deanandsarahintheusofa

Well yep...we made it back home BOOOO. And as I suspected...being on holidays is WAY more fun than being at home and living reality. Of course the fact that our house was broken in to the very morning we arrived back home cemented those thoughts. So yeh, the flights were all ok and we hit home around lunch time on Thursday. As best we can gather from speaking to neighbours and mum and the gardner, it looks like some punks broke in to our place between 8am and 10:45am. They smashed the back sliding door and upended most of the drawers and cupboards but didnt take much other than a credit card, some movie tickets, dvds and pewter & jade dragon statues. Mmm - as I said not the nicest return home...so we spent most of ... read more

Days 43 & 44 – Monday & Tuesday – Los Angeles, Califonia *sob* it's our last day!!! So yesterday we all met for our last breakfast as the six of us - the last supper hehehe. Jen & John who we'd spent the last 6 weeks with, have headed back up to San Fran and then make their way over to Chicago before flying back home to England after there year long honeymoon. It's been very weird ever since hanging out and them not being around and we miss them heaps (awwww!). The plan for Monday was for Kate, Toni, Dean & I to go out to Six Flags Magic Mountain, but we realised it was $100 to get a taxi (ONE WAY), it was about 4 busses and 2 hours to go by public transport ... read more

Day 42 – Sunday – Los Angeles, California Well today we saw how the other half live!!! We took two tours. One was a trolley tour which took us past Paramount Studios, the Capital Records building, and all the usual. The second tour was of the movie star homes through Beverly Hills, Bel Air and of course down Sunset & Rodeo Drive. Some of the homes there are just AMAZING. And every car we saw was a Merc, BMW or Lexus! I think dinner that night was yummmmy California Pizza Company. (Ok my brain is hurting and it's all a bit of a blur!!). "Dean's Details" – I think rich people need help in learning how to spend their money...the owner of the brand "Guess" had 8 identical yellow lamborghinis ... read more

Day 39 – Thursday – San Simeon, California Another different and interesting day for us today. We headed out of San Francisco this morning (via the crookest street!!!) to Hearst Castle. Have to admin NOT my favorite drive at all and it ended up taking us a good hour or two longer than we had expected to get to the Castle (in time for our booked tour). Not to mention, we had to drive through army land to get to the coast (an experience in itself, we even saw a tank!!!) and gawwwd, we traversed the longest and windiest road EVER (forget Lombard Street). I swear, the turns/curves/winds went on for about an hour and I was SICK by the end of it!!! Thankfully once we got out of the car I started to feel ... read more

Day 37 – Tuesday – San Francisco, California Well today it was FREEEZING and the wind was howling...not my type of weather at all...but we had fun anyways! We decided to take a tour to allow us to take in more of the sights here, so boarded our motorized cable car for 2 hours! What do you know...the Golden Gate Bridge really WAS there (ie no fog today!). We had a great chance to see it up close from both sides as well as driving across it (which was FREEZING). Thankfully we had blankets on the tram available for our use which we most definitely took pleasure in using! It also took us past the Palace of Fine Arts, through Pacific Heights (the homes there are amazing). Chinatown, Union Square and the Presidio. After the ... read more

Day 35 – Sunday – San Francisco, California We've now said a fond fairwell to the National Parks, and HELLO to some other exciting stuff we have planned! We left Mariposa to head to San Francisco (where we are now) with a pit stop at my request at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Luckily it was enjoyed by all!!! (Ok yes I have to admit a big part of the reason I wanted to see the boardwalk was that The Lost Boys one of my favorite movies was filmed down there, but I am also a sucker for a good amusement park!). The boardwalk is like an outdoor amusement park - free to get in, with a bunch of rides and food places all along the beach/pier. Was nice to see the beach again, and ... read more