Part 1: San Francisco, and Las Vegas

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I finally got round to blogging, apologies for the delay; life has been hectic.

I left UK early September, flew from Heathrow in a great arc over the snowey mountains of Greenland, Hudson Bay, the bleak lands south of there, then millions of lakes and rivers spread out below us, followed by the huge expanse of the prairies. Wonderful to watch the geography change below us as we flew over, finally the Rocky Mountains and into San Francisco and directly to my dear niece Gorsie's place.

She and her family plus large dog live on the edge of the Presidio, a lovely park very central, easy to get a bus downtown, or walk down to the Bay to watch the Americas Cup, beautiful large sailing boats coming in.

I spent a week there, exploring both with Gorse and on my own, the highlights were walking on Baker Beach in sight of the Golden Gate Bridge and spotting dolphins; walking barefoot around the labyrinth in Grace cathedral; Gorse took me up high to view the city all around, and to the Mission to see the political murals decorating various alleyways. I met up with my Oxford house sitter too, great to meet her chicks and roof-top bees. And I enjoyed the ordinariness of walking with Harry dog most days. Very good to catch up with family.

Next I flew across to Las Vegas for a weekend with Jack; phew, so hot, like going out into a fan oven. his flat mate showed me a little of town, including a walk through a lowly casino, I couldn't wait to escape! I loved the G&T in a fab cocktail lounge tho, with homemade tonic, quite different. Jack and I rented a car and drove off to explore Zion National Park a few hours out of town. Great to spend a couple of days with him walking various trails, and spotting some wildlife. Fabulous great red rocks, cliffs and gorges, with occasional waterfalls and pools.

All too soon back to LV, short flight to Los Angeles, followed by a long wait for the plane that never turned up... Not exactly true, but the pilot didn't appear! Eventually we were bussed out to the fabulous Hilton Hotel near to Disney World, didn't get to bed till 03.30! Still we were well taken care of, with meal vouchers and fab rooms, and gathered like a tribe of refugees the following evening for our return to the airport.

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Comments

[Grace Mayer]

Travel blog again
Hi darlin', How exciting to start seeing your travel blog again - wonderful, thanks! Huge hugs to all, G xoxoxooxoxox