Haligee

Well the view from our suite was fantastic, looking up the strip on to New York, New York, MGM could even see the Eiffel Tower - which we went up early evening where you can see all across Vegas & the Ballagio fountain show -beautiful. The tower took 2 years to build and was opened in 1999 and is half the size of the original. So what did we get up to, shopping mainly, much to Mr 'I don't like shopping' disgust, when all he did was complain about the walking, his feet aching & how he needed a beer & how much money I was spending! So how come he ended up buying more new clothes than me !!! Vegas was fun, the hotels were unbelievable, top of the range shops in all the top ... read more

We stopped in the little town of Independence for the night under the shadows of Mount Whitney the highest mountain, 14,505 ft high, in the US after leaving the wondrous beauty of Yosemite, then we were off and once again this country shows me another side to it’s amazing countryside - Death Valley, barren, arid and all but lifeless, but still a wonder to behold. With temperatures reaching 112 deg, sand dunes and a drop in altitude that played havoc with our ears, worse than being on an aeroplane! We went from 10,000 ft above sea level to 190 ft below sea level, my ears do not know what they are doing!! Then we drove on straight roads, when I say staright I mean straight, we went for 20 miles and I only moved the steering ... read more

Our last full day in this beautiful city, so even though we had a 'slight' hangover thought we should do all the photo shoots we hadn't accomplished yet, especially as we had just heard on the news that an area of California has had a cluster of earthquakes over the last 3 days, so a little worried SF might be next, so better photo it before it disappears !! So off we went - Lombard Street was our first visit, bit difficult to photograph the crookedest, windiest road in the world, even bloody harder to drive down, it was scary but not half as frightening as driving over a brow of a road and not being able to see the bottom !!! & asking 'Mr useless with a video' to record our effort was not the ... read more

Yippee - Shopping Day ! Off to spend Hubbies money, need some jeans, top and/or a jacket, as we are off to Alcatraz tonight & everyone says it is freezing going across the bay & walking around the island, so going prepared! Ok have now decided as much as I love Bloomingdales, Macys, Nordstroms & many, many other lovely shops I need to win the lottery if I can ever afford to buy anything in any of them :-( Did get some new Levi 'skinny' fit jeans, that I have to peel on & off, but are lovely and comfy, which at my age is very important! And a new wool jacket & a scarf, right ready for anything this strange San Francisco weather can throw at me; but before we go had to have a ... read more

Yay we have arrived, after leaving Monterey we went towards a National park as I wanted to look at the 'Big trees' also called into Santa Cruz for breakfast, a town where nothing opens till 10am, even had to wake up the motel receptionist to check out this morning!! ( I didn't think 8am was that early!!) Was so excited to arrive in San Fran, that we opened our Lansons bubbly to celebrate our wedding anniversary, then caught the tube in to town. I cannot believe the hills here, steep they are unbelievable! Haven't seen the Golden Gate Bridge yet, but have spied Alcatraz from afar, visiting there on Sunday, also rode on a cable car then went to Chinatown for something to eat (only apt really considering 10 years ago we were actually in China) ... read more