Park, very dramatic and breathtaking views. We took numerous blurred photos and images to try and capture the beauty but I guess you just had to be there. The Big Sur is equally stunning with mountains ascending to our right and sheer ocean drops to our left; amazing. Arrived at Lucia Lodges c 3.30 in the pouring rain. The accommodation consists of 9 cabins built in the [View Full Entry]

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Well we just had to add a quick ps after heading off to the Fishouse this evening; mainly because we felt our culinary critique of the USA has been somewhat lacking in recent days predominantly because we haven’t experienced any tongue tingling gastronomic worthy delights of late. However, this evening rectified this. We started with a shared starter of crab cakes with mixed coleslaw and tangy spicy dressing; extremely taste bud tingling. This was followed by Californian yellow tail (which can only be described as an unusual combination of mackerel & tuna) served with fresh mango, grilled asparagus and rosemary roast [View Full Entry]

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Left Santa Monica and LA with clear blues skies ahead and temperatures around 60 degrees which is positively hot in comparison to the past few days, so warm in fact that Andy even threatened to wear his shorts! We headed up the Pacific Highway which runs all the way up the Californian coast, and with the ocean on our left and the mountains on our right we headed for Santa Barbara. Passing through Malibu the first signs of fire damage could be seen right down to the coast; now the poor residents have been desperately shoring up the hills behind their [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday was pretty cold and blustery so we decided to head back to the flicks to see The Bucket List; well when in Rome… plus cinemas are 10 to a penny here and very cheap too. Would highly recommend the film, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman at their best; but bring a box of tissues with you. In true American style the audience applauded at the end, but then the film did deserve the accolade. Today we changed our minds and decided to go for the Tinsel Town tour as the weather wasn‘t too bad; and we’re really glad we did. [View Full Entry]

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