Frisco to Vegas

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June 21st 2008

Published: June 22nd 2008

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cazngaz

Golden Gate Bridge

Although we have been to SF before the Golden gate Bridge was always covered in cloud. Not this time bucko

Arrived at SF airport a couple of hours late from New York , but was no real drama. Picked up our hire car which was supposed to be a mid range but there was none available. The only vehicle left was a minivan which seats 7 - so not necessarily ideal for the two us. The worst bit is that from the on board computer it states that the average MPG is 16 so great for the 4500 miles we expect to do - NOT!!!

San Francisco is a great city and we did a massive bike tour round large areas of it. It is lovely and hilly which allowed Carolyn to take her bike for a walk in places. She only fell off twice as well which was more embarrassment for her than injury. The highlight of the SF trip was to see a large crowd form to see David Beckham make an appearance to advertise Emporio Armani pants (knickers). Disappointly for the crowd, but not necessarily us, he wore a suit and not his briefs.

The exploratorium is a great place for us scientific types. I finally understand how things work like tornados, dune formation, volcanoes etc.

Coit Tower

Best views of SF from this tower. It was a bugger to get to as we walked it.

It is a bit geeky in some respect but very well done.

Best views of the city can be achieved from Coit tower, but the promise of blue parrots in the area was grossly exaggerated - we couldn't find the buggers!!. As we are British we need to mention the weather. It can be cold in SF, but weather was pleasantly warm with bright sunshine and temps around 75 F. It was cooler at around 50 F when left SF to make our way towards the Grand Canyon and when we got out of the car (air conditioned) at a place called Needles it was 111 F and it was like being in a hair dryer. Unbelievable!!!

We visited the Grand Canyon West Site which is owned by the Hualapai Tribe and is the place that has the Skywalk (glass bridge) which hangs over the Canyon. The views of the canyon are spectacular but the claim that the glass walkway is 4000 ft above the canyon floor is a bit misleading as you are only about a 1000 ft above the rocks you would hit if it broke. Fortunately it didn't break even though it does wobble after

Hoover Dam from approach road.

As stated a fantastic engineering project.

you jump on it.

Next stop was Las Vegas via the Hoover Dam - about 130miles away. The dam is a great place to stop if you are interested in massive engineering projects - clearly with our scientific background we stayed here a good 10 minutes. It is mightily impressive though. Again it was well over 100 F so getting back into the car with the air con was a blessing. Vegas was 30 miles away and by the time we got there at 1900 hrs the temp had dropped to a chilly 109 F (We are clearly obsessed with the heat). Our neon encrusted tacky hotel and surrounding area did not disappoint. We hit the casinos hard and as such will be returning to UK next week. (Joke)

Did the obigatory show in Vegas and ours was seeing George Michael at the start of his world tour - sounds a bit poncy really but it was an excellent show and if you get the opportunity to see him on this tour then we highly recommend it. It was a thoroughly entertaining evening. It was at the MGM grand which was a cut above our Hotel/Casino. Actually all