Death Valley today. It was hot, hot, hot. About 37 degrees in the middle of a salt pan desert and not a bit of shade. It sits about 90 metres below sea level and is hot and dry. They average about 1 1/2inches of rain a year. And people still want to live around here. Not for us. [View Full Entry]

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Left San Fran early in the morning to try and beat the weekend traffic, yeah right! Traffic became heavier and heavier, until it actually stopped. Cars not moving for as far as you could see. People were getting out of their cars and walking around on a 5 lane freeway. Bit by bit things got moving at a snails pace, we probably moved about 2 miles in an hour an a half. Turns out some crackhead was going to jump off an overpass and the cops had to divert both sides of a 10 lane freeway through side streets. I would [View Full Entry]

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Spent today exploring and walking around San Fran, and walk we did, 23km worth of walking. Checked out Chinatown and the Italian areas and then decided to walk to the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge looks a lot closer than what it actually is, and it gets bigger the closer you get. (Duh, really!?) So we walked to it and then across it, dodging all the cyclist which seemed to be everywhere. There were heaps of signs telling people not to jump off ‘cos they’ll kill themselves so it must happen a bit. Finally made it across and ended up at [View Full Entry]

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Here in San Francisco Hotel is nice but the location is a bit doggie at night during the day it’s not to bad. Pretty central location, only a 15 minute walk to fisherman’s wharf this is where the action takes place for tourists like us. Today we took a tour to Alcatraz Island one of the Golden Gate National Parks. Take the Ferry across to the island and then it’s a self audio tour which was very interesting. Walking through the tour you have headphones on and you are listening to the commentary about different parts of the prison. There are [View Full Entry]

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The world's tallest trees, rugged Pacific coastline and scenic rivers combine to make Del norte County one of the nation's most enchanting areas. We travelled through one of the Redwoods State Parks and you can not see in the photos how enormous these trees are until you are up nice and close they just go on and on for ever when you look up into the sky. We took the Newton B Drury Scenic Pk hwy and then back onto the 101 stopped in at Elk Meadows tuned into the radio station which talked about the Elk but didn't tell you [View Full Entry]

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Spent the day driving down the Oregon coast today. The weather was warm, however the fog decided to roll in as well. Pretty bizzare to have warm air and be surrounded in fog. Coastline is very reminicent of the Great Ocean Rd, with steep cliffs' and craggy rock formations. Although it was hard to see because of the fog. The highway is littered with little towns throughout much like the G.O.R., but they are a little more on the quaint and quirky side. The Great Ocean Rd shops are dressed up as run down little sea shanties and worth millions, whereas [View Full Entry]

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We got into dock at 6am this morning, got up showered had breakfast and was ready to wait in line for our number to be called so we could leave the ship. As we couldn't check into the hotel until late afternoon we decided to get on board a Duck (1/2 car 1/2 boat) tour. It was quite good and took up some of the time look at the different sites. [View Full Entry]

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Picked up hire car in Seattle today and headed south. Driving in Seattle is like Sydney, skinny narrow streets that are all one way and linked with under and over passes. To make matters worse they all drive on the wrong side of the road!! Every time we go around a corner, i end up driving on the left hand side, not the right. Its the best way to discover that not everyone is friendly. Made it out of the city and made our way to the south of Washington state. The weather here has been hot for the last few [View Full Entry]

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Stopped briefly in Victoria tonight. Ship didnt arrive until late and we only had about 3 hrs ashore. Polite canadians everywhere, but a few beggars as well. Walked into town and took photos and then back to the ship. They had a party night on board as it was the last night of sailing. Large champagne waterfall, plenty of people trying to throw streamers and balloons at it to 'accidently' knock it over. We found a Geelong fan walking around with a scarf on, he told us the half time scores and seemed pretty cocky. Cats are in front he said. [View Full Entry]

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Ketchikan today, it averages 14 feet of rain a year and has rain on average 320 days a year. Today, blue skies and warm and not a drop of the wet stuff. Touristy town like the others, full of tshirt, jewellery and crap junk shops, most of which are owned by the cruise lines. No suprise as to why they stop there then. Nice town however, as they all have been, clean and neat with friendly people. Its an old logging town, so we went and saw a cheesy lumberjack show. Wandered around town after that. There was plenty of crab [View Full Entry]

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